LONDON — Foundry (www.foundry.com) has released Nuke 12, the latest version of its node-based compositing toolkit. The new release brings improved interactivity and performance across the Nuke family, from additional GPU enabled nodes for clean-up to a rebuilt playback engine in Nuke Studio and Hiero. Nuke 12.0 also sees the integration of GPU-accelerated tools integrated from Cara VR for camera solving, stitching and corrections, and updates to the latest industry standards.
This release includes a variety of optimizations throughout the software that are designed to improve performance, especially when working at scale. One key improvement offers a much smoother experience and noticeably maintains UI interactivity and reduced loading times when working in large scripts.
Nuke 12.0 includes focused improvement to OpenEXR read and write performance, including optimizations for several popular compression types, improving render times and interactivity in scripts. Red and Sony camera formats also see additional GPU support.
The GPU-accelerated Inpaint and EdgeExtend nodes provide faster and more intuitive workflows for common tasks, with fine detail controls and contextual paint strokes.
Extending the Smart Vector toolset in NukeX, the Grid Warp Tracker node uses Smart Vectors to drive grids for match moving, warping and morphing images. The majority of Cara VR’s nodes are now integrated into NukeX. This includes a suite of GPU-enabled tools for VR and stereo workflows, as well as enhancing traditional camera solving and clean up workflows.
Timeline-based tools in the Nuke family see dramatic improvements in playback stability and performance as a result of a rebuilt playback engine, optimized for the heavy I/O demands of color managed workflows with multichannel EXRs.
Nuke 12.0 includes core libraries updates in line with VFX Reference Platform 2019, along with SDKs for camera file formats and monitor out cards updated to current versions and extended OCIO workflows.
“Nuke 12.0 provides the foundation for the next series of Nuke releases,” says Christy Anzelmo, group product manager at Foundry. “This release includes the VFX Reference Platform upgrades users expect along with performance and workflow optimisations that improve the artist experience, whether performing tracking and cleanup tasks or driving a review session in Nuke Studio. We’re also very excited to bring the powerful Cara VR toolset to NukeX, making these tools for 360 video and accelerated 2D workflows accessible to many more artists.”