Foundry, a leading developer of creative software, has unveiled Nuke Stage, a groundbreaking application designed for virtual production and in-camera visual effects (ICVFX). This innovative tool connects pre-production to final pixels within a single, streamlined pipeline, empowering VFX artists with complete creative control over imagery and color.
Nuke Stage enhances efficiency and simplifies workflows by enabling real-time playback of photorealistic environments onto LED walls, alongside live compositing and layout capabilities. Teams can confidently iterate on content using industry-standard formats like OpenUSD, OpenEXR, and OpenColorIO, leveraging a familiar node-graph-based compositing environment consistent with the established Nuke platform.
“Nuke Stage was envisioned specifically for virtual production, bringing key aspects of compositing tailored for real-time playback in an on-set environment, and utilizing open standards to ensure consistency between pre-production, on set, and post. Our hope is that Nuke Stage brings the expertise of VFX artists even closer to creative decision making, and, ultimately, delivers greater efficiencies for productions using Virtual Production and ICVFX. After years of development fueled by collaboration with the VFX and VP community, I can’t wait to see Nuke Stage in the hands of artists!” says Christy Anzelmo, Foundry Chief Product Officer.
Dan Hall, Head of ICVFX at 80six, adds: “Nuke Stage offers a handshake between VFX and virtual production, which has been missed in VP until now. With VP and ICVFX it’s all about trust. Getting VFX teams on board will help to push the use of virtual production, in a meaningful way, and I see huge potential for Nuke Stage to do that.”
Sam Kemp, Production Technical Lead at Garden Studios, notes: “I love the idea of bringing VFX compositing tools into real time. The ability to bring in the compositing toolset and color management from 3D, then be able to tweak 2D assets in real time, is something that’s been missing from virtual production for a long time.”
Connor Ling, Virtual Production Supervisor at Framestore, emphasizes: “VFX Supervisors will typically be very familiar with Nuke, so having integration from that into the on-set components will only encourage trust and confidence between on-set and the VFX vendors, that what is being seen on the LED wall is what has been authored.”
Nuke Stage's shared color management system, open file formats, and intuitive interface ensure a seamless transition from pre-production to real-time on-set iteration. The application's key features are designed to revolutionize virtual production workflows.