OpenEXR files are designed to support multiple resolutions and additional channels, making them appealing for compositing. Since OpenEXR can store arbitrary channels (such as specular, diffuse, alpha, RGB, normals, etc) in one file, it takes away the need to store this information in separate files. However, to support all these arbitrary OpenEXR channels in Autodesk Visual Effects andFinishing applications, they need to be converted to separate sets of RGB clips upon import. These RGB files can then be modified and combined, for example in Action, to reconstitute the final clip.

WiretapCentral is used to set up OpenEXR transcoding jobs, which are sent to a Backburner network for encoding, leveraging a network of processing nodes (any Linux-based computers, including the application workstation) to provide maximum processing speed. The jobs output RGB image sequences to a location that is accessible to Autodesk Visual Effects, Finishing, and Grading applications.