The Foundry Katana 3.5v1

The Foundry launches the newer update to its professional look development and lighting tool. This update include new Feature Enhancements and bug fixes that improve the 3.2v3 to 3.5v1 release.

Katana 3.5v1 Release Notes - Release Date: 19 December 2019

Feature Enhancements

- Geolib3-MT: This is the evolution of Geolib3 - Katana’s scene graph processing engine - to provide native multi-threaded scene graph expansion. The goals of the just as a Geolib3-MT project are:
. To fully utilize the resources available on modern multi-core systems.
. To provide shared, intelligent caching technology to better manage memory resources during scene graph traversal.
. To reduce time-to-first-pixel (TTFP), allowing artists to efficiently iterate on shots and receive timely feedback.
. To improve artist productivity through improved UI performance.
- Analysis & Profiling Tools are provided, which help users debug the most time-costly Ops in a given Katana session.
- Optimized Key Workflows, improving performance of scenes where large numbers of locations are created.
- We now build and ship USD plug-ins based on USD 19.11, including the USD node types with some minor changes, as an opt-in set of resources in the plugins/Resources/Usd/ directory as part of a Katana installation. Documentation for how to opt into the USD plug-ins has been added to the Katana Developer Guide in form of the new Writing Plug-ins > Katana USD Plug-ins section. That section also outlines the differences between the USD plug-ins that now ship with Katana from those shipped in the Pixar USD repository.
- The experimental Monitor Layer feature is now integrated in the Viewer (Hydra) tab and can be turned on and off via a toggle button, menu item, or keyboard shortcut (`). The Monitor Layer allows you to see a render overlayed onto the scene shown in the viewer.
- A new mode for optimizing the launch of the renderboot process that hosts the render plug-in has been added to Katana's batch mode, which can be turned on by passing the new –reuse-render-process command-line option to the Katana executable (in addition to –batch). When running Katana in batch mode with this option turned on, multiple frames will be rendered with a single instance of renderboot hosting the render plug-in, rather than launching a new renderboot process for every frame. Using this option can greatly improve performance of rendering sequences of frames, as the render plug-in and all other Katana plug-ins don't have to be reloaded for every frame.

For the full list of new and improved features, and fixed bugs please refer to the release notes located here

The Foundry Katana is a 3D application specifically designed for the needs of look development and lighting in an asset-based pipeline. Originally developed at Sony Pictures Imageworks, Katana has been their core tool for look development and lighting for all their productions since Spider-Man 3, Beowulf, and Surf’s Up!. Katana provides a very general framework for efficient look development and lighting, with the goals of scalability, flexibility, and supporting an asset-based pipeline.

Katana is used in VFX, broadcast, and animation as a post-processing tool for final lighting. It uses a recipe approach to establishing lighting, making it easier for users to establish a lighting profile that can be reused in other scenes or projects.


The Foundry is a leading global developer of creative software used to deliver high-end visual effects and 3D content for the design, visualization and entertainment industries. The portfolio empowers artists to create inspiring and technical images and visual experiences in media production (film, commercials, episodic television, gaming, and virtual and augmented reality), and product and industrial design.

The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in London, with offices in Silicon Valley, Manchester, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Dublin and Austin. In November 2015 Alex Mahon was appointed as CEO while Bill Collis became president.

Product: The Foundry Katana
Version: 3.5v1
Supported Architectures: x64
Website Home Page : www.foundry.com
Language: english
System Requirements: PC *
Supported Operating Systems: *
Size: 352.0 mb