The Foundry Visionmongers

Foundry (registered as The Foundry Visionmongers Limited; also known under its former brand name The Foundry) is a British visual effects software development company with headquarters in London, and offices in Manchester and in Austin, Texas.[1]

The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd
TypePrivate
IndustrySoftware
Founded1996
FounderBruno Nicoletti
HeadquartersLondon
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Jody Madden, CEO
Karen Slatford, Chairman
Alex Mahon, Deputy Chairman
Simon Robinson, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist
Alex Foulds, Chief Customer Officer
ProductsVisual Effects and 3D Software
OwnerRoper Technologies
Websitefoundry.com

History

Foundry was founded in 1996, by Bruno Nicoletti, with Simon Robinson joining soon afterwards.[2]

In 2007, software developers Bill Collis, Simon Robinson, and Ben Kent from Foundry, in association with Anil Kokaram from Trinity College Dublin[3] won a Scientific and Technical Award from the Academy Awards (Oscars) for the design and development of The Furnace, an integrated suite of software tools that provides temporal coherence for enhancing visual effects in motion picture sequences with high robustness, modularity and flexibility.[4]

Alex Mahon was named CEO in November 2015. She superseded Bill Collis, who remained president and board member.[5] Craig Rodgerson joined Foundry as new CEO in October 2017.[6]

Foundry was bought by the owners of Digital Domain, Wyndcrest Holdings, in March 2007, and took over DD's existing Nuke business. Subsequently it was subject to a management buyout with backing from Advent Venture Partners, and then acquired by The Carlyle Group in April 2011.[7][8][9]

In September 2012, Foundry merged with Luxology, a Mountain View-based software house known primarily for Modo, a 3D modelling and animation package.[10] Earlier the same month, it ranked at number 70 in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100, with 2011/2012 sales of approximately £15 million, a 49% increase from 2010/2011.[11]

In April 2015 reports were that Adobe Systems was preparing to buy Foundry from The Carlyle Group.[12]

In May 2015 it was announced that private equity firm HgCapital acquired Foundry from The Carlyle Group "for an enterprise value of £200 million".[13][14]

In February 2017, the company rebranded as Foundry, dropping the "The".

In April 2019, Foundry was acquired by Roper Technologies.[15] Following the change in ownership, in July 2019 Jody Madden took over the role of CEO from Craig Rodgerson[16] 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.[17] It continues to sell the Furnace motion-estimation based plugins, which won an Academy Scientific and Technical Award in 2006[18] Other plugins include Ocula, a set of tools for stereoscopic post-processing; Keylight, a keyer; RollingShutter, which reduces CMOS artefact distortion; CameraTracker; and Kronos.[19]

Foundry continues the development of Nuke, a node-based compositor. Version 10.0v2 was released in June 2016[20]

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.[21][22] Katana, a tool for look-development and lighting, originally from Sony Pictures Imageworks, was released in 2011.[23] Hiero, a shot-management, conform, and review tool, was released in March 2012. The software was designed in-house by Foundry.[24]

References
  1. Amstrong, Ashley (25 April 2015). "Adobe Eyes Bid For British Special Effects House, The Foundry". The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  2. "Meet the Team". The Foundry Visionmongers. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  3. "TCD lecturer wins Academy Award". The Irish Times. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  4. "The 79th Scientific & Technical Awards 2006 | 2007". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  5. "VFX Software Developer The Foundry Finds New CEO". The Hollywood Reporter. 10 November 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  6. "Meet our executives". The Foundry Visionmongers. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
  7. Montgomery, John (22 March 2007). "D2 Software's Nuke Acquired by The Foundry". fxguide. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  8. Palmer, Maija (3 June 2009). "The Foundry returns to former management". Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  9. Watkins, Mary (15 March 2011). "Carlyle buys The Foundry". Financial Times. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  10. Cohen, David S. (25 September 2012). "Fx companies the Foundry and Luxology to merge". Variety. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  11. "2012 Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 league table". Sunday Times. 16 September 2012. Archived from the original on 28 April 2015. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  12. "Adobe eyes £200m bid for British visual effects firm The Foundry". The Telegraph. 25 April 2015. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
  13. "HgCapital invests in The Foundry". HgCapital Trust plc. 21 May 2015. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
  14. "The Carlyle Group Sell The Foundry to HgCapital". The Carlyle Group. 21 May 2015. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
  15. "Foundry's creative innovative attracts new owner | Press Release | Foundry". www.foundry.com. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  16. "Jody Madden appointed as Foundry's new CEO | Foundry". www.foundry.com. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  17. Seymour, Mike (10 February 2010). "GenArts Buys Tinder plugins from The Foundry". fxguide.com. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  18. "2006 Scientific & Technical Award Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on 6 October 2008.
  19. "All Products for Sale". The Foundry. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  20. "Nuke release notes" (PDF). 8 June 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  21. Hellard, Paul (25 May 2010). "Jack Greasley, developer and Product Manager at The Foundry, takes CGSociety for a look around Mari, the new texture application". CGSociety. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  22. "MARI 1.0v1 Released". The Foundry. 16 July 2010. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  23. Hughes, Kerrie (27 October 2011). "The Foundry releases Katana 1.0". 3D World. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  24. Montgomery, John (8 March 2012). "HIERO Ships". fxguide.com. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
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