Foundry Releases Katana 5.0

Foundry has released Katana 5.0, a new updated version of its look development and lighting software. The update features Katana and Nuke interoperability, render upgrades like Foresight+, USD and Look Development workflow improvements, and Hydra Render Delegate support. 

The main feature of Katana 5.0 is the newly introduced Nuke-to-Katana bridge, allowing look development and lighting artists to stream their live renders to a running version of Nuke to view their work in the context of the final comp in near-real-time. Any changes made in Katana automatically update in Nuke.

Building on Katana 4.0’s Foresight, Foresight+ allows artists to work on as many shots as they like from one template whilst live rendering. This way, artists can see every change that influences all their shots in a sequence, live, inside Katana.

The USD workflow and Network Material workflow improvements in Katana 5.0 allow artists to import and export lighting information from Katana, and encourage artists to reuse areas of their shaders between node graphs, projects, and even other users. This streamlines the look development process from Material creation to fully customizable and reusable shader networks.

Katana 5.0 now officially supports render delegates from our render partners, shipping with an exciting new render delegate “AVP” (advanced viewport)  based on internal Foundry technology. With this release, artists can choose their viewer quality, whether it’s a GL-based preview approximation or a path-traced final look.

You can learn more about the update here or by reading our interview with Foundry's Product Manager for Lighting Gary Jones where he gave an in-depth look at Katana 5.0's new features.