本视频教程是由fxphd机构出品的KATANA流程整合系统训练视频教程，FXPHD KAT101 Introduction to KATANA，大小：6.38 GB，MOV高清视频格式，附工程源文件，教程使用软件：KATANA，官方发布日期：2013年，语言：英语。

KATANA 是个美感研发和打光工具，以灵活的素材配方基础作业流程取代传统的 CG 管道。KATANA 从基础就依照现代制作所需而建。它的节点式架构容许高难度的镜头迅速完成，同时保留使用者的操控权并降低研发成本。充分的 API 代表它能与许多渲染引擎和现有的打光库和作业流程工具等结合。它的衔接特性代表它能随需要规模配合即使是需求最高的 CG 和视觉特效电影。

KATANA 发源于 Sony Pictures Imageworks，自 2004 年起经过了 20 部以上电影的验证， 特别为了极度可扩展性素材基础作业流程而设计的，用来：在作业开始后容许更新素材，在镜头或系列间共享如校正或取代等打光设定，容许使用多个渲染引擎和指定渲染层次间的依赖关系，容许镜头特定的素材替换成为打光配方的一部分，避免大量各镜头素材变化处理的需求。

The Foundry公司发表KATANA，画面开发(look development)与照明工具。取代传统的CG流程，提供弹性的流程，在发表的同时ILM公司也购买了KATANA团体授权版本。目前已经用在下一个案子上面，ILM花了大把钞票想要增强他们现有的流程。KATANA的团体授权让ILM公司能在旧金山与新加坡都能安裝KATANA。

KATANA是针对需要管理大量资产的工作流程所设计的。一旦分镜头开始处理，就能夠允许资产进行更新。分享灯光设定，例如在分镜头之前与序列间进行编辑，覆盖。允许你使用多个渲染器，指定不同pass之间的相依关系，针对特定分镜头可以修改某个场景资产来进行照明的设定，这样可以避开处理大量的分镜头有关的资产麻烦。

而且KATANA是一个针对当代生产流程所写的全新软件，延伸的APIs表示这套软件可以整合到目前的流程，材质库与工作流程工具。而协同工作的特性，让这套软件可以对大规模的专案也没有问题。KATANA最吸引人的地方在于弹性。KATANA可以产生非常复杂的分镜头，同时美术人员还能维持控制它的能力。

ILM的视觉特效主管John Knoll说：过去一年里面我们跟The Foundry 公司密切合作，针对我们想要KATANA有的功能，而在把KATANA导入到生产流程里面。我们相信这套软件很有前景，我们也很期待将来的合作关系。

首席执行长Bill Collis说："我们很高兴能推出KATANA这套软件。流程工程师与灯光光主管都很期待。The Foundry很骄傲与业界的领导人物密切合作，例如ILM. KATANA再次证明The Foundry是VFX业界里最佳伙伴!"

The Foundry为KATANA背书，用在高阶视觉特效的工具，自2004年到现在已经有超过20部的业界实战经验！

发布KATANA 1.0对The Foundry公司来说是一大里程碑。ILM与Digital Domain这两家公司都有买KATANA的团体授权版(site licenses)，还有第三家公司也买了KATANA，但是我们不能透漏是哪一家, 这样一来有三家大公司都买了KATANA!

因为KATANA取自Sony Pictures Imageworks的技术，因此有很精确的计划推出这项产品。虽然市面上有很多工具对于中等或是小型的公司。The Foundry还是专注于针对大型企企业市场，但是这种状况不会持续。

根据The Foundry的首席执行长 Bill Collis表示：“我们认为KATANA会对于任何以资产为基础(asset based）任何规模有用的一套软件。目前还有某些技术上的需求，例如工作室目前必须要提供自己的材质库shader libraries) ，我们目前正在专注于让KATANA变成有完整功能，对大公司，对小公司都有用的工具软件"。

大约两年前，我们并购KATANA。从那时开始，研发时间大部分专注于让软件变得开放，并能够整合到不同的流程里面。 因它一开始是在SPI以公司內部的形式研发的，因此当时是很针对该公司的流程所设计。而现在我们在APIs可以用来将现有资产管理与算图农场系統整合到KATANA里面。现在甚至有API可以用来完全將将渲染器外挂到KATANA里头，这对對很多大型工作室有非常大的价值！

这样开放的架构也是让ILM购买团体授权版的重要原因，內含Alembic也对他们很有帮助，很多工作室都对弹性与扩充性有兴趣，所以我们在针对像ILM这样的大公司开发的時候，我们会用适当的C++ APIs撰写对KATANA的外挂。

KATANA能为工作室带来效率的巨大改善。很多人以为大部分的3D成本在于大型的算图农场，事实上，美术人员花费在场景上的时间才是最大成本。如果美术人员能花費较少的时间在管理，处理资产， 就有更多的时间花费在创意的东西上面。KATANA在这方面有很棒的评价，就现有的用用户来说，能夠处理很多很不合理的要求（SONY所提出的），总是靠KATANA能找到方法完成工作。我跟很多工作室工作发现到，即便是非常复杂的的运行环境，美术人员都能够处理。

FXPHD机构是老牌在线教学网站，网站的创建者就是Fxguide的团队，PXPHD制作了大量视觉特效、后期制作、摄影摄像的精品教程。每年支付4000元左右，就可以享受其中5门课程的教学，还可以提供VPN链接内网，每套课程都是10周左右的时间，每节课30分钟左右，包含训练文件和素材。FXPHD主打专业教学，所有的教程作者都是该领域的权威，必须拥有大量的项目经验。

FXPHD KAT101 Introduction to KATANA

In our ‘Introduction to KATANA’ course we cover all the main areas of KATANA for both Look Development and Lighting. Using Arnold as our main renderer, we start the course with a good overview of KATANA before jumping into a mini project in week two. From there we systematically cover all the main areas of KATANA from asset management to shader building and assignment, lighting, rendering and everything in between.

Matt Leonard has been in the 3D and visual effects industry for 20 years. He has spoken at various events and shows on behalf of Autodesk, The Foundry and eyeon Software and has had articles published in various magazines and journals. He is a member of the Visual Effects Society and has worked as a beta tester for Maya, Katana, Arnold, RenderMan, Mari and Nuke. He currently runs his own on-site training company in the UK and has trained artists from companies such as ILM, Pixomondo, MPC and Framestore.

Class Syllabus:

Class 1: Our first class gives a general overview of KATANA. We’ll start by looking at how KATANA fits into the overall VFX pipeline. Next we’ll look at its history and user base before getting into the nitty gritty of how KATANA works. We’ll look at its node based workflow, how it can be used for both Look Development and Lighting, and also how it can work with multiple renderers including Arnold and RenderMan. Finally we’ll look at KATANA’s user interface and how the node switches work.

Class 2: In our second class we’ll be jumping straight into Katana, completing a project start to finish. We’ll start by importing our model, a robot – saved as an Alembic cache, then we’ll add a camera, materials and lights, and finally we’ll render it.

Class 3: In our third class we’ll look at moving data out of Maya via the Alembic file format. We look at what types of data Alembic caches can store, scene organization in Maya, and the Scene Graph in Katana. We’ll finish up looking at how to create bounding boxes in Maya which can be used in Katana to save opening your main geometry.

Class 4: In class 4 we’ll start our main project, the Lego Pirate house. We’ll start the class by loading in the Alembic cache from Maya and setting some Preferences in the Graph Editor. From there we’ll create Materials for both RenderMan and Arnold. We‘ll look at surface shader parameters and then at the Visibility Assign node. From there we’ll look at the MaterialStack, Material Assign, GroupStack and MaterialResolve nodes.

Class 5: In class 5 we’ll continue our main project moving into the Look Development stage. We’ll start the class by re-looking at Look Development – what is it and where does it fit into the VFX pipeline? From there we’ll start our exploration of Look Files, beginning with LookFileMaterialsIn and LookFileMaterialsOut. Next we’ll look at one of the main tools LookFileBake followed by LookFileGlobalsAssign and the LookFileManager. We’ll finish up the class by looking at a new app for executing (Kick[ing]) Arnold .ass files externally of Maya.

Class 6: In class 6 we’ll look at Tabs (Editors) in Katana. We’ll cover Attributes, the Catalog, the Monitor and Viewer, The Node Graph, the Parameters and finally the Scene Graph. During this class we’ll take a break from our Lego house project and use The Foundry’s standard robot demo file.

Class 7: In class 7 we’ll return to our Lego Pirate House project which will have received a number of updates including some trees and a Lego character. The class will be focused on lighting in Katana and we’ll start by looking at the LightCreate node. From there we look at the Gaffer node, Light Rigs, Master Light Materials, Constraints and Light Linking.

Class 8: In class 8 we’ll continue to look at lighting in Katana, this week focusing on Shadows and Arnold Sky Domes, before transitioning to look at Interactive Render Filters.

Class 9: In class 9 we’ll cover Rendering in Arnold and outputting Render Passes including AOV’s. We also look in detail at Samples and Ray Depth, the key to getting great renders out of Arnold.

Class 10: In our final Katana 101 class we’ll cover a mixture of areas. These include 2D Compositing, Network Materials, Attribute Scripts, Instancing, .args Files, and the .katana Folder. We’ll finish up the class looking at some new documents from Solid Angle which help you to remove noise from your Arnold renders.