In 2025, we expect the key industry trends to revolve around the wider adoption of both USD and machine learning in VFX and animation pipelines. USD is already an established open-source standard for transporting 3D scenes and assets between pipeline stages, and in 2025 we will see more USD workflows being established as tools advance their implementations of USD and Hydra-powered viewports.
At Foundry, we are excited about the power of USD and Hydra to enable more dynamic iterations and a consistent artist experience across departments, including between comp and lighting and increasingly between ICVFX, pre and post production. We’re continuing to develop the USD-native frameworks that underpin Nuke and Katana, which has made great strides in the latest release of Katana 8.0, and there’s much more in store for Nuke 16.0 and beyond.
While AI and machine learning continue to develop at a rapid pace with the potential to dramatically transform VFX and animation workflows, there remain challenges in implementing these tools within production, from working in an air-gapped environment to transparency on data and model provenance. In 2025, we will continue to see machine learning leveraged to automate some tasks, assist others and be combined with traditional tools to reach the level of quality and directability that top tier content demands.
Foundry has seen strong adoption of our CopyCat toolset, which enables models to be trained within Nuke, and we’ll continue to extend this toolset to enable use at a larger scale of both shots and input data, as well as enable models trained within Nuke to be used in other Foundry tools. CopyCat makes machine learning more accessible to artists within the tools that they know and use everyday, without requiring major pipeline upgrades, and we’re incredibly excited about how artists continue to push what the toolset can do!
Christy Anzelmo is the Chief Product Officer at Foundry (www.foundry.com). Foundry has a heritage of more than 25 years, developing creative software for the Media and Entertainment industry and a portfolio of award-winning products including Nuke, Mari, Katana and Flix.