New Planar Tracker, Deep Compositing in NUKE 6.3; New Workflow Combines NUKE with MARI to Bring 3D Paint to Compositors

The NUKE development team are continually looking to meet the growing requirements of artists, technical directors and VFX supervisors.
Traditionally thought of as a film compositor, NUKE is proving equally as useful for commercial and episodic television work as well as proving its worth to studios of all sizes.   Hard work to assist in streamlining pipelines and artist tools across the board has resulted in additions such as the Dope Sheet, Image Modeller and improved rendering performance now available in NUKE and NUKEX 6.2.

NUKE Product Manager, Jon Wadelton, will be previewing NUKE 6.3 which provides new tools, reducing the need to leave NUKE for external applications. New Spline and Grip Warpers, 3D particles,   a Planar Tracker, new Denoise and audio scratch track all improve fluidity and flexibility of workflow, saving artists time.

NUKE 6.3 introduces for the first time a new Deep Compositing pipeline, allowing artists to work with deep data from 3D renders, supporting new ways to approach visual effects and more control when integrating and finishing CG rendered elements.

Jon will also be previewing a brand new workflow combining NUKE and MARI to provide 3D paint to compositors, allowing them to conquer common issues such as stretching, seaming and occlusion often encountered during environment creation and texture projection.

NUKE continues to be the compositing tool of choice for stereo VFX work with its native stereo workflow. It also has everything needed to tackle 2D to 3D conversion work and is the only platform that supports The Foundry’s award-winning OCULA plug-in toolset.

“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.”
STEPHEN NEWBOLD, 2D VFX SUPERVISOR FOR COMMERCIALS, MPC

“Being on the other side of the world from our clients, we’re always looking for ‘force multipliers’ and efficiencies in the pipeline – anything that will push out more iterations per day.  NUKE is the workhorse of our studio. It’s flexible, powerful, and renders wicked fast.  We couldn’t have made the deadlines set for us on The Pacific or Boardwalk Empire without it.”
CHRIS BREMBLE,  VGX SUPERVISOR, BASE FX

MARI 1.3 Intros UV-less Texturing Workflow

Since previewing at last year’s NAB with an initial release in July 2010, MARI has gained significant traction and has been embraced by industry leaders including Digital Domain, Framestore, Animal Logic and Double Negative.

MARI has been in continual development, with two releases since launch, promoting a scalable approach to workflow while maintaining a full artistic toolset and facilitating integration into existing pipelines.  

MARI 1.3, previewing at NAB 2011, brings a UV-less texturing workflow with the addition of PTex support, following a groundbreaking technology sharing agreement with Walt Disney Studios.   Displacement preview using dynamic mesh tessellation, tiled textures with masking, snapshots and environment mapping are also new, helping artists be more efficient and accurate, completing work in one paint package.

“As much as I hate using a clichà©d saying, MARI is a breath of fresh air for texture painters dealing with demanding resolutions, levels of detail and bit depths. Finally we have an application developed with large scale production in mind, and it’s an absolute pleasure to use.”
LEIGH VAN DER BYL, CGTALK ADMINISTRATOR AND TEXTURE PAINTER

NUKE Demos at the Foundry Booth: SL5625

• Digital Domain will be showing how NUKE and OCULA proved invaluable on Tron: Legacy
• Renowned trainer Steve Wright will be taking daily sessions on 2D to 3D conversion using NUKE
• Customers from Comen VFX, Union VFX and Mirada will also be demonstrating their use of NUKE on The Fighter, 127 Hours and Disney’s A World of Colour.

MARI Demos at the Foundry Booth: SL5625

• Artists from Digital Domain and Framestore New York, will be on the booth showing us how they use MARI in both Film and Commercials.
• MARI Product Manager, Jack Greasley, will be previewing the new features in MARI 1.3 as well as showing how MARI can be used in conjunction with NUKE to deal efficiently with common issues such as stretching, seaming and occlusion often encountered during environment creation and texture projection.