.OTIO

Introduction

OpenTimelineIO is an open format and library for exchanging editorial timelines, started by Pixar and now a project of the Academy Software Foundation. It is used in film and animation pipelines to move edits between editing software and studio tools. An .otio file holds one timeline, or a collection of them.

Two related forms bundle the timeline with its media: .otioz, a ZIP file, and .otiod, a folder.

Structure

An .otio file is JSON. Every object has an OTIO_SCHEMA field naming its type and schema version, such as Timeline.1. A timeline holds a Stack of tracks; each Track holds clips, gaps and transitions in order. A Clip has a source range, given as a start time and duration in a stated frame rate, and a media reference, usually an ExternalReference with the address of the media file. Any object can carry extra data in a metadata dictionary.

{
  "OTIO_SCHEMA": "Timeline.1",
  "name": "Rough cut",
  "tracks": {
    "OTIO_SCHEMA": "Stack.1",
    "children": [
      {
        "OTIO_SCHEMA": "Track.1",
        "kind": "Video",
        "children": [
          {
            "OTIO_SCHEMA": "Clip.2",
            "name": "Interview",
            "source_range": { … },
            "media_references": { … }
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

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