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Foundry (registered as The Foundry Visionmongers Limited; also known under its former brand name The Foundry) is a British
visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated as VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action fo ...
software development company with headquarters in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, and offices in
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
and in
Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
.


History

Foundry was founded in 1996, by Bruno Nicoletti, with Simon Robinson joining soon afterwards. In 2007, software developers Bill Collis, Simon Robinson, and Ben Kent from Foundry, in association with Anil Kokaram from
Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...
won a Scientific and Technical Award from the
Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
(Oscars) for the design and development of The Furnace, an integrated suite of
software tools A programming tool or software development tool is a computer program that is used to software development, develop another computer program, usually by helping the developer manage computer files. For example, a programmer may use a tool called ...
that provides temporal coherence for enhancing visual effects in motion picture sequences with high robustness, modularity and flexibility. Alex Mahon was named CEO in November 2015. She superseded Bill Collis, who remained president and board member. Craig Rodgerson joined Foundry as new CEO in October 2017. Foundry was bought by the owners of
Digital Domain Digital Domain (also known as Digital Domain Media Group or DDMG) is an American visual effects, computer animation and digital production company headquartered in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, California. Digital Domain has produced visual effects ...
, Wyndcrest Holdings, in March 2007, and took over DD's existing Nuke business. Subsequently it was subject to a
management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...
with backing from Advent Venture Partners, and then acquired by
The Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group Inc. is an American multinational company with operations in private equity, alternative asset management and financial services. As of 2023, the company had $426 billion of assets under management. Carlyle specializes in ...
in April 2011. In September 2012, Foundry merged with Luxology, a Mountain View-based software house known primarily for Modo, a 3D modelling and animation package. Earlier the same month, it ranked at number 70 in
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
Tech Track 100, with 2011/2012 sales of approximately £15 million, a 49% increase from 2010/2011. In April 2015 reports were that
Adobe Systems Adobe Inc. ( ), formerly Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American software, computer software company based in San Jose, California. It offers a wide range of programs from web design tools, photo manipulation and vector creation, through to ...
was preparing to buy Foundry from
The Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group Inc. is an American multinational company with operations in private equity, alternative asset management and financial services. As of 2023, the company had $426 billion of assets under management. Carlyle specializes in ...
. In May 2015 it was announced that private equity firm
HgCapital Hg is a London, England-based private equity firm targeting technology buyouts primarily in Europe and the US. The company focuses on investments in technology and services sectors. Hg was founded in 2000. History Hg began life as Mercury Private ...
acquired Foundry from The Carlyle Group "for an enterprise value of £200 million". In February 2017, the company rebranded as Foundry, dropping the "The". In April 2019, Foundry was acquired by
Roper Technologies Roper Technologies, Inc. (formerly Roper Industries, Inc.) is an American industrial conglomerate based in Sarasota, Florida. History George D. Roper founded the company in 1890, and it was primarily focused on the manufacturing of home ap ...
. Following the change in ownership, in July 2019 Jody Madden took over the role of CEO from Craig Rodgerson with Madden's former role as Chief Customer Officer being taken on by Alex Foulds.


Products

Foundry had its origins in plug-in development, and its first product was the Tinder (and later Tinderbox) plugins. This business was sold to GenArts in 2010. It continues to sell the Furnace motion-estimation based plugins, which won an Academy Scientific and Technical Award in 2006 Other plugins include Ocula, a set of tools for
stereoscopic Stereoscopy, also called stereoscopics or stereo imaging, is a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stereoscopic image is ...
post-processing; Keylight, a
keyer A keyer is an electronic device used for signaling by hand, by way of pressing one or more switches. The technical term keyer has two very similar meanings, which are nonetheless distinct: One for telegraphy and the other for accessory devices bui ...
; RollingShutter, which reduces
CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss ", , ) is a type of MOSFET, metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) semiconductor device fabrication, fabrication process that uses complementary an ...
artefact distortion; CameraTracker; and Kronos. Foundry continues the development of Nuke, a node-based compositor. Version 10.0v2 was released in June 2016 Mari, a texture painting application was released in July 2010. It was originally developed in-house at Weta Digital for use on ''Avatar'' by Jack Greasley.
Katana A is a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. Developed later than the ''tachi'', it was used by samurai in feudal Japan and worn with the edge fa ...
, a tool for look-development and lighting, originally from
Sony Pictures Imageworks Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. (simply known as Imageworks) is a visual effects and computer animation studio headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia and Montreal, Quebec, with an additional office on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver C ...
, was released in 2011. Hiero, a shot-management, conform, and review tool, was released in March 2012. The software was designed in-house by Foundry.


References


External links


Foundry.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foundry Visionmongers Software companies established in 1996 Visual effects companies Software companies based in London The Carlyle Group companies