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SPIN VFX adopts Katana – Joining the ranks of larger studios

London, 16th May 2012 – Leading visual effects software developer, The Foundry (www.thefoundry.co.uk) is pleased to announce that Spin VFX (www.spinpro.com) has purchased a site licence of KATANA and will now be using the software on all its future projects.

Spin VFX is the first mid-sized studio to purchase KATANA. The company has integrated The Foundry’s groundbreaking software, both during look development for asset creation, and then again as the lighting tool at the end of the pipe.

Colin Davies, VFX Supervisor at SPIN VFX comments:

“We are excited to implement KATANA as it provides both the stability of a larger facility pipeline and a significant increase in efficiency for a medium company such as ourselves. KATANA is a major component that is facilitating our continued growth as a company. It’s much more than just lighting software – it’s an advanced pipeline tool that offers power and flexibility. We also use it to more easily handle large, complex scene files and most importantly, update our assets more efficiently. KATANA is an opportunity to adopt some of the best practices developed by dedicated R&D teams at leading visual effects studios.”

Originally developed by Sony Pictures Imageworks, KATANA takes an innovative recipe based approach, enabling facilities large and small to build highly scalable and efficient lighting pipelines without a large internal engineering effort.

Artists can define and control look and lighting whilst maintaining performance with very large datasets. KATANA operates non-destructively using a rule-based approach that allows modeling, look development, animation and lighting teams to work in parallel.

Andy Lomas, KATANA Product Manager at The Foundry comments:

”More and more facilities are discovering the benefits of adopting KATANA in their pipelines. We are delighted to have Spin VFX on board. The adoption proves that KATANA is not exclusively for larger studios but has many benefits for growing houses.”

Spin VFX’s Colin Davies, VFX Supervisor continues:

“KATANA makes our pipeline a far more advanced offering. We are now able to compete for a broader spectrum of work. It does this in a number of ways. Firstly, it gives us the ability to have a script based workflow which lets us scale well on projects with big shot counts and lots of similar set ups. Secondly, handling shots with large data sets becomes simpler. There is much less effort needed to break up files and update them on an on going basis, as KATANA only loads the data you need when you need it.”

KATANA 1.0 was released in October 2011 and is already in use in production at Industrial Light and Magic, Digital Domain and Sony Pictures ImageWorks. KATANA continues to be under evaluation at a number of studios, both large and small.

 

Find out more about KATANA: www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/katana/

Find out more about Spin VFX: www.spinpro.com

 

About The Foundry

The Foundry is a world-leading innovator in visual effects technologies and is internationally renowned for its product design and collaborative approach. Founded in 1996, the company has established itself as a critical partner to major feature film studios and post production houses worldwide including The Mill, ILM, The Moving Picture Company, Walt Disney Animation, Weta Digital, Framestore, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Digital Domain.

The company’s products have been used to create breath-taking effects sequences on a wide range of features, television projects and commercials. High profile examples include the 2012 Oscar® winners, HUGO (Best Visual Effects) and Rango (Best Animated Feature Film) as well as the EMMY award winning Boardwalk Empire.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded a Sci-Tech Award® to The Foundry’s development team for the FURNACE image processing suite in 2007 – and the company now holds two products with AMPAS Sci-Tech Award® winning technology including high-end compositing system NUKE.

Originally developed by Sony Pictures Imageworks, The Foundry took the KATANA lighting and rendering technology into the wider market. KATANA takes an innovative recipe based approach, enabling facilities large and small to build highly scalable and efficient lighting pipelines without a large internal engineering effort.

In 2011 The Foundry ranked 54th in The Sunday Times Tech Track (up three places from 2010), and debuted in both the Sunday Times International Track and the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 lists.

Backed by The Carlyle Group with a substantial portion still owned by the staff, The Foundry is still run by its original management team.

 

© The Foundry, its logo and product names are registered trademarks in the UK, USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

For further information please visit www.thefoundry.co.uk, or contact:

Ian Hall The Foundry T: +44 (0)20 7968 6828 E: ian@thefoundry.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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