As promised this Summer, we’re back with one more OMC release before the end of 2024. The MovieLabs Ontology for Media Creation Version 2.6 has mostly revisions and refinements based on external implementations, but with a few new cool expansions including a beta release of the audio ontology. The MovieLabs documentation site is now updated and includes all the new contents and a library of legacy versions so you can always refer back, it’s available at https://mc.movielabs.com. Some of these changes are foundational as MovieLabs and members of the new MovieLabs Industry Forum expand the OMC in 2025 to include On-Set Data and Video pipelines which will be a major extension of the ontology next year. If you want to get involved reach out to us at support@movielabs.com.
Here’s a list of the major changes/revisions in v2.6:
UPDATE – Part 2: Context
- Sequences are now defined as a subclass of Composition. This simplifies Editorial Sequence and prepares for the work of the Video and On-set Data drafting groups.
- Added Production Character to cover CG-only Portrayals.
- Concept can be implemented as a (as in previous versions) or as a subclass of Context.
- A new Context sub-class was added for ‘Shoot Day’.
NEW BETA EXPANSION: Part 3C: Audio This is a beta release for the new Audio features, and will be revised based on actual implementations. This audio extension covers sound and audio from their entry into the production – whether that is from on-set capture, ADR, or a sound library – though sound editorial and into mastering. We also added a more formal connection between sound editorial and picture editorial. Much of the model and controlled vocabulary comes from SMPTE, to which OMC adds some structural formalizations and relationships.
UPDATE : Part 3D: CG Assets
- We made several adjustments to Materials, based on use cases with MaterialX.
- CG Model is a new functional class, to cover cases, such as Asset interchange, where the exact use of a CG Assembly is not known.
- The CG extensions are included in the 2.6 release of OMC-JSON
EXPANSION: Part 6: Creative Work
Extended to cover episodic content. This is a subset of the model used by EIDR and MDDF. It covers the production aspects, and is not intended to cover all of the many complex distribution scenarios for episodic content and nesting of shows, seasons, episodes.
UPDATE: Part 9: Utilities
- Added ‘Tags’ utility class, to support domain-specific tagging of OMC entities. It can be used, for example, to store database search terms, AI-generated tags, and local taxonomic information.
- Added an explicit class for Annotations, to cover human-readable information about OMC elements.
- Added ‘isSelfContained’ flag for Assets, as a signpost for Assets that have internal dependencies on other things.
Vocabulary:
Many new terms have been added to the formal vocabulary that cover the new concepts, including CG Assets and Audio,
The MovieLabs Vocabulary is here and, where applicable, includes the matching MovieLabs Visual Language icon for each defined term.
Documentation
The JSON documentation and examples have been significantly expanded. The Schema itself is now formally documented in the Github repository OMC-JSON/Docs/Schema, this includes all objects and controlled values.
GitHub
The MovieLabs OMC repo has been reorganized and rationalized with a more formal model for branch management. The current release will always be available as ‘main’, and starting with the next release, previous releases will be available in separate named branches.
UPDATE: JSON v2.6
There was no v2.5 release for the JSON version of OMC but with v2.6 the OMC-JSON has now been fully updated bringing OMC-JSON in alignment with the RDF model. Therefore, some of the components mentioned above as updates are entirely new additions in OMC-JSON. These are covered in the changelog in the repo.
None of the changes to version 2.6 are breaking changes, so we are supporting backwards compatibility back to v2.0 of the OMC.
Please stay in touch as you build applications, services and platforms that support and exchange data in the OMC. We’re always looking for feedback based on real-world scenarios so feel free to reach out with comments or questions at support@movielabs.com.
