OpenFX (software)

OpenFX is an open-source, free modeling and animation studio, distributed under the GNU General Public License, created by Stuart Ferguson. He made the decision to release the source code to the public in the middle of 1999 and released a stable version a year and a half later. The product, formerly named SoftF/X, was renamed to OpenFX.

OpenFX

Original author(s)	Stuart Ferguson
Initial release	January 15, 2001; 24 years ago (2001-01-15)
Stable release	2.4 / July 25, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-07-25)
Written in	C
Operating system	Windows
License	GNU General Public License
Website	www.openfx.org

The OpenFX featureset includes a full renderer and raytracing engine, NURBS support, kinematics-based animation, morphing, and an extensive plugin API. Plugin capabilities include image post processor effects such as lens flare, fog and depth of field. Animation effects such as explosions, waves and dissolves add to the flexibility of the program. Version 2.0 also features support for modern graphics cards with hardware GPU acceleration.

OpenFX supports the Win32 platform, including Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7 and 8. It can run under Unix-based platforms by using the Wine compatibility layer.

Release history

Version	Release Date	Changes
Beta	January 15, 2001	First Public Beta
1.0	February 9, 2001	Initial Release
1.1	July 22, 2004	Stereo hardware support Stand Alone Model Viewer (OFXVIEW.EXE) A Stereo Movie Viewer (GGPLAY.EXE) A fullscreen .flc and .avi player (DDPLAY.EXE)
1.5	September 22, 2005	Better Wave Simulation Plugin Cubic Environment Support Removed vertex cap Bug fixes
1.7	November 3, 2006	Fixed anti-aliasing problems
2.0	September 15, 2007	Hardware rendering support
2.1	October 4, 2010	New features in the designer module and a revised more efficient ray-tracer module
2.2	June 4, 2012	New Bones and Weights systems for character animation and an improved mapping coordinate painting system. There are also additional imaging effects.
2.3	October 12, 2012	OpenF/X is compatible with Windows 8
2.4	October 24, 2013	The main change is the ability to render stereoscopic images and movies. The Renderer control dialog contains a new tick box to render stereo ouptut to either JPS or Left over Right AVI files. The Camera settings in the Animator specifies the eye separation and the parallax depth. Major bug fix in the animator to the Robot Editor windows that caused a crash if the tool was started twice by an accelerator key.

Plug-in

Video software, such as GenArts Sapphire or RE

Vison Effects which adds a wider variety of effects to a host application.

References

• Ferguson, R. Stuart (December 19, 2013). "The Complete Package: OpenFX". Practical Algorithms for 3D Computer Graphics, Second Edition. CRC Press. pp. 319–370. ISBN 978-1-4665-8252-1. Retrieved April 1, 2025.

External links

• Free and open-source software portal

• Official website
• Queen's University of Belfast, 3D Graphics and Animation