Leading developer of creative software for the media and entertainment industry Foundry announced the release of Katana 8.0 and Mari 7.1, along with the open beta now available for Nuke 16.0. With the latest updates to Foundry’s suite of production-proven tools, studios of all sizes are further supported in building the pipeline they need, both now and in the future.
As the industry continues to standardise workflows around USD, Foundry is offering its customers even more advanced USD tools and workflows to save time, improve efficiency, and remove development headaches.
“In the current production environment, it’s crucial for artists and teams to work as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Across Foundry’s portfolio, we’ve been working to enable artists to focus on creating the best work possible, at scale, with fewer custom workarounds or roundtrips to other applications. The introduction of 2D painting in Mari, native USD roundtripping from Katana and the upcoming multishot compositing in Nuke deliver new efficiencies that artists and pipelines can take advantage of today,” said Foundry chief product officer Christy Anzelmo.
USD roundtripping in Katana- Katana 8.0 now comes with complete roundtripping — to and from USD — within the application. With a new USD export feature, all USD changes made in Katana can be exported for re-use in other departments.
From lights and materials, to cameras and other geometry, changes can be made and then exported effortlessly, enabling artists to use Katana edits in any part of the pipeline. It also includes Pattern-based Collections to enable templates for multiple shots and sequences to be flexible and adaptable.
Texturing transformation with Mari- With Mari 7.1, artists are empowered to transform the way they paint with new creative workflows in 2D painting and beyond, allowing them to remain fully immersed in their work. Now artists can quickly erase a blemish from an image before projecting, make tweaks, create decals, and even paint entirely custom patterns from scratch – for unique, fully editable materials.
With the powerful new 2D Painting Mode, artists can now easily switch between 2D and 3D painting, or create images on a canvas in 2D and then have a live link between that and their nodegraph in 3D. Artists can easily curate their own modular Smart Mask library, with over 50 Smart Masks and utility nodes from industry professional Stuart Ansley, as well as Johnny Fehr’s grunge maps.
Introducing multishot workflows in Nuke- Nuke 16.0 will soon give artists the option to effectively work with multiple shots at once from one single script — with new features set to enable multishot workflows. Until now Nuke has been developed around single-shot workflows, involving artists recreating the same effect across multiple shots one-by-one, the move to multishot is set to transform the working day of VFX artists.
Repetitive tasks such as copy and pasting nodes, recreating changes, and keeping track of edits across multiple scripts drain artists’ time while increasing risk of errors. Multishot workflows in Nuke 16.0 are set to change that, giving artists time back to focus on creativity.
Nuke 16.0 is currently in open beta being tested by studios and artists around the world. For studios yet to update to VFX Reference Platform 2024, the Nuke 15.2 beta is also available access to many of the new features without a pipeline upgrade.
What’s new in Katana 8.0
- Katana to USD: Artists can now seamlessly convert Katana data to native USD data with a new Katana To USD node.
- USD Export: All USD changes made in Katana can be exported for re-use in other departments.
- UsdLight Node: Now artists are able to create lights in Katana on a USD stage.
- Pattern-based Collections: We’re bringing Collections (and the new-to-USD Pattern-based Collections feature) to Katana’s USD space, greatly speeding up artists’ USD workflows.
- Scene Explorer Collections: Collections are now supported in the Scene Explorer tab for both Geolib and USD using a new Collections panel.
- USD Debugging Tools: A brand new USD Text View tab keeps artists and TDs more informed on what’s happening on the USD stage
- Performance tab: Python Profiler: The Performance tab now has a Python Profiler section, with a simple interface for collecting and displaying Python profiling data.
- Performance Improvement: Traversal Optimization: Scenes now load up to 2.5x faster when compared with Katana 7.0, thanks to Katana’s Node Graph traversal process being ported over from Python to C++.
- USD in Hydra Improvements: USD prims, including new locators for lights and cameras, can now be manipulated in the Hydra viewer.
- VFX Reference Platform 2024: Benefit from the features of Katana 8.0 with the updated VFX Reference Platform 2024 (Katana 7.5 is also shipping and has the same feature set and sits on VFX Reference Platform 2023).
What’s new in Mari 7.1
- 2D Painting Mode: Easily paint a 2D image with full Node Graph or Layer support to create decals or make edits for use in your texturing projects.
- Smart Mask Shelf: Get more out of the box thanks to more ready-made presets with a revamped Smart Mask Shelf and over 50 Smart Masks and utility nodes designed by industry professional Stuart Ansley.
- Grunge Shelf: Last year we added 60+ new grunge textures from texture artist Johnny Fehr and now we’ve added even more – ready to kick start your gritty textures.
- Paint Node Creation Presets: Select from a batch of pre-selected swatches regularly used by artists or add your own swatches to the new Color Presets Shelf in the Paint Node creation list.
- Switch Node: Export your material with different network variations, quickly switching between different looks by simply changing the input from the Switch Node’s Properties.
- Save Nodes to Shelf items: Node Packages bundle up the Node Network, along with any source images, into a single file, for easier portability of premade Node Graphs between artists.
- Backdrop Nodes: Click anywhere within a Backdrop node to select the node and others contained within that area, improving your organization and saving time on laborious tasks.
What’s new in the Nuke 16.0 open beta
- Overhauled compositing workflows: Variables, Link nodes, Group Node internal view, roto performance improvements when working with large scripts, and the new ML Planar Tracker.
- Enhanced review workflows: Timeline improvements including multichannel soft effects, Quick Export, and the new Contact Sheet.
- More seamless 3D workflows: Updates to the beta 3D system including improved core nodes, new GeoConstrain and GeoXformPrim nodes, and UI updates.
- Updates to BlinkScript: More intuitive custom effect creation with updates to the BlinkScript node that make it easier to read, write, and troubleshoot code.
- Plus more features to be explored in the open beta.