NUKE™ is an Academy Award® winning, digital compositing software application that provides artists with the means to create photorealistic images of the highest quality. From a non-proprietary hardware base, NUKE gives artists a flexible, efficient, cost effective and full-featured tool set with which to combine and manipulate scanned film, video plates and computer-generated imagery. Refined for over ten years, and used to date on over 35 movies and hundreds of commercials and music videos at Digital DomainTM, NUKE advances the ability to deliver final visual effects shots on film and video that integrate seamlessly with the remainder of the project, regardless of the desired visual style or complexity.
Version 4.7
New features in version 4.7 include full OFX plug-in support, Framecycler Professional 2007, an improved curve editor, an upgraded version of Primatte, a brand new optical flow engine and many bug fixes.
Architecture
- Scanline-based image computation (highly memory efficient for fast feedback)
- 64 channels of full 32-bit floating point color data per node, organized into user definable layers
- Resolution independent input/output
- Plug-in support
- Multi-processor support
Operating Systems
- Windows, Linux, IRIX support
Workflow
- Node-based scripting (flexible and easily extensible)
- Text-readable script generation
- Expression support throughout interface
- User-definable format support (resolution and pixel aspect)
- Proxy/full-rez mode switching
- Multi-threaded, floating-point quality scanline renderer
Viewers & Flipbooking
- 2D and 3D modes (with OpenGLTM preview)
- Multiple, free-floating image viewers
- User-definable Regions of Interest (ROIs)
- Support for multi-input wiping
- Integrated FrameCyclerTM Professional
Features
- Infinite number of layers, each offering independent control over keying, color, tracking, and transformations
- Four-point 2D tracker/stabilizer
- Multiple undo/redo history throughout UI with user-definable autosave intervals
- Color correction: offset, gain, gamma, hue, saturation, and contrast controls (per shadow, midtone and highlight region); full histogram control; splinebased curve control; look-up tables; hue correction; conversion tools for all industry standard colorspaces
• Film LUT node to convert data from log to linear space and vice-versa (wedges)
- Compatibility with many file formats including high dynamic range and floating point formats
- Various tools and filters including dithering, noise (for grain effects), Gaussian blur, vector blur, defocus, erode, keying, Bezier matte tools, merge functions, and image distortion
- Concatenated 2D and 3D transforms with user-definable filtering methods
- Full-fledged animation editor
- Drag-and-drop parameter linking
- Time warping
- Macro/expression editor
- Rotoscope shapes supporting per-point feathering and unlimited control points
- UI and layout customization (node color, comments, postage stamps, backdrops, etc.)
3D Tools and Features
- Fully defined camera with user controllable H/V aperture, focal length, etc.
- OBJ object import with UV preservation
- Full library of texturable cards, bicubic and bilinear meshes, and geometric primitives
- Direct camera track import/export
- Projection mapping capabilities
Formats and Guides
- Customizable image formats
- Highly configurable work area (including customizable color schemes and layouts)
Keyers
- Integrated PrimatteTM keyer
- Chroma, Luma, HSV keyers
- Spill suppression tools
Shapes and Drawing
- Support for unlimited numbers of splinebased garbage masks (each fully animateable and capable of receiving tracking data)
- Support for insertion of vertices between previously animated vertices without loss of proper shape
- Anti-aliased, vector-based text generator
- Operators for grids, circles, ramps, rectangles, etc.
Curve Editor
- Flexible UI for viewing, sorting and editing curves
- Expressions: keyframe or apply expressions to curves; reference existing curves and use as inputs to mathematical operations; store expressions in a library for reuse; simultaneously select and apply expressions to multiple curves
Nodes
- Grouping functions: streamline scripts and create reusable setups
- Clone function: create instances that maintain dynamic links with parents
- Annotation tools: name and color individual nodes; insert resizable, colorcoded markers and backdrops
- Filtering: find and select nodes and groups according to name or comment
- Auto create connections between nodes
Operators
Operators are key to NUKE’s workflow. They allow users to read in, combine and manipulate large sets of input image sequences in order to produce final image sequences.
Each operator contributes in some way to the final result of a script (a saved combination of operators): some read in images; others combine images; others process image data in a myriad of ways (for example, extract keys or add color corrections). Each operator passes its output to the input port of the next downstream node.
Scanlines and Buffers
Operators work by requesting individual scanlines from their input operators. The data in these scanlines are not calculated until requested, thereby saving large amounts of processing time. This render method also provides for rapid user feedback: The user can see the first scanline from a render almost immediately and quickly know whether further adjustments to the composite are necessary.
Floating Point Data and HDR Imagery
The passing of scanlines and buffers between callers and operators lets pixel data be passed with floating point precision, thereby allowing operators to take advantage of floating point hardware. It also allows for vastly higher brightness resolution (equivalent to 23 bits near 1.0 and up to 60 bits near zero). This means NUKE can process high dynamic range images where the brightness exceeds one, and preserve negative information such as shadows for use in subsequent composite operations.
GUI and Viewers
NUKE’s highly innovative GUI allows users to lay out operators in a totally arbitrary pattern and easily move connections between operators by grabbing their “tails.” This schema greatly minimizes display size and complexity, and gives users the room to manipulate the huge scripts that NUKE is capable of handling.
NUKE’s output writers and viewers work identically to the other operators in the GUI. Thus, in a given script, users can output any number of image sequences and on-screen displays.
Users can manipulate the controls on each operator via overlapable windows, while at the same time viewing multiple operator outputs. This schema lets users easily fine tune parameters while looking at results in the context of the composite.
Batch Processing
NUKE is also able to run without the GUI interface to act as a multiplatfom, command-line renderer. Users can work on just one or a few frames in the GUI, then use the command line interface to process all the frames in the sequence on a render farm.
Minimum System Requirements
Windows and Linux:
- 550 MHZ Pentium III, 4 or Athlon processor
- Windows NT 4.0 (with Service Pack 5 or later), Windows 2000 (with Service Pack 1 or later), or Linux Red Hat 7.2
- 1GB disk space for caching and temporary files
- 512MB of RAM
- Workstation-class graphics card, such as NVIDIA Quadro2 or Quadro4; ATI FireGL 8700 or 8800, FireGL2, or FireGL4 or 3D Labs Wildcat II (Windows only)
- Display with 1280 x 1024 pixel resolution and 24-bit color.
Irix:
- 195MHZ Octane R10000
- Irix 6.5.12m or later
- 1GB disk space for caching and temporary files
- 512MB RAM
- SSI, SSE, MXI graphics
More : Homepage
Download : Windows | Mac | Linux
Tutorials : All in one size 892 MB
