The Foundry Unleash HIERO (A pipeline in a box)

Announcement posted by The Foundry 11 Mar 2012

Shot management, conform and review software for VFX

London, 8th March 2012 – Leading visual effects software developer The Foundry (www.thefoundry.co.uk) has today launched HIERO, a brand new innovation in VFX software.

Established in 1996, The Foundry is a world-leading innovator of production-proven, efficient visual effects software solutions that empower creative artists. The company’s award-winning product range has a well-established client base and has facilitated ambitious VFX on some of the most memorable Hollywood blockbusters, as well as numerous television and commercial productions.

HIERO 1.0

Collaborative working on VFX projects, especially with a quick turnaround, can be painful. HIERO has been built from the ground up to address these challenges and create a smooth workflow out of the box to improve efficiency and increase shot throughput volume.

The brand new software is a lightweight shot manager for VFX. HIERO 1.0 is NOT a compositor or a system for finishing, grading or editing. It allows production facilities to efficiently conform, review and export shots to visual effects artists and into finishing systems.

HIERO has been designed to work seamlessly with The Foundry’s NUKE and NUKEX compositing applications, but also enables collaborative working with other editorial, VFX and finishing tools.

Matt Plec, Head of Product Design at The Foundry comments: "NUKE is already a powerful compositing tool, but it’s missing a component many artists need. HIERO provides this missing link functionality currently dealt with either by expensive tools, in-house scripting or a cumbersome manual process. HIERO’s the bridge tool our customers have been asking us for.”

HIERO removes human error by automatically creating a file structure based on rules that can be created by users as they conform and parcel out VFX shots to multiple NUKE artists. Because HIERO knows exactly where to look for updates, VFX supervisors can easily review shot progress in the context of the edit with the added confidence of knowing that the latest versions are always at their fingertips. HIERO significantly reduces the infrastructure work required to keep a VFX team up and running, saving time and money on every job.

Andres Kirejew, VFX Supervisor/Partner, Township comments: "HIERO has removed all thetedious, manual labour from conforming. I pointed it towards my EDL and 1.5tb of RED Epic footage magically relinked! HIERO breaks out shots with ease and automatically names, symlinks and prepares them for NUKE roundtripping. HIERO is ******* brilliant. Seriously, at the price point, it's a no-brainer!"

Hugo Guerra, Joint Head of NUKE compositing at The Mill, London adds: "In the NUKE department at The Mill HIERO was a natural choice to fill the pipeline gap that we were bridging using in-house scripting and third party software. Using HIERO and NUKEX together is the perfect solution for us. With these tools we save time and money on our pipeline, leaving the artists more time to be creative and not be delayed by the technical part of the process. This means our productions get better, faster and more collaborative.”

The Foundry has been running a series of HIERO launch events at big cities around the globe. With the US, Canadian and UK events successfully complete, there’s still time to catch the team in Tokyo, Hamburg, Munich and Sydney. To register for the remaining events visit http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/articles/2012/02/17/321/hiero-coming-to-a-city-near-you-soon/

For full details of The Foundry’s product offering see www.thefoundry.co.uk

- ENDS -

Embed codes for HIERO introductory videos:

3 minute intro to HIERO:

5 minute industry expert video:

About The Foundry

The Foundry is a world-leading innovator in visual effects technologies. The UK-based company has established itself as a critical partner to major feature film studios and post production houses worldwide including Sony Pictures Imageworks, Walt Disney Studios, Weta Digital, The Moving Picture Company, Framestore and Digital Domain.

In 2007, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded a Sci-Tech Award to The Foundry’s development team for the Furnace image processing suite. The company's widely adopted, high-end compositing system Nuke is also based on AMPAS Sci- Tech Award winning technology.

The Foundry is at the cutting edge of software development, marketing and sales for visual effects software. Its products have facilitated ambitious VFX sequences on numerous “must see” movies such as Avatar, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Super 8, The King's Speech, 127 Hours, Black Swan and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

The Foundry received a Distinguished Honoree medal in The 2010 International Business Awards (‘The Stevies’) as the Most Innovative Company of the Year in Europe. The company was also listed among The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 and The Guardian’s 2010 Tech Media Invest Top 100.

In March 2011, The Carlyle Group invested a majority stake in The Foundry for an undisclosed sum