Nuke

Nuke is a compositing toolkit that's designed for those who need to make realistic-looking 3D renders. It ties together a full suite of tools, which includes a dedicated studio as well as a bundled API. Everything is node-based, so you won't have to worry about the organizational challenges that normally come with this kind of software. Users can keep everything neat and trim regardless of how complicated a particular scene gets.

Since Nuke supports a series of collaborative workflows, you can edit the same scene at the same time other people do. Accelerated workflows make it even easier to get a scene done, especially for those who don't mind messing around with some configuration settings to automate as much work as they possibly can.

By providing native support for a large number of image streams, Nuke can work with multiple real world camera views even if you haven't imported any video directly into it. This makes it an attractive option for those who are editing and rendering video packages that they hope to post on social sites at a later date. On top of this, Nuke is useful for making cut-scenes that can then be bundled into a video game. Both professional and amateur video editors alike will appreciate the unique combination of features that come with Nuke.

While Nuke does change some of the default keyboard shortcuts that many people might be familiar with, it's easy enough to learn the default ones. A certain degree of customization is provided, so new users can make the interface more like what they're used to. Those who haven't become entrenched in any application won't run into many difficulties, however, because it's very intuitive.

In theory, it would also be possible to create new integrations by using little more than the apps that come with Nuke, but that shouldn't be necessary for most users. Due to the fact that Nuke is so tightly built around the idea of node-based digital compositing, it takes care of a majority of video editing-related chores automatically. An onboard machine learning algorithm helps the software to process effects and smooth out video glitches that would otherwise have to be taken care of by hand.

Support for a 3D viewport is provided by the app's Hydra library, which should prove promising for anyone who needs to create video that incorporates XR effects. Nuke users also have a full set of tools that will allow them to craft videos designed to take advantage of 3D glasses or goggles.

Those who prefer to use the standard on-screen viewport will get to enjoy a generous rectangular region that represents an area of space currently being looked at. Objects not in the field of view are stored in an off-screen buffer, so digital artists won't even have to worry about redrawing anything when they move the camera.

Pros

• Offers a full toolkit
• Entirely node-based
• Comes with an integrated studio

Cons

• Somewhat unstable
• Renders don't always complete