The Foundry Visionmongers

The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd
Private
Industry Software
Founded 1996
Founder Bruno Nicoletti
Headquarters London
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Alex Mahon, CEO
Bill Collis, President
Simon Robinson, Chief Scientist
Bruno Nicoletti, Founder
Products Visual Effects and 3D Software
Website thefoundry.co.uk

The Foundry Visionmongers is a visual effects software development company with headquarters in London, and offices in Manchester, Los Angeles and Redwood City, California.

History

The Foundry was founded in 1996, by Bruno Nicoletti, with Simon Robinson joining soon afterwards.[1] Alex Mahon was named CEO in November 2015. She supersedes Bill Collis, who will remain president and board member.[2]

The Foundry was bought by the owners of Digital Domain, Wyndcrest Holdings, in March 2007, and took over DD's existing NUKE business. Subsequently it was subject to a management buyout with backing from Advent Venture Partners, and then acquired by the Carlyle Group in April 2011.[3][4][5]

In September 2012, The Foundry merged with Luxology, a Mountain View-based software house known primarily for modo, a 3D modelling and animation package.[6] Earlier the same month, it ranked at number 70 in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100, with 2011/2012 sales of approximately £15 million, a 49% increase from 2010/2011.[7]

In 2015 reports were that Adobe Systems was preparing to buy them from The Carlyle Group who were the owners at the time[8]

Products

The Foundry had its origins in plug-in development, and its first product was the Tinder (and later Tinderbox) plugins. This business was sold to GenArts in 2010. [9] It continues to sell the Furnace motion-estimation based plugins, which won an Academy Scientific and Technical Award in 2006[10] Other plugins include Ocula, a set of tools for sterescopic post-processing; Keylight, a keyer; RollingShutter, which reduces CMOS artefact distortion; CameraTracker; and Kronos.[11]

The Foundry continues the development of NUKE, a node-based compositor. Version 10.0v2 was released in June of 2016[12]

MARI, a texture painting application was released in July 2010. This has been originally developed in-house at Weta Digital for use on Avatar.[13][14] KATANA, a tool for look development and lighting, originally from Sony Pictures Imageworks, was released in 2011.[15] HIERO, a brand new shot management, conform and review tool was released in March 2012. The software was designed in-house from the ground up by the Foundry.[16]

References

  1. ↑ "Meet the Team". The Foundry Visionmongers. Retrieved 2012-09-12.
  2. ↑ "VFX Software Developer The Foundry Finds New CEO". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
  3. ↑ Montgomery, John (March 22, 2007). "D2 Software's Nuke Acquired by The Foundry". fxguide. Retrieved September 12, 2012.
  4. ↑ Palmer, Maija (June 3, 2009). "The Foundry returns to former management". Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  5. ↑ Watkins, Mary (March 15, 2011). "Carlyle buys The Foundry". Financial Times. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  6. ↑ Cohen, David S. (September 25, 2012). "Fx companies the Foundry and Luxology to merge". Variety. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  7. ↑ "2012 Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 league table". Sunday Times. September 16, 2012. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  8. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/privateequity/11562472/Adobe-eyes-200m-bid-for-British-visual-effects-firm-The-Foundry.html
  9. ↑ Seymour, Mike (February 10, 2010). "GenArts Buys Tinder plugins from The Foundry". fxguide.com. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  10. ↑ "2006 Scientific & Technical Award Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on October 6, 2008.
  11. ↑ "All Products for Sale". The Foundry. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  12. ↑ "NUKE release notes" (PDF). June 8, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
  13. ↑ Hellard, Paul (May 25, 2010). "Jack Greasley, developer and Product Manager at The Foundry, takes CGSociety for a look around Mari, the new texture application". CGSociety. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  14. ↑ "MARI 1.0v1 Released". The Foundry. July 16, 2010. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  15. ↑ Hughes, Kerrie (October 27, 2011). "The Foundry releases Katana 1.0". 3D World. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  16. ↑ Montgomery, John (March 8, 2012). "HIERO Ships". fxguide.com. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
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