Foundry has had a big 2026. Nuke 17 shipped with Gaussian splats, the company bought an AI startup, created a Chief AI Officer role, launched a virtual production app and set a date to move maintenance customers to subscriptions. Here’s the rundown.
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Nuke 17.0
Nuke 17.0 shipped February 26 with three headline features: native Gaussian Splat support, a new USD-based 3D system out of beta, and expanded machine learning tools. In April it won a Product of the Year award at the 2026 NAB Show.
Gaussian splats let compositors import, view, render and export photogrammetry-style 3D captures right inside Nuke. That matters for set extensions and environment work, where a captured location can now drop straight into the comp. The USD system ties Nuke’s 3D side to the scene description format Pixar created and most big studios now build around.
Foundry followed up with Nuke 17.1 in August, adding animated splats and basic relighting.
The Griptape Acquisition
On February 18 Foundry completed its purchase of Griptape, a Seattle startup with an enterprise AI orchestration platform. The pitch: let studios run multiple AI models and agents inside secure production workflows that plug into Foundry’s tools. Terms weren’t disclosed.
Foundry’s first AI feature was CopyCat in 2021, a machine learning node that learns a compositing fix from a few example frames. Griptape is a bigger bet, treating AI as pipeline infrastructure instead of a single tool.
Kyle Roche Named Chief AI Officer
Kyle Roche, Griptape’s co-founder and CEO, joined Foundry with the deal. He spent more than eight years at AWS before starting Griptape. Foundry later named him Chief AI Officer, overseeing next-generation tech including Foundry Research, as it rolled out a Griptape Enterprise tier built for the security demands of high-end studios.
Nuke Stage
Nuke Stage is Foundry’s virtual production app. First shown at NAB 2025, it shipped in May. It plays photoreal environments back on LED walls in real time using standard hardware, and it supports Gaussian splats, so a captured location can sit behind actors on set.
Katana 9.0
Katana 9.0 arrived in February. The new UsdSuperLayer and UsdGaffer nodes tighten the look-dev to lighting handoff on USD-based shows, and there’s an alpha of the Hydra 2 viewer.
The 2027 Subscription Switch
Foundry stopped selling new perpetual licenses at the end of 2023. The next step lands January 1, 2027. Customers on active maintenance for the Nuke Family, Mari and Katana will move to subscriptions at their next renewal. Foundry says the first subscription matches the maintenance price.
Anyone who doesn’t renew keeps their perpetual license and can keep using the last version their plan covered. They just lose updates, fixes and support. The change drew plenty of grumbling from freelancers and small shops in artist forums when it was announced in January.
Toy Story 5 Workflow
On October 27 Foundry released a video with Pixar on Toy Story 5. VFX supervisor Thomas Jordan explains how the team used Katana to load heavy USD scenes, like shots with 50 Buzz Lightyears at once. He also covers the pastel 3D look of Bonnie’s imagination sequence, built in Nuke by manipulating point cloud textures with USD data.
It’s a useful look at how one of animation’s most technical studios plugs off-the-shelf compositing and look-dev tools into its own pipeline. Toy Story 5 opened in theaters June 19.
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