The Foundry, a global software company headquartered in London, is at the heart of innovation in the film industry, having developed radical special effects technology called Nuke. The New Economy takes a look at how Nuke is transforming the arts world.

The New Economy: These are the high-flying scenes we’ve come to expect in blockbuster movies; all created using Nuke Technology, built here at The Foundry, a global software company headquartered in London.

Simon Robinson: If you look at some of the recent blockbusters, the creation of any one of those shots is a massively complex undertaking, both in terms of the artistic contribution, the complexity of the computer requirements to do it, the size of the data that’s needed to make an image.

What makes Nuke special is, it’s able to handle all of that, and still keep artists being artistic at the same time.

The New Economy: The technology was applied in the film Gravity, celebrated as much for its special effects as its story. Scenes like this started out by using Nuke.

Courtney Pryce: The best comparison is to use Photoshop as an example: a compositing package where you take elements together, layer them, and you’ll get a final image. But the real power of Nuke is being able to take all of those elements together and bring them back into a final image, where we’re replicating what a real camera would do. Bringing in things like light wraps, atmospherics, blurs. The kind of collaboration of things that you would get inside of a camera.

The New Economy: Robinson says the special effects industry is being democratised, as more affordable technology such as Nuke breaks down borders: opening up the film and arts world to soaring new heights.