SuperSteve3D

The Foundry NUKE 4.7

NUKE™ is an Academy Award® winning, digital compositing software application that provides artists with the means to create photorealistic images of the highest quality. From a non-proprietary hardware base, NUKE gives artists a flexible, efficient, cost effective and full-featured tool set with which to combine and manipulate scanned film, video plates and computer-generated imagery. Refined for over ten years, and used to date on over 35 movies and hundreds of commercials and music videos at Digital DomainTM, NUKE advances the ability to deliver final visual effects shots on film and video that integrate seamlessly with the remainder of the project, regardless of the desired visual style or complexity.

Version 4.7

New features in version 4.7 include full OFX plug-in support, Framecycler Professional 2007, an improved curve editor, an upgraded version of Primatte, a brand new optical flow engine and many bug fixes.

Architecture

* Scanline-based image computation (highly memory efficient for fast feedback)
* 64 channels of full 32-bit floating point color data per node, organized into user definable layers
* Resolution independent input/output
* Plug-in support
* Multi-processor support

Operating Systems

* Windows, Linux, IRIX support

Workflow

* Node-based scripting (flexible and easily extensible)
* Text-readable script generation
* Expression support throughout interface
* User-definable format support (resolution and pixel aspect)
* Proxy/full-rez mode switching
* Multi-threaded, floating-point quality scanline renderer

Viewers & Flipbooking

* 2D and 3D modes (with OpenGLTM preview)
* Multiple, free-floating image viewers
* User-definable Regions of Interest (ROIs)
* Support for multi-input wiping
* Integrated FrameCyclerTM Professional

Features

* Infinite number of layers, each offering independent control over keying, color, tracking, and transformations
* Four-point 2D tracker/stabilizer
* Multiple undo/redo history throughout UI with user-definable autosave intervals
* Color correction: offset, gain, gamma, hue, saturation, and contrast controls (per shadow, midtone and highlight region); full histogram control; splinebased curve control; look-up tables; hue correction; conversion tools for all industry standard colorspaces
* Film LUT node to convert data from log to linear space and vice-versa (wedges)
* Compatibility with many file formats including high dynamic range and floating point formats
* Various tools and filters including dithering, noise (for grain effects), Gaussian blur, vector blur, defocus, erode, keying, Bezier matte tools, merge functions, and image distortion
* Concatenated 2D and 3D transforms with user-definable filtering methods
* Full-fledged animation editor
* Drag-and-drop parameter linking
* Time warping
* Macro/expression editor
* Rotoscope shapes supporting per-point feathering and unlimited control points
* UI and layout customization (node color, comments, postage stamps, backdrops, etc.)

3D Tools and Features

* Fully defined camera with user controllable H/V aperture, focal length, etc.
* OBJ object import with UV preservation
* Full library of texturable cards, bicubic and bilinear meshes, and geometric primitives
* Direct camera track import/export
* Projection mapping capabilities

Formats and Guides

* Customizable image formats
* Highly configurable work area (including customizable color schemes and layouts)

Keyers

* Integrated PrimatteTM keyer
* Chroma, Luma, HSV keyers
* Spill suppression tools

Shapes and Drawing

* Support for unlimited numbers of splinebased garbage masks (each fully animateable and capable of receiving tracking data)
* Support for insertion of vertices between previously animated vertices without loss of proper shape
* Anti-aliased, vector-based text generator
* Operators for grids, circles, ramps, rectangles, etc.

Curve Editor

* Flexible UI for viewing, sorting and editing curves
* Expressions: keyframe or apply expressions to curves; reference existing curves and use as inputs to mathematical operations; store expressions in a library for reuse; simultaneously select and apply expressions to multiple curves

Nodes

* Grouping functions: streamline scripts and create reusable setups
* Clone function: create instances that maintain dynamic links with parents
* Annotation tools: name and color individual nodes; insert resizable, colorcoded markers and backdrops
* Filtering: find and select nodes and groups according to name or comment
* Auto create connections between nodes

Operators
Operators are key to NUKE’s workflow. They allow users to read in, combine and manipulate large sets of input image sequences in order to produce final image sequences.

Each operator contributes in some way to the final result of a script (a saved combination of operators): some read in images; others combine images; others process image data in a myriad of ways (for example, extract keys or add color corrections). Each operator passes its output to the input port of the next downstream node.

Scanlines and Buffers
Operators work by requesting individual scanlines from their input operators. The data in these scanlines are not calculated until requested, thereby saving large amounts of processing time. This render method also provides for rapid user feedback: The user can see the first scanline from a render almost immediately and quickly know whether further adjustments to the composite are necessary.

Floating Point Data and HDR Imagery
The passing of scanlines and buffers between callers and operators lets pixel data be passed with floating point precision, thereby allowing operators to take advantage of floating point hardware. It also allows for vastly higher brightness resolution (equivalent to 23 bits near 1.0 and up to 60 bits near zero). This means NUKE can process high dynamic range images where the brightness exceeds one, and preserve negative information such as shadows for use in subsequent composite operations.

GUI and Viewers
NUKE’s highly innovative GUI allows users to lay out operators in a totally arbitrary pattern and easily move connections between operators by grabbing their “tails.” This schema greatly minimizes display size and complexity, and gives users the room to manipulate the huge scripts that NUKE is capable of handling.

NUKE’s output writers and viewers work identically to the other operators in the GUI. Thus, in a given script, users can output any number of image sequences and on-screen displays.

Users can manipulate the controls on each operator via overlapable windows, while at the same time viewing multiple operator outputs. This schema lets users easily fine tune parameters while looking at results in the context of the composite.

Batch Processing
NUKE is also able to run without the GUI interface to act as a multiplatfom, command-line renderer. Users can work on just one or a few frames in the GUI, then use the command line interface to process all the frames in the sequence on a render farm.

 

1. Nuke vs Shake Paint
2. Nuke Keyer vs Shake
3. Nuke Roto vs Shake
4. Nuke Caching vs Shake
5. Nuke Render Speed vs Shake.

And the opinions?

1. Both terrible, but Shake one is a little better. Dustbusting in Nuke is easier.
2. Nuke. More options, better Primatte implementation and channels make things way easier and cleaner to deal with.
3. Nuke specially if you take into account channels
4. Nuke by far. FrameCycler is great and caching works far better.
5. I think Nuke is a bit faster

Overall Nuke is far superior in terms of workflow, technology, scripting and customization. Macros (gizmos) in Nuke rule, all float, kick ass OpenEXR support, real 3D environment among other features.

And let’s not forget to mention Color correction features which is something that Nuke is great at.

 

Pixar Animation Studios today announced two major releases of its RenderMan software, RenderMan Studio 1.0 and RenderMan for Maya 2.0, together with a new licensing policy delivering major performance increases on multi-core computers.

RenderMan Studio is a major expansion of Pixar’s next generation render tool suite for the advanced professional, including a “pro” version of the RenderMan for Maya plug-in, major enhancements to the Slim graphical RenderMan shader editor, the Alfred dispatcher for managing network rendering, the “it” image compositing tool, and unrestricted RIB generation. RenderMan Studio 1.0 directly interfaces with Pixar’s RenderMan Pro Server 13.0, and an optional floating internal RenderMan Embedded Renderer is also available for either render preview or final output.

In a major upgrade, RenderMan for Maya 2.0, Pixar’s advanced rendering plug-in for Maya, introduces powerful multi-threading, substantial increases in ray-tracing performance, improved fur, new camera effects, caustics, point based global illumination, and compatibility with Maya 8.5.

Additionally, both RenderMan Studio 1.0 and RenderMan for Maya 2.0 incorporate a new licensing policy permitting up to 4 threads or 4 parallel renders per host machine, potentially quadrupling performance or more on a per frame basis.

“While developing RenderMan Studio the Pixar team was highly responsive to our requests” said Alain Xerri, Head of R&D at Sparx-FX, “Fur especially is so much more memory efficient and flexible. If you need to customize RenderMan Studio to accommodate your special needs there are no limits for your development skills.”

“One of the things that blew me away about RenderMan for Maya 2.0 is the massively increased speed” said Ryan Bird of Bluebird Digital LLC, “In fact, it was so much faster that I thought something was broken. After carefully looking over my final rendered image and seeing all that great quality my excitement jumped through the roof.”

Together with RenderMan Pro Server, RenderMan for Maya and RenderMan Studio complete a family of RenderMan products built on a common technology base providing entry points and upgrade paths suitable for every level of user.

Pricing and Availability
RenderMan for Maya 2.0 is available on Windows XP and Mac OS X for US $995 per license. Pricing for RenderMan Studio 1.0 starts at US $2,000 per license and is available on Windows XP, Mac OS X, and Linux. Upgrades from RenderMan Artist Tools 6.5 to RenderMan Studio 1.0 are free to all RenderMan Artist Tools customers on current maintenance. For additional information regarding upgrades and optional components visit www.pixar.com

 

A string bed is made up of main and cross strings:

Main functions of main strings: – Durability – Generate spin

Main functions of cross strings: – Power – Comfort

 

Here is a short report from the author…



The 15th ICGA World Computer Chess Championship has finished and Rybka has won with 10/11, ahead of Zappa, Loop, Shredder and Gridchess.

The full Rybka team was:

Operator: Hans van der Zijden
Hardware: Lukas Cimiotti
Opening book: Jeroen Noomen
Engine help: Larry Kaufman
Engine: Vasik Rajlich

Rybka is a team effort, with a lot of really hard work put in by many people. This was never more evident than here. Special mention this time goes to Larry Kaufman and Jeroen Noomen.

Larry Kaufman’s contributions to Rybka tend to be subtle. Here, his revamped handling of material imbalances guided Rybka’s play in two games (vs Zappa and vs Gridchess), with the new formulation proving superior in both instances.

Jeroen Noomen has consistently proven himself to be the best in his craft, and this tournament underlined this in spectacular fashion. We are accustomed to white positions which range from much better to winning and to black positions which range from dead equal to clearly better. We are accustomed to top teams ducking the theoretical battles. I can’t even remember the last time we got the wrong end of the theoretical debate. The new twist this time around was the stunning tournament-clinching opening book knockout of the well-respected Shredder book author Sandro Necchi in round 11.

I’d like to thank:

- The ICGA for their organization of the event
- The other teams who took the time to participate
- The members of the Rybka team for their hard work

The full information about the tournament can be found here:

http://www.grappa.univ-lille3.fr/icga/tournament.php?id=173

Below is a brief round-up of Rybka’s games. Jeroen is planning more detailed comments a bit later.

Rd 1, The King – Rybka 0-1: From a quiet English opening, white accepted a clumsy kingside pawn structure by playing 17. Nce4 and later 20. f4 and 21. f5. Black was able to take over the initiave on the queenside and in the center, getting in all three pawn breaks – .. c5, .. b5, and .. d5 – and white could not hold the position.

Rd 2, Micromax – Rybka 0-1: Rybka obtained a very strong knight pair in the opening and white’s position collapsed.

Rd 3, Rybka – Zappa 1/2-1/2: Quite an amazing game. The opening went well – Rybka was not confused by Zappa’s rare opening sideline and got a considerable advantage, leaving black to try a desperate pawn sacrifice to complicate matters. The middlegame also went well – Rybka was able to simplify into a much better and probably winning endgame. Even the first part of the endgame went well – black’s chances lay in setting up a blockade, but white was able to crack open the position with a timely d5-d6 pawn sacrifice. Amazingly, and paying tribute to Zappa’s strength as well as to the resourcefulness which chess can allow, all of this was not enough. Zappa dug in and found one last hurdle for Rybka to clear – a theoretically winning but tricky KRPKNP tablebase position. Rybka was not equipped with this tablebase and could not come up with the solution within the tournament time limits.

Rd 4, Loop – Rybka 1/2-1/2: The opening seemed very promising – on move 19, Rybka had a solid position, extra central pawn, and the chance to push her pawns on both sides of the board. For unclear reasons, she declined this opportunity. Instead, she traded off all pieces and went into a nominally worse but easily drawn endgame, which was in fact drawn without any excitement.

Rd 5, Rybka – Jonny 1-0: In a seemingly quiet Spanish position, black volunarily allowed his kingside pawn structure to get shattered by playing 12. .. Nxb3. This move doesn’t look terrible at first sight, but in fact it seems to lead black into serious trouble by force. White put her finger on the weaknesses around black’s king and black could not defend against the threats.

Rd 6, Isichess – Rybka 0-1: In a strategic Sicilian, with both sides castling kingside, white placed his pieces slightly awkwardly – a2-a4, Bf3, Bd2, Nc1. Rybka struck in the center, took over the initiative, and white could not avoid the loss of material.

Rd 7, Rybka – The Baron 1-0: With a closed French center, black went for the thematic pawn break .. c5. In this particular position, this had the unpleasant side-effect of allowing white to play dxc5, Nd4, and f2-f4-f5. Perhaps black could have somehow contested white’s idea, but the Baron acquiesced to white’s plan by playing 13. .. Nxd4 and was left with a strategically lost position.

Rd 8, Sjeng – Rybka 0-1: In a balanced isolated queen pawn position, white had trouble finding a plan, placing his queen and both bishops on awkward squares. Black expanded on the queenside, provoked white into weakening his kingside, and eventually broke through with her pieces.

Rd 9, Rybka – Diep 1-0: Black’s book ended abruptly on move 8 in the middle of a theoretical Sicilian minefield. I don’t know the latest theoretical variations, but black could not navigate the waters and his position was lost quickly and resignable after 17 moves.

Rd 10, Gridchess – Rybka 0-1: Gridchess was the most novel of the participants here – apparently, it is Toga with some sort of a clustered parallel search. It’s hard to draw any real conclusions from just this tournament. In a strategic Sicilian variation, Rybka was able to hunt down black’s dark-squared bishop with her knight. The position seems hard to win, though, and Rybka does not even give herself an advantage at this point. The fireworks began when black offered (and white accepted) a very unclear pawn sacrifice. The critical continuation would have been 28. Rf5 – the position looks double-edged and I won’t dare to give an assessment. Instead, Gridchess, not having access to Larry’s work on material imbalances, blundered with 28. Rff1, leading to a RBB vs BNN endgame which was very pleasant for black and which white could not hold.

Rd 11, Rybka – Shredder 1-0: A dream or a nightmare for an opening book author, depending on which side he’s on. Jeroen busted out a wild Sicilian line in which white starts the festivities by sacricing 3 pawns for a sizeable lead in development but still nothing concrete. Rybka herself would favor black at this point. Later in the variation, white offered a piece to keep the attack going. I’m not sure what should happen, but the entire refutation of black’s play was in the book and black could have resigned without white playing a single new move.

Vas