DreamWorks’ MoonRay Renderer Joins the Academy Software Foundation

Modern animated films rely on complex rendering technology to transform 3D scenes into finished images. One of those systems—DreamWorks Animation’s MoonRay—has now moved into a broader industry ecosystem after becoming a hosted project of the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF). The change places a production‑proven renderer inside a neutral open‑source foundation designed to support collaborative tools for visual effects, animation, and filmmaking pipelines.

What MoonRay Is

MoonRay is a production path‑tracing renderer developed by DreamWorks Animation. Path tracing simulates the behavior of light using Monte Carlo ray‑tracing techniques, enabling physically realistic lighting, reflections, and global illumination in rendered images.

Originally built for large‑scale feature animation, MoonRay includes several capabilities designed for modern film pipelines:

• A high‑performance Monte Carlo ray‑tracing engine for physically accurate rendering.
• A library of production‑tested physically based materials for lighting and shading.
• Distributed rendering through DreamWorks’ Arras framework, allowing scenes to be rendered across multiple machines or cloud infrastructure.
• A USD Hydra render delegate that enables integration with tools based on Pixar’s Universal Scene Description (USD) ecosystem.

These features allow the renderer to process complex scenes typical of feature animation and visual effects production.

MoonRay’s Role in DreamWorks Films Since 2019

MoonRay has already been tested extensively in real film production. The renderer made its feature debut with "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World" (2019) and has been used to render every DreamWorks Animation feature film since then.

Films rendered using MoonRay include:

• How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
• The Bad Guys
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
• Kung Fu Panda 4
• The Wild Robot
• The Bad Guys 2

Because these productions require highly stylized environments, complex lighting setups, and massive rendering workloads, the renderer has already proven itself at major studio scale before entering the open‑source ecosystem.

When MoonRay Became Open Source

DreamWorks first announced plans to release MoonRay publicly at SIGGRAPH 2022. The renderer was officially released as open source on March 15, 2023, under the Apache 2.0 license via the OpenMoonRay project.

The Apache license allows companies, developers, and researchers to use, modify, and distribute the software—including for commercial purposes—making MoonRay accessible far beyond DreamWorks’ internal pipeline.

What It Means to Join the Academy Software Foundation

The Academy Software Foundation, launched in 2018 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Linux Foundation, provides a neutral home for open‑source tools used in film and media production.

ASWF hosts widely adopted projects including OpenEXR, OpenColorIO, OpenVDB, and OpenTimelineIO, which form the backbone of many VFX and animation pipelines.

By becoming an ASWF hosted project, MoonRay gains several structural advantages:

• Neutral governance rather than being managed solely by a single studio
• Shared infrastructure and collaboration channels for contributors
• Closer alignment with other open‑source production tools used across the industry

For studios and software vendors, this governance model reduces the risk of relying on technology controlled by one company and encourages broader industry participation.

DreamWorks’ Role Going Forward

MoonRay’s transition to ASWF does not mean DreamWorks is stepping away from development. The studio continues to contribute engineering leadership and development resources, ensuring the renderer remains production‑tested while expanding its community of contributors.

This model—where a studio launches technology and then moves it into a foundation for broader stewardship—is increasingly common in large open‑source infrastructure projects.

Why Artists and Studios Care

Rendering technology shapes what visual styles filmmakers can achieve. A renderer built specifically for feature animation must support both photorealistic lighting and highly stylized imagery, which are common in modern animated films.

Opening MoonRay and placing it under ASWF governance creates new possibilities:

• Studios can experiment with a production‑grade renderer without licensing barriers.
• Developers can extend or integrate the system into custom pipelines.
• Researchers can study and improve a real‑world film rendering architecture.

For artists and technical directors, that access can translate into more experimentation with lighting models, materials, and stylistic approaches.

A Broader Industry Shift Toward Shared Infrastructure

MoonRay’s move reflects a wider trend across the visual effects and animation industries: foundational pipeline technologies are increasingly becoming shared open‑source infrastructure.

Projects like OpenEXR, OpenColorIO, OpenUSD integrations, and now MoonRay show how studios collaborate on core technology while still competing creatively through storytelling, art direction, and filmmaking.

If MoonRay gains adoption beyond DreamWorks, it could become another common building block in modern rendering pipelines—helping studios, artists, and developers build on the same production‑tested foundation while pushing the boundaries of visual storytelling.