Nuke is a powerful compositing application that delivers unparalleled speed, an efficient multi-channel scanline rendering engine, and a first-class feature set that is unrivalled in the desktop market. If you are in the business of creating high-quality digital images Nuke is a production proven visual effects tool that brings speed, functionality and flexibility to your VFX pipeline.

Nuke began as the in-house compositing and effects application at Digital Domain, where its development team were awarded a Technical Achievement Award® from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science®. It is an application focused on solving real issues faced by post production facilities all over the world and has been tried and tested on over 45 feature films and hundreds of commercials and music videos, including Flags of our Fathers, King Kong and The Day After Tomorrow. In March 2007 Nuke 4.6 became part of The Foundry’s portfolio of visual effects products. In February 2008 Nuke 5 was released with an entirely new user interface, support for stereoscopic images and python scripting.

Features:

Nuke is a powerful compositing application designed to work for you…
3D Compositing Nuke's powerful 3D workspace supports OBJ import, projection mapping, geometry modifiers, and more. This true 3D environment creates powerful workflows and exciting new ways to approach compositing.

Stereoscopic Support

Nuke 5 has included support for working with stereoscopic and multi-view projects.

Multi-channel, high dynamic range compositing

Nuke delivers the industry's broadest support for EXR images. Read, process and write over a thousand channels per stream, improving data management and workflow.Keying Nuke’s exclusive Image Based Keyer (IBK) gives artists powerful tools for dealing with uneven backings. Primatte is built-in and Keylight is available as an optional extra.

Flexible User Interface

Savable layouts, dockable panels, GUI customization capabilities and features like the 'bullseye' and 'input' buttons make managing large, complex composites easier than ever.

Fast Rendering

Even when processing high resolution footage at 32-bit floating point precision on modest hardware, Nuke's multi-threaded, scanline-based rendering engine gives rapid feedback.

Scripting
Nuke offers an extremely open architecture. Both its node graph and user interface are accessible through the Python and TCL scripting languages, making it possible to customize Nuke in innumerable ways. If you really want to drill down, Nuke supports the industry standard OFX plug-in API as well as a native developers’ kit (NDK) for creating your own tightly integrated plug-ins.

Plug-ins
All of The Foundry's OpenFX™ (OFX) plug-ins are fully compatible with Nuke. Currently, the Keylight keyer, the Tinder collection (which includes lens flares, warpers, and lens blurs), and the Furnace collection (which includes motion vector retiming, wire removal, clean plate creation, grain, and texture tools) are available for OFX, with more collections added all the time.

Supported Operating Systems

Nuke is available on Windows®, Linux® and Mac OS X® platforms – all at equal cost. Licenses float across operating systems, so every artist can work where they are most comfortable and creative.

A cost effective solution
Not only does Nuke run on relatively modest hardware it comes with an economical $3,500 / £1,750 price tag, so even on a fairly tight production budget you can gain access to a functional, fast and intuitive compositing solution.