Introduction to The Foundry Katana 5.0v1

The Foundry Katana is a cutting-edge 3D rendering software that empowers artists to customize and control the look, lighting, and performance, even when working with large datasets. Its rule-based approach ensures non-destructive operations, allowing modeling, look development, animation, and lighting teams to work in parallel without interference.

Efficient and Collaborative Workflow

KATANA provides an efficient, collaborative, and asset-based approach to look development and lighting. It offers a creative range and scalability to meet the demands of today's most sophisticated visual effects projects.

Flexible Framework and Integration

With a node-based flexible framework, a multi-threaded core engine, and tight integration with rendering, KATANA enables faster iteration speeds and allows the completion of highly complex shots in a shorter time. Its rich API and scripting options make it easy to integrate into existing pipelines, giving users the freedom to work with their chosen renderers, shaders, and other tools.

New Features in The Foundry Katana 5.0v1

Katana 5 introduces artist-centric lighting tools, representing the first part of a new digital cinema camera workflow. Artists can now easily create, manipulate, and edit lights anywhere and at any time, enabling more creative interaction with images.

The software also introduces image-based selection, allowing artists to directly access ID channels and create selections in parallel with rendering. This seamless selection process enhances the workflow by eliminating the need to distinguish between base data already loaded into Katana 5.

Improved Rendering Farm Integration

Katana 5 enhances rendering farm integration with the FarmAPI Python package, enabling artists to initiate rendering directly from the software's user interface. The package provides a foundation for developers to integrate specific render farm systems with the software more closely.

Simultaneous Rendering and Enhanced UI

The software now allows artists to run multiple preview renders simultaneously. The user interface has been improved with updated thumbnail updates in the directory tab and a new side-by-side multi-view in the monitor tab for comparing front and back image buffers.