London visual effects tools developer The Foundry is planning to steal a march on Apple’s Shake by launching several upgrades of its flagship compositing software, Nuke, in quick succession.

Version 5.2 will be released soon, and 6.0 and NukeX 6.0, incorporating an integrated 3D camera tracker and lens distortion tools, are scheduled for later this year.

The launches follow The Foundry’s recent management buyout from Wyndcrest Holdings, which has resulted in venture capitalist Advent Venture Partners becoming its majority shareholder and which has given it fresh impetus.

Nuke was originated at US VFX facility Digital Domain but developed in the UK by The Foundry since 2007 and is seen by the company as a replacement for Apple’s Shake.

“Compositing technology has moved on and any successful facility will be looking to exchange Shake for Nuke in their VFX pipelines,” said chief executive Bill Collis.

The Foundry is also developing a plug-in that resolves the unstable images produced by the rolling shutters of cameras fitted with CMOS sensors when the action is panned at speed.

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