Artixels releases Escher 1.0 for Nuke
Artixels has officially released Escher 1.0 for Nuke, its “suite of image generators and creative tools designed for
compositors who are looking for tools to explore the creative possibilities stashed between 2D and 3D”.
Fast 3D effects through 2D workflows
Intended to “enable creative 3D image making in a different way”, Escher includes tools for generating fast fake animated caustics and fake lightprobe data, and for manipulating bitmaps like height fields.
The toolset also includes a fast spherical harmonic-based Lambert shader, a fast glossy shader and a neat image-space ambient occlusion shader which generates AO effects from a depth map.
The shaders are intended to “turn image-based lighting [into] a real-time experience for Nuke compers”.
Escher 1.0 is available now for Nuke 6.3 and above on any 64-bit operating system it supports. The plugin suite costs $399 for a fixed licence, or $499 for a floating licence including five rendering nodes.