London, 27 September - Foundry, the leading developer of creative software for the digital design, media and entertainment industries, today announces the release of Nuke 12.0.

Nuke 12.0 introduces the next cycle of releases for the Nuke family. The Nuke 12.0 release brings improved interactivity and performance across the Nuke family, from additional GPU enabled nodes for cleanup 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. 

Highlights of Nuke 12.0 include:

• UI Interactivity and script loading - This release includes  a variety of optimizations throughout the software, 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.

• Read and Write performance - Nuke 12.0 includes focused improvement to OpenEXR Read and Write performance, including optimisations for several popular compression types, improving render times and interactivity in scripts. RED and Sony camera formats also see additional GPU support. 

• Inpaint & EdgeExtend - These GPU accelerated nodes provide faster and more intuitive workflows for common tasks, with fine detail controls and contextual paint strokes.

• Grid Warp Tracker - Extending the Smart Vector toolset in NukeX, this node uses Smart Vectors to drive grids for match moving, warping and morphing images.  

• Cara VR Node Integration - 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.

• Nuke Studio, Hiero & HieroPlayer Playback - The 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.

• Industry Standards - 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. 

Christy Anzelmo, Group Product Manager, Foundry, comments: 

“Nuke 12.0 provides the foundation for the next series of Nuke releases. 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.”  

Jeff Stringer, Director, Production Technology, Laika, comments:

"We are very happy with the updated playback performance in Hiero. We're excited to see the impact on our review pipeline and the direction these tools are heading."

The  full list of features for Nuke 12.0 can be found here. To demo or purchase Nuke 12.0, visit the Foundry website