The Foundry have released an update to their flagship NUKE and NUKE X products today, which are available free of charge for customers under subscription. The big features of the release include a brand new 3D particle system as well as new planar tracker, but there have also been total rewrites to the spline and grid warper and many other improvements to the software…
More information is available at The Foundry’s web site, but new highlights include:
- 3D Particles (NUKE X only)
- Planar Tracker (NUKE X only)
- Deep Compositing
- Audio Scratch Track
- Denoise (NUKE X only)
- Completely rewritten spline and grid warpers
- Local caching of image sequences
- Displacement shader
The press release from The Foundry follows….
London, 18 June 2011 – Leading visual effects software developer, The Foundry (www.thefoundry.co.uk), today announced the latest version of their industry dominant compositing system NUKE.
NUKE’s customer base is rapidly expanding beyond visual effects and image processing technologies from film work to commercial work. This major release addresses the requirements of all VFX industries. New features will benefit small and medium companies using NUKE to create highly visual and engaging commercials, at the same time as delivering new technologies that boost NUKE’s functionality for movie projects.
The new 3D Particle system, Planar Tracking, Presets, Audio Scratch Track and speed improvements combine to dramatically save time on short form projects, while redesigned Spline and Grid Warpers and a brand new Denoise algorithm bolster common compositing tasks.
As with previous releases, NUKE 6.3 provides all the tools you need to get the visual result you want while retaining the power and flexibility to solve the harder technical production challenges. Backed by a large, global pool of trained talent NUKE is driving forward industry standards and workflow delivering measurable results in any visual effects business.
NUKE Product Manager, Jon Wadelton said “NUKE is the industry standard Swiss army knife for VFX artists across the CGI, film and television industries – each needing different tools to satisfy different demands. We’ve reached this point by listening to our audience and delivering an assortment of features catering to their unique requirements. This is what makes the 6.3 releases so significant, we’ve tailored NUKE to fit the demands faced by artists.
Roy Trosh, Group Technical Director, The Mill, comments, “NUKE has become an integral part to our workflow at The Mill, and has been welcomed with open arms by all departments. Having the site license means everyone can have a piece of the pie, and our imagination is not limited by numbers. The ease of use, speed, and the technical prowess of the kit has ignited a new creative energy amongst our artists. Each week we are discovering new ways to achieve things using NUKE, and the recent updates have made the future of NUKE even more exciting for us.”
Stephen Newbold, 2D VFX Supervisor for Commercials, MPC “There were numerous factors which led to the decision to switch to NUKE as the primary compositing tool for CG heavy commercials at MPC. The raw speed of NUKE has been a huge benefit, the linear workflow merges seamlessly with our 3D pipeline and the 2D/3D environment has allowed our compositors to take on a lot of the set-extension and matte painting projection that would historically have had to be dealt with by the 3D department. NUKE has allowed us to maintain the quality of our compositing while tackling more complex jobs yet meeting the ever-tighter deadlines.”
NUKE is available on Mac, Linux and Windows and is priced at $3,800/ £2,300 while NUKEX is priced at $6,600/ £4,000 respectively. Current NUKE user will access all NUKE and NUKEX upgrades free of charge during their subscription term.
Learn more about NUKE here:
http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/nuke/
Nuke testimonials:
http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/nukex/testimonials/
Nuke in Commercials:
http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/articles/2011/03/16/227/nuke-a-commercial-success/
