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# Look Files

Katana's Look Files are a powerful general purpose tool that can be used in a number of ways. In essence they contain a baked cache of changes that can be applied to a section of scene graph to take it from an initial state to a new one.

Typically they are used to store all the relevant changes that need to be applied to take an asset from its raw state, as delivered from modeling with no materials, to a look developed state ready for rendering. They can also be used for other purposes such as to contain palettes of materials or to hold show standard settings for render outputs such as image resolutions, anti-aliasing settings and what output channels (AOVs) to use.

Different studios define the tasks done by look development and lighting in different ways. In this section we're going to look at what could be considered a typical example of the tasks to give a clear example of possible use, but the actual work done by different departments could be different. Look files should be seen as a useful flexible general tool that can be used to pass baked caches of scene graph modifications from one KATANA project to another.