ZEISS' new CinCraft LensCore plugin launches June 1 and uses GPU-accelerated ray tracing to bring real lens physics such as bokeh, distortion, and vignetting into Nuke compositing.
ZEISS CinCraft LensCore is a new Nuke plugin that brings physically based cinematic lens simulation into post-production. Built on the Virtual Lens Technology the company first introduced a year ago at FMX 2025, it's been developed in a closed beta ever since and has now been confirmed for a June 1 release.
© Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg 2026
LensCore is built around a GPU-accelerated, ray-traced rendering engine for The Foundry Nuke that simulates lens behavior across every pixel and every frame. A single click applies a complete digital lens look to a shot, including bokeh, defocus, distortion, and vignetting characteristic of a specific physical lens. Through a digital lens shelf, artists can load profiles of real cinema lenses or their own custom presets and compare looks directly.
The system replaces manual per-shot setups with repeatable, consistent workflows across sequences and teams. It also allows artists to build entirely new lens designs grounded in optical physics, adjusting focus, T-stop, focal length, and focus distance while maintaining physically coherent behavior throughout. Further workflow gains can be made thanks to a built-in inpaint feature that fills in occluded areas behind defocused objects. This will reduce the need for 3D setups in the compositing workflow.
CinCraft LensCore will be available worldwide via the CinCraft webshop from June 1, 2026. Multiple licensing options will be available, but as yet we don't have any firm pricing information.