LONDON — The Foundry (www.thefoundry.co.uk) has begun open beta for its latest VFX innovation, Hiero. The solution is designed to address challenges and improve efficiencies in collaborative workflows by freeing up expensive finishing systems to concentrate on their real strength — finishing.
Hiero is a desktop application that allows users to conform XML and EDLs into a multi-resolution, multi-track timeline, including audio. Its tools are design to take the pain out of the conform process, alongside standard editing features.
The app shares the same image reading functionality with its Nuke compositor, so both applications can read the same formats in the same way. Hiero has no dedicated frame store, it soft imports media. Smoothness of playback is hardware dependent.
Shots in a timeline can be exported to VFX artists based on a template users define. Hiero follows the timeline and, for each shot, creates sets of folders on disk where it puts the media with handles. Reading and writing industry standard image file formats on standard file systems means Hiero can cooperate with any other application.
Hiero uses OpenColorIO, the open source color management framework from Sony Pictures Imageworks. It allows users to specify exactly how color should be managed from file to screen. The tools is also a shot management system.
Pros can sign up for the open Beta program by visiting The Foundry’s Website. Hiero is scheduled for release in February and will cost $5,000. It will be available on OSX and Linux, with Windows to follow.