The Virtual Lens Technology announced a year ago (www.slashcam.de/news/single/ZEISS-entwickelt-virtuelle-Objektive-fuer-VFX-19280.html), with which Zeiss aims to bring the effects of real optics into a 2D compositing environment, will be available soon. The CinCraft LensCore toolset is intended to enable compositing artists to create high-quality cine lens looks based on the characteristics and physical principles of real lenses.
At its core is a proprietary GPU-accelerated, raytracing-based rendering engine for The Foundry Nuke, designed to simulate authentic lens behavior across every pixel and every frame, going significantly beyond the capabilities of previously available digital lens effects.
CinCraft LensCore
With a single click, a complete digital lens look can be applied to a shot – including realistic bokeh, blur, distortion, vignetting, and other optical effects characteristic of a specific physical lens. Through the digital lens library, artists can instantly load lens profiles of a real cine lens or their own presets and compare looks within seconds. This allows time-consuming manual setups to be replaced by repeatable, production-ready workflows, making it easier to maintain consistency across sequences and teams.
Beyond replicating existing optics, LensCore is also intended to enable the creation of entirely new, previously unseen lenses that still behave according to the physics of real glass. Artists can start with physically accurate ZEISS or custom lens profiles and manually adjust every central lens property. This allows the look to be pushed as far as the project's creative vision requires, while remaining anchored in credible optical imaging.
Every function is based on real optical parameters such as focus, T-stop, focal length, and focus distance. As a result, lens behavior remains physically coherent across the entire adjustment range. An integrated inpainting function (i.e., AI) is designed to intelligently fill in occluded areas behind out-of-focus objects.
The ZEISS CinCraft LensCore Nuke plugin will be available starting June 1st.
