Mari 3.3 and Katana 2.6 set to take look development and lighting to the next level

As part of Foundry’s commitment to driving creativity, it has introduced an array of highly  anticipated updates for both products that will empower artists to bring their ideas to life quicker and more easily.

Continuing the series of improvements since Mari 3.0, Mari 3.3 offers greater artist productivity by incorporating the latest workflow improvements. The introduction of a new shading feature – Shader recompilation – will boost productivity by reducing the amount of time artists need to wait between operations, leaving more time for artists to focus on creativity. A new enhancement to the color management tools will also improve efficiency by permitting artists to calculate color transformations on the GPU, while improvements to the Marquee tool now with a Lift action provide greater flexibility allowing artists to work with previous baked paint.

Continuing its support of both large and small teams, Katana 2.6 will be launching with the initial version of its new viewer API. This will form the basis of the new Hydra based viewer currently under development for the next version of Katana (Katana 3.0). Improved technical documentation will allow pipeline TDs to further enhance the artist experience, which along with a range of other UI/UX improvements will speed up production workflows.

Jody Madden, Chief Product and Customer Officer at Foundry, said: “Foundry develops its products in partnership with its customers to ensure we are enabling them to do their best work. Mari 3.3 and Katana 2.6 introduce a host of new developments that improve workflow productivity, giving artists the tools they need to support the creative process. At Foundry, we recognise the creative input and scalability required to meet the needs of today’s most demanding CG rendered projects, and these updates will help ensure a more collaborative approach to 3D painting, look development and lighting tasks.”

Mari 3.3 and Katana 2.6 are expected to be available for  purchase on Foundry’s website and via accredited resellers from May 17.