Foundry ships Nuke 11.3, NukeX 11.3, Nuke Studio 11.3
Foundry has released Nuke 11.3, the next update to its line-up of compositing and editorial tools, extending the Live Groups system and adding support for eGPU units when working with Mac hardware.
The release also speeds up particle simulations in NukeX and extends the software’s Smart Vector toolset, and adds support for new multi-file stereo workflows in Nuke Studio.
Nuke 11.3: updates to Live Groups
The base edition of the software sees a number of changes to Live Groups, the new external collaboration system introduced in Nuke 11.0.
Any knobs modified by users are now considered overrides, meaning that they persist even when a script is versioned up; or alternatively, can be reverted to a default state.
There is also a new locking system, which toggles a Live Group between editable and non-editable states, helping to prevent changes from being overwritten accidentally.
Nuke 11.3: visual warnings for large bounding boxes and high channel counts
UI changes include new visual indications when the size of a bounding box is larger than an image, intended to help troubleshoot Nuke scripts at a glance.
There is a similar visual warning when the channel count limit of 1,024 channels is exceeded when reading in EXR files.
The update also introduces new selection modes in both the 2D and 3D views, including a new lasso tool and updated marquee tool, shown from 00:55 in the video above.
Nuke 11.3: support for external GPU units on Mac laptops and workstations
Other changes include support for eGPUs: external GPU units, primarily intended for artists needing more GPU compute power on Macs where the internal graphics cards are not easily upgradeable.
For Nuke 11.3, that means AMD graphics cards running on macOS 10.13.5 and above: Foundry has tested them in both Sonnet’s eGFX breakaway boxes and the new Blackmagic eGPU.
NukeX 11.3: updates to Smart Vectors, faster particle effects
NukeX 11.3 gets all of the features from the base edition, plus further updates to the Smart Vector toolset, used to apply paint changes made to one frame automatically to the other frames in a shot.
This time round, that means a new VectorCornerPin node, shown in the video above.
It works like a conventional corner pin system, but also distorts the paint changes being applied according to additional Smart Vector inputs, for greater user control over the end results.
NukeX’s particle system has also been been updated: Foundry claims “up to 6x faster particle simulations and 4x faster playback of particles in the viewer”, with larger speed gains at higher particle counts.
Nuke Studio 11.3: multi-file workflows for stereo projects
Nuke Studio gets support for multi-file workflows when working on stereoscopic projects.
The system works in a similar way to the %V token in Nuke’s node graph, and makes it possible to read in both left and right views using a single Read node.
You can see the workflow in the video above, along with the other new features, which include support for full-resolution stereo on monitor out, and a new export preset for rendering stereo projects.
Pricing and availability
Nuke 11.3, NukeX 11.3 and Nuke Studio 11.3 are available for 64-bit Windows 7 and 10, CentOS 6+ Linux, and macOS 10.12+.
Both node-locked and floating licences of Nuke cost $4,528. NukeX costs $8,443 and Nuke Studio costs $9,768, although at the time of posting, the latter is available at a discount.
Read an overview of the new features in the Nuke 11.3 family on the product website
Read a full list of new features in the Nuke 11.3 family in Foundry’s online release notes