NEW ORLEANS — TurboSquid (turbosquid.com) has introduced Kraken Pro (kraken3d.com), a turnkey version of its 3D asset manager designed to help content teams organize models in the cloud. With quick searches and a visual interface, Kraken brings order to the creation process, so teams have a clear view of what they have and where to find it.
“The same tech we use to organize 800,000 models in our stock 3D marketplace is now available to anyone working with 3D,” explains Matt Wisdom, CEO of TurboSquid. “2D asset managers are prevalent, but they struggle with the needs of 3D. Kraken gives teams working in fields like advertising, archviz, VFX, retail and broadcast access to something specifically designed for the 3D workflow.”
To make the transition process less intimidating, Kraken Pro launches with an AI sorting tool that can automatically organize and tag large model libraries for teams that don’t know where to begin. Users simply provide access to their models via hard drive or cloud, and the AI tool will generate categories, keywords, tags and preview renders during importation. 3D’s biggest applications are currently supported (3ds Max and Maya), with support for Cinema 4D and additional formats coming soon.
Kraken was originally developed as a custom platform for big-box brands and other major retailers. After launch, studios approached TurboSquid for a turnkey version to replace the stop-gap proprietary systems that take up time or cause delays. Now, studios can find assets easily, reducing the need to rebuild or hunt for lost models.
“We handed them terabytes of models and they came back to us magically tagged, organized and categorized, with metadata and clean thumbnails,” notes Carlos Cristerna, Neoscape principal and RadLab director. “Our 3D artists don't have time to worry about being librarians, they need to find content quickly. Kraken will help us do that.”
Kraken is backed by AWS protection, keeping content secure as it’s shared among internal and remote team members. When new assets are developed, they can be uploaded into the system and sorted through tagging. Kraken’s filtering tools become more nuanced as tags are assigned, helping users hone in on search parameters with a couple of clicks.
Kraken is TurboSquid’s fourth major service aimed at simplifying the 3D experience for brands and artists, following their online marketplace, PixelSquid and StemCell, a 3D conversion tool released in 2017. Kraken prices start at $599 for up to 10,000 models and 50 users. Volume discounts are also available.