Katana FAQs.
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General
What is Katana?
Katana® is a highly efficient, collaborative look development and lighting solution that gives you the creative scope and scalability to meet the needs of today’s most demanding CG-rendering projects. Equally suited to both short and long-form animation and VFX projects, Katana's unique design lets you work with massive scenes and high volumes of shots; easily reuse looks; and make revisions without repeating scene setup work, so you can spend more time achieving higher quality results.
Visit the features page to learn more about Katana’s features.
What systems will Katana run on?
Katana is available for Windows and Linux. Check out the full system requirements on our tech specs page.
Purchasing and licensing
What is the difference between a node-locked and a floating license?
Node-locked licenses are tied to a single workstation system ID, so you can only use the license on that machine. Floating licenses are installed on a license server, so any workstation networked to that server can use the license, but only one workstation can use the license at any time.
How many machines can I install my software on?
Katana's licenses are single installations for one machine or license server. If you have floating licenses, any machine (up to the number of floating licenses purchased) connected to the floating license server can run the software.
Can I transfer my license to another machine?
If you need to transfer a license to another machine, read our license transfer policy and complete our license transfer request form.
What is your return policy?
Refunds for permanent or temporary license keys cannot be issued.
What are my options for buying Katana?
Katana is available to purchase in two forms: Katana GUI, which includes the UI and is for artists, and Katana Render, which the headless version for running on render farms. The cost is the same for node-locked or floating licenses. See the product page for current pricing.
Contact sales to purchase.
Can I rent Katana?
Katana is available as a quarterly rental for existing customers who need to temporarily extend their license count.
Learning and support
Where do I go for support?
Visit our online Support Portal or check out the Community to get help from your peers.
What is the best way to learn how to get started with Katana?
Visit the Learn Katana page for a free introductory course.
Are manuals included with the software?
Our user guides are available in electronic online format. They can be accessed from your software, or from the user guide and online help page.