Hi guys.
In the co-spirit of transparency I want to mention a related project we (AMD) are working on. Simply put:
An addon that allows USD / Hydra rendering as a Render Engine, as well as a nodegraph for USD scene composition.
EDIT: Move details to this thread: A out the Tangent Animation meeting, a proper place to talk about it please discuss there.
Please include us in future meetings if this work is of interest! Otherwise our plan is to release an addon enabling this externally later this year.
Brian