The Foundry Announces Version 9 of NUKE, NUKEX and NUKE STUDIO

London -- Leading creative software developer The Foundry has announced that it will release its entire new NUKE range later this year and that existing NUKE users will be able to access open betas of all three applications in the coming weeks.

At the top of the new range, NUKE STUDIO provides artists with a powerful node-based VFX, editorial and finishing studio that’s been designed to empower creative individuals working independently as well as collaborative teams working on quick-turnaround projects in a way that’s previously never been possible.

“It’s a very exciting proposition for us to be able present this new ecosystem of NUKE products that each serve creative people looking for specific workflows and cater to the evolving way people work in post-production,” comments Philippa Carroll, NUKE Product Marketing Manager at The Foundry. “Both existing NUKE and NUKEX users will see a wide range of feature updates and benefits in the NUKE 9 range.”

Version 9 of NUKE, NUKEX and NUKE STUDIO will all be released together later this year.

“Sharing technology and core architecture, users will benefit from the features and toolsets that have become industry standard in visual effects, and also have the opportunity to opt for NUKE STUDIO to create, manage and control an entire project either individually or within a collaborative team,” comments Jon Wadelton, NUKE Product Manager at The Foundry. “A really vast amount of engineering has also been dedicated to making huge performance boosts across the board.”

Core compositing updates in the whole NUKE 9 range include:                

• Native Flipbook tool - uses NUKE STUDIO technology to bring integrated and streamlined player capabilities to NUKE and NUKEX
• Huge performance updates - Covering NUKE’s EXR reader, Deep EXR reader, Particle system and Scanline Renderer to name a few
• Enhanced 2D format support - Adds support for MXF files, including read from MXF for DNxHD, MPEG2, Sony RAW (F55 and F65), AVCI and DV image files
• OFlow improvements - adds GPU acceleration

Updates exclusive to NUKEX and NUKE STUDIO include:

• Planar tracker overhaul - provides a single, integrated Planar Tracker node with new pattern matching algorithm to make tracking featureless planar surfaces possible
• Kronos, Vector Generator and Motion Blur 2 - adds a new motion estimation algorithm to improve the quality and temporal consistency of retimed image sequences based on OCULA technology. This engine vastly reduces the artefacts conventionally associated with optical flow, meaning you get the results you want faster and with less tweaking

NUKE STUDIO’s exclusive functionality:

• Complete online-editing toolkit - Intuitive and familiar editorial tools get the job done fast, whether it’s on-set editing, online conform, or simply knocking out quick edits.
• In-timeline real-time effects - Powerful GPU accelerated effects can be added right in the timeline, letting artists quickly experiment, polish and achieve the high-end look they need.
• Fluid end-to-end workflow - Combined timeline and node-graph workflow lets artists work the way they want with all the power to create a project in one application from start to finish.
• Powerful collaborative control - A hub for total project control lets artists share scripts, work collaboratively with annotations and version up and down with ease.
• Real-time 4K playback - Plays in-application and through SDI-Out Hardware giving confidence to client attended sessions.
• Intelligent built-in rendering - Built-in render farm functionality automatically uses all available resources to enhance speed and performance, either on a single machine or when connected to multiple.

For further information on the NUKE range visit: http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/nuke-product-family/

Source: The Foundry

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.