Eddy for NUKE is a volumetric renderer and fluid solver plugin​ by VortechsFX. Check out all you need to know about Eddy.

 

Foundry NUKE is one of most useful Post Production and Visual Effects softwares. Many third party software developer companies are creating scripts / plug-ins to increase productivity of VFX pipeline. Eddy for NUKE is one of the notable development in the series of NUKE plugins. 

The parent software company of Eddy is VortechsFX, New Zealand based start-up. VortechsFX has released early demo video of Eddy for NUKE in November 2016 titled ‘Simulating an explosion with Eddy for Nuke’ on their official channel of Vimeo. Since then, it had created waves in the FX / Simulation industry. Now, they released the final product in SIGGRAPH 2017 and SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers) 2017 by Intraware to be used by Visual Effects artists. 

The scripting language of Eddy for NUKE is EddyScript. It will be easy upgrade for C and Python based programmers / coders. Compilation and parsing of EddyScript executes as CUDA code on the GPU. It gives complete freedom to modify all parameters to tackle any complex VFX challenge of production level.  

Earlier problem of FX integration in Compositing:

NUKE was missing an inbuilt fluid solver tool for simulation based production workflow. So, digital Compositing artists were left with three options to execute VFX simulation shots:

1. Use matte renders from other 3D softwares like Maya, 3ds Max, Houdini, Blender, thinkingParticles, FumeFX, RayFire or any other.
2. Use NUKE’s native 3D particle system with extensive keyframe animation to get desired look and feel. But, it is not viable solution for complex VFX simulations.
3. Use of multiple VFX stock footages in Compositing. It is cheap and fast way for quick fix solution.

All are tried and tested Compositing techniques for integrating live action with render passes (CGI elements), specially the first opinion. But, it requires proper parameter settings of 3D render passes (similar of shooting plates) such as:

• Same FPS (frames per second)
• Same PAR (pixel aspect ratio)
• Same frame resolution / dimension
• Pre-multiplied, alpha channel enabled render format (OpenEXR, tiff, iff, tga or any other as per project requirement)

Any mismatched settings of matte render results in offset during digital Compositing. It has to go through re-render or extensive roto/paint work, depending on the shot complexity and deadline. 

The solution for FX integration in Compositing:

Eddy in NUKE will solve all these fluid simulation workflow and FX related post production problems of Compositing department.

Integration of Eddy in VFX pipeline will lead to increased productivity as the digital Compositor can directly create required FX simulation inside NUKE. Compositing workflow will be driven in 3D space and final integrated output (live action plate + simulation) will be seen in 2D viewport. This interactive simulation and on the fly rendering is the biggest USP of Eddy for NUKE. 

Top features of Eddy for NUKE are as follows:

• Gaseous fluid solver (smoke, fire and similar gaseous fluid simulations)
• Create and render inside NUKE only, no need of render passes from 3D softwares
• Physically based volumetric renderer for NUKE
• Supports volumetric compositing
• Written through C and Python API, one of the best scripting languages of Animation and VFX
• Capable of deep data output
• It can render VDB caches directly inside NUKE
• Completely interactive and optimized workflow of fluid simulation with native tools of Foundry NUKE
• Fast rendering through default render engine 
• GPU based NUKE plugin
• Automatic sim (simulation) caching
• Manual simulation cache is supported for other Compositing requirements

And the best feature of Eddy for NUKE is: It can import cache of Houdini inside NUKE with editable simulation parameters. This cross software compatibility will be life saver for so many Visual Effects artists. 

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Eddy for NUKE tutorials:

VortechsFX and Intraware Australia has created various demo videos and tutorials of Eddy in NUKE. Some of them are as follows.

1. Explosion VDB cache sequence rendered through Eddy
2. Converting Particles to Volumes in Eddy
3. Instancing simple Volumes in Eddy
4. Eddy Combustion Basics pt.1 Overview

Pricing:

To buy Eddy for NUKE or to request a demo, kindly mail to sales@intraware.com.au

Check out some screen shots of Eddy in action inside NUKE.