London, 13 December 2021 - Foundry, the leading developer of creative software for the media and entertainment industries, today releases Katana 5.0, featuring Katana and Nuke interoperability, render upgrades like Foresight+, USD and Look Development workflow improvements, and Hydra Render Delegate support.
Katana 5.0 connects Nuke and Katana, allowing look development and lighting artists to stream their live renders to a running version of Nuke to view their work in the context of the final comp in near-real-time. Any changes made in Katana automatically update in Nuke for a more holistic view of the creative process.
Building on Katana 4.0’s Foresight, Foresight+ allows artists to work on as many shots as they like from one template whilst live rendering. This way, artists can see every change that influences all their shots in a sequence, live, inside Katana, without waiting for tomorrow’s dailies. This raises the quality of all shots simultaneously and avoids any surprises.
The USD workflow improvements in Katana 5.0 allow artists to import and export lighting information from Katana, encouraging cross-team collaboration. Each artist can more easily understand the final lighting design and choices, and departments can work speedily by iterating in parallel to get to the final image sooner.
Katana 5.0 brings fundamental improvements to Foundry’s Network Material workflows. New support for Material Macros and User Parameters on Shading Groups encourages artists to reuse areas of their shaders between node graphs, projects and even other users. This streamlines the look development process from Material creation to fully customisable and reusable shader networks.
As one of the first applications to deliver a Hydra-based viewport, Katana 5.0 officially supports render delegates from our render partners, shipping with an exciting new render delegate “AVP” (advanced viewport) based on internal Foundry technology. With this release, artists can choose their viewer quality, whether it’s a GL-based preview approximation or a path-traced final look.
Gary Jones, Product Manager for Lighting, Foundry, comments:
“With this release, our focus was on improving the look development and lighting artists’ experience. Because artists’ workflows are changing and most now work in a non-linear way, we’ve adapted Katana’s features to address changes before the end of a pipeline, where they traditionally used to take place. New features like USD workflows, Hydra and Foundry’s own render delegates and Nuke <> Katana interop enable artists to preview their assets as early as the layout or animation stages and allow them to see the work in context before validating it. With Foresight+ simultaneous live rendering power, artists also gain new powers by being able to iterate on entire sequences at the same time. We’re excited to build on these features in the upcoming releases, focusing on new ways to help artists scale their work.”
The full list of features for Katana 5.0 can be found here. To try or purchase Katana 5.0, contact sales@foundry.com.
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Contact details:
Madalina Grigorie, PR and Communications Manager, Foundry
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3976 1826 (ext. 2421) Mob: +44 (0)738 7059 069
About Katana
Katana® is an asset-based approach to look development and lighting that gives you the creative scope and scalability to meet the needs of the most demanding CG projects. For more information, visit https://www.foundry.com/products/katana
About Foundry
Foundry develops creative software for the digital design, media and entertainment industries. With a 20-year heritage and a portfolio of award-winning products, Foundry advances the art and technology of visual experience in partnership with creative leaders around the globe.
Clients and partners include major feature film studios and post-production houses such as Pixar, ILM, MPC, Walt Disney Animation, Weta Digital, DNEG, and Framestore, as well as automotive, footwear, apparel and technology companies such as Mercedes, New Balance, Adidas and Google. Foundry partners with these companies to solve complex visualization challenges to turn incredible ideas into reality.
The company’s products are used to create breathtaking visual effects sequences on a wide range of feature films, video-on-demand, television and commercials. Foundry software was integral in the making of every VFX Oscar-winning film, award-winning TV shows and commercials for more than a decade. Founded in 1996, Foundry is headquartered in London, with over 300 employees and a presence in the US, China, Japan, Australia and Europe. In 2019, the London Stock Exchange named Foundry one of the “1000 Companies to Inspire Britain.”
For more information visit www.foundry.com Our Products: Nuke, Hiero, Mari, Katana, Flix, Modo, Colorway.
