The Foundry has launched its anticipated VR toolset. CARA VR is a new plug-in designed to work within the industry-leading Nuke environment to enable the creation of high-quality virtual reality content.
CARA VR adds a new set of tools that builds on Nuke’s existing native support for the compositing of multi-camera live-action footage and enables artists to create seamless immersive experiences with 360° video content. The latest addition to The Foundry’s product portfolio has been developed by its award-winning research team and is a huge step forward in streamlining the creation of virtual reality content.
CARA VR comprises four key areas of development:
- Stitching tools that enable artists to solve the physical layout of the cameras in multi-camera rigs, calculate their focal length and lens distortion, and use depth-dependent warping to merge the multiple video sequences into an uninterrupted 360° view.
- Tools for making plate corrections that include the ability to match exposure and color balance between cameras, stabilise footage to remove horizon roll that can cause motion sickness, and manually correct stitches to create a seamless immersive experience.
- Compositing workflows that enable artists to work in a spherical image space, including tracking, paint for rig removal, and ray-trace rendering to place virtual elements into the real-world environment.
- An integrated live review process for the Oculus Rift headset that enables artists to evaluate their work in the context of the end viewing platform directly from within Nuke, including timeline playback in Nuke Studio.
The public beta of CARA VR is available now.