USD is a new concept for VFX world, so this R&D was mainly focused on experimenting with scene assembly using USD.

The goal was to better understand how USD could be used for layering, asset referencing, scene composition, and managing larger production scenes in a more structured and non-destructive way.

Combining light variants with shader variants in USD creates a very powerful workflow for lighting and look development.

It allows different lighting setups and material states to be switched or combined non-destructively, making it much easier to manage multiple looks, shot variations, and lighting conditions within the same scene.

For production, this kind of USD-based variant workflow can make iteration much faster and more organized, especially when the same asset needs to support different lighting scenarios, material treatments, or sequence requirements.