IndependentFilm.com

Ottawa, ON, - GridIron® Software today announced Nucleo Pro® 2, an upgrade to the productivity enhancement tool that optimizes the workflow for visual effects artists using Adobe® After Effects®. Nucleo Pro is well-known for its speculative and background rendering capabilities that allow motion graphics artists to render and work at the same time.

Nucleo Pro 2 (due to ship in early summer 2007) will support After Effects CS3 Professional and all versions of After Effects 7. New features of Nucleo Pro 2 include the ability specify how nested compositions are rendered and run renders of their favorite 3D applications in the Nucleo Pro Background Render Queue.

NEW FEATURES IN NUCLEO PRO 2

Nucleo Render Proxies
Customize how nested compositions are rendered to streamline render times even further. Now users can flag a nested comp to render sub-compositions to an internal “cache file” format, and have the main composition render to the user specified output format. By doing this, subsequent spec-render times for the main composition are improved because the rendering engine no longer has to render the frames for proxied sub-compositions. Those frames are simply read from disk.

3D Applications in the Background Render Queue
With Nucleo Pro 2, motion graphics artists can manage After Effects and 3D renders from one convenient spot. Simply drag projects for any of the supported applications into the Background Render Queue. Then specify the appropriate render settings and allow Nucleo Pro to initiate and manage the render in the background. Support is available for most popular 3D rendering applications, including: Maxon Cinema 4D, Autodesk 3D Studio Max, Autodesk Maya, Softimage XSI, Apple Shake, Side Effects Software Houdini, Mental Images Metal Ray, and SplutterFish Brazil.

• More Product Information: http://www.gridironsoftware.com/NucleoPro2/

• Comparison Chart: http://tinyurl.com/2d8b3v

• See GridIron Software at NAB in Booth SL3827D (Adobe Plugin Pavilion)

“With the release of Nucleo Pro 2, GridIron Software further demonstrates its dedication to boosting productivity for creative professionals. Users will reap benefits with the ability to work in After Effects while 3D designs render in the background,” said Simon Hayhurst, director of product management, Dynamic Media Organization for Adobe Systems. “Our just-announced After Effects CS3 delivers outstanding performance on the latest hardware and operating systems and gives visual artists the enhanced creative tools that enable them to deliver their best work.”

"CINEMA 4D offers comprehensive integration of 3D in After Effects with direct export of layers and elements," said Paul Babb, president/CEO of MAXON US. "This workflow integration only gets better with Nucleo Pro 2."

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Pricing
• Nucleo Pro 2 will sell for $395 US. Beginning April 16, 2007 customers may pre-order Nucleo Pro 2 for $295. Note: this offer will expire the first day Nucleo Pro 2 begins shipping later this summer.

• Nucleo Pro 1 customers may upgrade to Nucleo Pro 2 for $99.

• Nucleo customers may upgrade to Nucleo Pro 2 for $350.

Availability
• Nucleo Pro 2 will begin shipping in early summer.

• Nucleo Pro 2 will support all versions of Adobe After Effects version 7.0 and the new After Effects CS3 on both Windows and Mac OS X.

ABOUT GRIDIRON SOFTWARE INCORPORATED

GridIron Software is the leading software provider in high performance workflow. GridIron’s mission is to provide tools that leverage its unique expertise in parallel programming and system optimization, for the creative content professional. Providing products that allow software to properly utilize multi-core and multi-CPU workstations, GridIron is the market leader in providing utilities for the creative professional.