The Foundry released a Nuke 10 Open Beta, if you're an existing NUKE user with current maintenance. Have a go, find some bugs and report them.
Remember this beta should not be used in production.
You will need a username and password.
Math or Maths
There is a great conversation going on the nuke list about learning math for compositing.
Here are some links to what came up in the discussion:
Mathematics for Computer Graphics
The Art and Science of Digital Compositing
Mathematics for Visual Effects and Design
Fxphd also has a class called PHY101: Introduction to Physics the link is not coming up. I can recommend all of those books. I wrecked my car driving home from a talk and book signing Ron Brinkmann did at AFI. Compositing is all about math. Make no mistake.
Nuke 10 →
The Foundry:
The NUKE tools you use every day are about to get a whole lot better. Coming in early 2016, NUKE 10 focuses on enhancing performance, increasing stability, blitzing bugs and delivering new functionality in the areas that matter most to artists: paint, rendering, playback, export and more. We’ve also got a whole sweep of updates to keep NUKE up to date with industry standards, plus new OpenColorIO integration to simplify your color management workflow.
Blitzing of bugs. I guess thats a good thing. I really think it's a great that The Foundry knew that a keyer in the timeline was needed for Nuke Studio. We don't have the keyer from Mads yet but it's kinda awesome that a indedentent can cook up a simular tool. The Smart Paint looks great. The demo (5 mins in) looks great.
Lue for Nuke →
Mads first started talking about Lue for Nuke in June of 2015. It sounded and looked really cool. On the 18th of Oct he released it in its current state. I have been playing with it for the past few days and I find it very powerful, like having a merge node with all the math in one node it's nice to have all the image editing math in one node as well.
Thanks Mads.
Mailing List
Yesterday the nuke mailing list received a message informing us that the list would be transitioned into a new forum based format.
I have been apart of mailing lists since I started using Shake. The Shake list was a great resource. Easily searched when information was needed. Some of the smartest Shake artists participating. The same applies to Nuke. A mass of knowledge from other artists in the trenches to employees of the The Foundry[hello Deke].
The Foundrys decision to end the mailing list in favor of a forum is crazy. Add a forum to your Comunity section fine but for us members of the mailing list let us continue.
We have now moved away from your mailing list in favor of a Google group. Ok that will work but you do get that by doing that you pushed all the top Nuke artists away from the very support you wanted them to provide. The Nuke list answers all questions, not just high end compositor questions. We have moved away from RTFM. Having Foundry employees participate within the group helps us. We don't have to wait for support. Maybe we had a question that support has no business answering. The mailing list made it possible for artists to pick up the strange and artist centric support questions and freed The Foundry to make Nuke better. I didn't have to navigate anywhere, it was in my email[almost like a support email].
Pushing talented artists away from you is always a bad idea. This is true of both Vfx vendors and software companies. Artist have plenty to be angry about right now let's not make a simple mailing list one of them.
For those artists that are interested here are the new Google Groups. To all that contribute daily to the list, Thank you.
Update:
The Foundry has back peddled on closing the mailing list. Smart move guys.
Nuke 9 is Live →
The Foundry:
Our industry leading NUKE range offers cutting-edge toolkits covering VFX, editorial and finishing across solutions that deliver unparalleled speed, functionality and collaboration possibilities.
Whether you're a single shot compositor or working across projects end to end, you can find all the tools you need to get the job done fast, without quality compromise, in NUKE STUDIO, NUKEX or NUKE.
Nuke 9 is a great release. Most of the new stuff don't just demo well.
Nuke 9 Live →
Nuke 9 seems like a really good release. Let hope the speed is also in common functions like BluR and Rotopaint. Not just deep.
OpenSpline
Remember when you would use the wire removal tool to make mattes of ropes and cabling. Then remember when the Foundry changed it. They came to Pactitle to disscuss new features and all I wanted was my old WireRemoval tool back.
So far very cool. Have a look here for the download.
Not in Sync →
Frank:
I often find that the easiest deflicker setup works best and fastest for global flicker: use a frame hold to and divide a blurred version of it by the moving footage that is blurred by the same amount. Than multiply the result back onto the original footage:
It's shocking how much this is screwed up on the production side. It's both the Bestboy and the Gaffer. Shame on you.
Dailies
Jack Binks:
After being involved in the enjoyable project of figuring out the colour correction/grading improvement specs for Bison, aka Nuke 8 (notably the new in panel colour wheels, scopes, maintain luminance, etc as well some of the other bits that didn't make it in time for the release - thanks to Frank R, Jeremy S and other notable luminaries in our world who put aside some time up early on to chat to me), I've been punished with involvement in the project of sorting out colour shifts in our Quicktime handling.
It works pretty darn well.