Today brings some good news for not only The Foundry but also Nuke artists out there in general. Read the full article over at FXGuide, but the nickel version is that The Foundry has successively negotiated a management buyout from Windcrest Holdings and are independent once again!

LINK: The Foundry Announces Management Buyout

Since NAB, we’ve heard rumors from around the world that The Foundry was no longer going to exist as a company due to financial problems at Digital Domain. However, to steal a quote from Mark Twain, the reports of The Foundry’s death are greatly exaggerated. Thankfully for artists and those who wish for a diverse software market, The Foundry has announced that they are independent once again….

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The next 12 to 18 months should be critical as several major players will most likely replace their Shake pipelines or begin the transition to a new compositing software package. On the Toxik side, an OSX version was supposed to ship in March and is now about two months overdue. Layoffs at Autodesk towards the end of last year and recently have impacted all areas, including each of their products’ development staff. Eyeon has been improving their Generation app while development continues on Fusion 6, which was announced at SIGGRAPH 2008 but hasn’t shipped yet. These aren’t easy economic times for any company, as spending on upgrades and purchases has declined dramatically in the last 6 months.

This is really great news. And I’m very excited to see The Foundry continue to thrive and dominate the market with Nuke.