Broadcast News

Bookmark and Share
04/01/2011

The Foundry Announce Plans For KATANA

Leading visual effects software developer, The Foundry, has provided an insight into its plans for KATANA.
KATANA is an environment for preparing 3D assets for rendering. It allows artists to define and control look and lighting whilst maintaining performance with very large datasets. KATANA operates non-destructively using a rule-based approach, allowing modelling, look development, animation and lighting teams to work in parallel.
Originally developed in house at Sony Pictures Imageworks to handle increasingly complex workflows on productions such as Spider-Man and Superman Returns, the commercial development of KATANA was taken on by The Foundry in November 2009 as part of a unique collaboration between the two companies.
The Foundry's engineering effort, in consultation with a broad range of users, is ensuring KATANA becomes a flexible product that can ultimately integrate with any pipeline and and renderer in any facility.
These consultations have now developed into much more in-depth collaborations with a number of key sites including MPC and Digital Domain who are now using KATANA in alpha.
Rob Bredow, Chief Technology Officer, Sony Pictures Imageworks, said: "Since inception KATANA has been one of the pillars of the production pipeline here at Imageworks and continues to prove itself on such rigorous productions as G-Force, Watchmen, Alice in Wonderland and animated features such as Monster House, Surf's Up, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs and The Smurfs.
"We are excited to see KATANA cutting its teeth outside the halls of Imageworks and becoming available for artists and facilities everywhere. The Foundry is a tremendous partner and by broadening the adoption of KATANA and product support, a new generation of artists and productions can benefit from this innovative production-proven technology."
Cliff Plumer, Chief Executive, Digital Domain, said: "Many brilliant technical innovations come out of production, but historically those breakthroughs remain only within the production company. The Foundry works with digital studios to make those innovations widespread, which benefits the entire industry. I look for KATANA to have a similar impact on the industry that Nuke has achieved."
Davie Johnston, Director of Technology, MPC, said: "Like most large VFX studios, we maintain a complex suite of proprietary software to enable us to render ever increasing complexity, quantity and visual quality. We are excited about KATANA's potential to offer a solid, flexible, off-the-shelf foundation that we can build upon so that we can focus more of our efforts on what we do best, pushing the boundaries of CG, trusting The Foundry to do what they do best, delivering high quality, scalable software."
As the first commercial dedicated scene development tool, KATANA will enable facilities large and small to build highly scalable lighting pipelines without a large internal engineering effort.
KATANA is scheduled for commercial release in 2011.
(KMcA)
Solidmate Ltd Memory Card Hire London

Top Related Stories
Click here for the latest broadcast news stories.

06/04/2023
Miller Tripods Introduces New CinX 8 And 9 Large Fluid Heads
Miller Tripods is to introduce, under the Miller Cine brand, its new CinX 8 and 9 large fluid heads and CinX 20, 23 and 25 smaller fluid heads at the
03/10/2023
EditShare And DXM Install Large Network Of EFS Storage Devices At Pixcom
EditShare® and Canadian Channel Partner, DXM, have installed a large network of EFS storage devices at Pixcom, a leading Canadian production company.
12/12/2023
Pip Studios Appoints Head Of Client Services And Business Development
Pip Studios, part of Molinare Creative Group, has appointed Shannon Sewell as Head of Client Services and Business Development. The appointment solidi
07/12/2023
ITV Studios Signs Co-Development Agreement
Augustus Dulgaro, EVP Asia Pacific, Global Partnerships, ITV Studios and GE Lai, President of Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation signed a Format Co-Deve
28/02/2023
Memnon Appoints Business Development Manager For EMEA
Memnon has appointed Simon Clark as its new Business Development Manager for EMEA. Based in the United Kingdom, Simon will spearhead efforts to expand
23/02/2023
iWedia Appoints Director Of Business Development And Key Accounts
iWedia S.A has appointed experienced sales leader Go Murata as Director of Business Development and Key Accounts in Japan. Go Murata is an accomplishe
21/02/2023
Atlona Appoints Business Development Manager
Atlona has announced that Steve Bogart will assume the role of Business Development Manager for the Education market in North America effective immedi
15/05/2015
The Foundry Releases KATANA 2
The Foundry has released KATANA 2, rebuilt from the ground up, shifting it from a look dev and lighting tool, to an integral component of an advanced
07/07/2023
Supponor Appoints New Business Development Executive
Supponor has appointed Rusty Lawrence, the former Managing Director of TGI Sport Europe, as its new Business Development Executive. Lawrence brings wi
14/06/2023
Vizrt Group Appoints Director Of Channel Development
Vizrt Group has appointed Jenny Isaksson as the Director of Channel Development as the company focuses on additional investment and support for its ch
20/03/2023
Mount Pleasant Studio Hosts Broader Range Of Productions
Mount Pleasant Studio is London's most central soundproofed film and TV studio. The replacement of hot spacelights with cool, energy efficient but twi
23/02/2024
Little Dot Studios Expands Partnership With Zig Zag Productions
Award-winning digital content studio and media network, Little Dot Studios (an All3Media company), has been awarded the three year YouTube channel man
14/02/2024
Fearless Productions' Project Chimera Shines With Kino Flo's MIMIK 120
Kino Flo Lighting Systems has announced that its MIMIK 120 full-spectrum, image-based video lighting tile was used by Hollywood-based digital film pro
31/08/2023
Zenway Productions Implements Clear-Com® FreeSpeak II® Wireless Intercom System
Zenway Productions has recently implemented the state-of-the-art Clear-Com® FreeSpeak II® Wireless Intercom System, revolutionising its communication
13/03/2024
ThinkAnalytics Appoints SVP Business Development, Strategy, And Partnerships
ThinkAnalytics has announced that following the appointment of Marc Aldrich, Worldwide CEO, Roger Sherwood, SVP Professional Services and Andrew Read,