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• BUG ID 1393 - Preferences now relate to a specific version of Nuke. This file is called preferences4.7.nk. Previously there was only one preference file for all versions of Nuke, called preferences.nk. Nuke 4.7 searches for the preferences4.7.nk file on startup. If it can't find one it will look for a preferences.nk file and if found, read, convert and write to preferences4.7.nk.
• Variety of user interface improvements for node inputs.
• Checkmarks and Radio buttons no longer act like Windows 3.1. Instead of previewing their upcoming state, they draw in their own "pushed" state.
• Building with Intel optimizing compiler for all Intel releases now.
• Adding aspect ratio to Reader/Writer formats that support it. If aspect is in header file, nuke will read it and apply in viewer.
• Fixed the help menu to have a direct link to tutorial page. Added another color set preset to the preferences, for a dark UI without the yellow high-lighting. Also fixed "standard" to really revert to how it defaults to.
• BUG ID 1265 - Give the ‘knob' command an option, -t, which will make it print out the type of the named knob.
• And add a -c to the knob command, for a string output type.
• Toolbars default to on to give new users some context for getting started. Uses Rob Nederhorst's original icons, which work better with different color schemes, but with optional text below them. Options in prefs panel to set size of text, you can set zero to remove the text.
• TCL commands ‘plugins' and ‘plugin_path' now include the OFX plug-in paths as well.
• A couple of Preferences tweaks:. 1. Obsolete knobs with the same name will prevent old user knobs with that name from appearing. 2. Added a "preset chooser" at the top. All this does is select from any of the plug-ins whose names start with "UI_" and source that file. But this allows the set of presets to be added to easily.
• Added velocity vector output to 3D render.
• Updated to a newer Primatte library with better thread safety. This version also updates the remove_grain operation to work in float removing the need for an internal conversion to 16 bit when that is used.
• Removed the "uv" layer, for back-compatibility scripts that load it will instead get the "forward" layer. This avoids using up more channel slots for separate forward and backward.
• Frame changes update while the mouse is dragged on the viewer timeline.
• Each input to the viewer has it's own settings for layer, shuffle, gain, gamma, cliptest, and input process. The widgets normally only change the current one, to change all of them to the new value hold down shift while changing them (note this is the reverse of how the shuffle was done before, but it matches how pause was done). PageUp/PageDown in the viewer change to the next/previous layer for the current input (or hold down shift to change all inputs).
• Uses $NUKE_TEMP_DIR environment variable to set location to write temporary files to. It already uses NUKE_DISK_CACHE for the flipbook cache. Added missing plugins/user/README to the distribution.
• Little angle widget to show what angle the angle slider corresponds to.
• Always draws numbers at the first/last tickmarks of slider, and puts them on the other side of tickmark so they don't go off the end.
• .3dl VectorField readability improved.
• .3dl were written from GenerateLUT with only scratch in mind.
• Added compatibility switch to GenerateLUT.
• Added switch to normalize x on Sampler.

Viewer

• Camera selection, homing and locking behavior updated, simplifying the behaviors. ‘k' locks and unlocks the selected camera. The camera menu tracks the selected camera when unlocked.
• Don't conform the lens if not locked to a camera.
• Pan/zoom in 3D won't track the 2D pan/zoom unless the view is locked. This makes switching back and forth between 2D and 3D more intuitive.
• The selected color of 3D objects is now light green rather than white so they show up better when selected (like Maya).
• When 3D viewer's camera is locked, the viewer acts like a 2D view, panning and zooming keeping the 2D view matched for comparison between scene and Render node output.

Curve Editor

• Undo/Redo bug fixes.
• OpenGL drawing with anti-alised curves and points.
• Frame to selection and frame all keyframes.
• Ability to freehand sketch a curve.
• Ability to select one curve. It turns yellow and others dim a little bit.
• If there's a selected curve, Ctrl+A selects all key frames on that curve. Other- wise, it selects on all curves.
• Clicking on key frame handles to adjust tangents.
• Scrolling view (it only works when dragging the current frame).
• Scaling selected keyframes.
• Draws a box around 2 or more selected points. Shows a cross-hair in the middle. Click right on the center to move in both axis. Click on the right-hand side of the cross-hair to translate on X. Click on the upper side of the cross-hair to translate on Y.
• Scaling selected points by clicking and dragging corner points of selection area. Same strong-snap behavior to the axis with the most motion. Hold down CTRL key to scale in both axis. Also, scaling selected points do not cross non-selected points that might be in the selection area. Transform Jack The transform jack behaves like the one in the Viewer. That is, click on the end points of the cross-hair to scale on X, or Y with respect to the center of the jack.
• Click and drag on the center of the cross-hair to translate. Hold CTRL down to move in both axis. Care is taken to prevent negative scaling to would make points swap directions. Also, scaling selected points do not cross non-selected points that might be in the selection area.

Transform Jack

• The transform jack behaves like the one in the Viewer. That is, click on the end points of the cross-hair to scale on X, or Y with respect to the center of the jack.
• Click and drag on the center of the cross-hair to translate. Hold CTRL down to move in both axis.
• Click and drag on a corner point to scale with respect to the opposite corner, e.g. dragging lower-left corner will scale keeping upper-right ‘locked'.
• Added scaling handles at the mid-points on the selection box. Like the corner points, these scale with respect to the opposite edge.
• Corner points - scale with respect to the opposite corner. Hold down the SHIFT key to constraint to axis with the most movement.
• Middle edge points - scale with respect to the opposite edge. Hold down the SHIFT key to constraint to axis with the most movement.
• Center of cross-hair - translate all selected points. Hold down the SHIFT key to constraint to axis with the most movement.
• End points of cross-hair - scale with respect to the center, either horizontally or vertically. Movement is always constrained to one axis.

Mouse and Keyboard combinations

Curve manipulation

• left click = select
• left click + drag = selects point and moves it while dragging. Movement is constrained to one axis. Hold down ctrl to move in both axis.
• left + drag = select area
• left + (shift or ctrl) + drag = Adds to selection if at least one keyframe inside the drag area is not selected. Removes from selection otherwise
• left click + ctrl + alt = insert keyframe
• left + ctrl + alt + shift + drag = sketch curve inserting keyframes while dragging
• View manipulation
• left + alt + drag = pan
• middle + alt + drag = zoom in both axis without keeping the aspect ratio
• middle click = frame all keyframes
• middle + drag = zoom area
• wheel up/down = zoom in/out
• + = zoom in
• - = zoom out
• f = frame selected keyframes if any. otherwise it frames all keyframes in selected curve, if any, or in all curves.
• a = frame all keyframes
• Added widget at the bottom of the curve editor to quickly edit the expression of the currently selected animation.
• Enables and disables automatically.
• Detects errors in expression.
• Evaluates expression at current frame.
• Revert button sets the expression widget to the last valid expression set on the animation.
• Plays nicely with focus/unfocus and undo/redo.
• Curve editor now does "frame all" when initially opened.

FrameCycler

• New FrameCycler 2007 for Nuke builds from Iridas.
• Linux builds are only supported on the specific platform they are built for.
• We don't recommend using FrameCycler on any 64 bit build due to the various driver and lib issues (under linux LibQuicktime won't work, ALSA is almost impossible to integrate…)
• The user interface is slightly simplified, we've thrown out the buttons or ReviewLink, Versions and some more.
• The render can only be activated from the GUI.
• Linux packages contain FrameCycler versions for both Fedora Core 4 and CentOS 4.4. By default the FC4 version is used (in the Nuke distribution under the directory FrameCycler). If you are on CentOS 4.4 set your fc path to the FrameCyclerCentOS4.4 directory instead.
• Framecycler docs now available from main docs page.

Brinkmann was part of the initial design and development team at Nothing Real, the software company that produced the digital compositing application Shake. Apple acquired Nothing Real in 2002, and for the last five years Brinkmann has continued his role at Apple as the product designer for Shake.

"I'm very happy to be part of the development team at The Foundry," commented Brinkmann. "They have a huge amount of talent, incredible cutting-edge technology, and for many years have produced a vast array of powerful tools and image effects for digital artists. The combined experience of the team involved with the development of NUKE will result in considerable enhancements to the product. From what I've seen so far, it's set to be a really exciting proposition for the film-making community."

"Ron's addition is a terrific coup for The Foundry, and clearly signals our intent with NUKE," said Dr Bill Collis, CEO of The Foundry. "We have known Ron on a personal and professional level for many years, and his insight and experience will add enormously to the next wave of our products."

Brinkmann is joining a team of highly regarded engineers including Bill Spitzak, the original author of Nuke, Matt Plec formerly of Sony Pictures Imageworks, and The Foundry's chief of engineering Bruno Nicoletti.

Available on Linux, Windows, and Mac platforms, high-end compositing application NUKE delivers unparalleled speed, an extensible 64-channel TCL-based architecture, and powerful feature set unrivalled in the desktop market. NUKE is priced at $5,000 version 4.6 is available to download now from Toolfarm.com.