Nuke Indie FAQs.

Nuke Indie is a functionally restricted version of Nuke Studio for eligible solo artists earning less than $100k per year that can be used on commercial projects.

You are eligible if:

• Your annual gross revenue is less than USD$100,000/year (or local equivalent)
• Only one license can be used per user or organisation
• Cannot be used in a pipeline with other Nuke commercial or Nuke Indie licenses
• See detailed Nuke Indie Eligibility Requirements.

Nuke Indie is designed for independent artists and cannot be used in a cluster or in a pipeline with other Nuke commercial or Nuke Indie licenses.

If you are an Individual Student or Graduate license holder you are eligible to purchase Nuke Indie.

Educational licenses include access to all features in the commercial version of Nuke Studio without functional restrictions. The restrictions in Nuke Indie make it inappropriate for use in an educational institution. Find out more about Foundry’s educational offerings.

Nuke Indie is not suitable for developers looking to create complex integrations or plug-ins. If you are a developer building tools for the wider community, you may qualify for a developer license. Contact us for further info info@foundry.com. 

There is no trial of Nuke Indie. Nuke Indie features the same experience you get in Nuke Studio and NukeX, with certain functional restrictions. You can start your Nuke Studio trial here.

Nuke scripts and Hiero project files you create during your trial can be read into Nuke Indie.

Nuke Indie follows the same hardware requirements as the Nuke family. See the Tech Specs page for supported operating systems and hardware for the latest release.

Nuke Indie is available from Nuke 12.2v1 onward. Nuke Indie builds timeout after 90 days so users must advance to the latest release to continue using Nuke Indie. Any release higher than 13.2v1 will have a Nuke Indie TimeOut of 180 days

Yes, Nuke Indie includes the Nuke Studio toolset with both an editorial timeline and the NukeX compositing environment. The compositing node graph can be accessed via the Compositing Workspace or the Nodegraph tab.

All file formats and codecs that Nuke Studio can read and generate are supported.

3rd party OFX plug-ins are supported from Nuke Indie 12.2v3 onwards. Select commercial NDK plug-ins will be supported in upcoming versions.

• Encrypted File Format (.nkind/.hroxind/.gzind)
  • Nuke and Hiero scripts, gizmos, Groups and LiveGroups are saved in an encrypted format that can only be read by Nuke Indie. 
  • Nuke Indie supports reading in commercial Nuke and Hiero scripts and gizmos, allowing Nuke Indie users to utilise learning materials created for commercial Nuke.
  • Other file formats not specifically limited can be exported from Nuke Indie (for example EDLs, XMLs, and geometry using the WriteGeo node).
  • Nuke Indie files (.nkind/.hroxind/.gzind) can be shared with other Nuke Indie users.
  • Nuke Indie files (.nkind/.hroxind/.gzind) can not be decrypted to be read by Nuke/Hiero.
• 4K Render Resolution Limit
  • Nuke Indie supports rendering images up to full 4K, the equivalent of 4096 × 3112, or 12,746,752 pixels in any aspect ratio. 
• Limited Python API Support
  • Calling greater than 10 nodes is not supported, limiting the ability for automation within scripts. Automating the creation and processing of Nuke scripts is not supported. Python tools freely available on sites such as Nukepedia may or may not work depending on complexity.
• NDK/ C++ SDK Not Supported
  • Custom C++ Compiled nodes will not work or load correctly in Nuke Indie.
• No external 3rd party or remote FrameServer rendering support
  • Using multiple machines to accelerate renders using the FrameServer is not supported. External render farms or cloud rendering services are also not supported.
• Forced version upgrade every 180 days
  • All Nuke Indie builds have a time out of 180 days, meaning that a user will have to move up to a newer version.
• Requires online activation every 30 days
  • Nuke Indie must be launched while connected to the internet once every 30 days to refresh the license on the local machine. A warning in-app will let you know if your offline license is near expiring. If your license expires, all you need to do is launch Nuke Indie and log in while connected to the internet.
• Licencing and community based support
  • Nuke Indie licensing support is available from support.foundry.com. 
  • Upon subscription Nuke Indie users are granted access to a private Nuke Indie Forum in Foundry’s community where they can discuss projects, problems and techniques used in troublesome shots and report bugs. You must login using the same Foundry.com account used when purchasing Nuke Indie to access the forum. 
• Nuke Assist not included
  • Nuke assist is a limited NukeX version with a minimal restricted tool set bundled with commercial NukeX and Nuke Studio is not with Nuke Indie
• No Alpha/Beta or Beta feature access

• Sync Review Restriction
  • This feature is available in commercial versions of Nuke Studio, Hiero, and HieroPlayer. An Indie user could purchase a separate HieroPlayer which has this functionality.

Nuke Indie builds higher than 13.2v1 will have a Nuke Indie TimeOut of 180 days. Earlier releases have a timeout after 90 days from Release/Build Date. Users will be prompted to update to a later version of Nuke Indie once this time period elapses. Nuke Indie is included in the Nuke binaries and can be downloaded from the Nuke Downloads page.

For all questions/help related to licencing you should contact our dedicated support team.

For all other issues, users should refer to the dedicated Nuke Indie Community forum, where you will find a designated section with details on everything you need to get you up and running. The forums are also a great place to ask questions, get help, post your work and exchange tips and tricks with other users.

Nuke Indie is an annual subscription payable in full upfront. Nuke Indie uses log-in based licensing. Simply log-in with the www.foundry.com credentials you used to purchase Nuke Indie.

Your Nuke Indie license will automatically renew every year, unless you opt out.

You can opt out of auto-renewal by logging into the My Account Area of the website and pressing the cancel button next to the appropriate entry. If you cancel your auto-renewal, once your term expires you will need to purchase a new subscription to keep using Nuke Indie.

You can use your Nuke Indie license across as many devices as you want with a maximum of 2 devices authorised at any one time

External rendering via render nodes or the FrameServer is disabled in Nuke Indie.

From Nuke, NukeX, Nuke Studio, Hiero and Hiero Player, the Nuke Ecosystem offers a wide range of solutions tailored to your needs. If you need advice on what licence is better for you, our sales team will be pleased to assist you here. You can also purchase directly here. 

End User Licensing Agreement