Creative software developer Foundry has launched Nuke 11.2, bringing a range of new features and updates to the compositing toolkit. The latest instalment of this cutting-edge series will let artists work quicker than ever before through upgraded UI features and performance capabilities, alongside a new API for deep compositing that can increase the speed of script processing.
Jeff Ranasinghe, VFX supervisor, commented: “Faster playback performance, UI updates such as drag and drop user knobs, and masks on Smart Vectors, all come together to make the experience far more gratifying and productive. With Nuke Studio, it’s great to see what was always an inspired concept become even more complete as the workhorse for production projects.”
Key features for Nuke 11.2 include:
- New API for deep compositing. Foundry tests have delivered 1.5x faster processing with a new API for deep compositing which manages memory efficiently. Larger scripts have scope for even faster processing speeds. Nuke 11.2 also includes updates to the DeepExpression node and the ability to use Nuke’s metadata nodes within a deep stream.
- Faster node and user parameter creation. In this instalment, the Nuke Tab menu and UI for creating user knobs have been enhanced to improve user experience for some of the most common tasks: adding nodes and creating Gizmos.
- The updated Tab menu allows artists to find nodes using partial words, set “favorite” nodes and organize them via a weighting system. These improvements add up to substantial time savings when building scripts with a large number of nodes.
- A new UI allows user knobs to be linked between nodes by simply dragging and dropping. Artists can add, rearrange or remove user parameters using the same interface. This replaces the drop-down menus for picking user knobs, dramatically speeding up the setup of Live Groups and Gizmos and reducing the average number of clicks required from seven to three.
- Smart Vector live output and mask input. The Smart Vector toolset is now even faster to use and more effective in shots with occluding objects. Smart Vector and Vector Distort have been optimized for the GPU, allowing users to generate Smart Vectors on the fly and preview the result without needing to pre-render the vectors. A new mask input allows artists to identify areas of motion to ignore when generating the Smart Vectors and warping the paint or texture. As a result, the Smart Vector toolset can now be used on shots with occluding objects with less laborious manual clean-up, speeding up the use of the toolset in more complex cases.
Upgrades for Nuke Studio
Nuke Studio now benefits from an updated project panel UI, providing the artist with new visual controls for managing and organizing complex projects. For quick visual reference, artists can assign colors to items in the project bin and the timeline, based on file type and other parameters accessible via the UI and python API.
Artists can also set the poster frame for single or multiple clips in the bin or from the viewer: useful when working with clips that have black frames or slates at the start. These improvements will help artists to visually distinguish between different file types in a far easier way.
Nuke 11.2 brings improved sorting and searching features to Nuke Studio, allowing artists to easily arrange project bins in custom orders. Artists can also search through project items using multiple keyword and file metadata with keywords, or through all metadata. This improved functionality of the project panel will aid artists managing larger projects.
Christy Anzelmo, sr. commercial product manager at Foundry, commented: “With Nuke 11.2, we’ve listened to our customers and built on the features introduced in previous Nuke 11 releases. Our focus has been on improving artists’ day-to-day experience and speeding up time-intensive tasks like deep compositing. This release will help teams tackle complex VFX work faster.”
Nuke 11.2 goes live today and will be available for purchase–alongside full release details–on Foundry’s website and via accredited resellers.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More