RV now integrates with Nuke

Tweak Software announces today that their image sequence viewer product RV is now integrated seamlessly within Nuke. This integration makes the player much more integrated to Nuke than just a flipbook, RV communicates with Nuke over a live connection. To be clear RV is still a separate product, requiring purchase from Tweak Software, there is a test drive available for RV so Nuke users can try it for themselves. RV has been updated to version 3.10.9 as well adding features like folders, switches, session file merging and more.

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Press Release:

San Francisco and London (Dec 9, 2010) — Tweak Software, makers of RV, the next generation image and sequence viewer for VFX and animation artists, and The Foundry, the world-leading visual effects software developer, announced today the release of RV/Nuke integration. The new package brings high-performance RV playback to Nuke and enables a seamless workflow that takes advantage of the best features of both Nuke and RV.

“This integration opens up a whole new workflow that makes Nuke and RV more valuable together than they are individually. Every artist and supervisor will benefit from these features and will never want to work without them again. Just awesome!” said Frank Rueter, Compositing supervisor and Director of OHUfx / founder of Nukepedia.

The RV/Nuke package developed by Tweak Software with support from the Foundry creates a tightly integrated workflow that offers artists better tools to play back, organize, compare, and track the history of their work in Nuke. The new workflow builds on the open, customizable nature of both Nuke and RV and it takes full advantage of RV’s high performance playback and intuitive interface to help artists get the most out Nuke.

Moving beyond the old flipbook-style workflow, RV communicates with Nuke over a live connection to enable seamless interoperation. Some key features of the integration are:

• View frames in RV immediately as they render from Nuke
• Play back from RAM or stream from disk (RAID, SSD, SAN)
• Automatically preserve a visual history of renders with auto-checkpoints
• Easily play, compare, and organize renders
• Render directly into an existing EDL, layout or A/B comparison
• Restore the Nuke script to match any render or checkpoint
• Share read nodes between Nuke and RV
• Live sync of color settings and current node selection

Users can see a video demo of the new integration package at www.tweaksoftware.com/rvnuke

“RV has become a great companion for Nuke. We’re thrilled to see developers taking advantage of Nuke’s flexibility to help artists stay focused on creating images rather than managing them,” said Matt Plec, Nuke Product Designer at The Foundry.

“Nuke and RV are a natural fit,” said Seth Rosenthal, co-founder of Tweak. “Our new package offers Nuke users the kind of integrated playback that the big shops build into their custom pipelines. We hope it will help artists get more out of Nuke.”

The new RV/Nuke integration package is available as a no-cost download to current users of Nuke and RV. Artists can request a test drive of the full RV software from the Tweak Software website.

About The Foundry
The Foundry is a world-leading innovator of visual effects and image processing technologies that boost productivity in motion picture and video post-production.

The Foundry has a well-established client base that includes leading visual effects facilities worldwide, such as Warner Bros, The Moving Picture Company, Weta Digital, Framestore, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Digital Domain. It is at the cutting edge of software development, marketing and sales for visual effects compositing.

In June 2009 The Foundry announced a management buyout for an undisclosed sum led by Advent Venture Partners. Advent backed The Foundry’s management team, led by CEO Dr Bill Collis and the original founders.

The Foundry is highly profitable and has more than doubled in size in the past two years.

The Foundry’s products support a wide range of award-winning host platforms including After Effects, Autodesk® Media and Entertainment Systems, Avid DS, Nuke, Shake and Final Cut Pro. In 2007, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded a Sci-Tech Award® to The Foundry’s development team for the Furnace image processing suite – and the company now holds two products with AMPAS Sci-Tech Award® winning technology including high-end compositing system Nuke.

In 2010, The Foundry also received a Distinguished Honoree medal in The 2010 International Business Awards (“The Stevies”) as the Most Innovative Company of the Year in Europe – and Simon Robinson, Founder and Chief Scientist, The Foundry, was voted number 52 in Fast Company’s second annual ranking of The 100 Most Creative People in Business.

The Foundry is headquartered in London, and has offices in Los Angeles. For more information please visit: www.thefoundry.co.uk/

© The Foundry, its logo and product names are registered trademarks in the UK, USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

About Tweak Software
Tweak Software was founded in 2007 to develop tools that address real-world production needs of VFX and animation professionals. The Tweak partners Jim Hourihan, Seth Rosenthal and Alan Trombla spent many years at Industrial Light and Magic where they developed tools and techniques still in use at that facility today. Jim Hourihan is the recipient of two Sci-Tech Academy Awards and is best known for developing Dynamation, the first commercial particle system that was subsequently incorporated into Autodesk’s Maya software. For more information, visit www.tweaksoftware.com