Alembic Files
Alembic is a new file format that was introduced just a few years ago by Sony Pictures Imageworks and Lucasfilm. It is quickly being adopted by every major application used in production today. Even though this format is being adopted, software developers still choose what type of data is to be written or read from the alembic files. So just because Maya stores the camera information doesn’t mean that an application like RealFlow will import that camera information.
The way this format differs from FBX and COLLDA is that you have to bake the animated data to send it to other applications. Meaning you no longer have the full capabilities to edit the animation. You might use this format once you have decided what you want your final animation to look like.
This format also takes up a minimal amount of disk space compared to FBX and COLLADA, and that file becomes optimized for read/write speeds once it is exported into the Alembic format. This format uses an .abc file extension.
The way you might use this format is to animate your final scene and export it as an Alembic file. Now with the smaller file size you can send it to a lighting and rendering artist or maybe you need to add dynamic simulations to the scene. The smaller file size is a benefit to other parts of the pipeline because they do not need the ability to modify the animation. All they need is the final result with quick read/write speeds to the file which alembic can provide.
