The Foundry’s KATANA

The Foundry dropped news today of a new tool in their collection called ‘Katana’, a 3d scene preparation tool that operates non-destructively and interactively on even very large datasets.  Originally developed by Sony Imageworks for use in films like Beowulf, it’s now in use by several studios.

“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.” – Cliff Plumer, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Domain.

Expect commercial release in 2011.

via CGSociety – KATANA.

This story written by Randall Hand

Randall Hand is a visualization scientist working for a federal research lab, aiding researchers to discover the insights buried within their terabyte datasets generated on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. He also runs VizWorld.com .