Foundry relaxes plugin restrictions on Nuke Indie
Foundry has released Nuke Indie 12.2v3, the latest version of its $499/year edition of the compositing software aimed at freelancers and artists starting up in business for themselves.
The update relaxes one of the key restrictions from the original release, making it possible to use third-party plugins with Nuke Indie. OFX plugins are already supported, with NDK plugins to follow.
A lower-cost commercial licence of Nuke aimed at indie artists and freelancers
Launched earlier this year, Nuke Indie fills a gap in Foundry’s product line-up between full editions of the software, which start at just under $5,000, and the free Nuke Non-Commercial.
It includes features not available in the non-commercial edition, like the Primatte and Ultimatte chroma keyers, the WriteGeo node, the option to export LUTs and EDLs, and support for external video monitors.
The maximum export resolution is also higher than Nuke Non-Commercial: 4K rather than full HD, although you can only render on a single machine, not via a render farm.
And unlike Nuke Non-Commercial, Nuke Indie can be used for professional work, provided that you’re earning under $100,000/year, making it feasible for freelancers and solo artists to use it.
Now supports OFX plugins, including key add-ons like Neat Video and Mocha Pro
However, a key restriction of the original release was its lack of support for third-party plugins: a point of contention with potential users right from the original launch livestream.
Foundry has now relaxed that restriction, with the 12.2v3 update adding support for plugins based on the OFX API, which includes key tools like planar tracker Mocha Pro and video denoiser Neat Video.
Support for C++ plugins using Foundry’s NDK API should follow in future releases: Foundry says that it is “working with developers of popular commercial NDK-based plug-ins toward enabling support”.
Support for H.264 and AAC, though other restrictions remain
In addition, the update introduces support for the H.264 video codec and AAC audio codec, omitted from the original release due to licensing issues.
The other main restriction of Nuke Indie remains in place: while it can read files created in the full editions of Nuke, it cannot be used in pipelines with them, and saves in its own seprate file formats.
In addition, scripting support is limited, with Python scripting restricted to 10 commands.
You can find an updated feature comparison table for Nuke, Nuke Indie and Nuke Non-Commercial here.
Pricing and system requirements
Nuke Indie is available for for 64-bit Windows 10, CentOS 7.4+ Linux, and macOS 10.14+. The software is rental-only, with subscriptions costing $499/year.
Use is restricted to artists with annual gross revenue of under $100,000/year, and is limited to one licence per user or organisation. It cannot be used in pipelines with other commercial Nuke licences.
In addition, users must not have held active maintenance or support to Nuke, NukeX, Nuke Studio or Foundry’s Production Collective in the previous 36 months.
Read a full list of new features in Nuke Indie 12.2v3 in the online release notes