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Nuke 5.1v5 User Guide

1. amp oo o NIGWONS espre erep rerna ESIA ae Oa Gee ee Eeee rara aa Adding Viewer NodeS 06 4 0 44 444 4 40 49 4404 4 64064436 494 66 bo oe ws 4 00 Connecting Viewer Nodes 0 cc ec eee eee cece eee cece ccc ec ce oe OL Toggling VieWSsse sacs eect done eo oo iriri eR Ee ESS ow eS EES aneeaes a Panning and Zooming the Viewer Window ec eee eee eee eee ee cece e 08 Hiding Floating Viewers 0 eee ec eee eee ee cee eee eee eee eee ec cs 6 6 OG Using the Viewer Controls ccc cece eee ee eee eee eee eecec cess 0 6 OF Using the Viewer Composite Display Modes 81 Using the File BrOWSOD o2 6 aha eodeee nee es ar ed Rae ui deeeadeaweas aadOS Undoing and Redoing eo eo e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e La e e e Ad e e e e e e e 85 Customizing the Interface ee ee ee ee eee te eee eee 6 OB Interface Layouts e e e e La e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e 2 Ad e e Ad Ld e Ld e e e e e e 00 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Managing ScriptS 0 ccc cece ce cece tence e cence es ee ID Working with Multiple Image Formats 0 cee eee eee eee ee 6 ID 8 16 and 32 Bit Image Processing ce eee eee eee ee ee ee oe ID Setting Up YOUN SCiP sea 24 08 terti bd odd be ho nk Bae OO OS ee
2. 1 1 OVEIVICW 2 babe seu canner aa E eA a a a a L A Understanding Channels sesssssses esns s er eeeee hwo de os sea dese eee weal ld Understanding Channel Sets Layers cc cece eee cece eee cece ccc ccel II Creating Channels and Channel Sets 117 Calling Giants 444662574604 beg ood er hoeet eee bares pee eens eeneg aol le Selecting Input Channels 2 ccc ee eee ee eee ee eee ee eee eee ee ee oe IQO e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e a Selecting Masks e o o o o o o o o o o Hl Ul 1 20 T racing Channels oo 22 Renaming Channels oo o o o o o ooo oo ol Gl U T TI 1 22 NUKE Removing Channels and Channel Sets 2 eee ee eee eee ee ee eI 2Z2 Swapping Channels 0 ce cee eee ee eee ee ee eee ee eee IQS Channels from Mput 4 424444440464 446446 65445644446 64 0945 4554 54 eal Channels from Input 2 50 oo dos ose ooo oe wo 66 eo od oe Hee oe eee eae ZO Channel OULDUES 6 s 5 4 664 4 sy a s 0 ebro oe Oh ae Hod Hs
3. 2 244 245 Warping and Morphing Images 247 WARPING sac on eo ue aces oor cote ene Fer beedee E E 247 Warping Images Using the GridWarp Node 00 c cece eee eee ec ec eee oe 24T e e e e e e Cutting Clips oo Splicing Cli pucing Ips o o o o o e e e e e e Warping an Image Using the SplineWarp Node 2 cce eee eeceeecee ee 292 Animating Warps Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld 255 7 Morphing o o o o o o o oo Hol Ul 25 Creating Effects 0 ccc ccc cece eee e cence es 6 261 Background Reflections on Foreground Elements 2 2 261 Creating Star Filter Effects on Image Highlights 263 Creating Text Overlays 0 0 ccc ee ee ee ee eee ee eee eee ee oe 265 Crea
4. 0 cece cee eee eee eee teen ees 431 Altering a Script s Lookup Tables LUTs 0 0 00 c ccc eee eee eee 433 OVEN EEE oo ee alee Hard SS ee NEMO E ee dae eee ee haw eae BEd 433 Displaying Adding Editing and Deleting LUTS 0 cee ec eee eee eee eae 433 Selecting the LUT to Use 2 2 ccc cc ce ce ee ee eee eee eee eee eee e nee eee 435 In the display lut pulldown menu select the LUT you want to use 0 05 436 Default LUT settings lt a4 4o4 e400 Gasoee eae eo ns end beats Ree eb eee we us ees 436 Example Cases 0 cc ee we ete ee eee ee ee eee eee eee eee eee e ee eee 436 TOTOR LS errara ccee45 446s voueou 3oqugaceea Ea 438 The PY ONCGLS erecode ies Gece eas he ee ea ae a ee ee ere Sou ee eae 2 aS 438 Installing the Project Files ce cc ee ee ee ee eee eee nee 438 Tutorial 1 Compositing BaSicS 0 0 ccc cee eee 440 Stara NUKES serrer aes ees 6 aes EEEE eee kwon eae RERE Bee 440 Using th Toolbar 4 4 en c00n bs ov eud oes 4anneen ose Peewee eeueaee aude es 441 Using the MenuS 4 15 a0 9b we be 6 he Src ee wees Ae He DDG eDGS SES ESSE eee OSs 442 Customizing Your Layout 2 5054 o44e 0ne sc osuoe eh ener aeeceseeeus a8 443 Saving Files and File Backup 0 ec ee ee ce ee ee ee tenes 444 Setting Up the Project 2440540 sare boas dota deadu seh austaeGburctadese wad 446 WOKING WIA NOQOS oa nkosesened gus neceseetederee sows sae dasknnsd wus 447 Connection Tip
5. Figure 2 11 Disconnecting a pipe 39 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE To reconnect a node Drag on the head or tail of the connecting arrow and drop it over the centre of the node to which you want to connect Constanti Figure 2 12 Reconnecting a pipe Nuke distinguishes the dual inputs that may run into a merge node with the labels A and B A refers to the foreground element and B to the background element Nuke always copies from the A input to the B This means that if you later decide to disable the node associated with an A input the data stream will keep flowing because it will by default use the B input To duplicate a connecting arrow Shift drag the connecting arrow on top of the node you want to create a connection to Nuke duplicates the connecting arrow leaving the original connection untouched To add a node between two connected nodes Drag the node into the space between the already connected nodes As you do so you will see the link between these two nodes become active When that happens simply release the node you are dragging and it will automatically wire itself into the network between the two nodes To bend connecting arrows 1 Select the node before the connector you want to bend 2 From the toolbar select Other gt Dot A dot appears after the selected node causing a bend in the connector 40 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE 3 Drag the dot as necessary to reposition the bend Ti
6. You can then add any necessary nodes such as colour corrections between the OneView and JoinViews nodes Reproducing Changes Made to One View When rotoscoping creating paint effects or doing other operations dependent on image locality you can have changes made to one view automatically reproduced in the other This applies to the Paint node the Bezier node and any nodes groups or gizmos that have con trols for x and y coordinates To reproduce changes made with the above nodes groups or gizmos you need a disparity field that maps the location of a pixel in one view to the location of its corresponding pixel in 337 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE the other view You can create a disparity field using The Foundry s O DisparityGenerator plug in which is included in the Ocula plug in set or a 3D application Once you have the dis parity field you can store it in the channels of an exr file or use the ShuffleCopy node to add the disparity channels in the data stream where you need them If you have Ocula installed you can choose between reproducing your changes using the dis parity field or Ocula If you select to use Ocula extra refinements are done when correlating the changes from one view to the other This can improve the results when working with live action footage When working with CG images however the disparity maps should be accurate to begin with and produce good results even without Ocula
7. ADVANCING THE ART OF DIGITAL COMPOSITING FROM THE FOUNDRY NUKE USER GUIDE VERSION 5 1v5 FOUNDRY Nuke USER GUIDE Copyright 2009 The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd All Rights Reserved Use of this User Guide and the Nuke software is subject to an End User License Agreement the EULA the terms of which are incorporated herein by reference This User Guide and the Nuke software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the EULA This User Guide the Nuke software and all intellectual property rights relating thereto are and shall remain the sole property of The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd The Foundry and or The Foundry s licensors The EULA can be read in the Nuke User Guide Appendix E The Foundry assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this User Guide and this User Guide is subject to change without notice The content of this User Guide is furnished for informational use only Except as permitted by the EULA no part of this User Guide may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of The Foundry To the extent that the EULA authorizes the making of copies of this User Guide such copies shall be reproduced with all copyright trademark and other proprietary rights notices included herein The EULA expr
8. Cancel 3 Inthe dialog that opens type the name of the node containing the source parameter and a period Each node prominently displays its name on its face 4 Follow the name of the node by the source parameter s name and a period If you don t know the parameter s name you can hover over its field in order to see it displayed in a tool tip Optionally type the child parameter s name and a period Optionally type a frame number or offset variable in brackets for example 2 or t 2 in order to specify the frame or range of frame from which you pull values 7 Click OK This links the parameters which turn cyan In the Node Graph a green arrow appears between the nodes to indicate that they are linked via an expression 358 EXPRESSIONS NUKE 8 To edit the expression later on right click on the parameter and select Edit expression or press on the parameter You can also click the animation button and select Edit expression to edit expressions for all the parameters next tothe button GB nuke5 0 Ax Expression i Transform translate x 10 vil Cancel To reference values from another parameter method 2 1 Ctrl Cmd drag the parameter that has the values you want to use on top of the parameter that will receive these values This links the parameters which turn cyan In the Node Graph a green arrow appears between the nodes to indicate that they are linked via an ex
9. Editing Nodes To copy paste and perform other editing functions in the compositing tree you can use the standard editing keys for example Ctrl Cmd C to copy and Ctri Cmd V to paste You can copy nodes to files or memory Copied nodes inherit the values of their parent but these val ues unlike those in cloned nodes see below are not actively linked that is you can assign different values to the original and the copy When you paste nodes Nuke automatically connects them to the node that is selected before the paste operation If you don t want to connect anything click on a blank area of the work Space to deselect any selected nodes before pasting To copy nodes to memory 1 Select the node or nodes you want to copy 2 Choose Edit gt Copy or press Ctri Cmd C To copy nodes to files 1 Select the node or nodes you want to copy 2 Choose File gt Export nodes as script 3 Navigate to the directory where you want to store the node as a file 4 Type a name for the node s at the end of the pathway followed by the extension k To cut nodes 1 Select the node or nodes you want to cut 37 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE 2 Choose Edit gt Cut or press Ctri Cmd X Nuke removes the node s from the script and writes the node s to memory To paste nodes from memory 1 Select the node that you want the pasted node to follow 2 Choose Edit gt Paste or press Ctrl Cmd V Nuke adds the n
10. MERGING IMAGES NUKE Operation Algorithm Description Illustration Example Uses exclusion A B 2AB A more photographic form of difference exclusion from B A Image A is subtracted from B geometric 2AB A B Another way of averag ing two images geometric hard light multiply if A lt 0 5 Image B is lit up by a screen if A gt 0 5 very bright and sharp A light in the shape of image A hard light hypot sqrt A A B B Resembles the plus and screen operations The result is not as bright as plus but brighter than screen Unlike the screen oper ation hypot does not clip pixel values to a maximum of 1 0 in Ab Only shows the areas of Useful for combining image A that overlap mattes with the alpha of B Also available from In Merge gt Merges gt In 130 MERGING IMAGES NUKE Operation Algorithm Description Illustration Example Uses mask Ba This is the reverse of the in operation Only Shows the areas of image B that overlap with the alpha of A matte Aa B 1 a Premultiplied over Use unpremultiplied images with this operation Also available from Merge gt Merges gt Matte max max A B Takes the maximum val ues of both images Also available from Merge gt Merges gt Max min min A B Takes the minimum val ues of both images Also available from Merge gt Merges gt Min minus A B Image B is subtracted from A multiply AB Multipli
11. 2 Connect a Viewer to the output of the HueCorrect node so you can see the effect of your changes 3 In the HueCorrect properties panel choose the channels you want to influence Click sat to influence all channels red green blue and alpha equally Click lum to influence all channels but with luminance weighting in effect meaning that the red channel receives approximately 30 of the effect the green 60 and the blue 10 Click red to influence only the red channel Click green to influence only the green channel Click blue to influence only the blue channel Click r_sup to influence all channels but also mix in the values of the original red channel Click g sup to influence all channels but also mix in the values of the original green channel 146 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE e Click b_sup to influence all channels but also mix in the values of the original blue channel Note that you can select multiple curves in order to edit one curve with reference to another If necessary drag the cursor over the Viewer to sample the image pixels that are representative of the part of the image you want to correct Then in the HueCorrect properties panel press Ctrl Alt Cmd Alt on a Mac while clicking on the curve to plot a particular pixel s value on the curve This lets you see what portion of the curve you want to edit Edit the curve as necessary typically this means dragging down on control
12. 256 WARPING AND MORPHING IMAGES NUKE Source Curves 3 Scrub to a new frame on the timeline and adjust the curves to conform to the movement of the image If you have not checked autokey click set under Source Curves again 4 Repeat the previous step as necessary until you are happy with the source curve animation If you need to delete a key shape scrub to the frame where you Set it and click clear under Source Curves The current key shape is deleted and the curves for the frame are calculated by interpolation 5 Click copy under Source Curves and paste under Destination Curves to copy the source curves into the destination curves 6 Animate the destination curves in the same way as the source curves only using the controls under Destination Curves Morphing Morphing refers to dissolving two images together so that the subject of one image seems to change shape and turn into the subject of the other through a seamless transition A morph can be easily noticeable or very subtle An example of a noticeable morph would be a man turning into a woman or one animal turning into another whereas a transition from an actor to his stunt man would result in a much more subtle morph Figure 10 1 An image of a monkey turning into an image of a lion Morphing can be a time consuming task but it can be made easier by good advance planning of the shots The more similar the characteristics position and movement of the subjec
13. 75 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Viewer ragba rgba alpha RGR Aoengine vo xi 7 20 B defaut fe ki i a S E ti 0 ee a amp Full resolution id4 x1152 bbox 00 1440 1152 channels rgba lightingpasses x 1051 y 271 j 0 5 0 00 V 0 00 L 0 00000 He f Custom rgba rygba alpha RGB Aoengine vl xg 20 BR defaut fe pb 1 ya FE O 0 Ace amp Proxy 1440x1152 bbox 0 0 1440 1152 channels r teLlOs2e y Z960 exe j 0 00000 H O S 0 00 Vi0 00 L UOOU00 H 10 fps 4 i Custom Figure 2 31 High res display and proxy display l The global proxy resolution and or scale are determined by the project settings which you can open by selecting Edit gt Project settings or pressing S 76 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE LUT name label lock all connections frame range 1 30 W lock range fps 24 full size format PAL 720x576 1 067 proxy mode format proxy format PAL proxy 360x240 Figure 2 32 Proxy display resolution defined on the project settings properties panel You can also read in rendered proxies using the Read nodes controls The proxy file does not need to match the proxy resolution in use The closest larger image full size or proxy file will be scaled down to the required size Readl Sequence Node file E job engine_rgb_wh engine 04d rgb format PAL 720x576 1 067 proxy E job engine_rgb_wh engine_proxy 04d rgb
14. How do recover a backup file in the event of a system or power failure Good question When you relaunch Nuke you ll see a message that asks if you want to recover the autosave file for the project that was last open Click Yes and Nuke opens the backup file Tip The autosave files can still be useful even when you properly exit Nuke because they are not deleted from the directory You can for example rename an autosave file to create an archive of the previous version of your project file Sometimes you will see the recovery message even though you have not experienced a system failure This happens when you exit Nuke without saving the changes to a project file and Nuke recognizes that the time stamp on the autosave file is later than the Nuke project file you re trying to open In this case you decide which version of the project file you want to open Turning Off Automatic Backup Okay You re reading this so we assume youre a freewheeling rebel who possibly enjoys the risk of losing your work It s an adrenaline thing Or perhaps you prefer to do everything your self manually and you have a secret obsession for saving your files often Whatever the rea son you can disable the autosave features by setting the intervals for both autosave idle and force autosave to zero seconds That s it That s all you need to do Good luck 445 NUKE Setting Up the Project When you start a new project you
15. Tip When rendering with the Write node you can force a certain data type by adding the data type and a colon before the file path For example you can enter ftiff C Temp test tif as the file path to render a file whose data type is ftiff and extension tif Tip If you are rendering mov files you can choose the QuickTime codec from the codec pulldown menu and adjust advanced codec options by clicking the advanced button If you are using 64 bit Windows you cannot render QuickTime files This is because Apple has not released QuickTime for 64 bit Windows When writing QuickTime files some users have reported receiving the following error at the end of rendering Failed to flatten movie data the movie is open in another application This is because the output file has been opened by some other process This can be the Finder on Mac OS X trying to show a preview an OS file system search trying to index the file or a virus checker for example The workaround is to turn off Fast Start in the Write node controls to skip the flattening process that is affected 354 PREVIEWS AND RENDERING NUKE To render selected or all Write nodes in the script 1 Connect a Viewer to a Write node you want to render and verify that the correct resolu tion is displayed for output 2 If necessary press Ctri Cmd P to toggle between full res and proxy resolution The displayed output resolution will be used for rendering 3
16. To mount the dmg installation file use the hdiutil attach command with the directory where you saved the installation file For example if you saved the installation file in Builds Nuke use the following command hdiutil attach Builds Nuke Nuke5 1v5 mac x86ppc universal release 32 dmg 4 Enter the following command pushd Volumes Nuke5 1v5 This stores the directory path in memory so it can be returned to later 5 To install Nuke use the following command sudo installer pkg Nuke5 1v5 mac x86ppc universal release 3 2 pkg target You are prompted for a password 6 Enter the following command popd This changes to the directory stored by the pushd command 7 Finally use the following command to eject the mounted disk image hdiutil detach Volumes Nuke5 1v5 By running a silent install of Nuke you agree to the terms of the End User Licensing Agreement To see this agreement please refer to Appendix E End User Licensing Agreement on page 579 or run the installer in standard non silent mode Launching Nuke With the installation and licensing out of the way you re ready to start compositing with Nuke Depending on whether you want to use the Nuke Personal Learning Edition or the com mercial version of Nuke the procedure for launching Nuke is slightly different Both are described below beginning with the procedure for the commercial version Launching the Commercial Version To launch the commercial versi
17. You can also pass flags alongside the expression itself to control how the expression behaves For example to perform case insensitive searches you can enter i in the beginning of the expression or after one or more whitespace characters Displaying Script Information To display script information such as the node count channel count cache usage and whether the script is in full resolution or proxy mode do the following 1 Select File gt Script Info or press Alt l The script information window opens nukescripts get_script_darad for Volumes netpics Testing Nuke Seripts Internal fxphd_ class 08 nk Seript Volurwes netpica Testing Muke Scripts Intornal fephd_closs_Of nk Tote nodes 46 Resolution FULL RES Elements Channels in use 14 Channels left 1009 Coche Usage 0 mb Channel Data rgb roba 2 If you make changes to your script while the window is open click update to update the information 3 To close the information window click close Grouping Nodes in the Node Graph You can group nodes in the Node Graph using the Backdrop node or the Group node The Backdrop node adds a background box behind the nodes separating the nodes visually from the rest of the node tree A Group node instead combines a set of nodes into a single node acting as a nesting container for those nodes Grouping Nodes with the Backdrop Node You can use the Backdrop node to visually group nodes in
18. cf oe cf cf cd ff cf oe cf cf cf cf of eo R mi Nod 37 ena Ing O es Editi Nod 37 iting O es cf NUKE Cloning Nodes 64 4 s c2e04 46 beatae he coe eee ncdeweences baeeeesaen a DO Disabling and Deleting Nodes cc cc cece cece eect e eee eee ee ce 60 DY Connecting NOUS ses dre ay cae bose ee el Soe hee one eeee bene es bees S Indicators on NodeS ae44 ds 465 4444 44 6 ood doe Geo Os 8845 oO She ee oe Searching for Nodes 40244544058 450 555655550460 b66 bose se riaria aaa Viewing Information on Nodes 0 eee eee eee tee eee eee ee eee eee eee 6 AZ e e e e e e o e e e e e e e e e DA UJ Customising the Node Display Navigating Inside the Node Graph 0 eee ee ee eee ee ee ces AF PAN INGE a ec 4 E FG db as Oe oe OS ws oe LOOM 4 5 ac0y heed oor a 6 eG OE ee eo Oe eee oe eee eee bane Fitting Selected Nodes in the Node Graph 1 2 eee eee ce eee eee ee ee ee oe AB Fitting the Node Tree in the Node Graph 0 2 eee ee ee eee ee ee ee ee oe AB Properties panels ccc ce ee ee ee ee ee eee eee eee ee eee oe AB Managing the Properties Bin 0c cee cc ee
19. 0 0 ccc ccc cece ene ee 367 Displaying the Preferences Dialog cece ce ee eee eee nee 36 7 Changing Preferences ccc cc cee eee eee eee teen nee 367 Saving PreferenceS ccc cc ce ee eee eee eee eee eee nee 367 Resetting Preferences 264 4 604 i494 044644204 ee0 SHADE ORS CERREER ES COS 368 The Available Preference SettingS 0 cece ee ee eee ee nee 368 Preseren es Tab soro 406 a5 4400 8 0494 644546 54466645 5 0 oes 044s a 369 Windows Tabs erse 40s eh me bs trt O 4a ow es oe Se A OA a Oe Oe ee ae 370 Appearance Tab ba 4 50504454 60e4o08 5 oon h ou ea 4 ee Kes oe ee oo 373 Node Colors fab esse Goons eed choos irr Ero ee hee Eek boas E rekep EEE wes 374 NUKE 374 T 7 Viewers ab e e oe eo cf cf e Ld oe cf oe cf oe cd cf oe cd 3 8 Script Edi Tab 379 cript itor a Ea cf The Script Editor and Python 0 ccc ccc en oe BB Workflow oo o 381 sing t e cript itor e gt o o o o ooo ooo oo o Example Scripts Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld eo e e
20. 511 NUKE Epilogue Keying is rarely a simple matter of picking the screen colour you want to remove To get the very best mattes you often need to combine several techniques and you ve learned several in this chapter You ve pulled mattes with Primatte and Nuke s Image based Keyer and you ve used the rotoscoping tools to cleanup a matte and control the parts of the image you want to use in the composite You ve also seen how to key video footage by converting the image to its native colourspace and filtering the compressed channel data to pull a cleaner matte End of Tutorial 512 Nuke s 3D workspace creates a powerful compositing environment within your project script This workspace combines the advantages of cameras lighting and a three axis x y and z environment with the speed of node based compositing You pipe 2D images into the 3D space setup a camera animate your scene and then render the results back to the 2D composite Figure 4 1 Compositing in the 3D workspace The 3D workspace is defined by a group of nodes in your script The most basic setup includes a Camera node a Render node a Scene or Geometry node and nodes that provide the 2D images you want to pipe into the 3D compositing space clip01 0001 tif Figure 4 2 The basic 3D node tree 2D image geometry scene render and camera Once you have the 3D node structure you can use any Viewer in Nuke as a gateway to the 3D
21. Filter gt Blur Filter gt Godrays Filter gt Sharpen Filter gt ZBlur NUKE More Info Nuke User Manual page 150 564 APPENDIX C CONVERTING FROM SHAKE TO NUKE Key Nodes Shake Node ChromaKey DepthKey DepthSlice LumaKey Primatte SpillSuppress Keylight Nuke Equivalent Description Keyer gt HueKeyer Filter gt ZSlice Keyer gt Keyer Keyer gt Primatte Keyer gt Keylight OFX plug in optional NUKE More Info Nuke User Manual page 187 565 APPENDIX C CONVERTING FROM SHAKE TO NUKE Layer Nodes Shake Node Nuke Equivalent AddMix Merge gt AddMix AddText Draw gt Text Atop Merge gt Merge Common Constraint Copy Channel gt Copy lAdd Merge gt Merge IDiv Merge gt Merge IMult Merge gt Merge Inside Merge gt Merge Interlace ISub Merge gt Merge ISubA Merge gt Merge KeyMix Merge gt Keymix LayerX Max Merge gt Merge Min Merge gt Merge Mix Merge gt Dissolve MultiLayer Outside Merge gt Merge Over Merge gt Merge Screen Merge gt Merge SwitchMatte NUKE Description More Info May be added in line to composite text over an input without the use of a layer merge node In Shake this was added because the Image gt Text node did not have an input In Nuke the Draw gt Text node may be used in line or layered over another image with a Merge operation Nuke User Manual page 125 Set operator plus Set operato
22. PRIMATTE NUKE When you select it you are presented with a window that may look similar to one of these images depending on which Primatte algorithm you have selected Figure 7 17 Primatte algorithm Primatte RT algorithm Primatte RT algorithm Figure 7 18 Primatte RT and Primatte RT algorithms The different algorithms are described in more detail in a later section of this manual Here is a description of the tools and features of the 3D Viewer 3D Viewer Tools At the top of the 3D Viewer window are three areas that can be clicked on 1 Clicking and dragging on the blue centre area allows the user to move the window around on the screen 2 Clicking and dragging on the triangular white region in the upper right corner allows the user to scale the 3D Viewer window 3 Clicking on the square white region in the upper left of the window displays a pop up menu that looks like this 201 PRIMATTE NUKE E 3D VIEWER A selected feature has a solid yellow square next to it An unselected feature has a hollow yellow Square next to it Minimize This feature when selected makes the 3D Viewer window disappear Only the blue title bar at the top of the window remains Large Surface This feature when selected displays the large Primatte polyhedron in the Viewer window Middle Surface This feature when selected displays the medium Primatte polyhedron in the Viewer window Small Surface This featu
23. Reproducing Paint Strokes To create a paint stroke on one view and have it automatically generated for the other 1 Make sure there is a disparity field upstream from the image sequence you want to paint on If the image sequence is an exr file the disparity field can be included in its channels Otherwise you can use a ShuffleCopy node or Ocula s O DisparityGenerator plug in to add it in the data stream 2 Insert a Paint node after the image sequence you want to paint on 3 In the Paint node controls select all from the view pulldown menu Display the view you want to paint on in the Viewer 4 With the Paint controls open draw a paint stroke in the Viewer Select the paint stroke in the Paint node controls Click Correlate view from view using disparity For example if your paint stroke was in the correct position in the left view but not the right you d select Correlate right from left using disparity 338 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE Source Visible Frames curve keys color true color true color true color true copy color true color true paste color true color true color true attribute keys vy E o x bh cut COMOr true color trug h cut Select one or more paint strokes copy a paste List only visible delete Correlate left from right with Ocula Correlate right from left with Ocula Sorrelate left from right using disparit orrelate right from left using SEEN
24. e Frame the nearest original frame is displayed e Blend a mix between two frames is used for the in between frame This is quick to render and is useful when tweaking the timing on a curve before setting the method to motion e Motion vector interpolation is used to calculate the in between frame Sets how to control the new timing of the clip e Speed select this if you wish to describe the retiming in terms of double speed or half speed e Source Frame select this if you wish to describe the retiming in terms of at frame 100 in the output clip want to see frame 50 of the source clip You ll need to set at least 2 key frames for this method to work This parameter is active only if timing is set to Frame Use this to specify the source frame at the current frame in the time bar For example to slow down a 50 frame clip by half set the Frame to 1 at frame 1 and the Frame to 50 at frame 100 The resulting animation curve will result in a half speed retime 238 TEMPORAL OPERATIONS OFlow Parameter Speed Filtering Warp Mode Correct Luminance Automatic Shutter Time Shutter Time NUKE Function This parameter is only active if Timing is set to Speed Values below 1 slow down the clip Values above 1 speed up movement For example to slow down the clip by a factor of 2 half speed set this value to 0 5 Quarter speed would be 0 25 Sets the quality of the filtering when produc
25. e to open the shutter at the time you specify select custom In the field next to the pulldown menu enter a value in frames you want to add to the current frame To open the shutter before the current frame enter a negative value For example a value of 0 5 would open the shutter half a frame before the current frame randomize time on the Render tab Adjust this to add randomness to the distribution of samples in time so they don t produce regularly spaced images The larger the value the larger the time difference between the samples sample diameter on the Render tab Adjust the diameter of the circle that the samples for each pixel are placed in for antialiasing The larger the value the more pixels are jittered Warping an Image Using the SplineWarp Node The SplineWarp node deforms an image based on multiple bezier curves that you create The source curve defines where to warp from while the destination curve defines where to warp the source image to Unlike with the GridWarp node you can draw these curves anywhere on the image rather than only add points on the existing grid lines The controls for adding and modifying points are similar to the controls of the Bezier node To warp an image using the SplineWarp node 1 Select Transform gt SplineWarp to insert a SplineWarp node after the image you want to warp 2 Connect both the src and the dst input to the image Attach a Viewer to the SplineWarp node splineW
26. e to use input A if it is greater than input B or else use input B select max e to use input A if it is less than input B or else use input B select min Object Display Properties You can adjust the display characteristics of all geometric objects in a scene These settings don t affect the render output of the scene these are for display purposes only in the 3D Viewer To edit an object s display attributes 1 Double click on the object s node to display its parameters 2 From the display list choose the display type that you want for the object 296 3D COMPOSITING NUKE off Sph B wireframe 5 lid Sphere Node li solid lines display i aay X selectable render textured lines rows columns 3 radius v extent 180 M close top close bottom These are how each of the display options appear wireframe displays only the outlines of the object s geometry solid displays all geometry with a solid colour solid lines displays the geometry as solid colour with the object s geometry outlines textured displays the only the surface texture 297 3D COMPOSITING NUKE J VV j VV A PA Lh j f I M Sy T Ex N H We NV Wy x wi y Transforming Objects Transform operations include moving scaling rotating the objects in your 3D scene When an object node is active you can enter specific transform settings in the node parameters or
27. Python25 Lib site packages wx 2 8 msw unicode Mac OS X Install Python 2 5 1 from www python org Install wxPython for 2 5 unicode from http wxpython org You can install Python and wxPython anywhere you like as long as you point the sys path variable to them as described in step 3 Point the sys path variable to where the Python and wxPython modules are installed To see the directories contained in the sys path variable enter print sys path in the Script Editor To add a directory to the sys path variable enter sys path append directory In this statement directory represents the directory you want to add for example e sys path append System Library Frameworks Python framework Versions 2 5 Extras lib python e sys path append System Library Frameworks Python framework Versions 2 5 Extras lib python wx 2 8 mac unicode Linux Install Python 2 5 1 from www python org Install wxPython for 2 5 unicode from http wxpython org You can install Python and wxPython anywhere you like as long as you point the sys path variable to them as described in step 3 Only if you install them inside usr local Nuke5 1v5 site packages you do not need to perform step 3 Point the sys path variable to where the Python and wxPython modules are installed To see the directories contained in the sys path variable enter print sys path in the Script Editor To add a directory to the sys path variable enter sys path
28. The Projects e Tutorial 1 Compositing Basics Explains the Nuke user interface project workflow and basic compositing tasks e Tutorial 2 Tracking Stabilising and Matchmoving Demonstrates how to track image patterns stabilise footage lock down images for cleanplates and matchmove e Tutorial 3 Keying and Mattes Shows how to pull mattes with standard keying tools and Nuke s own image based keyer e Tutorial 4 3D Integration Shows how you can use Nuke s 3D workspace to help your 2D compositing Installing the Project Files Before you continue download the tutorial project files from The Foundry website and move them to a directory you ll create called Nuke Tutorials It s up to you where you put your tutorial files but here s our recommendations below depending on your operating system Tip If you re using a Mac or Linux system log in under administrator privileges to avoid issues with permissions when installing the files Whatever you do you ll need to remember where you put these files To create the tutorial directory Windows 1 On the Windows desktop double click the My Computer icon to open a file browser 2 Double click on Local Disk C and open the c Documents and Settings All Users Application Data folder 3 Click the right mouse button over the displayed directory and choose New gt Folder from the pop up menu 4 Name the folder Nuke Tutorials To create the tutorial directory Mac
29. USING THE INTERFACE NUKE The two images are displayed split screen in the Viewer nuke a Viewerl rogba rgba alpha RGB fg_green_ jwipe B Primattei 2 7 2D s default EENI 1 Hi G GHN rE z 5 Drag the handles of the crosshair to adjust the wipe e Drag the crosshair centre to change its position e Drag the long handle on the right to rotate the wipe e Drag the arc handle to cross dissolve the second image 6 When finished with the split screen select none from the Viewer composite list Tip If you press Shift while selecting a channel your selection only affects the currently active input of the Viewer node This way you can display different channels from the Viewer s different inputs For example when keying it can be useful to view the RBG channels from one input and the alpha channel from another and toggle between the two The display composite options over under and minus can also be selected to overlay two images When the two images are 2D this allows you to create a quick comp When one image is 2D and the other is a 3D node you can use under to line up the wireframe preview with the 2D reference and see how the 3D matches prior to a full render One example of this is when you want to preview a wireframe 3D scene with a background plate that you are trying to match as shown below 82 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Viewer rgba rgba alpha RGB
30. ccc cece cece cece ee cec cece ce Ld Launching the Nuke Personal Learning Edition PLE 000 ce eee eee e ee bl About the Personal Learning Edition 0 cece eee ee ee ee ee ee hl Differences between the PLE and the Commercial Version of Nuke 2 Using the Interface 0 ccc ce cece tence cen eee oe Ld Understanding the Workflow cece eee cece ee ee eee eee n es 6 hd The NUKE WINGOW 244 444 5 4444 dta eo NA hed oe HEME ES ORDER SEK ECO Panes and Panels 29 Tabbed Panels e cf cf oe cd cf cf oe cf ee oe cf cf cf oe cf 31 Toolbar Menu Bar and Content Menus eo e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e eo e e e e e e e e 31 f T Using the oolbar cf ff cf e of ff cf cf oe e cf cf cf cf cf cf 33 f Using the Menu Bar e 35 W ki i h N d 35 or ing wit O es cf cf Addi Nod 35 Ing O es e cf cf cf cf Sel i Nod 35 e ecting O es e e cf cf cf cf cf cf
31. from_sRGB Converts an sRGB color component See also to sRGB to rec O9f from_rec709f color com pixel value to a linear ponent value hypot x y Returns the sart x x x y See also atan2 y y This is the length of the hypotenuse of a right angle triangle with sides of length x and y int x Round x to the near x See also ceil floor trunc rint est integer not larger in absolute value Idexp x Returns the result of x exp See also exponent multiplying the float ing point number x by 2 raised to the power exp lerp a b x Returns a point on a b x See also step smoothstep the line f x where f 0 a and f 1 b Matches the lerp function in other Shading languages log x Returns the natural x See also log10 exp logarithm of x log10 x Returns the base 10 x See also log exp logarithm of x logb x Same as exponent x See also mantissa exponent 362 EXPRESSIONS Function mantissa x max x y min x y mix a b x noise x y z pi 0 pow x y Purpose Operator Usage Returns the normal x ized fraction If the argument x is not zero the normalized fraction is x times a power of two and is always in the range 1 2 inclusive to 1 exclusive If x is zero then the nor malized fraction is zero and exponent Returns zero return the greatest of x y all values return the smallest of x y al
32. projection mode render camera tessellation max 3 ambient 0 Figure 13 4 Parameters for the ScanlineRender node To add a ScanlineRender node Select the Scene node Choose 3D gt Render from the toolbar Connect the obj scn input to a Scene or geometry node Connect the cam input to the main camera Connect the optional bg input to composite a background image into the scene An fF WN Press Ctrl I Cmd I on a Mac to open a new Viewer to display the output of the ScanlineRender node When an image is connected to the bg input its resolution becomes the output resolution for the ScanlineRender node The Camera Node Cameras may be connected to either the Scene node or the ScanlineRender node The camera connected to the ScanlineRender node is the camera used for rendering 1 Choose 3D gt Camera to insert a camera node 2 Drag an output connector from the Camera node to a Scene node or connect the Camera node to a ScanlineRender node s cam input When connecting cameras for the 3D scene the camera you want to use for rendering should be connected to the ScanlineRender node like this Figure 13 5 Connecting cameras to the scene 279 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Any additional cameras should be connected to the Scene node When you have multiple cam eras associated with a 3D scene you can switch between them by choosing the viewing cam era from the list at the bottom of the Viewer See the next se
33. 1 black and 1 white You can also make colour replacements using the srccolour and dstcolour parameters First Sample the colour you wish to replace with the srccolour colour swath then sample the colour which you wish to use as the replacement with the dstcolour colour swath The colour in dst colour replaces the colour in srccolour throughout the image Also keep in mind that the HSVTool node makes an excellent keyer You can use its Hue Sat uration and Brightness range sliders to precisely select a range of colours then use the chan nel output pulldown at the bottom of the dialog to output this selection as a matte channel This pulldown lets you specify which colour components hue saturation value etc are added to the matte 145 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE Correcting Hue Nuke s HueCorrect node lets you make precision adjustments to the levels of saturation in a range of hues You do so via edits to a series of Suppression curves new saturation original saturation Figure 4 13 Editing the suppression curve By choosing which curve you edit and how much of that curve you alter you can precisely limit the influence of the effect Suppressing Spill For the compositor HueCorrect is obviously of greatest use in diminishing green blue or red screen spill To suppress spill with the HueCorrect node 1 Click Color gt HueCorrect to insert a node at the appropriate place in your script
34. 2 Right click over the node graph and choose 3D gt Scene Connect the Scene2 node to the ScanlineRenderG node Connect a Viewer to the ScanlineRenderG node and switch to the 3D perspective view 4 Right click and choose 3D gt Geometry gt Cube Render Image Draw Time Channel Color Filter Keyer Axis Marge earns Card Transform Lights ibe Modify Cylinder R i Hg vies ss ha d ig gt 0 fi ere Camera ReadGeo The default cube primitive appears at the centre of the 3D workspace Let s reduce the number of subdivisions on the cube 533 NUKE py vy 5 Inthe Cubel control panel change the rows parameter to 4 Change the columns parameter to 4 also Cube Node display textured 7 X selectable render textured separate faces r 0 5 t 0 5 fos rows columns 4 4 cube x 0 5 y 0 5 n 0 5 6 Connect the Cubel node to the Scene2 node Now let s adjust the shape of the cube 534 7 8 NUKE Reduce the height of the cube by dragging the top centre point down From the view list choose the front view to see a non perspective view of the cube These non perspective views can help you size and position objects with more accuracy than you might get in a perspective view Mm the cube is actually below the x axis Let s move it up but check the values in the Cubel control panel Drag the top of the cube until the t top value in the Cubel control panel is about 0 3 D
35. 3 Locate the Tutorial Path node on the left side of the script and double click it to open its control panel 4 Click the file folder button Browse to the location where you installed the tutorial project files and then click Open to select the location 515 NUKE Tutorial_Path Tutorial Project Directory ments and Settings All Users Application Data Nuke Tutorials h a After you select the correct path the error messages should clear from the Read nodes and the thumbnails in the script will update with the correct images 5 Close the Tutorial_Path control panel Then choose File gt Save As to save a copy of the project file 6 Move the mouse pointer over the node graph and press F to frame the entire contents of the project file The green arrows lines show the links between the Tutorial_Path node and the Read nodes 7 If you wish press Alt E to hide the expression arrows The Tutorial Path node saves the location of the project files on your computer so you don t need to repeat this for future sessions with this project file Figure 4 5 Node trees in the 3dinteg_tutor nk project file Setting Up a 3D System Let s start with the basics In this first example you ll create a basic 3D node tree map an image to a 3D card manipulate it and then render the result back out to the 2D composite To setup a 3D node tree 1 In the 3Dinteg_tutor nk project file locate the back
36. Blend between the output of the GridWarp node at 0 and whatever you have selected from the background pulldown menu at 1 Choose the appropriate filtering algorithm see Choosing a Filtering Algo rithm on page 160 Select the level of antialiasing to reduce any aliasing artifacts the warp may have caused Enter the number of samples to render per pixel when motion blurring The higher the number the smoother the result Setting the value to O pro duces no motion blur Enter the number of frames the shutter stays open when motion blurring For example a value of 0 5 would correspond to half a frame Increasing the value produces more blur and decreasing the value less 251 WARPING AND MORPHING IMAGES NUKE Control What it does shutteroffset on the Render tab Select when the shutter opens and closes in relation to the current frame value when motion blurring e to centre the shutter around the current frame select centred For example if you set the shutter value to 1 and your current frame is 30 the shutter will stay open from frame 29 5 to 30 5 e to open the shutter at the current frame select start For example if you set the shutter value to 1 and your current frame is 30 the shutter will stay open from frame 30 to 31 e to close the shutter at the current frame select end For example if you set the shutter value to 1 and your current frame is 30 the shutter will stay open from frame 29 to 30
37. Color gt HueCorrect Color gt Math gt Invert Color gt Log2Lin Color gt ColorLookup Color gt ColorLookup NUKE More Info Nuke User Manual page 154 Nuke User Manual page 143 Nuke User Manual page 155 Nuke User Manual page 153 Nuke User Manual page 141 Nuke User Manual page 15 7 Nuke User Manual page 155 Nuke User Manual page 155 Nuke User Manual page 146 Nuke User Manual page 156 Nuke User Manual page 141 Nuke User Manual page 141 562 APPENDIX C CONVERTING FROM SHAKE TO NUKE Shake Node LookupHLS LookupHSV MDiv MMult Monochrome Mult Reorder Saturation Set SetAlpha SetBGColor Solarize Threshold Truelight VideoSafe Nuke Equivalent Description Merge gt Unpremult Merge gt Premult Channel gt Shuffle Color gt Saturation Color gt Truelight NUKE More Info Nuke User Manual page 123 Nuke User Manual page 147 563 APPENDIX C CONVERTING FROM SHAKE TO NUKE Filter Nodes Shake Node ApplyFilter Blur Convolve Defocus DilateErode EdgeDetect Emboss FilmGrain Blur IDefocus IRBlur IDilateErode Sharpen Median PercentBlur Pixelize RBlur Sharpen Zblur ZDefocus Nuke Equivalent Description Filter gt Blur Filter gt Convolve Filter gt Defocus Filter gt Erode Filter gt EdgeDetect Filter gt Emboss Draw gt ScannedGrain Filter gt Median
38. DFARS 227 7202 1 a and DFARS 227 7202 3 The Software is the subject of the following notices e Copyright c 2009 The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd All Rights Reserved e Unpublished rights reserved under the Copyright Laws of the United Kingdom SECTION 17 SURVIVAL Sections 2 4 5 7 8 9 10 11 13 14 15 16 17 18 and 19 shall survive any termination or expiration of this Agreement SECTION 18 IMPORT EXPORT CONTROLS To the extent that any Software made available hereunder is subject to restrictions upon export and or reexport from the United States Licensee agrees to comply with and not act or fail to act in any way that would violate the applicable international national state regional and local laws and regulations including without limitation the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act the Export Administration Act and the Export Administration Regulations as amended or otherwise modified from time to time and neither The Foundry nor Licensee shall be required under this Agreement to act or fail to act in any way which it believes in good faith will violate any such laws or regulations SECTION 19 MISCELLANEOUS This Agreement is the exclusive agreement between the parties concerning the subject matter hereof and supersedes any and all prior oral or written agreements negotiations or other dealings between the parties concerning such subject This Agreement may be modified only by a written instrument s
39. Do one of the following e With the desired Write node selected choose Render gt Render selected or press F7 e Choose Render gt Render all or press F5 4 Nuke prompts for a frame range Enter the start and end frames separated by a comma i e 1 100 and then click OK File Name Conventions for Rendered Images There is no parameter in the Write node to specify output format Instead format is indicated by a prefix or an extension when you type the file name Here is the appropriate syntax lt prefix gt lt path gt lt name gt lt frame number variable gt lt extension gt The optional lt prefix gt can be any valid extension lt path gt is the full pathname to the direc tory where you want to render The lt frame number variab e gt is usually entered as 04d with the number 4 indicating frame numbers padded to four digits You can change the padding by substituting 4 with any single digit number For example two digit padding would be O2d three digit would be 03d and five digit would be 05d With these conventions in mind suppose you want to save an image sequence called final comp v01 to the TIFF16 format Here are examples of names that will work in the Write node ELETL6 lt path gt tinal comp_v01 2040d titFf lt path gt final_comp_v01 04d tiff16 tiff16 lt path gt final_comp_v01 04d All extensions supported by Nuke may be used for the prefix See Appendix B Supported File Formats o
40. For example 09 Full year For example 2009 Numeric time zone For example O800 Time zone For example GMT Frame number For example 23 Script directory path and script name For example Users john Nuke_scripts myscript nk The value of the environment variable specified Replace EVV RONMENT_VAR ABLE with an environment variable you have set For example you can use env USER to display the user name for example john on Mac OS X and Linux or env USER NAME to display it on Windows and Linux For a list of environment variables specific to Nuke see Nuke Environment Variables on page 409 The full version number of Nuke For example 5 1v5 Number of render threads used to calculate images This is in addition to a main thread used to update the graphical user interface GUI 267 CREATING EFFECTS NUKE Message Prints amp 174 amp 191 amp 234 amp 223 B amp 224 Tip To get a list of all the TCL expressions you can use with date type x on the Node Graph set the script command dialog that opens to TCL enter date h and click OK Repositioning and Transforming Text Using the on screen widget or the Transform controls on the Text node you can apply geo metric transformations including translations rotations scales and skews to the text To transform text 1 To reposition the text drag the centre of the transformation overlay to a new location 2 To tr
41. For example t nuke toolbar Extras False would either call an existing toolbar called Extras or return None if such a toolbar did not exist The new toolbar does not appear by default but is listed under Toolbars in the content menus From there you can insert it in any pane Once you are happy with the new toolbar and its position save the layout select Layout gt Save Layout 1 Thereafter the toolbar will appear whenever Nuke is launched 415 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE Split vertical D Split Horizontal Float Pane Close Pane Float Tab Close Tab Show Tabs Curve Editor Toolbars Node Graph Propertes Bin script Editor New Wiewer Figure 19 4 Custom toolbars are listed under Toolbars in the content menus You can build several toolbars for different tasks and save layouts that have one or another present for easy context switching Example 1 The following entry creates a new toolbar called Extras The toolbar includes an option called Create VectorBlur that creates a VectorBlur node The entry also defines v as the keyboard shortcut for the VectorBlur node t nuke toolbar Extras t addCommand Create VectorBlur nuke createNode VectorBlur Wag Extras Create VectorBlur k Figure 19 5 The result of example 1 Example 2 In this example we add an option called Autoplace to the toolbar created in example 1 This option places the selected nodes neatly one after another as i
42. HOT KEYS Keystroke s OF Tip 25 3520 Shift 0 1 2 3 Numeric keypad Right arrow Left arrow comma accent key A Alt left arrow Alt right arrow Alt Alt G Alt LMB drag Alt MMB drag Alt P Alt R Alt Shift R Alt W B Backspace Ctrl right arrow Ctri left arrow Ctrl NUKE Action Hide all Viewer controls Establish a numbered connection 1 9 0 between the selected node and the active Viewer Displays the node s output in that Viewer Connect reference inputs to Viewer Nudge on screen controls left right up or down See also Shift numeric keypad under Viewers Step forward one frame Step back one frame Gain display decrease Show hide all Viewers Display the alpha channel or the channel displayed in the list at the top of the Viewer Previous key frame Next key frame Zoom out by a specific percentage The represents a number between 0 and 9 with 0 10 1 100 2 50 3 30 4 25 5 20 6 16 7 14 8 12 and 9 11 Go to specific frame Pan inside the Viewer window Zoom in drag right or out drag left in the Viewer window Activate the VIEWER_INPUT node Resize Viewer to image see also Ctrl R under Viewers Resize Viewer and image to fit frame Activate the ROI feature or if a ROI exists clear the current ROI Drag to define a new ROI See also Shift W under Viewers Display blue channel RGB toggle Cycle through Vie
43. Hot Keys lists the keyboard shortcuts you can use for quicker and easier access to Nuke s features You can also open a list of keyboard shortcuts from the application by selecting Help gt Key Assignments e Appendix B Supported File Formats lists the image and video file formats Nuke supports e Appendix C Converting from Shake to Nuke shows you the main differences between Apple s Shake and Nuke If you are familiar with Shake but not yet Nuke we recommend you read this appendix e Appendix D Third Party Licenses ists third party libraries used in Nuke along with their licenses e Appendix E End User Licensing Agreement shows you the End User License Agreement that governs the use of Nuke software and this user guide Appendix A Hot Keys Keystroke shortcuts or hot keys provide quick access to the features of Nuke The fol lowing tables show these keystrokes This appendix assumes you are using the default keyboard and mouse button assign ments If the mouse buttons do not work for you as described here try resetting the mouse control type back to the standard Nuke setting Edit gt Preferences gt Viewers gt 3D Control Type Nuke Conventions The following conventions apply to instructions for mouse clicks and key presses e LMB means click or press the left mouse button e MMB means click or press the middle mouse button e RMB means click or press the right mouse button When you see the word dr
44. Increase the indentation level Action Repeat the last item used from the menu Action Open the selected menu item in a floating window Action Scrub the value up or down Scrub the value up or down slowly Decrement the value by 0 001 Increment the value by 0 001 Decrement the value by 0 01 Increment the value by 0 01 Scrub the value up or down fast Decrement the value by 0 1 Increment the value by 0 1 NUKE 556 Appendix B Supported File Formats This appendix lists the image and video formats recognized by Nuke When importing and exporting image sequences remember the following e When you import images with a Read node Image gt Read Nuke analyses the con tents of the file to determine the format The filename extension is not used to deter mine file format which allows flexibility with naming conventions in a production environment e Regardless of format Nuke converts all imported sequences to its native 32 bit lin ear RGB colorspace e When you render new images from Nuke Image gt Write you can use a filename extension to specify format Supported Image Formats The following table lists the supported image formats The extensions listed under Filename Extension let you specify the image format use these as the actual filename extensions or the prefix to indicate output format for the image sequences Format Bit Depths Read Write Filename Identifier CIN 10 log
45. Nudge on screen controls left right up or down by increment See also Numeric keypad under Viewers Display Red channel RGB toggle Current input only Region of interest ROI toggle See also Alt W under Viewers 2D 3D view toggle Update Viewer display Used when Pause is active press P Toggles Viewer blend split screen display on off This was previously called the wipe mode See also under Viewers Action Translate Viewer perspective on y drag up down or z drag left right Zoom Viewer perspective in drag right or out drag left Rotate Viewer perspective on x drag up down or y drag left right Rotate Viewer perspective on x drag up down or y drag left right Lock Viewer to selected 3D camera or light Rotate Viewer perspective on z 3D view bottom orthographic 3D view left side orthographic 3D view back orthographic 3D 2D view toggle 3D view perspective 553 APPENDIX A HOT KEYS Keystroke s X Z Bezier Draw Keystroke s 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 and 9 numeric keypad C Ctrl A Ctrl Alt LMB Ctrl LMB Delete Shift C Shift Z X Z NUKE Action 3D view right side orthographic 3D view front side orthographic Action Press the keys on the numeric key pad to move the selected points in the directions shown below Press Ctrl and the key to nudge in 1 10 pixel increments Make selected points linear Cusp Select all poin
46. This adds the disparity vectors in the map to the current values creating the corresponding paint stroke for the other view If you have The Foundry s Ocula plug ins installed you can also click Correlate view from view with Ocula for example Correlate left from right with Ocula This way extra refinements are made when creating the corresponding paint stroke and the results may be more accurate With Ocula installed you can also use the Ocula settings controls blocksize and searchsize on the Paint node In the Viewer switch between the two views to compare the original and the correlated paint strokes If you want to adjust the paint stroke further you need to adjust both views independently Adjustments you make to one view are not automatically generated for the other Reproducing Roto Shapes To create a roto shape on one view and have it automatically generated for the other 1 Make sure there is a diSparity field upstream from the image sequence you are manipulat ing If the image sequence is an exr file the disparity field can be included in its channels Otherwise you can use a ShuffleCopy node or Ocula s O DisparityGenerator plug in to add it in the data stream Insert a Bezier node after the image sequence you are manipulating 339 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE ainsi With the Bezier controls open create a roto shape for one view Go to the Bezier controls From the View me
47. USING PAINT NUKE 2 In the Viewer select the point that you want to delete 3 Press Delete OR 1 With the Select tool active select the paint stroke in the Viewer or the stroke list 2 Inthe Viewer right click on the point that you want to delete 3 Select delete point To delete an entire paint stroke 1 In the Paint controls click on the stroke in the stroke list to select it 2 Click delete OR 1 In the Paint controls activate the Select tool LS 2 Inthe Viewer click on the stroke 3 Right click on one of the points that make up the stroke 4 Select delete curve OR 1 In the Paint controls activate the Select tool 2 In the Viewer click on the stroke and select one of the points that make up the stroke Press Ctrl Cmd X Animating Paint Strokes All paint strokes that appear on more than one frame can be animated To animate a paint stroke 1 Draw a paint stroke that appears on more than one frame 2 Activate the Select tool and select the paint stroke from the list in the Paint node LS controls Move to a new frame Adjust the stroke vector or its attributes as necessary A key frame is automatically set The frame marker on the timeline turns cyan to indicate the selected paint stroke is animated If you made changes to a paint stroke vector the vector overlay in the Viewer also turns from pink to light green to indicate that a key frame has been set 5 Repeat steps 3 an
48. USING THE INTERFACE NUKE rgba rgba alphar none rgb rgba alpha otner layers PF depth new motion forward backward disparity disparityLeft disparityRight mask Figure 2 28 Selecting a channel set The Channel list controls which channel appears when you view the alpha channel The default setting actually does display the alpha channel when you press the A key however you can change this by selecting any channel in the data stream rgba rgba alphay RGB q f 8 b1 none raba red rgba green raba blue rgba alpha other channels Figure 2 29 Selecting the channel to display when A is pressed Superimposing an Image s Alpha Channel over its RGB Channels When you ve read in an image that has an alpha channel you can display the alpha channel as a red overlay on top of the image s red green and blue channels To display an image s alpha channel on its RGB channels 1 Select Image gt Read to read in an image 2 Connect a Viewer node to the Read node By default Nuke displays the red green and blue channels in the Viewer 3 Click on the Viewer to make sure it s the currently active panel 73 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE 4 Press M Nuke displays the image s alpha channel as a red overlay on top of the RGB channels 5 To return to the RGB display press M again Image Format Labels The Pixel Value indicator displays information about the pixel underlying the pointer or a
49. You can press the R G B and A keys on your keyboard to display the red green blue and alpha channels respectively Or you can also select a channel from the RGB pulldown menu in the top left corner roba alpha RGB Luminance Matte overlay RGB Figure 2 27 Displaying a single channel Press one of the channel keys again to toggle back and display all channels Tip If you press Shift while selecting the channel your selection only affects the currently active input of the Viewer node This way you can display different channels from the Viewer s different inputs For example when keying it can be useful to view the RBG channels from one input and the alpha channel from another and toggle between the two To achieve this do the following 1 Create a Viewer with several inputs See Connecting Viewer Nodes on page 67 2 Activate one of the inputs by pressing its number for example 1 on the Viewer 3 Press Shift and select RGB from the channel menu 4 Activate another input for example input 2 by pressing its number on the Viewer 5 Press Shift and select A from the channel menu 6 Toggle between the inputs by pressing their numbers or the up and down arrow keys Channel Set and Channel Display Lists The channel set list lets you choose a set of colour channels to display in the Viewer By default this is set to display the rgba set but you can choose any channel set in the data stream 72
50. a5 0 4240 seeened 6054645 64684 oe ededee ee o ae 481 PONOGUC 2 642 Je eae se E ess bee desea seas Bao e eo eee Ae ees Ste 484 Tutorial 3 Keying and Mattes 0 0 cc cc ce eee 485 Open the Tutorial Project File ce ee ee ee ee eee eee 485 Keying with PRIME Gs 60 4 42 600 vag oon acim th bes a4 eee eae a toe 44 486 Image based Keying 224 04 2c0c4csen corse te cheb aeets ebeteteeeens ces 492 ROCOSCODING wnwewe bee adeaeee as ue bows eek wake see bou sa oedu eee oes 498 Keying VideO cnc e466 anges eee conn i Erran ta sas 44640 Foe BOE de Re B42 504 oi eret ME tebe see eee eee ees Eh eee E E be Seat eee Ge eoX 512 Tutorial 4 3D Integration lt 3 lt 24642542240 0s0 i0e8e o4604446b500 513 The Basic 3D SyStem 2 2 4 464 64 6 44 4 44 244 bees iee nee EKO E Ewa EARLS bes 513 ie 2D ViOWel s234 44644 40 64 44 604 446 09554594555 44 5 556 20S a 513 The Geometry or Scene Node 0c ccc ee cee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee 514 The Camera Node 4 4 4 6 29 4 46 oo ae oak eh eg ORO a a Be 514 The ScanlineRender Node ss 4 46640 54 040056 sob ee ew eee ee ober ten eetw ved 515 Open the Tutorial Project File ee ee ee ee eee nee 515 Setting Up a 3D System 5 4 645 nog eotaedoms OAs RH4 COU MOREE SEO HE TS 516 Making a Scene tacccepewet ne causes Goose eedees Hee ee eee eee Ge Oa 523 Merging and Constraining Objects 0 cc ec ce ee eee nee 526 Animating a SEONG o 556 oe ooo bra oees Gost eor
51. clips 244 image formats 110 nodes 37 parameters 49 tracks with curves 180 tracks with overlays 179 elements cropping 113 rotating in 2 5D 172 rotating in 2D 166 scaling in 2 5D 172 scaling in 2D 167 Skewing in 2 5D 172 skewing in 2D 168 translating in 2 5D 171 translating in 2D 165 environment light 312 Environment nodes 313 expressions 357 adding mathematical functions to 359 applying to channel values 155 applying tracking data with 183 linking 357 syntax of 357 Expressions nodes 155 EXPTool nodes 464 EXR format 557 F FFT 20 file formats supported 557 file name conventions 355 FilmGrain nodes 149 filtering algorithms 169 selecting 160 fine tuning sliders Primatte 208 flipbooking sequences 350 466 formats CIN 557 creating with the reformat node 109 DPX 557 EXR 557 FPI 557 GIF 557 HDRI 557 IFF 557 JPEG 557 MOV 557 PIC 557 PNG 557 RAW 557 RLA 558 SGI 557 Targa 558 TIFF 558 XPM 558 YUV 558 Foundry Flexlm Tools 20 four point tracking 472 FPI format 557 Frame Blend nodes 235 frame ranges 100 FrameCycler 351 FrameRange nodes 244 frames Cutting from clips 244 interpolating between for temporal effects 234 full size formats 91 full size mode 91 full size formats 91 full size mode 92 G gain adjusting 140 displayed in a viewer 80 gamma adjusting 140 displayed in a viewer 80 generating tracks 178 GIF format 557 gizmos 419 Glint nodes 263 global frame range 242 Grade
52. compositing space Choose 3D from the view list or press the Tab key over the Viewer to tog 513 NUKE Viewer roba rgba alpha RGE A ScanineRenderi j 6 30 ae ee pirri i 2D Tab riside x x litside iLL ka top c bottom S hitt ic front rl back Shitt fe HO 1920x1080 bbox 001920 1030 channels rgba depth forward u forward j 60 Global Figure 4 3 Each Viewer window can also display the 3D workspace On the view list you ll also see orthographic views rtside Ifside top bottom front back which provide non perspective views into the scene In three quarter perspective it can be difficult to accurately place objects on the axes and the non perspective views make it easier to line things up The Geometry or Scene Node Every 3D system needs a piece of geometry a card a sphere a cube something to receive an image or clip that the camera can see One is all you need but you can setup complex systems with a large amount of 3D data When you have two or more objects for a 3D system you need a Scene node to create a place where the camera and the ScanlineRender node can see all the objects at once The Camera Node The Camera node creates your view into a scene It has several controls to help you match the properties of a physical camera You can animate its position or import animation or tracking data to matchmove your 3D scene with a background plate A 3D sy
53. directly manipulate the object with the transform handles displayed in the 3D Viewer You can also link transform parameters to imported track or camera data or control the transforms with animation curves Cameras geometry objects and lights have their own set of transform controls built in Using the Transform Handles Transform handles appear when a 3D object with transform capabilities is loaded into the Properties Bin The colours of the handles correspond to the axes available in 3D space red transforms the x axis green transforms the y axis and blue transforms the z axis To move an object with the transform handles e Drag an object to move it on any axis e Shift drag to constrain movement to one axis 298 3D COMPOSITING NUKE To rotate an object with the transform handles e Ctri drag Mac users Cmd drag to rotate the object on any axis e Ctri Shift drag Mac users Ctrl Shift drag to constrain the rotation to one axis Transforming from the Node Properties Panel The transform handles are a convenient way to move objects around in the 3D workspace but when you want more precision you should enter values directly into the object s node panel The panel also includes transform and rotation order options which are not available within the 3D Viewer The following assumes you ve already loaded the object s parameters into the Properties Bin To set transformation options e From the tr
54. disjoint over divide Algorithm A abs A B A B 1 a b A B if a b lt 1 A B 0 if A lt O and B lt O Illustration Description Only shows image A How much the pixels differ Also available je from Merge gt Merges gt 3 difference Absminus Similar to the over operation except that if a pixel is partially AJ covered by both a and disjoint over b disjoint over assumes the two objects do not overlap For instance two poly gons that touch and Share an edge Normal over will produce a Slightly transparent seam here Divides the values but stops two negative val ues from becoming a positive number NUKE Example Uses This is useful if you also set the mix or mask controls so that some of B can still be seen Useful for comparing two very similar images This can be useful if you want to merge element a over ele ment b and element a has element b already held out For exam ple you may have a CG character whose hair skin and clothing are rendered sepa rately so that each object has the other objects held out of the render In this case using the over operation would produce dark lines around the comped objects This is because over does a hold out of the back ground image mean ing the background will be held out twice This does not match any photographic operation but can be used to undo a multi ply 129
55. e e e Prim 7 ri atte 6 oe Be ES Re Ge EE OES OR SR 18 Accessing Primatte from Nuke 0 cece eee ee eee ee ee ee LB Primatte Basic Operation Tutorial 0 0 ee cece ee eee ee ee ne LOB Auto Compute oo 6 4 0 b 4 0 65 65 5 6H 6 dod oOo SS HESS ESTES ORES SSS 4108 Select BG Colour 0 cc ec ec ee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee sees 62 LOG Clean BG NOISE conse chance cesses cheats ea eeu es ou eeee eee casen ee aa Clean FG NOG 4 lt lt nos o 44 45 94 6 ao oe eos 6 SERS Se bee teme cont Spill Removal Method 1 4 4 4 00 4 4 044 K4e0004 6 bee 66 840 R bbe Sede dew earl OD Spill Removal Method 2 6 0 0 6 4 0 4 6 4 4 6 40 4 4464 40rd bo4GO hod ROSE o HS weal OD Spill Removal Method 3 194 Repeatable Sampling Tools 194 The Spill Sampling ToolS 4 e 04 0 oo6 44 606660686 449456044044 404oo eo eID e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e o e e e e e e e e o e e e e e e e e The Matte Sampling ToolS ss ss 40 esse 40 oS 644 9 oboe oes ooh 6 eene 6659 The Detail Sampling Tools 2 0 oe ee ew ee ee eee ee eee eee eee eee es 0 oe 196 Spill Replacement Options 0 cece cee ee ee eee ee eee oe A LIG NUKE No Suppression no suppression 000 cec
56. each keying tool and combine them as needed This tutorial shows how to pull keys in Nuke and how to layer the results with channel operations merge nodes and rotoshapes Open the Tutorial Project File The project file for this tutorial includes several node trees for the keying operations described in this chapter To open the project file 1 Launch the Nuke application and choose File gt Open from the menu bar 2 In the file browser navigate to your Nuke_Tutorials Keying folder select the keying tutor nk project file and click Open 3 Double click on the Tutorial Path node located on the left side of the script to open its control panel 485 NUKE 4 In the Tutorial Path control panel click the file folder button Browse to the location where you installed the tutorial project files and then click Open to select the location Tutonal_Path Tutorial Project Directory ments and Settings All Users Application Data Nuke Tutorials After you select the correct path the error messages should clear from the Read nodes and the thumbnails in the script will update with the correct images 5 Close the Tutorial Path control panel Then choose File gt Save As to save a copy of the project file 6 Move the mouse pointer over the node graph and press F to frame the entire contents of the project file The green arrows lines show the links between the Tutorial Path node and the Read nodes 7
57. exr proxy colorspace default premultiplied Mrawdata fyll res name proxy name Views main z file type exr 7 autocrop datatype 16 bit half compression Zip 1 scanline all heroview main gt render order multiple Write nodes render_order T Render 5 After the path type a name for the rendered image and then click OK If you re rendering an image sequence include the frame number variable for example 04d in the name See 70 render selected or all Write nodes in the script below for examples of valid file names with the frame number variable 353 PREVIEWS AND RENDERING NUKE 6 If necessary adjust the following controls e Using the channels pulldown menu and checkboxes select the channels you want to render e From the colourspace pulldown menu select which lookup table to use when converting between the images colour space and Nuke s internal colour space e From the file type pulldown menu select the file format for the rendered images If you don t specify a file format Nuke uses the extension in the file name to figure out the format 7 In the Write node properties click the Render button 8 Nuke prompts for a frame range Enter the start and end frames separated by a comma for example 1 100 and then click OK You can see the progress of your render in the status window that appears When the render is complete the rendered images are added to the directory you specified in step 4
58. for the other 1 Make sure there is a disparity field upstream from the image sequence you are manipulat ing If the image sequence is an exr file the disparity field can be included in its channels 340 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE Otherwise you can use a ShuffleCopy node or Ocula s O DisparityGenerator plug in to add it in the data stream Insert a node that has an x and y control after the image sequence you are manipulating Attach a Viewer to the node you added in the previous step and make your changes in one view From the View menu next to the x and y controls select Correlate view from view using disparity for example Correlate right from left using disparity This generates the corresponding x and y values for the other view Animation Controls clear all clear bkwd clear fwd update viewer center viewer predict track Tracker 1 X enable Use to calculate T R S tracki x oo GPSS T Split off left Correlate right from left with Ocula Correlate left from right with Ocula Correlate right from left using disparity Correlate left from right using disparity p i If you have The Foundry s Ocula plug ins installed you can also select Correlate view from view with Ocula This way extra refinements are made when creating the corresponding x and y values and the results may be more accurate If you want to adjust the x and y values further you need to adjust both views inde
59. green and blue are merged without conversion Checking this option can be useful if you want to duplicate the results you obtained from an application that uses the standard compositing math but applies it to non lin ear images for example Adobe Photoshop In this case you typically also need to make sure premultiplied is not checked in your Read node controls e By default the same math is applied to the alpha channel as the other channels However according to the PDF SVG specification many of the merge operations for example overlay and hard light should set the alpha to a b ab This way the input images remain unchanged in the areas where the other image has zero alpha If you want to enable this check alpha masking Merge Operations When layering images with the Merge node you need to select a compositing algorithm that determines how the pixel values from one input are calculated with the pixel values from the other to create the new pixel values that are output as the merged image The operation menu in the Merge node s control panel houses a large number of different compositing algorithms giving you great flexibility when building your composite The availa ble algorithms are listed in alphabetical order Tip With many compositing algorithms available it may sometimes be difficult to find what you re look ing for in the operation menu Luckily there s a quick way of finding a particular operation W
60. gt r nuke nodes Read file myimage 04d tift gt gt gt w nuke nodes Write file myimage 04d jpg gt gt gt nuke execute Writel 1 5 gt gt gt quit It s a bit tedious typing these commands in line by line So let s put them in a text file called imageconvert py and get Nuke to execute the Python script cat imageconvert py r nuke nodes Read file myimage 04d tift w nuke nodes Write file myimage 04d jpg nuke execuLle Writel 1 5 nuke t lt imageconvert py Environment Variables Environment variables are named variables used to store a value such as a Specific file path They can be used to influence Nuke s behaviour For example Nuke uses the information Stored in them to define where to place certain files Setting Environment Variables To set an environment variable On Windows 1 Right click on My Computer and select Properties Go to the Advanced tab Click the Environment Variables button The Environment Variables dialog opens 406 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE 4 Click the New button under either User variables or System variables depending on whether you want to set the variable for the current user or all users To set environment variables for all users you need to have administrator priviledges 5 In the Variable name field enter the name of the environment variable you want to set For a list of the environment variables that Nuke understands see Nuke E
61. hardness box If you also check edit pressure you can move the handles that appear in the Viewer to alter whatever is tied to the pen pressure opacity size and or brush hardness Original paint stroke Adjusting brush hardness Figure 8 11 Altering the hardness of the paint stroke with the Viewer handles instead of pen pressure To do this you need to check hardness and edit pressure Editing Comp Mode Using the Comp Mode parameter you can control which components of the image are affected by the paint stroke Options include the following e draw This is the default option The paint stroke affects all the channels of the image e luma The paint stroke only affects the luminance of the image e chroma The paint stroke only affects the hue and saturation of the image 226 USING PAINT NUKE e alpha The paint stroke only affects the alpha channel This can be useful for cleaning up a matte for example Note that when an alpha channel does not exist in the input the Paint node does not create one Comp mode set to luma Comp mode set to chroma Figure 8 12 Editing the comp mode attribute Editing Stroke Timing Prior to applying a stroke or when altering a stroke with the Select tool see Se ecting Strokes for Editing on page 223 you can edit the range of frames during which a stroke is visible To make stroke visible for all frames the default Press the Unlimited Lifetime button m To m
62. if you created a track for the left view and want to have the corresponding track generated for the right view select Correlate right from left using disparity This generates the corresponding track for the view you are displaying Tip If you have got The Foundry s Ocula plug ins installed you can also do the correlation using Ocula select Correlate view name from view name with Ocula This way extra refinements are done when generating the track and the results may be more accurate For more information on working with multiview projects see Chapter 14 Working with Stere oscopic Projects on page 329 Applying Tracking Data You apply tracking data to the input image or other Nuke nodes using either the Tracker node s controls or linking expressions Applying Tracking Data Using Tracker Controls The simplest way to apply tracking data to the input image or other nodes is to use the con trols of the Tracker node itself Here we look at using these controls to stabilise or match move footage If you need to apply a cornerpin track to another node you need to do it via linking expressions Stabilising Elements The Tracker node s controls let you remove motion such as unwanted camera shake from the node s input clip To stabilise the input footage 1 Create the track you want to use for stabilising the footage A single track is usually enough to stabilise a feature s horizontal and vertical motion across the 2D
63. if you have a 4K plate and are using a proxy scale of 0 5 your plate will still be 2K even in the proxy mode Setting the down rez factor to 2 in the Viewer will scale the plate down further to 50 of the proxy resolution that is to 1K This gives you much faster but less accurate feedback Pixel Aspect Ratio The pixel aspect ratio determines whether your images are displayed using square or rectan gular pixels By default the Viewer uses the pixel aspect ratio defined in your project settings To see the current setting select Edit gt Project settings or press S For example a pixel aspect ratio of 2 accurately displays anamorphic footage the way it will be projected like this Figure 2 34 The Viewer uses the pixel aspect ratio defined for the script 78 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE If you want to ignore the pixel aspect ratio you can toggle it by pressing Ctri Cmd Shift P over the Viewer window Figure 2 35 Press Ctrl Cmd Shift P over the Viewer window to ignore the pixel aspect ratio Region of Interest ROI The ROI button lets you enable rendering only through a region of interest a portion of the image you explicitly select This is useful for quickly viewing render results in a process heavy script To define a region of interest 1 Click on the ROI button in the Viewer controls The ROI overlay appears 2D QB default OU amp 2 Drag to resize and move the ROI overlay as necessary
64. it s often helpful to use effects that employ the Hue Saturation and Value HSV colour model As its name indicates the HSV col our model breaks colour into three components e Hue which refers to the colour s location on the traditional colour wheel e Saturation which refers to the extent to which the colour has soaked up its hue e Va ue which refers to the brightness of the colour Figure 4 9 Hue shift 143 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE Figure 4 10 Saturation decrease Figure 4 11 Value decrease Nuke offers effects that allow you to correct the hue saturation and value components indi vidually or collectively Correcting HSV Nuke s HSVTool node lets you simultaneously adjust hue saturation and value components from a single properties panel It also features a colour replacement tool The main strength of this node is the precision it offers in limiting corrections to a narrow swath of colours Figure 4 12 Adjusting colour within a specific range of pixel values For example suppose you wanted to add a bit more punch to the waterfront scene by diversi fying the rooftop hues To do so you could limit the correction to the rooftop s ochre col oured hues by sampling a few pixels then shift their values Because you limited the colour range the surrounding image would be generally unaffected by the shift To make HSV corrections with the HSVTool node 1 Click Color g
65. on page 221 To connect the Paint node 1 Click Draw gt Paint to add a new Paint node Drag the unnamed input to the node whose output you wish to use as the foreground If you plan to reveal pixels from a background element drag the bg input to the node whose output you wish to use 4 Repeat the above as necessary with the bg2 and bg3 inputs Applying Strokes Any given Paint node can hold many strokes and you apply them using any of the following tools Icon Tool Function Freehand Applies colours atop the current plate Reveal Applies pixels from a source plate to a destination plate Clone Applies pixels from one region of the current plate to another region of the 7 Removes pixels from existing paint strokes Current plate A separate Select tool lets you make changes to a stroke once it s been drawn see Se ecting Strokes for Editing on page 223 This section discusses the general steps for using each of these tools and gives instructions on editing the attributes timing and stack order of strokes 220 USING PAINT NUKE Using the Freehand Tool The Freehand tool lets you apply coloured strokes to the current plate Figure 8 1 Painting with the Freehand tool To use the Freehand tool 1 Set colour opacity brush size brush hardness and comp mode as described below see Editing Stroke Attributes on page 223 Set the timing of the stroke as described below see Editing Stroke Timin
66. or USERPROFILE into the address bar in Windows Explorer If the environment variable is set the folder it s pointing at is opened If it s not set you get an error e On Mac OS X Users ogin name nuke e On Linux users ogin name nuke 3 Put this file into the plug in path For more information on the plug in path see Environment Variables on page 406 When you next launch Nuke your new colour scheme is listed as one of the prede fined colour schemes Files amp Paths autosave filename Define where and under what name Nuke saves your automatic backup files By default the files are saved with the extension autosave in the same folder as your project files To change this enter a full directory pathname in the autosave filename field You can use va ue root name to refer to the full script pathname and file tail value root name to just refer to the filename with its extension autosave after idle for Define how long in seconds Nuke waits before performing an automatic backup after you have left the system idle that is haven t used the mouse or the keyboard If you set the value to 0 automatic backups are disabled force autosave after Define how long in seconds Nuke waits before performing an automatic backup regardless of whether the system is idle If you set the value to O forced automatic backups are disabled 369 SETTING INTERFACE PREFERENCES NUKE Setting Function Memory memo
67. or consequential damages including but not limited to procurement of substitute goods or services loss of use data or profits or business interruption however caused and on any theory of liability whether in contract strict liability or tort including negligence or otherwise arising in any way out of such code Portions of this software are copyright 2008 The FreeType Project www freetype org All rights reserved 571 APPENDIX D THIRD PARTY LICENSES NUKE Library GLEW Description OpenGL sup port License The OpenGL Extension Wrangler Library Copyright C 2002 2008 Milan Ikits lt milan ikits lieee org gt Copyright C 2002 2008 Marcelo E Magallon lt mmagallo debian org gt Copyright C 2002 Lev Povalahev All rights reserved Redistribution and use in source and binary forms with or without modification are permitted provided that the following conditions are met Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice this list of conditions and the following disclaimer Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and or other mate rials provided with the distribution The name of the author may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS A
68. or create a track in one view and have it automatically generated for the other in the correct position Splitting Views Off Splitting a view off allows you to edit the tracking data in that view only without affecting any other views that exist in your project settings To split a view off 1 Display the view you want to split off in the Viewer 2 Inthe Tracker controls display the Tracker tab Usually it is better to split off controls on this tab rather than the Transform tab The controls on the Transform tab will compute differently per view as long as the tracks on the Tracker tab are different per view 3 Click the view button next to the track you want to edit and select Split off view m name For example to edit tracking data in a view called left select Split off left Any changes you now make to the track in question are only applied to the view you chose to split off and are displaying in the Viewer Correlating One View from Another You can use a Tracker to track something in one view and have the track s x and y position automatically generated for the other view To correlate one view from the other 1 Track a feature in one view 2 In the Viewer display the view you want to generate the corresponding track for 181 TRACKING AND STABILISING NUKE 3 In the Tracker controls click the view button next to the track and select Correlate view name from view name using disparity For example
69. scripts on page 410 2 Create a menu option referencing the plug in file see Defining Custom Menus and Toolbars on page 414 Or instruct artists to invoke the TCL script by opening the Script Editor and entering nuke load procedure script file name where procedure script file name stands for the name of the procedure of script file without the extension Tip For some code samples of useful Nuke TCL procedures look inside the Nuke directory plugins directory 430 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE Template Scripts You can create a template script that is loaded instead of an empty script every time you launch Nuke or select File gt New or File gt Close This allows you to save lookup table LUT setups and favourite arrangements of nodes for example To create and use a template script Create the script you want to use as a template 2 Select File gt Save as Navigate to nuke The tilde stands for your home directory and the full stop for a hidden folder 3 Name your script template nk and click Save The next time you launch Nuke or select File gt New or File gt Close Nuke loads the template from nuke template nk Tip If you re not sure of the location of your home directory on Linux and Mac you can open a terminal window and type echo HOME The terminal returns the pathname to your home directory On Windows you can find the nuke directory under the directory pointed to by the H
70. scrub to the frame that contains the paint stroke s whose attributes you want to cut Select the paint stroke s from the list in the Paint node controls Under attribute keys click cut Nuke deletes any keys set to animate the attributes of the selected paint strokes and copies all these attributes to the clipboard Copying Pasting and Cutting Stroke Vectors After creating a paint stroke you can copy paste and cut its vector to use the same shape in other paint strokes Copying Vectors The copy button under curve keys lets you copy the vectors of selected strokes at the cur rent frame to the clipboard Unlike the cut button described below it does not delete any keys set To copy vectors 1 Inthe Viewer scrub to the frame that contains the paint stroke s whose vectors you want to copy Select the paint stroke s from the list in the Paint node controls Under curve keys click copy Nuke copies the vectors of the selected paint strokes to the clipboard Any keys set to animate these vectors are not affected Pasting Vectors The paste button under curve keys lets you paste any vectors that are on the clipboard to the selected strokes at the current frame It also set keys at the current frame to animate these vectors The attributes of the strokes or any keys set to animate the attributes are not affected To paste vectors 1 In the Viewer scrub to the frame that contains the paint stroke s to which you wa
71. the base of natural logarithms raised to the power of x Exponent of x Fractional Brownian Motion This is the sum of octaves calls to noise For each of them the input point is multiplied by pow lacunarity i and the result is multi plied by pow gain i For normal use lacu narity should be greater than 1 and gain should be less than 1 Returns the absolute value of the floating point number x Always returns 0 Round x down to the nearest integer Computes the remainder of dividing x by y The return value is x n y where n is the quotient of x y rounded towards zero to an integer Operator Usage optional frame defaults to current frame X y Z octaves lacunarity gain X Y NUKE Related Functions See also See also See also See also See also See also See also See also See also value y radians log log 10 mantissa Idexp noise random turbulence abs true ceil trunc rint ceil floor 361 EXPRESSIONS NUKE Function Purpose Operator Usage Related Functions frame Return the current See also x frame number from_byte Converts an sRGB color component See also to sRGB to rec O9f from_rec709f color com pixel value to a linear ponent value from_rec709 Converts a rec 09 color component See also form_sRGB to rec O9f f color com byte value to a linear ponent brightness
72. the user samples pixels on the image window known to be 100 background White noisy areas in the 100 background region will become black This is usually the second step in using Primatte Clean Foreground Noise When this operational mode is selected the user samples pixels on the image window known to be 100 foreground The colour of the sampled pixels will be registered by Primatte to be the same colour as in the original foreground image This will make dark gray areas in the 100 foreground region become white This is usually the third step in using Primatte Spill Sponge When this operational mode is selected the background colour component in the sampled pix els or spill within the image window is keyed out and removed for the colour region selected This operation can only be used once on a particular colour and the amount of spill suppres sion applied is not adjustable It is the fastest way to remove spill from a composite image For more accurate spill suppression a Fine Tuning or Spill operation should follow or be used instead This can usually be the fourth and final step in using Primatte unless additional adjustments are necessary 206 PRIMATTE NUKE Matte Sponge When this operational mode is selected the sampled colour within the image window becomes 100 foreground However if the sampled colour is already keyed out and removed it leaves the current suppressed colour It only affects the key or matte
73. viewer auto BG factor O auto FG factor O Primatte Algorithm Menu Primatte Algorithm The Primatte algorithm mode delivers the best results and supports both the Solid Colour and the Complement Colour spill suppression methods It is the algorithm that uses three multi faceted polyhedrons as described further down in the this document to separate the 3D RGB colorspace It is also the default algorithm mode and because it is computationally intensive it may take the longest to render Primatte RT algorithm Primatte RT is in between the above two options It uses a six planar surface colour separa tion algorithm as described further down in the this document and will deliver results in 199 PRIMATTE NUKE between the other two in both quality and performance Other disadvantages of the Primatte RT algorithm is that it does not work well with less saturated backing screen colours and it does not support the Complement Colour spill suppression method Primatte RT Algorithm Primatte RT is the simplest algorithm and therefore the fastest It uses only a single planar surface to separate the 3D RGB colorspace as described further down in the this document and as a result does not have the ability to separate out the foreground from the backing screen as Carefully as the above Primatte algorithm Other disadvantages of the Primatte RT algorithm is that it does not work well with less saturated backing screen colours a
74. 0 Viewer Input Toggle LUT Toggle A Nuke script may include a special node sometimes called a Viewer LUT or lookup table that adjusts the Viewer display to simulate the way the image will look after transfer to film video or other devices or media sRGB Click here to activate deactivate the effect of VIEWER_INPUT Figure 2 37 Toggling the use of the VIEWER_INPUT node Usually the Viewer LUT is a custom script that you create and import as a node This must be named VIEWER_INPUT to have an effect on the Viewers Any image you view is passed through it when the IP button is activated Normally the Viewer will send the image it is going to display through the VIEWER_INPUT process node then apply gain gamma and LUT effects to the result prior to display However depending on what the input process node is doing this may not be the correct order Therefore if your VIEWER_INPUT process node has float controls named gain and or gamma then the Viewer will drive them from the corresponding Viewer controls and not do that image processing itself This allows you to implement the gain and gamma in your VIEWER_INPUT process gizmo group node using whatever nodes and order you want If your input process node does not have gain gamma controls then the Viewer will apply the effects in its normal way after running the image through the VIEWER_INPUT process node 80 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE 2D 3D Toggle and
75. 0 uke se lt key gt NUKE_PATH lt key gt lt string gt SharedDisk Nuke lt string gt lt key gt OFX_PLUGIN_PATH lt key gt lt string gt SharedDisk OFX lt string gt lt G1CC gt lt plist gt This example sets two environment variables NUKE PATH and OFX_PLUGIN PATH NUKE PATH points to SharedDisk Nuke and OFX_PLUGIN PATH to SharedDisk OFX For a list of the environment variables that Nuke understands see Nuke Environment Variables on page 409 5 Once you are happy with the document select Format gt Make Plain Text 407 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE 6 Save the file to your home directory with the name environment plist Make sure a txt extension is not added to the end of the file name 7 Quit TextEdit and launch a Terminal window Enter pwd to make sure you are in your home directory 8 To move the environment plist file from your home directory into the MacOSX directory enter mv environment plist MacOSx 9 Log out and log in again On Linux 1 The procedure for setting an environment variable depends on what your default shell is To get the name of the shell you are using launch a shell and enter echo SSHELL 2 Depending on the output of the previous step do one of the following e f your shell is a csh or tcsh shell add the following command to the cshrc or tcshrc file in your home directory setenv VARIABLE value Replace VARIABLE with the name of the environment variable and value wi
76. 1 Use the Tracker node to generate four tracks one per corner on the feature requiring replacement Click Transform gt CornerPin to add a CornerPin2D node to the script Attach the CornerPin2D node to the image sequence that will replace the feature tracked above 4 Inthe CornerPin2D properties panel add linking expressions see Creating Linking Expressions on page 183 to the positional data for the four tracks generated above When linking a particular track to a particular corner keep in mind that tol refers to the bottom left corner of the image sequence to2 to the bottom right corner to3 to the top right corner and to4 to the top right corner 5 If necessary choose a different filtering algorithm from the filter pulldown menu See Choosing a Filtering Algorithm on page 160 6 When filtering with Key Simon or Rifmen filters you may see a haloing effect caused by pixel sharpening these filters employ If necessary check clamp to correct this problem 7 In most cases you will keep black outside checked This renders as black pixels outside the image boundary making it easier to layer the element over another If you uncheck this parameter the outside area is filled with the outermost pixels of the image sequence Using the Stabilize2D Node The Stabilize2D node is designed to remove unwanted camera movement rotation and or scaling from an image sequence The node requires data from only a single track if you
77. 1s and press Enter to view a list of files in the current direc tory On Windows the equivalent command would be dir e On Linux Mac OS X and Windows type cd followed by a full pathname and press Enter to change directories Command Line Operations Command line flags activate various options when you launch Nuke from a shell and provide additional functionality to Nuke First let s discuss how to launch Nuke from a shell On Mac OS X Open a Terminal and change directory as follows cd Applications Nuke5 1v5 Nuke5 1lv5 app To launch Nuke type this command f NukeS lt 1y5 Alternatively you can set an alias to point to Nuke and then you can launch Nuke from any directory alias nuke Applications Nuke5 1v5 Nuke5 1v5 app Nuke5 1v5 Change to your HOME directory cd Launch nuke nuke 402 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE Tip You can add aliases to a cshrc file in your home directory so that they are activated each time you open a Shell See your Systems Administrator for help setting this up Now you can start experimenting with command line flags on launching Nuke Here s one that displays the version number and build date nuke version If you have a Nuke script you can render it on the command line without opening the GUI ver sion Here s an example that renders a hundred frames of a Nuke script nuke x myscript nk 1 100 To display a list of command line flags switches available to you use the followi
78. 2 Select the file you want to preview Nuke displays the file in the file browser mAg Fomiat are 14401182 Frame 250l 1 to 26 i a edit 4 i F 10 DuDocuments and Setings ll Users Applicaton Datviuke TutoralsConpBasicetengine _rgbavengine v01 04d esr 1 25 W Sequences Filter To select multiple files with the file browser 1 Browse to the folder where you have the files 2 Ctrl click on all the files you want to open to select them Mac users Cmd click 3 Click Open Nuke opens all the files you selected Undoing and Redoing Nuke generally gives you an undo history that extends back to the first action of the applica tion s current session To undo an action in the workspace Select Edit gt Undo or press Ctri Cmd Z Repeat as necessary To redo an action in the workspace Select Edit gt Redo or press Ctrl Cmd Y Repeat as necessary To undo an change in a properties panel Click the Undo arrow button in the properties panel To redo an change in a properties panel Click the Redo arrow button in the properties panel 85 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE To undo all changes made after the properties panel was opened Click the Revert button an Right click on the properties panel and select Revert knobs from the menu that opens To set all controls back to their default values Right click on the properties panel and select Set knobs to default from the menu that opens Customizing the Inte
79. 21 31 41 In a script with two write nodes called WriteBlur and Writelnvert this command will just render frames 1 to 20 from the WriteBlur node huke X WriteBlur myscript nk 1 20 Using argv 0 Let s use argv to vary the output file name Launch the GUI version of Nuke and create a node tree that puts a checker into a Write node Open the write node property panel by double clicking on it and in the file text field enter this filename argv 0 04d tif Save the script and quit Nuke On the command line type nuke x myscript nk mychecker 1 5 This will render 5 frames mychecker 0001 tif mychecker 0002 tif etc 405 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE You can add another variable to control the output image file type The file text field needs this argv 0 04d argv 1 and then render the script using this command nuke x myscript nk mychecker cin 1 5 to get mychecker 0001 cin mychecker 00O2 cin etc The lt argv gt string can be any argv n expression to provide variable arguments to the script These must be placed between the lt script gt and the lt ranges gt on the command line You can include multiple expressions but each must begin with a non numeric character to avoid con fusion with the frame range control For more information on expressions see Chapter 16 Expressions on page 35 7 Using Python to convert TIFFs to JPGs This command line method will convert 5 tiff frames to jpeg nuke t gt gt
80. 3D Compositing Nuke s 3D workspace allows you to setup a 3D composite for camera moves set replacement and other applications where you need to simulate a real dimensional environment Although the 3D workspace has many potential uses you re most likely to use it at least initially to create pan and tile scenes These are scenes with 2D image planes arranged into a curved shape and then rendered out through an animated camera to give the illusion of a seamless environment 2D images on cards Animated camera Figure 13 1 Simple pan and tile scene Overview This chapter explains how to set up a 3D scene in Nuke and how to add objects and cameras in the 3D workspace You ll also see how to texture objects transform objects and cameras and render out scenes for use in other areas of your script pam SKY_Tile rgb 2D clips used as textures on 3D image planes oO D J uf Sc catlineRender Output of 3D scene ren dered to script as a 2D backround Figure 13 2 Script with 2D and 3D operators 277 3D COMPOSITING NUKE The 3D objects in Nuke appear as round shapes to differentiate them from objects that per form 2D operations As shown above Figure 13 2 you can mix 2D and 3D objects together in the node tree For example you can texture a 3D object with a 2D clip or take the rendered output from a 3D scene and use it as a 2D background Setting Up a Scene Each 3D scene includes the following
81. 3D Viewer the pan and zoom controls are exactly the same as what you ve used for the node tree and the 2D Viewer but let s try tumbling to get a better view 5 Alt or Option drag with the right mouse button to rotate around the origin point of the 3D workspace You now see the 3D grid and the image mapped to the card 6 F 30 BR defaut 7 Wi 7 O OH sca 4 al When an image is connected directly to a Card node like this it is applied as a flat or planar map The size of the card adjusts to the dimensions of the image 6 Click on the card and you will select the node in the node tree and also the card inside the 3D workspace 518 he NUKE Use the mouse and the Alt or Option key to navigate through the workspace Go ahead pan dolly and rotate at will Then press F over the Viewer to frame the 3D view Tip If you don t like the standard navigation controls open the Preferences control panel Shift S select the Viewers tab and change the 3D control type to Maya Lightwave or Houdini 8 Click on an empty spot in the node graph to deselect all nodes Let s add the other nodes you need 9 Right click on the node graph and choose 3D gt Camera from the pop up menu Keep its control panel open so you can manipulate the camera in the Viewer 10 Right click and choose 3D gt ScanlineRender to insert a render node and then connect the nodes as shown below nuke_sign jpg 11
82. 471 481 mathematical operations 153 menu options defining 414 Merge nodes 126 MergeGeo nodes 290 merging images 126 Mitchell filtering algorithm 163 MixViews nodes 334 monitors dual 86 morphing 247 257 motion blur adding 173 motion blur applying 243 MotionBlur3D nodes 320 MOV format 557 Multiply nodes 155 multiplying channel values 155 naming rendered images 355 node count 102 nodes adding 35 cloning 38 connecting 39 copying 37 customising 40 cutting 37 decloning 38 deleting 39 disabling 39 editing 37 pasting 38 previewing output from 349 selecting 35 Notch filtering algorithm 164 O objects Axis type 289 Card type 283 controlling display of in viewer 296 Cube type 286 OBJ type 288 skewing 299 Sphere type 287 offset adjusting 140 offsetting channel values 154 tracks 179 OFlow nodes 237 one point tracking 472 OneView nodes 337 online help 16 overlays for tracks 179 p Paint nodes 220 panning in the node graph 44 in viewers 68 parameters animating 56 displaying for nodes 49 editing 49 Parzen filtering algorithm 164 pasting nodes 38 pausing viewers 71 Phong nodes 293 PIC format 557 pivot points 300 pixel analyzer 273 pixel aspect ratio 78 109 pixel values 74 playback speed of clips 242 PNG format 557 point light 310 Point nodes 310 Position nodes 165 postage stamps generating 109 practical grain 150 preface 16 preferences 367 defining common 431 interface 89 re
83. A beconcle under B Read i a gt a0 BB default P fife P1 SE a i L ty ete p wy 4 ie Fi _ i E ei k i I i 3D node input ARIS A le eee _ p z U a Linder selected background plate For more information see Chapter 13 3D Compositing on page 277 Using the File Browser Whenever you load or save files in Nuke you ll see a browser similar to the one shown in Figure 2 40 The directory navigation buttons let you create or access the directory from which you wish to read or write data Script to open navigation controls 25002008 ESH pathname field filter menu Sequences Filter Figure 2 40 Nuke s file browser The navigation controls let you move through the directory structure bookmark favourite directories and create new directory folders 83 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE To use the navigation controls e Click the Create New Directory button to create a new directory at your current position in the file hierarchy al e Click Up one directory to ascend one directory level closer to the root e Click Home to access the directory defined as your local working directory e Click Root to ascend to the very top of your local drive or server s file hierarchy e Click Work to access the directory you or your system administrator defined as your net work working directory e Click the button to add a directory bookmark e Click the
84. CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE On Mac or Linux 1 Launch Terminal or a shell 2 Enter printenv A list of all the environment variables that are set is displayed in the Terminal or shell window Nuke Environment Variables The following table lists the environment variables Nuke recognises Environment Variable Description FOUNDRY LICENSE FILE The location of the Nuke license file a plain text file called nuke lic if the following recommended location is not used On Mac OS X and Linux usr local foundry FLEXIm On Windows XP drive fetter Program Files The Foundry FLEXIm OR drive letter Program Files x86 The Foundry FLEXIm for 32 bit Nuke on 64 bit Windows On Windows Vista drive etter ProgramData The Foundry FLEX Im NUKE PATH The location where files related to Nuke customisations are stored For more infor mation see Loading Gizmos Plug ins and TCL scripts on page 410 OFX_PLUGIN PATH The location where Nuke looks for OFX plug ins For more information see Loading OFX Plug ins on page 411 NUKE_TEMP_DIR The location where Nuke saves any temporary files that do not have a particular place defined for them This is also where the flipbook cache setting in the Preferences defaults to NUKE DISK CACHE The location where Nuke saves all recent images displayed in the Viewer Ideally this should be a local disk with the fastest access time available It should also have enough space for the maximum flipbook c
85. Camera Controls The 2D 3D list lets you toggle between 2D and 3D display modes in the current Viewer This list also lets you choose between different orthographic non perspective views when work ing in the 3D mode 20 E default 20 Tab rtside w R lfside Shift X top Y botton Shitt y front zZ back Shiftt 2 Figure 2 38 The 2D 3D views and camera controls The camera list on the right lets you choose which camera to look through when multiple cam eras exist in your 3D scene For more information on these controls see Chapter 13 3D Com positing on page 277 Using the Viewer Composite Display Modes The wipe control provides an option for displaying a split screen of two images which can help you compare before and after versions for colour correction filtering and other image manipulation This control also includes display compositing options to overlay different images To display a comparison wipe 1 Select a node in your script and press 1 to display its output in the Viewer 2 Select the node you want to compare and press 2 The 2 keystroke connects the image to the Viewer assigning the next available connection number 2 3 From the A and B lists on top of the Viewer select the images you want to compare The lists include the last four nodes connected to the Viewer 4 From the Viewer composite list in the middle select wipe Readl Je e 1 over under minus Wie 8 1
86. Click on a blank space in the node graph so that nothing is selected in the node tree 2 From the Toolbar choose Draw gt Bezier to insert a Bezier node EXP Tooli 3 Press both the Ctrl and Alt keys Mac users press Option Command and click inside the Viewer window to draw a bezier shape over the image like this 465 NUKE 4 To refine the shape click on a point to select it and then drag to adjust its position To create sharp corners select a point right click and choose Cusp from the pop up menu 6 To add points to the shape simply hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys or Option Command and click on the shape s outline 7 When you re satisfied with the shape drag the output connector from the Bezier1 node to the mask port on the EXPTooll1 node seTIPT _ Reformatt Le E _ In the EXPTool1 control panel the mask channel option is now set to the rgba alpha channel of the node that is connected to the mask input In this case this is the alpha channel of the Bezier1 node Creating Flipbook Previews On the Viewer window the timeline buttons let you play the project but if you pay attention to the frames per second FPS field at the top of the Viewer window you may notice that Nuke doesn t provide realtime playback This is because Nuke renders on the fly to display images in the Viewer It s fast but also limited by the amount of memory and computer processing power available t
87. Command Line Operations 0 ec ee ee eee eee cece oe 402 Environment Variables Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld 406 Setting Environment Variables 0 0 4044446 606 664s0 400446040 4404 004400 409 410 411 e e e e e e e e Nuke Environment Variables ce cee ce eee ee ee eee ee ee eee eee eee o Loading Gizmos Plug ins and TCL Scripts 0 0 eee ee ee ee Loading Python ScriptS os 4 000044 o06b1064eb0eeSraan veo daws oosrdeoee a e NUKE Loading OFX Plug inS 2 2624 0dcediadtewiaeebsbeveetecdavetan tat cus 411 Defining Common Favourite Directories ce ee ee ee ee te ee eee 412 Handling File Paths Cross Platform 0 0 cece ee ee eee eee 413 Defining Custom Menus and Toolbars cece eee cee eee eee 414 Defining Common Image Formats cece cee ee eee ee eee 419 Gizmos Custom Plug ins and Generic TCL Scripts 08 419 Creating and Sourcing GIZMOS 4 044 5 2 4 asd 6 6 45 044 4 6 6492556 bbe ed oe ee 420 Custom Pugni e wo ce hard bee e be eee oye oo a Boe Sow OE bs ase Ge 430 Sourcing TCL Procedre 4o2 lt 07 sa lt does sas cae oe eee tee ee ee ee ed eas 430 Template SCriptS es oa 6 4 644 6 doen soot cote 08S 46 OR CRETE DE EE ERE ASA 431 Defining Common Preferences
88. Connection Tips Most nodes have input and output connectors that are used to establish the order in which the operations will be calculated Input connector Mask connector Output connector Figure 1 6 Connectors on a node Try the following to connect nodes after you insert them into the Node Graph e Drag an input or an output connector onto another node to establish a connection e Select a node press the Shift key and select a second node Then press Y or Shift Y to create the connection Try this with various nodes as the results vary according to the order in which you select the nodes and the number of input output connectors on the nodes For example if you first select Node2 and then Nodel and press Y when both are selected you get the following result e For nodes that have two inputs select the node and press Shift X to swap the A B inputs 451 NUKE e Drag the mask connector to the node that provides the image you want to use as the mask for the selected node Importing Image Sequences For this project you need to import a few image sequences for the foreground elements and a background plate To read the images 1 Click on a blank space in the Node Graph This ensures none of the nodes are selected 2 Click the right mouse button over the Node Graph and choose Image gt Read from the pop up menu File Edit Render mage Read Draw Write Time Constant Viewer
89. Curve Editor e Click on the x inside a tab to discard a tabbed page e To move a tabbed page drag the tab to another pane inside the main window e To tear off a page as a floating window drag the tab outside the borders of the main window or simply Ctrl click Mac users Cmd click on the tab name e Drag a floating window into a pane inside the main window to convert it to a tabbed page e From the menu bar choose Layout gt Save Layout x to save the current layout Choose Layout gt Restore Layout x to apply a previously saved layout e To select a predefined colour scheme click the right mouse button and choose Edit gt Preferences Then click the Choose a Preset button and select a colour scheme 443 NUKE e Define other appearance options such as window colours and fonts by changing the settings under Edit gt Preferences gt the Node Graph tab Node Graph Curve Editor i Split Horizontal Float Pane R Curve Editor untied Close Pane Float Tab Close Tab Show Tabs Node Graph Curve Editor Node Graph Curve Editor Split Vertical Split Horizontal Float Pane Close Pane Float Tab Close Tab show labs Figure 1 5 Options for customizing the window layout Saving Files and File Backup We assume you already know how to save files Hint choose File gt Save As In addition Nuke includes an autosave feature which helps recover project files after a system failure Yes we know
90. E End User Licensing Agreement 579 15 PREFACE uke is an Academy Award winning compositor It has been used to create extraordinary images on scores of feature films including Australia The Dark Knight Quantum of Solace The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The Golden Compass Iron Man Transformers King Kong Pirates of the Caribbean At World s End and countless commercials and music videos About this Manual This manual consists of four sections 1 Getting Started which teaches you how to acquire a licence and install Nuke use the inter face and work with script files 2 Reference which describes key features of Nuke in more detail You can dip in and out of this section depending on what you re interested in 3 Tutorials which are designed to show you how to solve common compositing problems and help you really learn Nuke 4 Appendices which include the available hot keys supported file formats a Shake to Nuke conversion course and the end user license agreement If you are new to Nuke we recommend that you start by familiarising yourself with the Getting Started section and working your way through the Tutorials These two sections should give you a good base to build on when creating your own scripts If you then need an answer to a specific problem or want to learn how to use a specific feature you can always turn to the Ref erence section All the sections are colour coded
91. Editing the warp curve The basic rules for editing the warp curve are as follows e To slow down motion decrease the slope of the curve e To speed up motion increase the slope of the curve e To reverse motion create a downward sloping portion on the curve a dip in other words To warp a clip 1 Click Time gt Retime to insert a Retime node into your script 2 Click the TimeWarp tab to reveal the TimeWarp curve 3 Attach a Viewer to this node so you can see the effect of your changes 4 Sculpt the TimeWarp curve according to the rule above Ctri Cmd Alt click to insert key frame knots on the curve Ctri Cmd drag to reposition key frame knots Ctril Cmd drag to rotate a key frame knot control panies 5 If you want to enable frame blending on the output either input a value larger than one in the Retime node s shutter parameter or insert a FrameBlend node prior to the Retime node Global Frame Range and Speed Nuke automatically adjusts the timeline of every Viewer window you open to show the in and out frames for the clip you re viewing After you retime a clip in your compositing script you may need to adjust the script s global frame range and playback speed frames per second to account for the retiming operations 242 TEMPORAL OPERATIONS NUKE name lock all connections frame range 50 k 127 X lock range tps 24 full siz format root tormat Ea Ee proxy mode format p
92. Figure 2 2 How many points do you need to track e One point tracking Track one feature s horizontal x axis and vertical y axis position with little or no perspective change on the image You can apply this information to move other elements in the composite or apply the inverse to stabilise the image e Two point tracking Track horizontal and vertical position for two features The feature positions relative to each other indicate whether the image is rotating clockwise or counter clockwise z axis rotation In some cases two tracking points is sufficient to calculate the scaling of the features as well e Three point tracking Track horizontal and vertical position for three features Provides all the benefits of two point tracking with an additional set of tracking data for more accuracy on z rotation and scaling e Four point tracking Again all the benefits of the lesser tracks with an additional set of tracking data Three point is usually sufficient for most 2D tracking needs but four point makes it possible to distort and matchmove another element into the four points or corners of the features you track That s why four point tracking is typically called cornerpin tracking Open the Tutorial Project File In this tutorial you work from a project file that already includes the node trees Each tree is setup for the examples that follow To open the project file 1 Launch the Nuke application and choose File g
93. If you wish press AIt E to hide the expression arrows The Tutorial Path node saves the location of the project files on your computer so you don t need to repeat this for future sessions Figure 3 2 Node trees in the keying tutor nk project file Keying with Primatte The Primatte keyer includes a quick Auto Compute option that evaluates your image and determines a good baseline key From there you can easily tweak the settings and generate an acceptable matte 486 NUKE The two examples in this section show how to pull a key with the Auto Compute option method 1 and also how to manually sample a colour from the screen background and build your key from there method 2 To pull a key with Primatte method 1 1 In the project file locate the node tree labeled Keying with Primatte and make sure a Viewer is attached to the Reformat node 2 Choose Keyer gt Primatte to insert the keyer between the foreground image and the Viewer 3 Drag the bg connector from Primatte1 to the Reformat2 node which supplies the background image for this example The fg connector should be attached to Reformat 4 Move the time slider to frame 50 and click the Autto Compute button inside the Primattel control panel Primatte Node foreground rgb background rgb crop x Y r 1920 t 1060 mask none Initialize algorithm Primatte Reset Auto Compute viewer auto BG factor auto FG factor 0 That s it Y
94. In the Start at field enter the first frame you want to use as a key frame In the End at field enter the last frame you want to use as a key frame A W N gt In the Increment field enter the frame increment you want to use between the first and the last key frame For example if you want every tenth frame to be a key frame enter 10 5 Inthe last field enter the value you want to use for y If you do not enter a value here the key frames are added to the current curve without modifying the curve shape 6 Click OK To select points on a curve e To select individual points click on the point you want to select e To select multiple points Shift click on the points or drag a marquee around them A box is drawn around the points and the points turn white to indicate they have been selected e To select all points press Ctrl A Mac users press Cmd A A box is drawn around the points and the points turn white to indicate they have been selected 39 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE To move points on a curve To move a point along either the x or y axis only drag the point to a new location To move a point in any direction Ctrl drag Mac users Cmd drag the point to a new loca tion To adjust the values of a point numerically select the point and click on the x or y value that appears next to it To move several points at the same time select them and drag the selection box to a new location To add
95. OR 1 Over the Viewer press Alt W once do not hold the keys down The ROI button turns red but the ROI overlay does not appear This allows you to freely draw your own ROI rather than adjust the default overlay 2 Drag a marquee to draw the region of interest where you need it To clear a region of interest 1 After you ve set a region of interest you can clear it by pressing Alt W over the Viewer You can then drag a new marquee to define a new region of interest 2 To turn off the feature and update the whole Viewer with the recent changes click the ROI button again or press Shift W 79 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Adjust Display Gain and Gamma The gain and gamma sliders let you adjust the displayed image without affecting your final output These controls are useful for tasks like spotting holes in mattes You can boost or reduce gain by entering a multiplier exposure value dragging on the slider or using the F Stop arrows Boost or reduce gamma by entering a gamma level or dragging the gamma slider eS a gain toggle display gain slider gamma toggle display gamma slider Il sRGB zebra stripe button Figure 2 36 Display gain and gamma controls The gain and gamma toggle buttons let you switch between the default values of 1 no change and the last gain and gamma adjustments you made in the Viewer The Zebra Stripe button when pressed applies stripes to all pixels outside the range 0 0 to 1
96. OS X e Intel and PPC Mac OS X 10 5 Leopard e 5 GB of disk space available for caching and temporary files e 512 MB of RAM minimum requirement e AGP or PCI Express graphics card with at least 32 MB of video memory e Display with at least 1280 x 1024 pixel resolution and 24 bit colour e Three button mouse Licensing Nuke If you simply want to try out or learn Nuke you can run the Nuke Personal Learning Edition PLE without a license key The PLE allows you to explore practically all Nuke s features but prevents the commercial use of the application To use the PLE you only need to install Nuke on your machine see nsta ling Nuke on page 22 and launch it in a special way described in 19 INSTALLATION AND LICENSING NUKE Launching the Nuke Personal Learning Edition PLE on page 27 About the Personal Learning Edition on page 27 also provides you with more information on the PLE and how it differs from the commercial version of Nuke To use the commercial version of Nuke you need a valid license key You can obtain one by purchasing Nuke or by requesting a time limited demo license The instructions below tell you how to get a license key and what to do with it Without a valid license key the commercial version of Nuke will fail to run Nuke uses FLEXIm encryption in the license keys Node locked uncounted and floating counted licenses are supported We also supply a suite of tools to manage and monitor floating licenses
97. OS or Linux 1 Open a shell or terminal window 438 TUTORIALS NUKE 2 At the command line enter mkdir Nuke_Tutorials to create the tutorial directory under your user or home directory To download and install the project files 1 2 3 4 5 Open an internet browser and go to http www thefoundry co uk Navigate to the Nuke product page from the Products menu at the top of the home page Click on the Tutorials amp Example Images link on the right hand side You can also access this page by selecting Help gt Tutorials in Nuke Click the links to download the project files to your local computer Extract the downloaded files and move or copy them to the Nuke Tutorials directory you created earlier You re now ready to start the first tutorial with Nuke TUTORIALS 439 Hello This tutorial is your introduction to Nuke where you ll create a simple composite and breeze through most of the windows on screen controls and other user interface items We ve heard rumours that many people would rather march through icy rain than review an introductory tutorial on digital compositing Certainly that s not you When you finish this les son youll have a good understanding of the Nuke workflow and should feel confident about approaching the other tutorials Figure 1 1 Your first composite in Nuke Before you get into the project we have some administrative things to do such as defining
98. Oma Fee ee es ane 4 an 529 Working with Geometry 0 0 ec cc ce ee en ee eee eee t ene ees 533 Lighting amp Surface Properties eee ee ee ee eee eee eee 540 EMO GUC aco oo be mee COS wag oom Fe oe SO aR ae Gee oe 543 POP EING GE oss ss24655 4 56552000 destencscese beaceeseseanedeeas yeanes 545 Organisation of the Section 0 ec ce ee ee eee tence ee ee 545 Appendix A Hot KeyS 0 ccc ccc ce cence nee ete n en es 546 CONVENU 33445456400 065664sws diet oenpanddewe cede R Hae 546 Node Graphs Viewers Curve Editors Script Editors and Properties Bins 546 14 NUKE e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Properties panels 547 Node Graph e e Ad Ad e e e Ld e Ad e e e Ld d Ad e e e e e Ad Ld e Ad d Ld Ad e Ad Ad Ad Ad e Ad e e Ld Ld e e Ld e e Ld e Ad e Ad e e 548 Editi 550 iting Viewers e hd Ad Ad hd hd Ad hd Ad e e hd hd Ad hd hd Ad hd hd e hd Ad hd Ad e hd e hd 550 3D Viewer e Ad Ld e Ld Ld Ad Ad Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld o e e e Ad e e e Ad e e Ad Ad hd Ad e e e e e Ld e Ad e e Ld Ld e e e e e Ld e e e e 553 Bezier Draw hd e hd hd e Ad hd e Ad hd Ad e hd e Ad hd Ad e hd Ad e hd e Ad hd e hd hd Ad hd hd e hd hd Ad hd hd e hd Ad e hd hd e hd 55 Curve Editor eo
99. Retime node into your script 2 Enter a value in the speed parameter Values higher than 1 increase playback speed values less than 1 decrease playback speed Retimel Retime Time War p Node speed before after filter shutter 3 Check the reverse box if you want to play the clip backwards making the last frame the first the first frame the last and so on 4 Increase the shutter parameter to enable frame blending For more information see Interpolation below 233 TEMPORAL OPERATIONS NUKE To retime a range of frames ina clip 1 Choose Time gt Retime to insert a Retime node into your script 2 Check the boxes for input range and enter the in and out frames Retimel Retime TimeWarp Node input range 25 speed O 5 before hold after hold filter box shutter 1 For example if your original clip is 50 frames but you want to only retime the last half you would input 25 for the in point and leave the out point at 50 3 Check the box for output range and enter the in and out frames to retime to a specific Clip length Or Enter a factor in the speed parameter and Nuke will calculate the output range for you Values higher than 1 increase playback speed values less than 1 decrease playback speed 4 Check the reverse box to invert the selected frame range Increase the shutter parameter to enable frame blending Interpolation Time distortions that slow down
100. The lower the value the finer the movements The default value is 0 1 Camera interaction speed Set how fast mouse movements tumble and roll the 3D view in the Viewer The lower the value the finer the movements The default value is 1 378 SETTING INTERFACE PREFERENCES NUKE Setting Function delete Viewer node when When this is checked Viewer nodes are deleted from the Node Graph when you Viewer window is closed close the associated Viewers in the Viewer pane When this is NOT checked closing Viewers in the Viewer pane does not affect Viewer nodes in the Node Graph Viewer buffer bit depth Set the default Viewer OpenGL buffer depth e float Uses a full float texture and applies the LUT gain and gamma in the GPU e half float Converts to 16 bit half float and applies the LUT gain and gamma in the GPU e byte Uses 8 bit with error diffusion and applies the LUT gain and gamma in software This is the default Note When Nuke is set to use the 8 bit software path the gain gamma and LUTs are applied in the CPU and we also do error diffusion in the conversion from the internal floating point image data to 8 bit This is to avoid the appearance of band ing due to the reduced bit depth Without this artists often mistakenly assume the banding they see is actually present in their image data and try to blur to remove it softening the image unnecessarily However because Nuke works internally at floating po
101. The Foundry Before requesting technical support purchasers of the Annual Upgrade and Support Program must send an email to support the foundry co uk in order to register the names of up to 2 employees who shall then become the technical representatives of the purchaser The Foundry will endeavour to provide news of upgrades and technical support to the technical representatives however The Foundry cannot guarantee resolution or the results of any assistance that may be provided The Foundry s technical support personnel can be contacted by phone Monday through Friday excluding hol idays during normal business hours 0930 1800 and by email at support thefoundry co uk Subsequent renewals of the Annual Upgrade and Support Program will be charged at the rate shown in The Foundry s current price list 580 APPENDIX E END USER LICENSING AGREEMENT NUKE SECTION 7 TAXES AND DUTIES Licensee agrees to pay and indemnify The Foundry from claims for any local state or national tax exclusive of taxes based on net income duty tariff or other impost related to or arising from the transaction contemplated by this Agreement SECTION 8 LIMITED WARRANTY The Foundry warrants that for a period of ninety 90 days after delivery of the Software a the machine readable electronic files constituting the Software and Documentation shall be free from errors that may arise from the electronic file transfer from The Foundry and or its authorized r
102. This is done via a system of coloured rectangles which allows you to trace the flow of channels throughout a script Look closer for example at the Over node The wide rectangles indicate channels which Nuke processes in this case the red green blue and alpha channels The narrow rectangles indi cate channels that Nuke passes onto the next node without processing in this case the mattes soft and mattes hard Figure 2 5 Visual confirmation of extra channels Renaming Channels In the course of building your script you may find it necessary to replace certain channels in a channel set To rename a channel 1 Open the properties panel for a node which has the channel selected on the channels input or output pulldown list 2 Click on the list where the channel is displayed and choose rename The Rename Channel box appears 3 Enter a new name for the channel and click OK Removing Channels and Channel Sets When you are done using a channel set or a channel within a set you may wish for the sake of clarity to remove it so that it is no longer passed to downstream nodes Note that leaving channels in the stream will not itself cause them to be computed only channels required are computed 122 CHANNELS NUKE To remove a channel set or a channel within a set 1 Click Channel gt Remove to insert a Remove node at the appropriate point in your script 2 Inthe Remove properties panel select the chann
103. Viewer scrub to the frame that contains the paint stroke s whose attributes you want to copy Select the paint stroke s from the list in the Paint node controls Under attribute keys click copy Nuke copies all the attributes of the selected paint strokes to the clipboard Any keys set to animate these attributes are not affected Pasting Attributes The paste button under attribute keys lets you paste any attributes that are on the clip board to the selected strokes at the current frame It also set keys at the current frame to animate these attributes The shape of the strokes or any keys set to animate their shape are not affected To paste attributes 1 In the Viewer scrub to the frame that contains the paint stroke s to which you want to apply the attributes on the clipboard Select the paint stroke s from the list in the Paint node controls Under attribute keys click paste Nuke applies the attributes on the clipboard to the selected paint strokes and sets the Current frame as a key frame The attributes of the selected paint strokes on other frames are not affected 230 USING PAINT NUKE Cutting Attributes The cut button under attribute keys lets you delete any keys set at the current frame to ani mate the attributes of selected strokes It also copies these attributes to the clipboard The shape of the strokes or any keys set to animate their shape are not affected To cut attributes 1 In the Viewer
104. When a variable is used Nuke reads in the missing inputs and combines all inputs into a single output For example if you read in image left cin and changed the name to image V cin Nuke would read in both image left cin and image right cin with the same Read node pro vided that views called left and right existed in your project settings Both input images would be combined into a single output You can also use the V and v variables at a directory level For example let s say you have set up views called testleft testmiddle and testright and you have the fol lowing directories and files mydirectory testleft image testleft cin mydirectory testmiddle image testmiddle cin mydirectory testright image testright cin If you now read in image testleft cin and changed the pathname to mydirectory V image V cin all three inputs would be read in with the same Read node e If the images you want to read in do NOT contain a view name or the initial letter of one for example left right or r in the filenames and are not stereo exr files insert a Read node for each input and combine them into a single output using the JoinViews node see below for instructions on how to do that e lf the images you want to read in are in the stereo exr file format you do not need to do anything However remember that not all exr files are stereo exrs If you are using ones that are not follow the instructions in the first two points To c
105. X recalculate normals arate heckerBoard Figure 13 20 Using the DisplaceGeo node to modify geometry To modify objects using an image 1 Select 3D gt Modify gt DisplaceGeo to insert a DisplaceGeo node anywhere after the 3D object you want to modify Attach a Viewer to the node to see your changes In the node s controls use the display pulldown menu to select how you want to view your object in the Viewer while making changes to it 4 Read in your image map and connect it to the DisplaceGeo node s displace input Adjust the following controls e From the channels pulldown menu and check boxes select the channels to use for the displacement value e From the source pulldown menu select the source for the displace value For example if you selected rgb or rgba from the channels pulldown menu you can use the red green or blue channel or the pixel luminance as the source e To define the scale of the displacement adjust the scale slider The higher the value the bigger the displacement e To give x y and z different weightings enter new weights the weight fields By default each weighting is set to 1 If you don t want to make changes to a value set its weight to 0 306 3D COMPOSITING NUKE e To offset x y and z values enter the value by which you want to offset them in the offset fields For example if you enter 0 5 in the y offset field 0 5 is added to the y value e To change the size of
106. a Mac Nuke automatically scales script elements bezier shapes paint curves garbage masks tracking curves and so on to keep the original placement on the image Caching To ensure fast playback Nuke caches any output to the Viewer to either RAM or disk To define the settings for caching 1 Select Edit gt Preferences The Preferences dialog opens 2 Under disk cache specify where you want Nuke to cache out data to disk Pick a local disk for example c temp preferably with the fastest access time available 3 From the disk cache size menu pick the maximum size the disk cache can reach Ensure there is enough space on the disk for this to be reached Saving Scripts and Recovering Backups You know the mantra save and save often Nuke provides three ways to save your scripts plus an automatic timed backup Saving Scripts There are three ways of saving scripts e To save a new script select File gt Save as or press Shift Ctri Cmd S e To update changes to a script already saved File gt Save or press Ctrl Cmd 5 e To save and upgrade to the next version File gt Save new version or press Alt Shift S To save a script 1 Select File gt Save as The Save script as dialog opens 2 Browse to the directory where you want to store the script For instructions on using the file browser see Using the File Browser on page 83 3 In the field in the bottom of the dialog enter a name for the s
107. adjust this 293 3D COMPOSITING NUKE value you need to look at the rendered 2D image to see the effect of your changes Changing the emission value does not have any effect in the 3D Viewer e diffuse to control the colour of the material when illuminated e specular to control how bright the highlights on the material seem e min shininess and max shininess to set the minimum and maximum shininess values If you haven t connected an image to the mapSh input of the node the average of these values is used as the shininess value for the material e shininess channel to control how the input channels are used to map the black and white values to the minShininess and maxShininess parameters when a mapSh input is connected Choose red to use the red channel for the mapping green to use the green channel blue to use the blue channel luminance to use the luminance or average rgb to use the average of the red green and blue channels Projecting Textures onto Objects You can use the UVProject and the Project3D nodes to project texture images onto your 3D objects This way you can add detail surface texture or colour to your geometry making the geometry more realistic and interesting The UVProject node changes the uv values of the vertices whereas the Project3D node is a material shader Projecting Textures with the UVProject node The UVProject node sets the uv coordinates for the object allowing you to project a texture im
108. alpha channel by this result You can also use the inverse of this matte for additional degraining OFlow Retiming The OFlow node generates high quality retiming operations analysing the movement of all pix els in the frames and then rendering new in between images based on that analysis This node can also add motion blur or enhance the existing motion blur in the image To retime with OFlow 1 Select the node for the clip that you want to retime 2 Choose Time gt OFlow from the menu bar 3 Set the speed of the output clip A value of 0 5 will slow the movement down 237 TEMPORAL OPERATIONS NUKE OFlowL OFlow Node Method Timing speed Filtering Warp Mode Shutter Samples Vector Detail Smoothness Block Size Tolerances Wei q ht Red Weight Green Weight Blue Moton Speed 0 5 Normal Normal 7 X Correct Luminance X Automatic Shutter Time 0 3 0 6 0 1 Show Vectors About That s pretty much it If you prefer you can map input to output frames to retime the clip For example if you wanted to halve the speed of a 50 frame clip using this method switch Timing to Source Frame On frame 1 set a key for the Frame value to be 1 On frame 50 set a key for the Frame value to be 25 OFlow Parameters The following table describes the different parameters in the OFlow node s controls OFlow Parameter Method Timing Frame Function Sets the interpolation algorithm
109. an element using the Transform node Nes Click Transform gt Transform to insert a Transform node at appropriate place in your script Connect a Viewer to the output of the Transform node so you can See the effect of your changes In the Transform properties panel choose the appropriate filtering algorithm from the filter pulldown list see Choosing a Filtering Algorithm on page 160 Position the pivot point as necessary e Increment or decrement the center x and y fields to move the axis in either direction e Or press Ctrl Cmd on a Mac while dragging on the centre of the transformation overlay Increment or decrement the rotate field Or drag on the horizontal bar of the transformation overlay 166 TRANSFORMING ELEMENTS NUKE Scaling Elements To sca e an element is to resize it by adding upsampling or removing downsampling pixels Nuke offers several nodes for scaling elements Transform whose scaling functions are described below is designed primarily for scaling up or down the background plate in a com posite Reformat is designed for writing out elements with specific resolutions and pixel aspect ratios Adding Motion Blur on page 173 describes the use of this node To scale an element using the Transform node 1 Click Transform gt Transform to insert a Transform node at appropriate place in your script 2 Connect a Viewer to the output of the Transform node so you can See the effect of you
110. analyse and match image sequences Chapter 13 3D Compositing teaches you how to create and manipulate 3D scenes com posed of objects materials lights and cameras Chapter 14 Working with Stereoscopic Projects describes how to composite stereoscopic material in Nuke Chapter 15 Previews and Rendering teaches you how to write out image sequences from scripts in order to preview results or create final elements 107 NUKE Chapter 16 Expressions explains how to apply expressions or scripting commands to Nuke parameters Chapter 17 Setting nterface Preferences discusses the available preference settings that you can use to make behaviour and display adjustments to the interface e Chapter 18 The Script Editor and Python teaches you to use Python in Nuke s Script Edi tor to automate long procedures for example e Chapter 19 Configuring Nuke explains how to set up Nuke for multiple artists working on the same project REFERENCE 108 1 Reformatting Elements This chapter teaches you how to reformat images through scaling cropping and pixel aspect adjustments You will also learn to adjust bounding boxes to minimize process ing and rendering times Reformatting Images This section discusses scaling operations with specific regard to reformatting elements to match specific resolutions and pixel aspect ratios Nuke includes at least two nodes designed for reformatting elements Reformat and Crop
111. and Frame Rate 1 Select Edit gt Project settings or simply press S over a blank portion of the workspace The Project settings properties panel appears 90 MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE toot LUT Views name lock all connections frame range 1 30 X lock range tps 24 full size format PC_Video 640x480 proxy mode format proxy format PC_Video 640x480 2 On the Root tab type a name for the script say firstcomp nk in the name field Nuke s scripts always have the extension nk 3 Type the numbers of the first and last frames in the frame range fields to define length of time for your shot 4 Inthe fps field enter the rate in frames per second fps at which you want your script s Viewers to play back footage For film based elements 24 fps is appropriate Full size Formats When you start a new project in Nuke you need to set up a full size format for the project The full size format determines the size of the black image that you get from any discon nected node inputs It also sets the default size of any script generated elements such as Constants Colorbars and Bezier shapes The full size format does not affect the format of the elements you read into your script Nuke is resolution independent which means it will respect and keep the resolution of your images It won t automatically crop or pad elements to match the project settings If you want elements you read in to conform to t
112. and select Set color to default 3D fg Change the colour of borders and text in the 3D Viewer To set the colour back to default light grey right click on the button and select Set color to default handle size Adjust the size of the square control handles that appear on the Viewer for some Operations such as transformations warps and Bezier draws By default this value is set to 5 icon size Adjust the size of the 2D transformation overlay 3D camera 3D object normals and 3D axis on the Viewer By default this value is set to 50 icon scaling Adjust how much the scale of display affects the size of the 2D transformation overlay 3D camera and 3D axis When this is set to O these controls are always drawn the same size regardless of the zoom level When the value is set to 1 the controls scale with the displayed image or 3D scene when you zoom in or out Intermediate values mix this so that the controls do scale but not as much as the image does This gives an optical illusion that you are zooming in or out without making the controls unusably small or large 3D control type Select the navigation control scheme you want to use in the 3D Viewer Nuke Maya Houdini or Lightwave texture size Select the size of the texture maps for the OpenGL preview of 3D objects and 2D transformations The default size is 512x512 object interaction speed Set how fast mouse movements rotate and translate 3D axis and cameras
113. append directory In this statement directory represents the directory you want to add for example e sys path append usr lib python2 5 site packages e sys path append usr lib python2 5 site packages wx 2 8 gtk2 unicode General Workflow After you ve installed the necessary tools you are ready to use wxPython in Nuke Do the fol lowing 1 Write an application using wxPython Save the application in a py file in a directory that s contained in the sys path variable for example in HOME nuke ro see these directories THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE enter print sys path in the Script Editor To add a directory to the sys path variable enter sys path append directory where directory represents the directory you want to add 2 To be able to use a helper script that you ll need in the next step enter the following in your py file from nukescripts import utils pyWxAppUtils 3 Pass the application to the pyWxAppuUtils py helper script in the following manner pyWxApp pyWxAppUtils pywxAppHelper MyApp start True The pyWxAppuUtils py is a helper script that executes a wxPython application from a separate thread in Nuke You can find the script in the following location e On Windows drive etter Program Files Nuke5 1v5 nukescripts or drive fetter Program Files x86 Nuke5 1v5 nukescripts e On Mac OS X Applications Nuke5 1v5 Nuke5 1v5 app Contents MacOS nukescripts e On Linux u
114. become The steps value set to 3 The steps value set to 5 7 To rotate the star shapes adjust the rotation slider Increasing the value rotates the rays clockwise whereas decreasing the value rotates them counter clockwise 8 To change the colour in the beginning of the rays near the centre point of the stars adjust the from color slider To change the colour in the end of the rays adjust to color By default the from color is set to white and the to color to black From color set to white and to From color set to pink and to color to black color to yellow 9 If needed you can also make the following adjustments e If you want to change the aspect ratio of the stars adjust the aspect ratio slider e By default the brightest image on the rays is used as the centre point for the star However if you prefer the images forming the rays to be added up in forming the centre point uncheck max 264 CREATING EFFECTS NUKE e To only output the Glint effect without merging it into the original input image used to create it check effect only a Mog p L he my Glint effect on an input image Glint effect without the input image e To mask the shape that is used to create the rays check w and select the mask channel from the pulldown menu e To perform a gamma correction on the highlights that cause glint before the glint effect is applied adjust the gamma slider e To mask t
115. calculation time so keep it as small as possible However when the search area is too small the feature may move outside the box and you ll lose the track If you aren t sure how large to make the search area go back and review the flipbook of your image 11 In the control panel click the track forward button to generate the track Trackerl Tracker Settings Transform grab clear offset R dear all dear bkwd clear fwd Animation Controls When completed you ll see the track curve with points that mark the key frame positions along the curve 474 NUKE 12 Use the next frame and previous frame buttons on the timeline to step through the timeline and verify the accuracy of the track e 577 channels raba c 272 y 331 0 0000 fps 24 step backward step forward The track is fairly solid in this example However some images don t track as easily as this one When you need to edit track data what do you do You open the Curve Editor of course Let s assume you need to smooth the points of this track To edit track data 1 In the tracker control panel click the animation button next to the Tracker 1 parameter and choose Curve editor from the pop up menu Tracker 1 X enable Use to calculate tracki x Tracker 2 enable Use to calculate Delete key No animation Tracker 3 enable Use to calculate Set to default rye egit rt Tracker 4 enable Use to calculate Edit expre
116. click on an icon and select an option from the menu that appears Constant CheckerBoard ColorBars Colorwheel CurvetTool Viewer Figure 2 9 Selecting a node from the toolbar To quickly browse through the menus in the toolbar click and drag over the icons Nuke opens and closes the menus as you drag over them making it easy to search for a particular node or find out what the available menus contain Tip You can press the middle mouse button on a menu icon to repeat the last item used from that menu For example if you first select a Blur node from the Filter menu you can then add another Blur node by simply pressing the middle mouse button on the Filter icon 34 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Using the Menu Bar The Nuke menu bar includes these functions Menu Functions File Commands for disk operations including loading saving and importing scripts Edit Editing functions preferences and project settings Layout Restoring and saving layouts Viewer Adding and connecting Viewers Render Rendering the output Help Accessing a list of hot keys user documentation training resources tutorial files and Nuke related e mail lists To quickly browse through the available menus and see what they contain click on a menu and move the mouse pointer over other menus Nuke opens and closes the menus as you go Working with Nodes Nodes are the basic building blocks of any composite To create a new com
117. col ours font background grid usage arrow size and Dot node behaviour e Viewers Settings for changing the colours controls interaction speed and buffer bit depth of Viewers e Script Editor Settings for changing the behaviour and syntax highlighting colours of the Script Editor The below tables describe the available preference settings and their functions Each tab of preferences is described in its own table 368 SETTING INTERFACE PREFERENCES NUKE Preferences Tab Setting Function Choose a Preset Select a predefined colour scheme Standard or Silver You can also create new colour schemes yourself Do the following 1 Go to the Appearance tab and adjust the colours until you are happy with them Click Save Prefs 2 Make a copy of the preferences5 nk file and rename it to Ul_name tcl where name is the name of your colour scheme You can find preferences5 nk in the following location e On Windows In the nuke directory which can be found under the directory pointed to by the HOME environment variable If this variable is not set which is common the nuke directory will be under the folder specified by the USERPROFILE environment variable which is generally of the form drive letter Documents and Settings ogin name Windows XP or drive etter Users ogin nama Windows Vista To find out if the HOME and USERPROFILE environment variables are set and where they are pointing at enter S HOME
118. colour area by adding additional shades of green or blue to the small poly This second step Clean Background Noise is usually executed while viewing the black and white Matte View Before After Figure 7 19 Before and after background noise removal While in the Clean Bg Noise sampling mode the user samples the white milky regions as shown in the left hand image above As the user samples these regions they turn to black as shown in the right hand image above What is happening in the Primatte algorithm is that these new shades of green the white milky areas are added to the small poly where all the shades of green or blue are moved The next two images show the new pixels sampled white dots in relation to the small poly and the image next to it shows how the small poly extends outward to encompass the newly sampled colours into the small poly The advantage of this technique is that the polyhedron distorts to enclose only the shades of green that are in the backing screen Other shades of green around these colours are left undisturbed in the foreground Other chromakeyers expand from a golf ball sized shape to a baseball to a basketball to a beach ball Since it expands in all directions many shades of green are relegated to 100 background making it hard to get good edges around the fore ground objects 214 PRIMATTE NUKE Now that the user has created a small polyhedron he must shape the medium and large polys A def
119. colour is shown in between these To switch between the currently selected colour and the Original colour click on the rectangle 55 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Animating Parameters Animating a parameter refers to changing its value over time You do so by setting key frames frames at which you explicitly define a value and allowing Nuke to interpolate the values in between You can animate most of Nuke s parameters in this manner Working with Animated Parameters The Animation menu lets you set key frames delete keys and perform other editing opera tions on the curves for animated parameters k E No animation Edit expressions Copy File Edit Predefined j j Figure 2 19 The animation menu To set key frames 1 Use a Viewer to cue to a frame where you want to place a key Click the animation button next to the parameter you want to animate Select Set key from the drop down menu The parameter s input field turns turquoise indicating that a key frame has been inserted Nuke enters the autokey mode when you change the parameters value at another frame it will automatically create a key frame for you You can also set a key for all the controls in a node To do so select Set key on all knobs from the properties panel right click menu Cue to the next frame where you want to place a key Edit the parameter s value using the input field regular slider or colour slider The
120. conditions The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MER CHANTABILITY FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT TORT OR OTHERWISE ARISING FROM OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group 573 APPENDIX D THIRD PARTY LICENSES NUKE Library Lib Tiff Description File Format Support License Copyright 1988 1997 Sam Leffler Copyright 1991 1997 Silicon Graphics Inc Permission to use copy modify distribute and sell this software and its documen tation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee provided that i the above copyright notices and this permission notice appear in all copies of the software and related documentation and ii the names of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics may not be used in any advertising or publicity relating to the software without the specific prior written permission of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND EXPRESS IMPLIED OR
121. contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS AS IS AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES INCLUDING BUT NOT LIM ITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT INDIRECT INCIDENTAL SPECIAL EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES INCLUDING BUT NOT LIM ITED TO PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES LOSS OF USE DATA OR PROFITS OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY WHETHER IN CONTRACT STRICT LIABILITY OR TORT INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE Copyright 2001 2002 2003 2004 Python Software Foundation All Rights Reserved 576 APPENDIX D THIRD PARTY LICENSES NUKE Library TCL Description Source code language License This software is copyrighted by the Regents of the University of California Sun Microsystems Inc Scriptics Corporation and other parties The following terms apply to all files associated with the software unless explicitly disclaimed in individ ual files The authors hereby grant permission to use copy modify distribute and license this software and its d
122. cycle through three states the colour wheel the col oe our square and hide colour wheel square e To hide or show the colour swatches toggle the colour swatches button a BREE BRR ERBEEE HERS 53 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE To use the colour wheel e To adjust the hue drag the marker on the edge of the colour wheel on the circle You can also Ctrl Cmd click on the colour wheel to only affect the hue of the selected colour and Shift click to only affect the saturation e To zoom in and out of the colour wheel press Alt and drag right or left with the middle mouse button e To pan in the colour wheel press Alt and drag the mouse pointer over the colour wheel e To reset the zoom and or pan middle click on the colour wheel To use the colour sliders To increment the value by 0 01 right click on the slider label e g R or A To decrement the value by 0 01 left click on the label Use Shift click for 0 1 and Alt click for 0 001 You can also click and drag right or left on a label to scrub the value up or down Use Shift drag to scrub faster and Alt drag to scrub slower These are the functions of the TMI sliders e The temperature slider T lets you control apparent colour temperature by inversely affecting red and green values assuming your are processing the RGBA channel set To cool that is increase the blue channel s value while decreasing the red channel s drag up To heat increase the
123. decipher the intent of your script For example you might colour all nodes green that relate to keying Figure 2 13 Nodes can be colour coded according to function To modify a node s display characteristics 1 Double click on the node to display its properties panel 43 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Click the Node tab at the top of the dialog Its attributes appear Do any of the following Tip Enter a new name for the node on top of the old name Click on the left colour button to change the colour of the node To copy a colour ex of one node to another drag and drop the colour button from the node whose colour you want to copy on top of the colour button in the node whose colour you want to change Type any comments regarding the node in the label field These will appear on the surface of the node From the font pulldown menu select the font type for any text on the node Use the buttons on the right to bold or emphasize the text Enter the font size in the font size field Click color to choose a new font colour The Se ect co or dialog appears allowing you to select the desired colour You can also have Nuke automatically colour code nodes for you based on their function Select Edit gt Preferences or press Shift S to open the Preferences dialog Click on the Node Colors tab and check the autocolor option Thereafter every time you add a node to a script the node will take on the colour a
124. display For example click the right button assuming you have a view Called right in your script e If you haven t checked View selection uses buttons in the project settings select the view you want to display from the pulldown menu Tip You can also press the semicolon and forward single quote keys to move between different views in the Viewer To display two views next to each other 1 Add a Viewer into your script if you haven t already done so 2 If necessary combine your views into a single output using the JoinViews node For more information on how to do this see page 332 3 Select Views gt Stereo gt SideBySide to insert a SideBySide node in an appropriate place in your script 4 In the SideBySide node s controls select the two views you want to display from the view and view2 pulldown menus View 1 will be displayed on the left and view2 on the right 5 If you want to display one view on top of another rather than next to it check vertical View 1 will be displayed above view2 333 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE 6 If you want to swap the views around in the Viewer click the swap button The Viewer displays the two selected views simultaneously so you can easily compare them Views rgbs roba alpha AGE A SideBySn 20 BB defaut 14 f 8 ba mi ti l rca ow To display a blend between two views 1 Add a Viewer into your script if you haven
125. divided into three panes the Node Graph Curve Editor pane the Proper ties Script Editor pane and the Viewer pane 29 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Figure 2 3 Empty main window Onto these panes you can add the following panels e Toolbars for selecting nodes e Node Graphs also known as DAGs for building node trees e Curve Editors for editing animation curves e Properties Bins for adjusting the nodes controls e Viewers for previewing the output e Script Editors for executing Python commands By default there is a Node Graph panel in the lower left corner a Viewer panel in the top left corner and a Properties Bin on the right as shown in Figure 2 6 30 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Figure 2 4 Main window with a Node Graph Viewer and Properties Bin The Node Graph is where you add nodes and build your node tree When you add a node to the panel its properties panel appears in the Properties Bin on the right This is where you can adjust the node to produce the effect you re after To check the result you can view the out put in a Viewer You can open more panels using the content menus described in 7oo bar Menu Bar and Con tent Menus below You can add several panels on the same pane and switch between them by using the tabbed pages on top of the pane Tabbed Panels Panes are divided into tabbed panels on the top of the pane To go to a different tab simply click on the tab name fe Properties S
126. dll on Windows so on Linux and dylib on Mac e nuke env NukeVersionMajor This returns the first number in the version number of Nuke For example if you were running Nuke 5 0v2 this would return 5 e nuke env NukeVersionMinor This returns the second number in the version number of Nuke For example if you were running Nuke 5 0v2 this would return 0 e nuke env NukeVersionRelease This returns the number after the letter v in the version number of Nuke For example if you were running Nuke 5 0v2 this would return 2 e nuke env NukeVersionPhase This returns the last string in the version number of a Nuke beta For example if you were running Nuke 5 0v2b3 this would return b e nuke env NukeVersionPhaseNumber This returns the last number in the version number of a Nuke beta For example if you were running Nuke 5 0v2b3 this would return 3 e nuke env NukeVersionDate This returns the date the version of Nuke you are running was built e nuke env NukeVersionString This returns the entire version number of Nuke e nuke env threads This returns the number of threads that will be spawned when render ing e nuke env numCPUs This returns the number of detected CPUs e nuke env gui This returns True if you are using the graphical user interface of Nuke and False if you are running Nuke from a terminal or command prompt e nuke env ExecutablePath This returns the fu
127. do not move with the area They do because accommodating the change this way often produces more realistic results However the distortion lessens the further you get from the moved pixels You also have some control over which pixels are moved and which are not and can isolate the warp to a small area Still in an ideal situation the subject you are going to warp is a subject you can key out or rotoscope to isolate it from its background before you create the warp This way you can be sure that the background stays intact In addition to performing creative manipulations on the shapes of the subjects in your images you can also use warping to simulate different types of film or video lenses or to remove unwanted lens distortions Below we discuss how to warp images first using the GridWarp node and then the SplineWarp node Finally we also teach you to animate the warps Again we start with the GridWarp node and then show you how to do the same with the SplineWarp node Warping Images Using the GridWarp Node The GridWarp node allows you to warp images by transferring image information from one bez ier grid onto another When using this node you first create the source grid which defines where to warp from Next you create the destination grid which defines where to warp the image to This grid can be a duplicate of the source grid or you can draw it separately When you manipulate the destination grid the corresponding warp is app
128. drag or scrub over a portion of the greenscreen in the image displayed in the Viewer 488 NUKE This returns an average colour pick of the sampled pixels If you want a colour pick froma single pixel press Ctrl or Command and click once over the greenscreen After you pick you can Clear the red square by Ctrl or Command clicking again Press A over the Viewer to toggle to the alpha channel display Looks like the aquarium is not as clean as we thought Our colour pick gave us a fairly noisy key so let s clean it up Now you ll sample a few areas of the image to push selected pixels to one of three areas the transparent matte the opaque subject or the semi transparent part of the matte In the Primatte1l control panel change the keying operation to Clean BG Noise Actions operation Select BG Color current color Clean BG Noise Fine Tuning Clean FG Noise R Matte Sponge Make FG Trans Press Ctrl Shift or Command Shift and drag a small square over the dark area in the lower right corner of the image 489 NUKE This second colour sample cleans the background by pushing the selected pixels into the transparent area of the matte You probably need a few more samples to get a better key 9 Scrub a few small areas in the background focusing on the grey pixels until the matte improves The background doesn t need to be solid black We re just trying to get a good separation
129. drag and drop it to another parameter to create an expression linking the two To track the brightest and darkest pixels in a frame sequence 1 Choose Image gt CurveTool to add a CurveTool node after the image sequence you want to analyse Connect a Viewer to the CurveTool From the Curve Type menu select Max Luma Pixel Click Go to analyse the frame sequence This opens the Frames to Execute dialog 275 ANALYSING FRAME SEQUENCES NUKE 5 Define the frame range you want to analyse Enter the first frame followed by a comma and the last frame Then click OK Nuke analyses the frame sequence tracking both the position and the values of the brightest and darkest pixels 6 You can find the results of the analysis on the MaxLumaData tab You ll notice that the input fields have turned cyan to indicate that they are animated over time To see the animation curve right click on an input field and Curve editor Curve Tool AutoCropData IntensityData MaxLum abate Node Maximum Luminence Pel mag Maximum Luminence Fisel value r E Minimum Luminence Piel 1E Minimum Luminence Pel value rig Once Nuke has created the animation curve you can copy the animation or any of its values into another node to match that node s effect with the brightest or darkest pixels in the frame sequence Ctrl Cmd click on the animation button and drag and drop it to another parameter to create an expression linking the two 276 13
130. drag the rings to rotate the cards as a group 527 NUKE 4 In the TransformGeol control panel drag the uniform scale slider to increase the size of the entire group of cards To make objects look at the camera 1 Drag the look connector from the TransformGeol node onto the Cameral node ransformGeollook N ameral ri In the Viewer you ll now see the TransformGeo1 node is constrained to the location of the camera 2 Select and move Camera1 in the Viewer window As you do so the three cards controlled by the TransformGeol node rotate to look at the camera location Why is this useful Let s assume you have a 2D matte painting mapped to a card in your scene The look option ensures that the plane of the painting always faces the camera regardless of the camera position and maintains the illusion depicted by the painting Before you move on disconnect the TransformGeo node s look connector from the camera 528 NUKE Animating a Scene The little scene you ve created would be more interesting with a camera move You can ani mate both cameras and objects in each control panel you ll see an Animation button next to each parameter you can animate over time To animate the camera 1 In the Viewer drag the time slider to frame 1 on the timeline 2 Let s switch to an overhead view to move the camera Choose top from the view list 3D Y Cameral 2D 3D Y rtside x lfside Sh
131. e Ad Ad Ad d Ad Ld Ld Si R a 233 imp e etiming hd e hd hd e hd hd Ad Ad hd e Ad hd e hd hd hd hd Ad hd hd Ad hd hd e hd hd Ad hd hd e hd hd Ad hd hd Ad hd e Ad hd hd e hd hd e hd hd Ad hd i 23 nterpo ation e e hd Ad hd hd e hd hd Ad hd hd Ad hd hd Ad Ad hd Ad hd hd Ad hd e hd Ad hd hd Ad hd hd e hd hd hd hd Ad hd e Ad hd Ad e hd Ad hd hd e hd Ad Frame blendin Ad Ad e e e e Ad e Ad o Ld Ad e e Ad e e Ad Ld e e Ld Ad Ad e e e Ld Ad Ad d e Ad e e e e Ad Ld Ld Ad e Ld e Ad e Ad Ad e Ld OFlow Retimi 23 7 OW etl Ing hd Ad hd hd e Ad e hd hd e hd e hd hd e hd hd e hd hd e hd hd e hd hd e hd Ad hd e hd hd hd hd e Ad hd hd e hd hd e hd hd e e OFlow Parameters hd hd e hd e hd hd e hd hd e hd hd hd Ad e hd hd e hd hd Ad hd e o o Ad hd hd e hd e Ad hd e Ad hd e hd hd e hd hd e 238 241 242 a a Warping Clips oo gt o o o o o o ooo olol Ul TI Global Frame Range and Speed ss a6 6w 5 4 9 5 4 4845 6 6 6 eS SORE SESE TRE ESS o Applying the TimeBlur Filter 243 Editi Cli 244 Iting Ips o o o o e e a a a A A Slipping Clips o o o o o o o ol Gl Gl Ul
132. e To scale stretch or squash the texture uv coordinates in the horizontal direction adjust the u scale slider To scale them in the vertical direction adjust the v scale Slider The higher the value the more the texture is stretched e To change the name of the attribute that s used as the vertex s uv coordinates to find the image pixel enter a name in the attrib name field UVProjecth UVProject Node display unchanged X selectable render unchanged projection perspective invert u inwert w attrib name Uw Figure 13 17 The UVProject node s properties panel Projecting Textures with the Project3D Node The Project3D node projects an input image through a camera onto the 3D object To use the Project3D node 1 Select 3D gt Shader gt Project3D to insert a Project3D node after the image you want to project Connect a Camera node to the Project3D node s cam input Insert a 3D geometry node for example a sphere after the Project3D node Attach a Viewer to the 3D geometry node to see your changes In the node s controls use the display pulldown menu to select how you want to view your object in the Viewer while making changes to it 5 From the project on pulldown menu select to project the image on either the front facing back facing or both polygons 6 To extend the input image at its edges with black check crop To extend the image with the edge colours uncheck crop Merging Shaders With th
133. e e e e eo eo e eo e e e e e e e e e e eo eo e Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld 385 Creating Nodes and Setting Their Parameters 0 0 e cece eee eee eee 6 OO e Node Graph Tab o o T TH Assigning Variables 445464 estorrir 445 eh eeraa ea Adding Parameters to Node Controls 000 cece eee cece eee ee eee ee oe Ol Connecting Nodes and Setting Their Inputs 00 ee eee ee eee eee eee 6 O88 Setting Default Values for Controls 0 0c ee eee ee eee ee eee ee eee ee oe IO Rendering with the Write Node ccc ee eee eee eee eee ee eee ee eee oe DID listing Nodes Controls ss ss 444 2 10844450545 6404545044 45 0500460004 600000 Undoing and Redoing Actions 0 cee eee ee eee eee eee ee eee eee oe OTT Frame Navigati n sss 42 4 o06 6 oe weed oe eh oe eR eee eee a Overriding the Creation of a Particular Node 0c ee cee eee eee eee eee ee ID Getting Information on the Nuke Environment You Are Running 393 394 394 Adjusting Parameter Values in Stereoscopic Projects 2eeceeeeeeeee e DI4 Automating PrOGCGUIES 0 s c004 6ciedvaesasraceescetenecdeeovawoes ani d4 Getting Help aes aac eee soos bon eee mew de eedeeee beeen eaa eso More Documentation e e hd hd e hd hd hd Ad hd hd Ad hd hd e hd hd e hd hd e
134. edge of the foreground object Degrain Tools Tutorial If you have a noisy image as in the example below you will find that the matte is also noisy Currently you can use the Clean BG Noise operation to remove the noisy pixels but this can also modify the edge of the foreground object in a negative manner Using the Degrain Tools in the following way may help you clean up the image and still get a good edge on the matte 1 Use the Clean BG Noise operation just a small amount to remove some of the white noise in the Alpha channel view but do use it so much that you affect the edge of the foreground object 2 Then select the Grain Size tool and select small as a first step to reduce the grain 204 PRIMATTE NUKE With the degrain tolerance slider set at 0 move it around some This should increase the affect of the Clean BG Noise tool without changing the edge of the foreground object Sometimes this may not be enough to totally remove the grain so by adjusting the degrain tolerance slider you can tell the Primatte algorithm what brightness of pixels you think represents grain You should try not to use too high of a value otherwise it will affect the overall matte For an example of an over adjusted image see below y amo The Primatte degrain algorithm uses a Defocused Foreground image to compute the noise The small medium and large settings for the degrain tools all produce defocused foregrounds that
135. eee ee eee eee eee cee cece es 0 oe Af Controls That Appear on All Properties Panels 0 2 cece ee eee eee ce eee oe AI Displaying Parameters ccc cee eer c eee cece ees c ees ceeceee 0 o AY Using Inp t Fields sea S40 4 0 4 010 4 s s a o 8 4 4 irs BAD De Se Se SeeaSEeA a Using Sliders ox4sne 4 rrr En rers T does toda oe plea eee eaacece ceae al Separating Channels 4 4n0 65244440 44cheeage be 4b eee oand ead hatausene Gua Using the Colour Picker and Colour Controls 2 i04404sacscdeesec4ss00e0 08 e200 Using Colour Sliders and Colour Wheel 02 ce eee eee eee eee ee eee tee en ee DD Animating Parameters eo cf cf oe cf cf cf cf oe oe cf eo cf cf eo 56 Working with Animated Parameters Aa cf 56 Animated Parameters and the Curve Editor cececceccecceccececevece ee DI Using the Curve Editor e o o o oo oo ooo ooo ol Ul Ul Ul UllM Ul Ul UlT Ul T M UlT T UlT UlTT U7 T TT U7T tT UlTtT U tT T I IT IG oe o 5 D la In Culi o o o o o ooo olol Gl Gl 9 ISp y g ves oo o o o Ed g C oo o o oo
136. es OS web awe aeclee Skewing Elementa siss ieas kesswe ooo denehaneebuacwsuned tuned os weal Z ING otion ur e o o oo ooo Ul U oo o e e e e e e e e e e e o e e e e e e e e e Tracking and Stabilising 175 Tracking an Image ssesusnesennosnnneereeesnneeroe errereen nenasel 7D Activating Track AnchorS 44440466 ob s lt enee eed one ea ceeereaeee sool 70 Positioning Track Anchors 6 404 460 44440054604 6440 seehswersadvoee wool ls Calculating the atk a os 4 34 44 3 4 64406 664460444050 4045 84whedneded aO Retracking Part of a Track 2 cc cc eee eee ee ee eee ee cece cee LAY FANO TACKS 640 eo rt arr 440 S40 bo bee e aa eas dee ee Elo Manipulating the Track Overlays 002 ccc cece cece cess sees see veel SY Manipulating Track Curves and Smoothing Tracks 000eceeeeeeeveee ee 180 Tracking and Multiview Projects 0 ccc ee eee ee eee eee eee eee ee oe IBI Applying Tracking Data 4 540 4 lt 45 454 604 6544569 od ou teeeueeeeeensneea canoe 182 183 Applying Tracking Data Using Tracker Controls e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Applying Tracking Data Via Linking Expressions e e e e
137. for each Splitting Views Off To split a view off 1 Insert a process node for example ColorCorrect in the appropriate place in your script 2 If you haven t already done so attach a Viewer to the node From the Viewer s controls select the view you want to make changes to Open the node s controls 4 Click the view button next to the control you want to adjust From the menu that opens select Split off view name For example to apply changes to a view called i left select Split off left You can also split all the node s controls by selecting Split all knobs from the right click menu Manage User Knobs Set key on all knobs Split off left mes mes 4 l k Set knobs to default Revert knobs Split all knobs h Edit help An eye appears on the view button and the node gets a small green dot on it in the Node Graph to indicate that views have been split off If you have assigned colours to the views and checked Use colours in UI in your project settings dots also appear on the node to indicate which views have been split off For example if you are using red for the left view and split off that view a red dot appears on the node 335 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE Any changes you now make using the control in question are only applied to the view you chose to split off Changes to controls that have not been split off are still applied to all views To show separate values for
138. foregoing lim ited warranty TO THE EXCLUSION OF ALL OTHER REMEDIES is for Licensee to destroy all copies of the Software send The Foundry a written certification of such destruction and upon The Foundry s receipt of such certification The Foundry will make a replacement copy of the Software available to Licensee SECTION 10 INDEMNIFICATION Licensee agrees to indemnify hold harmless and defend The Foundry and The Foundry s affili ates officers directors shareholders employees authorized resellers agents and other rep resentatives collectively the Released Parties from all claims defense costs including but not limited to attorneys fees judgments settlements and other expenses arising from or connected with the operation of Licensee s business or Licensee s possession or use of the Software or Documentation SECTION 11 LIMITED LIABILITY In no event shall the Released Parties cumulative liability to Licensee or any other party for any loss or damages resulting from any claims demands or actions arising out of or relating to this Agreement or the Software or Documentation contemplated herein exceed the License Fee paid to The Foundry or its authorized reseller for use of the Software Furthermore IN NO EVENT SHALL THE RELEASED PARTIES BE LIABLE TO LICENSEE UNDER ANY THEORY FOR ANY INDIRECT SPECIAL INCIDENTAL PUNITIVE EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES APPENDIX E END USER LICENSING AGREEMENT NUKE I
139. generated for the other For more information refer to Reproducing Paint Strokes on page 338 232 9 Temporal Operations This chapter explains the temporal or time based operations in Nuke You learn how to distort time that is slow down speed up or reverse clips apply motion blur and per form editorial operations like slips cuts and splices This chapter also discusses tech niques for working with interlaced video footage and preparing it for use ina compositing project Distorting Time Time distortion changes the length of time required to playback a clip in your composite These operations generally fall under one of two categories retiming and warping Retiming is the process of slowing playback by adding frames or accelerating playback by sub tracting frames Warping is the process of slowing down speeding up or even reversing playback on a clip without necessarily altering the overall length Tip When working with temporal operations it helps to attach a Viewer to the retiming or warping node SO you can see the effect of your changes Simple Retiming Nuke s Retime node lets you change the playback time for all the frames in a clip or for range of frames within the clip You can also use it to reverse the clip playback It does this by dropping or duplicating frames For higher quality retiming see Of ow Retiming on page 237 To retime all frames in a clip 1 Choose Time gt Retime to insert a
140. ging 159 TRANSFORMING ELEMENTS NUKE F Drag to scale the frame on y Choosing a Filtering Algorithm Spatial transformations involve remapping pixels from their original positions to new posi tions The question arises as to what values to assign remapped pixels In the simplest case they retain their original values but this can create problems with image quality particularly in high contrast areas of the frame For example the figure below shows a close up a highcon trast feature that has been rotated clockwise by 45 degrees The remapped pixels have retained their original values but the result is a highly aliased or jaggy edge The solution is to apply a more sophisticated filtering algorithm to determine the values of remapped pixels one that takes into account in some fashion the values of neighbouring pixels For example applying Nuke s cubic algorithm to the above rotation results in a softer less jagged edge When executing spatial transformations Nuke lets you choose from the filtering algorithms described in the table below Note that the curves shown in the table plot the manner by which each algorithm samples from neighbouring pixels The centre of each curve represents the value of the remapped pixel 160 TRANSFORMING ELEMENTS NUKE itself and the rising and falling portions of each curve represent the amount of sampling that occurs across a five pixel radius Filter Description Sam
141. gt gt o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o ol Gl Gl Ul Ul UlTl UlT UlT UT UTT GUlTT GUTT HGUT I HGH IHG 56 1 e e e e e o e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Color Nodes e e e e e e eo e e e e Ld e e Ad e Ad Ld Ad e Ad Ld e Ld Ld e Ld d d Ld e e Ld Ad Ad e e Ad Ad Ld Ld e e e Ad Ad e e e 562 Fil Nod 564 l ter O es e e e e e e e e e e e e e e 2 e Ld Ld d Ld Ad Ld Ld e Ad Ad Ld e e Ad e d Ld e Ad Ld d Ld Ld e Ld Ad Ld e e e d e Key Nodes eo e Ad hd hd Ad hd hd Ad hd hd hd e hd e Ad hd Ad Ad hd hd Ad hd Ad Ad hd Ad e oa e Sd hd e hd 565 Layer Nodes e e e e e e e e e e e Ld d e e e Ad e Ld Ad Ld Ld e Ld Ld d e Ad e Ld e e Ld e Ad e Ad Ad e Ad Ad e Ad Ld e e e e La e 566 Transform Nodes e e e e e Ld Ld e e Ld Ad e Ld e Ad Ad e e d e e Ld Ld e Ld d Ad e Ad e Ad Ad e e Ad Ad Ld e e e e Ld 56 Warp Nodes e Ad hd hd Ad Ad hd e Ad o Ad e e Ad e Ad hd hd e hd hd e hd hd e hd hd Ad oa Ad Ad hd e hd hd 568 Other Nodes Ld Ld Ld e e e e e e e e Ad Ld e Ld Ld e Ld Ld Ad Ld e e e e Ld Ad Ad Ld e Ad d Ld Ld Ad e Ld La e e e e Ld 569 570 e e Appendix D Third Party Licenses Appendix
142. gt Lights gt Direct to insert a DirectLight node in your script 2 Connect the DirectLight node to the Scene node 3 Inthe DirectLight node s controls adjust the following e Drag the color slider to change the light color e Drag the intensity slider to change the brightness of the light e To control the direction of the light enter values in the rotate fields DirectLightl DirectLight Node color T intensity JT display wireframe selectable import chan file export chan file transform order SRT rotation order Zay translate x rotate x scale x uniform scale Figure 13 23 Direct light controls Point Light A point light is a point in 3D space that emits light in every direction A real world example of a point light is a light bulb You can use point light to simulate light bulbs lamps and candles for example To add a point light 1 Select 3D gt Lights gt Point to insert a Point node in your script 2 Connect the Point node to the Scene node 310 3D COMPOSITING NUKE 3 Inthe Point node s controls adjust the following e Drag the color slider to change the light colour e Drag the intensity slider to change the brightness of the light e To control how much light the object gets from the light source based on the distance between the object and the light source use the falloff type menu A Linear type diminishes the light at a fixed rate as it travels from the object whereas
143. have larger or smaller blurs respectively It is important to make sure that the crop settings are correctly applied otherwise when the defocus image is generated if there is garbage on the edges of the images then that garbage will be blurred into the defocus foreground 205 PRIMATTE NUKE As a review Select the Select BG Colour Actions mode and click on a backing screen colour 2 Select the Clean BG Noise Actions mode and use it sparingly so that it has minimum affect to the edge of the foreground object 3 If there is still grain in the backing screen area then use the degrain type functionality Starting at the small setting to reduce the grain 4 Ifthe grain is still present then try increasing the tolerance slider a little not too much If grain is still a problem then try changing the type to medium or large and also changing the grain tolerance until the desired effect is achieved The grain functionality does not always remove grain perfectly but is sometimes useful to minimize its effects Actions Section Actions operation Tools Modes Select Background Colour When this operational mode is selected the Primatte operation will be initially computed by having the user sample the target background colour within the image window For keying operations this is the first step and should be followed by the steps described immediately below Clean Background Noise When this operational mode is selected
144. hd e hd hd Ad hd hd hd hd hd hd hd Ad Ad hd Ad hd hd Ad hd Ad hd hd Ad hd hd Ad hd Ad e hd Ad hd e 55 Script Edito 555 Cri t It r Ad Ad e e Ad Ld Ld d e e e Ld Ad e Ld e Ad Ad e Ad Ld e Ld Ad e e d e Ld Ad Ad Ad e Ad Ld e Ld Ld e Ad Ad e e Ld e e e Ad Ad Toolbar hd e hd hd Ad hd hd e hd hd e Ad hd Ad e hd e Ad hd e Ad e Ad hd e Ad hd e hd o Ad hd hd e o hd Ad hd e hd e Ad hd hd Ad Ld 556 Content Menus eo eo eo Ad hd hd hd e e Ad hd hd Ad hd hd Ad hd hd e hd hd Ad hd Ad e hd Ad hd 556 pi Colour icker e eo eo e e e eo e e e Ld e Ad e Ad e Ad e e Ld Ld o Ld e e Ld e e e e d e Ad Ld e Ld Ld e e Ld e e e Ld e e Ld 556 Appendix B Supported Fi 557 Supported Image Formats 0 ee eee ee ete ee ee ee eee ce DOI e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e E D TI O Q F N o Appendix C Converting from Shake to Nuke 559 Terms and Conditions 559 Node Reference e o o o o o 561 Image Nodes o gt
145. hd hd e hd e o o e hd hd e hd hd e hd 395 Clearing Out the Current Nuke nk Script e eo e Ld e eo e eo e e eo eo e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Ld Creating Views for a Stereoscopic Project 2 ecw eee ee ee ee ee ee eee o e e Viewing More Examples 0c ccc cece cece eee c cece cece cece cecce 6 DIG Using the Help Statement 2654 iu 0044 weoens ao ee 44040 hE e Cede ee oD 90 Python onthe Web cc ce ce ee eee eee eee eee ee eee eee eee ces oe a IG Using wxPython in Nuke to Write Custom GUIs 2 2 396 StallaniOn 4444044445444 45494 46 445 45455455 055454 05545 5599444065 405290 General Workflow ss 44 4 o 4 6 o5 4 tet bamia e Enni aana Sad Oe oS oS Od aed DOT Using PyQt4 in Nuke to Write Custom GUIs 0 2020262 44 398 a Installation e o o o o o o o oo o o o ol Ul 399 General Workflow o o o o 399 Example oo 399 Configuring Nuke o 2 5 64 daccnteac ne eased ss won heehee oas aahe hes HOO What Is a Terminal and How Do Use One 401
146. image to Viewer with bounding box border and output labels Display green channel RGB toggle Fill image in Viewer Play backward Stop playback Note that for this to work you first need to click on the Viewer to select it If you have selected the Node Graph pressing K inserts a Copy node See K under Node Graph Play forward Display Matte or alpha channel as transparent overlay Fit Viewer to frame Show hide overlays Disable pause the display refresh of the Viewer Display red channel RGB toggle Display Viewer menu Display Viewer Settings dialog Move left on the timeline by the specified increment amount Move right on the timeline by the specified increment amount 552 APPENDIX A HOT KEYS Keystroke s Shift A Shift B Shift Backspace Shift Ctrl R Shift F Shift G Shift L Shift M Shift numeric keypad Shift R Shift W Tab U W 3D Viewer Keystroke s Alt LMB Alt MMB Alt RMB Ctrl LMB Ctrl L Ctrl Shift LMB Shift C Shift X Shift Z Tab V NUKE Action Display other channel RGB toggle Current input only Default Alpha Display Blue channel RGB toggle Current input only Activate Wipe Cycle images on right side Resize Viewer to maximum and fit image Maximum Viewer window toggle Display Green channel RGB toggle Current input only Display Luminance RGB toggle Current input only Display Matte RGB toggle Current input only
147. image3 rgb and so on They appear as image d rgb Reformatting Image Sequences When you import image sequences Nuke stores their format settings and makes them availa ble to the Reformat node You can then use the Reformat node to resize and reposition your image sequences to a different format Reformat nodes also allow you to use plates of varying image resolution on a single script without running into issues when combining them To insert a Reformat node 1 Make sure the Read node you added is currently selected 2 Select Transform gt Reformat The Reformat node is inserted in the script and its properties panel opens MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE 3 Reformati Reformat Node type toformat output format root format 640x460 resize type width X center flip flop turn filter Cubic x damp black outside preserve bounding box From the output format pulldown menu select the format to which you want to output the sequence If the format does not yet exist you can select new to create a new format from scratch The default setting root format resizes the image to the format indicated on the Project settings dialog box You can now use the same Reformat node for any other Read nodes in the script Simply select the Reformat node and Edit gt Copy Select another Read node in the script and Edit gt Paste Loading Nuke Scripts When you have built a script and saved it and want to come back to it later you
148. in the Node Graph use window layout from When this is checked Nuke opens saved scripts with the window layout they were saved scripts saved with When this is NOT checked Nuke opens saved scripts with the default layout Window Snapping Snap when moving windows When this is checked and you move floating windows the windows snap to screen edges and other floating windows making it easy to place them right next to each other When this is NOT checked and you move floating windows the windows do not snap to anything On Linux window snapping may not work However most Linux window managers let you do window snapping if you hold down Shift while moving the window snap if parallel without When this is checked all floating windows edges are considered to extend infinitely touching outward so that you can easily align the windows even if they aren t close to each other For example say you have one floating window on the left and another on the right When you move either of these up or down their top and bottom edges snap to align with the top or bottom edge of the other window When this is NOT checked window snapping is restricted to nearby windows threshold Define how close to each other in pixels the windows have to be for them to snap together 371 SETTING INTERFACE PREFERENCES NUKE Setting Function Control Panels new panels go to Select where you want control panels to appear when you add a ne
149. information This tool is usu ally used to quickly remove stray transparent pixels that have appeared during the chro makeying procedure It is a quick and easy way to make final adjustments to a composite Restore Detail With this mode selected the completely transparent background region sampled in the image window becomes translucent This operation is useful for restoring lost hair details thin wisps of smoke and the like It shrinks the small polyhedron slightly Make Foreground Transparent When this mode is selected the opaque foreground colour region sampled in the image win dow becomes slightly translucent This operation is useful for the subtle tuning of foreground objects which are otherwise 100 percent covered with smoke or clouds It can only be used one time on a particular colour For a more flexible way to thin out a colour region and be able to make multiple samples you should use the Matte tool It expands the medium polyhe dron slightly Spill When this operational mode is selected colour spill will be returned to the sampled pixel col our and all colours like it in the amount of one Primatte increment This tool can be used to move the sampled colour more in the direction of the colour in the original foreground image It can be used to nullify a Spill step This tool dents the Primatte large polyhedron in the colour region sampled Spill When this operational mode is selected colour spill wi
150. is the Same as 16k x 16k 32k x 8k 64k x 4k or 128k x 2k If your image is larger than this it will be resized and you will get the following warning Viewer image is clipped to lt size gt x lt size gt For example if your image resolution is 60 000 x 4473 Nuke is able to display the image because the number of pixels is less than 2428 However if the resolution is 60 000 x 4474 more than 228 pixels the image will be resized to 59998 x 4474 In addition to the Viewer this limit is also applied to the bounding box of the images being passed between each node Adding Viewer Nodes Viewers have corresponding nodes that appear in the Node Graph These nodes do not pro duce output for rendering they generate display data only You can connect Viewer nodes as described in Working with Nodes on page 35 In practice you ll work faster by using the Viewer hotkeys described below To add a Viewer node 1 Select the node whose output you wish to view 2 Do one of the following 66 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE e Using the menu bar choose Viewer gt Create New Viewer e Using the toolbar choose Image gt Viewer e Using a keyboard shortcut press Ctrl I Mac users press Cmd l Nuke connects a Viewer node to the node you Selected in step 1 and displays the output of the node in the Viewer panel You can also insert a Viewer node and set up its first connection by simply pressing 1 over the Node Graph Connecting Vie
151. is the process of recording the location of features as they move through the scene The result is stored as 2D coordinates on the image plane Once you have the tracking data you can use the movement to perform a variety of useful tasks such as sta bilising the footage applying the movement to other elements in your composite and improv ing the accuracy of roto mattes Figure 2 1 Tracking image features An important aspect of the tracking process involves carefully reviewing your footage before you attempt to track Play your images several times preferably with a flipbook and look at the direction of movement for the features you want to track Note potential problems with motion blur obscuring objects or frames where the features are hidden or move off screen Tip Nuke can often compensate for problem footage but tracking works best when you can identify distinct features throughout the length of the shot 471 NUKE One Point Two Point Three Point Four Before we get into the first example let s review a few tracking concepts You can track up to four distinct features or patterns with each Tracker node in Nuke How do you decide whether to track one two or more features It depends on what you want to do with the data and the level of accuracy you need in the result Here are some general guidelines 1 track X and Y position only 2 tracks X Y and Z rotation 3 tracks X Y Z rotation amp scale
152. is useful when doing a set of clips that have similar backgrounds and lighting Once the sliders are configured for a particular lighting set up all the clips will key quickly using just the Auto Compute button If you dont get the results you wanted from Auto Compute please continue from this point on to get the basic Primatte operation procedures The basic functionality for the Primatte interface is centred around the Actions or operation pulldown menu and the Viewer window Select BG Color Clean BG Noise Clean FG Noise Matte Sponge Make FG Trans Restore Detail Spill Sponge Spill Spill Matte Matte Detail Detail Fine Tuning Sliders 3D Sample Figure 7 3 Primatte operation menu There are four main steps to using the Primatte and Select BG Colour is the first step Select BG Colour Ensure that the Select BG Colour action is selected it should be at this time as it is the default Action mode when you start Primatte 188 PRIMATTE NUKE Position the cursor in the bluescreen area or whatever background colour you are using usu ally somewhere near the foreground object Hold the Ctrl Cmd key down and sample the tar geted background colour Release the mouse button and Primatte will start the compositing process If the foreground shot was done under ideal shooting conditions Primatte will have done 90 95 of the keying in this one step and your image might look like this Figure 7 4 Basic
153. is usually placed at the bottom of the compositing tree to render the final output However Write nodes have both input and output connectors so they may be embed ded anywhere in the compositing tree 352 PREVIEWS AND RENDERING NUKE You can execute renders for a single Write node or all Write nodes in your compositing script To render a sin q le Write node 1 Select the node in the script from which you want to render an image 2 Choose Image gt Write or press W over the Node Graph Nuke attaches a Write node and opens its properties panel 3 Connect a Viewer to the Write node you want to render and verify that the correct resolution is displayed for output If necessary press Ctri Cmd P to toggle between full res and proxy resolution The displayed output resolution will be used for rendering nuke ai E Viewer rgba rgba alpha A Colorbar 2 Fa BB defaut pneri yi Hi ft we output resolution a i PC Video 640x460 bbox 0 0 640480 channels rgb la Global T 4 In the properties panel click the file or proxy field s folder icon depending on whether you want to render high res or low res images and browse to the directory where you want to store the rendered sequence For instructions on using the file browser see Using the File Browser on page 83 Wintel Write Node channels rgb Bred BM green amp blue none file z job FILM IMG final_comp_v01
154. key Primatte will work equally well with any colour backing screen It does not have to be a specific shade of green or blue Tip If you dragged the cursor in the blue area Primatte averages the multi pixel sample to get a single colour to adjust to Sometimes Primatte works best when only a single pixel is sampled instead of a range of pixels The colour selected at this point in the Primatte operation is critical to the operation of the node from this point forward Should you have difficulties further along in the tutorial after selecting a range of blue shades try the Select BG Colour operation again with a single dark blue pixel or single light blue pixel You can also switch to the alpha channel view and click around in the bluescreen area and see the different results you get when the initial sample is made in different areas Tip If you would rather make a rectangular selection and not use the default snail trail sampling method you can do a Crtl Shift drag sample 189 PRIMATTE NUKE Tip If the foreground image has a shadow in it that you want to keep it in the composite do not select any of the dark blue pixels in the shadow and the shadow will come along with the rest of the fore ground image The second and third steps in using Primatte require viewing the Matte or Alpha view in the Viewer window Press the A key on the keyboard to change to the Alpha view The image dis played will change to a
155. match shadows in the background imagery This tool expands the Primatte medium polyhedron in the colour region sampled Detail When this operational mode is selected foreground detail will become less visible for the sam pled pixel colour and all colours like it in the amount of one Primatte increment If there is still too much detail another click using this operational mode tool will make more of it disap pear This can be used to remove smoke or wisps of hair from the composite Sample where is visible and it will disappear This is for moving colour regions into the 100 background region It can be used to nullify a Detail step This tool expands the Primatte small polyhe dron in the colour region sampled Detail When this operational mode is selected foreground detail will become more visible for the sampled pixel colour and all colours like it in the amount of one Primatte increment If detail is still missing another click using this operational mode tool will make detail more visible This can be used to restore lost smoke or wisps of hair Sample where the smoke or hair just disappears and it will return to visibility This is for restoring colour regions that were moved into the 100 background region It may start to bring in background noise if shooting condi tions were not ideal on the foreground image This tool dents the Primatte small polyhedron in the colour region sampled Current Colour Chip This shows
156. may wish to define image formats image resolutions and corresponding pixel aspect ratios for a given project These will appear as pulldown options on Read and Reformat nodes To define an image format 1 If you haven t already done so create a file called menu py in your plug in path directory For more information on plug in path directories see Loading Gizmos Plug ins and TCL scripts on page 410 2 Add an entry in the following format nuke addFormat ImageWidth ImageHeight LowerLeftCorner LowerRightCorner UpperRightCorner UpperLeftCorner PixelAspectRatio DisplayName e Replace ImageWidth with the width in pixels of the image format e Replace ImageHeight with the height in pixels of the image format e f you wish to define an image area that is smaller than the format resolution replace LowerLeftCorner LowerRightCorner UppperRightCorner UpperLeftCorner with the proper x and y coordinates in pixels for the lower left lower right upper right and upper left corners of this smaller image area optional e Replace DisplayName with display name of the format This will appear on all relevant pulldown menus Example 1 The following entry would create a new format called full_aperature_anamorphic witha resolution of 2048 by 1556 and a pixel aspect ratio of 2 0 As the image corners are not explicitly defined the image will cover the entirety of the format area nuke addFormat 2048 1556 2 0 full_apertur
157. moment you change the value Nuke creates a key frame Continue adding key frames as necessary Use the Viewer s scrubber to preview the result 56 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE To delete a single key frame 1 Use the Viewer s next key frame and previous key frame buttons to cue to the key frame that you want to remove Notice that the scrub bar indicates key bq P frames with a green mark Click the animation button Select Delete key from the drop down menu Nuke removes the key frame To delete all key frames from a parameter 1 Click the animation button 2 Select No animation from the drop down menu A confirmation dialog appears Select Yes Nuke removes all key frames from the parameter and sets the static value to match that of the current frame Animated Parameters and the Curve Editor As you add key frames to a parameter Nuke automatically plots a curve on its Curve Editor panel where each value the y axis is plotted as it changes over time the x axis You can add key frames delete key frames and even adjust the interpolation between key frames without ever looking at this curve However as the animation grows more complex you may find it easier to edit the animation by manipulating this curve directly For more information on how to do so see Using the Curve Editor below Using the Curve Editor Displaying Curves To reveal an animation curve 1 Click the animation button next to the paramete
158. mouse pointer across the Viewer window to pan Press Alt Mac users press Option and the middle mouse button and drag to zoom in out You can also use the zoom list at the top of the Viewer to magnify the view 1 27 2D default kl i zoom in X A zoom out fit F fill H x9 Ctrl 9 x8 Ctri 8 x7 Ctrl 7 Ctrl 6 x5 Ctrl 5 x4 Ctri 4 Press F to fit the current image into the borders of the Viewer window This image has different channels of information you can view The RGB label appears at the top because the Viewer now shows the result of the red green and blue channels To view individual colour channels press R red G green B blue or A alpha As you press each hot key the label at the top of the Viewer reflects the displayed channel 457 NUKE Viewerl rgba rygba alpha gt t e a 20 BR defaut 4 ffe ba Hi fi i sac gt Z bo ldd0e1152 bbox 0 1440 1152 channels rgbalightingpasses HE 10 3 Global se Press one of the channel hotkeys again to return to the RGB display or choose RGB from the Viewer s channel list In addition to the standard colour channels for red green blue and alpha this image also includes channels for specular highlights reflections and other masks To view additional channels press A to display the alpha channel and then select the lightingpasses reflection channel from the Viewer channel list nuke x a Viewerl raba lig
159. need a Scene node but where s the fun in that Scene nodes make it possible to really tap into Nuke s ability to handle huge amounts of 3D information and you should know how to use it To setup a scene 1 Inside the Setting Up a 3D System node tree drag a selection around the nuke_sign jpg node and the Card1 node to select them 523 NUKE Press Ctrl C Mac users press Command C to copy the selected nodes or choose Edit gt Copy from the pop up menu Press Ctrl V Mac users press Command V or choose Edit gt Paste to insert a copy of the nodes Press Ctrl V or Command V again to insert a second copy and then arrange the nodes as shown below There are multiple cards now and you need a Scene node to create a space where the rendering node can See all cards at once Click on an empty space in the node graph to deselect all nodes Right click and choose 3D gt Scene to insert the Scenel node Drag the Scenel node onto the obj scn connector to insert the Scenel node between Card1 and ScanlineRender1 524 NUKE nuke_sign jpa f Scenei fi aie 7 Connect the obj scn connector from the ScanlineRender1 node to the Scene1 node Connect each Card node to the Scenel node 8 Double click on the Card node to open its control panel In the Viewer you ll see the transform handles for the first card 9 Move and rotate the card to a different position For this example it doesn
160. node You need to add the Read nodes and the over node and specify the over node s inputs using for example the following statements e rl nuke nodes Read file f epath filename ext e r2 nuke nodes Read file f epath filename ext e m nuke nodes Merge inputs r2 r1 where filepath filename ext represents the locations and names of the images you want to read in The last statement creates a Merge node and sets r2 the second Read node and r1 the first Read node as its inputs Setting Default Values for Controls You can set default values for controls in any nodes that belong to the same class After a default value is set all controls with matching names will default to this value To set a default value use the following statement nuke knobDefault For example if you want the size control on Blur nodes to default to 20 you can use the fol lowing statement nuke knobDefault Blur size 20 If you then wanted the last frame value of the frame range controls in the Project Settings to default to frame 200 you could use the following statement nuke knobDefault Root last_frame 200 Notice that you need to start the node class with a capital letter for example Root rather than root It is also important that you add these statements in your init py file rather than menu py This ensures that they are set for command line start up as well as the graphical user interface GUI If these statements are no
161. objects a Scene node a Camera node one or more geometry nodes i e card sphere obj and a ScanlineRender node Examples of 3D scenes are shown in Figure 13 2 and Figure 13 3 In the example shown in Figure 13 2 the Scene node receives the output from two geometry nodes Card and Card2 and sends the composite of those objects to the ScanlineRender node where the output is converted back to 2D Geometry node s Rendering camera Output rendered back to node tree Figure 13 3 Core nodes for a 3D composite Your script may contain multiple Scene nodes cameras and 3D render nodes All 3D objects loaded in the Properties Bin will appear in the 3D Viewer regardless of whether they are con nected to the same Scene node The Scene Node Regardless of its location in your script the Scene node is the highest level node in the scene hierarchy because it references all the elements in a 3D workspace all the geometric objects Cameras and materials To add a Scene node Choose 3D gt Scene from the toolbar The ScanlineRender Node Every Scene node in a script should be connected to a ScanlineRender node which tells Nuke to render the results of the scene The ScanlineRender node also allows you to toggle between a 2D and 3D view of the scene 278 3D COMPOSITING NUKE ScanlineRenderl ScanlineRender MultiS ample Shader Node X transparency W 2 buffer filter Cubic T antialiasing none ka 2 blend mode none
162. obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files the Software to deal in the Soft ware without restriction including without limitation the rights to use copy mod ify merge publish distribute sublicense and or sell copies of the Software and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so subject to the following conditions The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MER CHANTABILITY FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT TORT OR OTHERWISE ARISING FROM OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE This software contains Autodesk FBXQ code developed by Autodesk Inc Copy right 2008 Autodesk Inc All rights reserved Such code is provided as is and Autodesk Inc disclaims any and all warranties whether express or implied includ ing without limitation the implied warranties of merchantability fitness for a partic ular purpose or non infringement of third party rights In no event shall Autodesk Inc be liable for any direct indirect incidental special exemplary
163. only need to stabilise movement it requires data from two tracks if you need to stabilise for rota tion and or scaling The basic procedure for using Stabilize2D is to first use the Tracker node to generate the required tracks then follow the Tracker node with a Stabilize2D node To this node you apply the tracking data in inverse form thus negating the unwanted transformations 185 TRACKING AND STABILISING NUKE To use the Stabilize2D node 1 Use the Tracker node to generate the appropriate number of tracks on the element requir ing stabilisation Remember you ll need at least two tracks if you need to stabilise for more than just movement You can of course generate more tracks and average the results for better accuracy Select the Tracker node used above then click Transform gt Stabilize to add a Stabilize2D node to the Tracker node From the type pulldown menu in the Stabilize2D properties panel select e 1 Point to stabilise only for movement e 2 Point to stabilise for rotation and or scaling Check all transformation types which you wish to cancel out In the both the track1 x and y fields type 1 to invert the data followed by a linking expression to the relevant tracking data in the Tracker node used above You can use ae ale positional data for Tracker 1 or some multiple track average from the Outputs panel Your entries should resemble the following examples 1 Tracker1 tracker1 x and 1 T
164. only shifts views horizontally not vertically To change the convergence point of a stereo image 1 Make sure there is a disparity field upstream from the image sequence whose convergence you want to change If the image sequence is an exr file the disparity field can be included in its channels Otherwise you can use a ShuffleCopy node or Ocula s O DisparityGenerator plug in to add it in the data stream 2 From the Toolbar select Views gt Stereo gt ReConverge to insert a ReConverge node after the image sequence whose convergence you want to adjust Attach a Viewer to the ReConverge node 4 To better view the effect of the ReConverge node insert an Anaglyph node Views gt Stereo gt Anaglyph between the ReConverge node and the Viewer ReConvergel E naglyphi 5 If you have The Foundry s Ocula plug ins installed check Use Ocula if available In the ReConverge properties panel This way extra refinements are made when changing the convergence and the results may be more accurate 6 Make sure the ReConverge properties panel is open You should see the convergence point overlay in the Viewer Drag the point on top of the point you want to appear at screen level when viewed with 3D glasses The convergence shifts to this location You can also move the convergence point by entering the point s x and y coordinates in the Covergence upon fields 7 By default the ReConverge node moves the right view to achieve
165. operation After you achieve a solid track for one feature you can build on that and track other features as needed To track one feature one point tracking 1 In the project workspace for the tracking tutor nk file locate the node tree labelled Tracking an Image Click on the LondonEye Read node to select it From the menu bar choose Render gt Flipbook selected When the Framecycler window appears play the flipbook several times to review the footage 4 Look at the features in the image and notice the amount and direction of movement as the clip plays When you re done minimize the Framecycler window 5 Choose Transform gt Tracker from the Toolbar to attach a new Tracker node to the LondonEye Read node C vewe 473 NUKE 6 Connect the Viewer node to the Tracker1 node Inside the Viewer you ll see one tracking marker 7 In the Viewer scrub the time slider to frame 1 to make sure you re at the beginning of the shot 8 Use the mouse to drag the tracking anchor over the tower spire shown below File Edit Layout Viewer Render Help amp Viewer rt rgb rgb RGB f 34 f 8 ba 9 Click on the pattern box inner box of the tracking marker and adjust its size to contain the feature 10 Click the search area outer box of the tracking marker and adjust its size to enclose the amount of space you think the feature may move between frames Large search areas require more
166. or remove points to or from the selection box Shift click on the points To resize and scale the selection box drag its edges If the selection box is very narrow you can press Ctrl Cmd when resizing it This allows you to resize the box in one dimension only For example if you have a box that s wide on the x axis but flat on the y axis you can resize it in this way along the x axis To avoid accidentally moving a point inside the selection box press Ctrl Cmd Shift when dragging the box to hide the points inside the box To adjust the slope around the points 1 Select a point on the curve Red tangent handles appear on both sides of the point 2 Drag the tangent handles to a new location The curve follows the handles 50 045 60 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE To sketch a curve freely Press Alt Ctrl Shift Mac users press Alt Cmd Shift while drawing a curve on the editor Nuke sketches a curve that follows your mouse movements To cut copy and paste selected points expressions or curves 1 Right click on the Curve Editor 2 From the menu that opens select Edit and the editing function you want to use on the entire curve for example e Edit gt Copy gt Copy Selected Keys to only copy the points you have currently selected e Edit gt Copy gt Copy Curves to copy an entire curve e Edit gt Copy gt Copy Expressions to copy the expression that creates the curve e Edit gt Copy gt C
167. original until its width matches the format s width Height is then Scaled in such a manner as to preserve the original aspect ratio e height to scale the original until its height matches the format s height Width is then Scaled in such a manner as to preserve the original aspect ratio e fit to scale the original until its smallest side matches the format s smallest side The original s longer side is then scaled in such a manner as to preserve original aspect ratio e fill to scale the original until its longest side matches the format s longest side The input s shorter side is then scaled in such a manner as to preserve original aspect ratio e distort to scale the original until all its sides match the lengths specified by the format This options does not preserve the original aspect ratio so distortions may occur When cropping the output check center to position the crop area at the centre of the frame Choose the appropriate filtering algorithm from the filter pulldown list see Choosing a Filtering Algorithm on page 160 When scaling an image with Key Simon and Rifmen filters you may see a haloing effect which is caused by pixel sharpening these filters employ If necessary check clamp to correct this problem Creating Postage Stamps l Click Transform gt Reformat to insert a Reformat node at appropriate place in your script generally before a Write node Connect a Viewer to the output of the Refor
168. plane Two tracks can be used to do the same but also remove rotation in the image 2 In the Tracker properties panel go to the Settings tab From the warp type pulldown menu select the transformations that you want Nuke to take into account when stabilising the image for example Translate Rotate Scale 3 Go to the Transform tab Under transform select stabilize Nuke stabilises the footage locking its elements to the same position within the composite Matchmoving Elements You can use the Tracker node s controls to apply the tracked motion to another image that is to matchmove an image To matchmove footage 1 Use a Tracker node to create the track you want to apply to an image 182 TRACKING AND STABILISING NUKE 2 Copy the Tracker node and paste it after the footage you want to matchmove 3 In the second Tracker node s controls go to the Transform tab 4 From the transform pulldown menu choose match move Nuke applies the tracked movement to the footage you want to matchmove Applying Tracking Data Via Linking Expressions Nuke s CornerPin2D and Stabilize2D nodes are specifically designed to receive tracking data via linking expressions but you can apply tracking data in this manner to virtually any Nuke node For example you might animate a Bezier shape with tracking data by entering linking expressions into the Bezier node s transformation parameters You can also apply tracking data to individual Bezier p
169. points in the hue region that you wish to suppress Correcting Saturation For the times when you just want to correct the saturation component and don t require limit ing the correction to any particular channel you can use Nuke s Saturation node It s controls are bare bones basically just a saturation slider To make saturation corrections with the Saturation node 1 Click Color gt Saturation to insert a Saturation node at the appropriate place in your script Connect a Viewer to the output of the Saturation node so you can see the effect of your changes Drag the saturation slider to make the necessary corrections 147 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE Masking Colour Corrections Virtually all the colour correction effects in Nuke include mask parameters that lets you limit the correction to the non black pixel values of a matte image For example suppose you want to add a blue cast to the following scene without affecting the buildings Original image Co our corrected image without mask Mask image Co our corrected image limited by mask Figure 4 14 Masking colour correction operations You could create a garbage mask that covers the river then boost the red channel s gamma in the area of the frame that underlies the mask Typically mask controls are located toward the bottom of the properties panel However in the case of multi purpose effects like HSVTool there may be multipl
170. position When the cylinder is moved to a new position the sphere is automati cally rotated to face it To have one 3D object always face another 1 Select the 3D object node for example a sphere that you want to face another object 2 Choose 3D gt Modify gt TransformGeo to insert a TransformGeo node 3 Select the object you want the first object to face for example a cylinder and insert a TransformGeo after this node too 4 Connect the first TransformGeo node into the look input of the second TransformGeo node 5 Open the controls of the first TransformGeo node and go to the Look tab 301 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Transtorm Geo Look Node lootads F ea i M9 rotate look strength M use quaternions 6 From the look axis pulldown menu select the axis around which the object will be rotated to face the other object Z Y X Z Y X 7 Use the rotate X rotate Y and rotate Z check boxes to select the axes the object will be rotated around For the first object to truly face the second you need to check all three check boxes 8 Adjust the look strength slider to define the extend of the rotation The smaller the value the less the object is rotated Setting the value to O produces no rotation 9 If you want to use an alternate scheme to calculate the rotation check use quaternions This may be useful for smoothing out erratic rotations along the selected look axis If you now a
171. read and write cin DPX 8 10 and 16 read and write dpx EXR 16 and 32 read and write exr FPI obsolete GIF 8 read only gif HDRI n a read and write hdr JPEG 8 read and write jpg jpeg Maya IFF 8 and 16 read only iff PNG 8 and 16 read and write png 8 bit png16 16 bit QuickTime n a read and write mov RAW n a read only n a SGI 8 and 16 read and write sgi rgb rgba 8 bit sequences sgil6 for 16 bit sequences Softlmage 8 read and write pic PIC 557 APPENDIX B SUPPORTED FILE FORMATS NUKE Format Bit Depths Read Write Filename Identifier TIFF 8 16 and 32 read and write tif tiff 8 bit sequences tif 16 tiff16 16 bit sequences ftif ftiff 32 bit sequences Truevision 8 read and write tga targa TARGA Wavefront 8 read only rla RLA XPM 8 read and write xpm YUV 8 read and write yuv U AA W N Exr handles 16 and 32 bit float This 16 is also called half float and is different from the 16 bit integer that all the other formats that support 16 use TIFF sequences read in at bit depths up to 32 but can be written out at a maximum bit depth of 16 Adjust compression levels using the quality slider in the Write node s properties panel QuickTime is only supported on 32 bit Windows and Mac OS X DSLR raw data files such as Canon CR2 files These are only supported via the dcraw command line program which you can download from the dcraw website Bit depth and other specific
172. red channel s value while decreasing the blue channel s drag down e The magenta green slider M lets you control the mix of green and magenta hues To add more magenta increase the red and blue channel s values while decreasing the green channel s drag up To add more green increase the green channel s value while decreasing the red and blue channels drag down 54 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE e The intensity slider I lets you simultaneously control the red green and blue channel val ues To increase the value of all channels by the same amount drag up To decrease the value of all channels by the same amount drag down To increase the channel s value drag up To decrease it drag down These are the functions of the HSV sliders e The hue slider H lets you control the colour s location on the traditional colour wheel for example whether the colour is red yellow or violet e The saturation slider S lets you control the intensity or purity of the colour e The value slider V lets you control the brightness of the colour the maximum of red green and blue values These are the functions of the RGB sliders e The red slider R lets you control the red channel s value or the first channel in a channel set if you are processing another set besides RBGA To increase the channel s value drag up To decrease it drag down e The green slider G lets you control the green channel s value or th
173. running on a server across a network of machines These tools are called Foundry FLEXIm Tools FFT and can be downloaded free of charge from our web site at www thefoundry co uk licensing The Foundry FLEXIm Tools should be installed on the server Obtaining Licenses You can request licenses by contacting The Foundry To generate you a license key we need to know your System ID The System ID sometimes called Imhostid returns a unique number for your computer We lock our license keys to the System ID To display your System ID do any of the following e Download the Foundry System ID FSID utility from www thefoundry co uk licensing and run it Your System ID will be displayed in the window that opens e Install and try to launch the commercial version Nuke without a valid license see Installing Nuke on page 22 and Launching Nuke on page 25 Your System ID number is displayed in the license error you get e Download the Foundry FLEXIm Tools FFT free of charge from our web site and run the fol lowing command in a terminal shell ilmutil lmhostid Just so you know what a System ID number looks like here s an example O00ea641d 7al Once you have provided us with your System ID number and a license key has been generated for you you will receive the license key in an e mail or Internet download The license key is contained in a text file called foundry ic Here is an example node locked uncounted license for Nuke that expi
174. select the box and press Delete Clicking on the title bar and pressing Delete removes both the box and the nodes on it Grouping Nodes with the Group Node You can use the Group node to nest multiple nodes inside a single node To group nodes with a Group node 1 Select all the nodes you want to nest inside the Group node Select Edit gt Node gt Group or press Ctri Cmd G on the Node Graph The selected nodes are nested into a group The original nodes are still in the layout and can be deleted if you like The internal structure of the Group node is shown on a separate tab that opens Tip As an alternative to Edit gt Node gt Group you can also select Other gt Group from the Toolbar or the Node Graph right click menu To view the nodes nested inside a Group node In the Group node s controls click the S button short for Show in the top right corner 104 MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE Groupi R Group Show the internal structure of this group node A new tab that contains the nested nodes opens To ungroup nodes 1 In the Group node s controls click the S button in the top right corner R Group Groupi Show the internal structure of this group node A new tab that contains the nested nodes opens 2 Copy the nodes from the new tab into your script If you want to lock the connections between the grouped nodes so that they cannot be accidentally disconnected during the copy paste op
175. select Merge gt Merge However if you d prefer to use Merge you can override the creation of the Merge node so that Nuke creates the Merge node by default To do so follow these steps 1 Create a file called menu py in your plug in path directory if one doesn t already exist For more information on plug in path directories see Loading Gizmos Plug ins and TCL scripts on page 410 2 Add the following entry class MyCustomNodes def getattr_ self args if args Merge2 args Merge return nuke NodeConstructor args nuke nodes MyCustomNodes THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE Tip You can also do the same using the nuke createNode statement rather than the nuke nodes node name statement In this case add the following entry instead of the entry described in step 2 def createMyCustomNodes node knobs inpanel True if node Merge2 node Merge return nukeOriginalCreateNode node node knobs knobs inpanel inpanel nuke createNode createMyCustomNodes Getting Information on the Nuke Environment You Are Running In the Nuke module there is an object called env This object gives you information about the particular Nuke environment you are running You can access it in a dictionary form nuke env key Currently you can use the following statements to get the following information e nuke env PluginExtension This returns the file extension for plug ins The extension can be
176. shape This eases the distance back toward the value of the key frame at the end of the timeline Node Graph Curve Editor Cameral translate Select the camera in the Viewer and you should see the gradual slopes of the curve create a more interesting arc for the camera move Switch to the 3D V perspective view and scrub through the timeline to see the new Camera move Your version may look a little different than this depending on the positions and rotations you defined but you get the idea 532 NUKE 12 If you wish you can set additional key frames to refine the camera path Hold down Ctri Alt or Command QOption and click on the z axis curve in the Curve Editor to add new points to the curve and then adjust their positions 13 Before you continue click the Node Graph tab to hide the Curve Editor and return to the node trees 14 Close all the control panels that are currently open Working with Geometry In the previous example you worked with the card object Nuke also includes primitive geom etry which can be used as set extension geometry or placeholders for other elements you plan to add to scene To add primitive objects to the scene 1 In the 3Dinteg_tutor nk project file locate the node tree labelled Working with Geom etry We ve already supplied the 3D node tree with a camera for you so you need to add the geometry objects and also create a Scene where they can coexist
177. smoother the result In many cases a value of 1 0 is enough Setting the value to O produces no motion blur 4 In the shutter field enter the number of frames the shutter stays open when motion blurring For example a value of 0 5 would correspond to half a frame Increasing the value produces more blur and decreasing the value less 5 From the shutteroffset pulldown menu select when the shutter opens and closes in relation to the current frame value e to centre the shutter around the current frame select centred For example if you set the shutter value to 1 and your current frame is 30 the shutter will stay open from frame 29 5 to 30 5 e to open the shutter at the current frame select start For example if you set the shutter value to 1 and your current frame is 30 the shutter will stay open from frame 30 to 31 e to close the shutter at the current frame select end For example if you set the shutter value to 1 and your current frame is 30 the shutter will stay open from frame 29 to 30 e to open the shutter at the time you specify select custom In the field next to the pulldown menu enter a value in frames you want to add to the current frame To open the shutter before the current frame enter a negative value For example a value of 0 5 would open the shutter half a frame before the current frame motionblur shutter 0 5 shutterotfset custom 0 5 174 6 Tracking and Stabilising Nuke
178. subject of the source image For example if you are warping an animal s eyes you need to create grid lines that follow the edges of the eyes To add more points and lines to the grid click the add button under the Source Grid controls and click on an existing grid line in the Viewer If you click on a horizontal line a vertical line is added to the grid If you click on a vertical line a horizontal line is added to the grid The lines can be further apart in the areas that you don t intend to warp You can use the grid lines to isolate the areas you do not want to warp You do this by adding lines between the area you intend to warp and the area you don t want to change 248 WARPING AND MORPHING IMAGES NUKE An unlimited warp The same warp limited to a small area with grid lines When you select a point four tangent handles appear around it You can use these handles to modify the curves connecting the points To move several points together draw a marquee around them and use the transformation overlay that appears For more information on how to use the transformation overlay see Using the 2D Transformation Overlay on page 159 To remove a line click the remove button and the line you want to remove 7 If necessary animate the source grid to match any movement in the source image For more information on how to do this see Animating Warps on page 255 8 Unless you want to draw the destination grid separately cl
179. such as Maya or Boujou Depending on what you want to import and from where there are different ways of doing the import e To apply motion data calculated with 3D tracking software to cameras or objects you need to import channel files For more information see App ying Tracks to an Object below You can also use channel files to import cameras created in other applications into Nuke However as the chan file format is not a standard file format you may need a file format converter to export chan files from other applications e To import cameras lights transforms or meshes from other applications you can use fbx files Fbx is a standard file format many applications can export to Fbx files contain 3D scenes from which you can import cameras lights transforms and meshes into Nuke For more information see Working with fbx Files on page 322 e To import cameras from Boujou you can use the import _boujou tcl script shipped with Nuke For more information see mporting Cameras from Boujou on page 326 Applying Tracks to an Object Nuke can import channel files and apply the motion data to the transformation parameters of any camera or object The most common purpose for this is to simulate a practical camera move or move objects along a defined path Channel files contain a set of cartesian coordinates for every frame of animation in a given shot This information is calculated by 3D tracking software such as 3D Equalizer Ma
180. t matter where you place it 10 Open the control panel for Card2 and move its card to a different place in the scene 11 Open the Card3 control panel and move that card also 525 NUKE You could switch to the 2D view to see the result but why not just look through the camera Next to the view list you see the button that locks the 3D view to the camera selected camera lock 3D view to selected camera 12 From the view list choose 3D V to switch to a 3D perspective view Then click the lock view to 3D camera button 1 mgb mbsa alpha 14 73 Fd 13 Turn off the lock 3D view to camera button You won t need it during the rest of this tutorial Merging and Constraining Objects You can merge objects and move them together as a group To do so you need to insert MergeGeo and TransformGeo nodes after the objects The MergeGeo node first merges the objects together after which you can use the controls of the TransformGeo node to move the merged objects in the 3D space You can also use the TransformGeo node to constrain objects as you will notice later in this tutorial To merge the three card objects together right click on the Card1 node and select 3D gt Modify gt MergeGeo This inserts a MergeGeo node between Card1 and Scene1 Disconnect the Card2 and Card3 nodes from the Scene node and connect them into the MergeGeo node Then right click on the MergeGeo node and select 3D gt Modif
181. that is the or greater 1 asin value whose sine is x returns nan not a number asin x Calculates the arc If x is less than 1 See also sin sinh acos atan sine of x that is the or greater 1 asin value whose sine is x returns nan not a number gt atan x Calculates the arc X See also tan tanh acos asin atan2 tangent of x that is the value whose tan gent is x The return value will be between PI 2 and PI 2 atan2 x y Calculates the arc x y See also sin cos tan asin acos atan hypot tangent of the two variables x and y This function is useful to calculate the angle between to vectors ceil x Round x up to the X See also floor trunc rint nearest integer clamp x Return x clamped to x min max See also min max min max min max clamp x Return x clamped to See also min max 0 0 1 0 x lt cos x Returns the cosine of x in radians See also acos sin tan cosh X cosh x Returns the hyper x See also cos acos sinh tanh bolic cosine of x which is defined mathematically as exp x exp x 2 360 EXPRESSIONS Function curve frame degrees x exp x exponent x fBm x y z octaves lucanarity gain fabs x false 0 floor x fmod x y Purpose Returns the y value of the animation curve at the given frame Convert the angle x from radians into degrees Returns the value of e
182. the corresponding axes Adding Motion Blur The following nodes under the Transform menu have their own controls for adding motion blur to transformations e Transform e TransformMasked e Card 3D e CornerPin2D e Reconcile3D e Tracker e Stabilize2D motonblur 0 shutter 0 5 shutterotfset start These controls allow you to create motion blur without adding a separate node for it The out put is similar to a TimeBlur node see Applying the TimeBlur Filter on page 243 but rather than averaging the results of several whole images computed at steps over the shutter period a number of samples are taken at many random times over the shutter period This effectively gives many more steps and thus a smoother looking result for a smaller total number of computations Before rotation and motion blur After rotation and motion blur Figure 5 2 Using the Transform node to rotate a checkerboard and add motion blur When using several of these nodes in a row the motion blur is concatenated and the last transform in the chain defines the motion blur applied 173 TRANSFORMING ELEMENTS NUKE To add motion blur 1 Open the transform node s controls 2 Create a transform and animate it For instructions on how to do this see Animating Parameters on page 56 3 Inthe motionblur field enter the sampling rate This affects the number of times the input is sampled over the shutter time The higher the rate the
183. the Node Graph Inserting a Back drop node creates a box behind the nodes When you move the box all the nodes that overlap the box are moved too By inserting several backdrop nodes you can group the nodes in your node tree onto boxes of different colours and titles This makes it easier to find a particular node in a large node tree for example 102 MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE Figure 3 1 Nodes grouped in the Node Graph with Backdrop nodes To group nodes with a Backdrop node 1 Select Other gt Backdrop A BackdropNode box appears in the Node Graph 2 Drag the triangle in the lower right corner of the box to resize the box as necessary 3 Click on the box title bar and drag it to move the box behind the nodes you want to group together If there are any nodes on the box they move together with the box 103 MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE Drag here to move the box and the nodes inside it Cylinder1 J R adialDistort te Drag here to resize the box 4 To change the colour of the box open the Backdrop node s controls by double clicking on the title bar then click the left colour button and pick a new colour with the colour picker that appears BackdropNodel BackdropNode 5 To change the title of the box enter a new name for the Backdrop node in the node s controls BackdropNodel BackdropNode 6 If you later want to remove the box click on the triangle in the lower right corner to
184. the colour back to default light grey right click on the button and select Set color to default Change the colour of the elbows that appear on arrows when you press Ctrl Cmd on the Node Graph and that you can click to insert Dot nodes To set the colour back to default yellow right click on the button and select Set color to default Change the colour of arrows pointing left in the Node Graph To set the colour back to default black right click on the button and select Set color to default Change the colour of arrows pointing right in the Node Graph To set the colour back to default black right click on the button and select Set color to default Change the colour of arrows pointing up in the Node Graph To set the colour back to default black right click on the button and select Set color to default Change the colour of arrows pointing down in the Node Graph To set the colour back to default black right click on the button and select Set color to default Change the colour of the arrows that indicate nodes are connected via an expres sion To set the colour back to default green right click on the button and select Set color to default Check this if you want to display expression arrows in the Node Graph Change the colour of the arrows that indicate nodes have been cloned To set the colour back to default orange right click on the button and select Set color to default 375 SETTI
185. the curve after the first two let you shift the centre for the high values of the key Change the keying operation to greenscreen Pull the high value handle to the right as far at it will go setting 1 0 Then set the low value at 90 range There s a lot of garbage around the image but it looks like you ve got a fairly clean edge around your subject Let s check it in the comp Switch the Viewer to display all colour channels and then attach the Viewer to the over node 508 NUKE That s completely terrible What happened The alpha channel created by the greenscreen keyer must be multiplied into the pixel values of the original image in order to generate the matte Some keyers like Primatte provide a composite output option which handles the multiplication for you The Keyer node does not so youll have to do it manually 8 Select the greenscreen keyer node and choose Merge gt Premult from the right click menu 9 Adjust the high and low ranges values in the greenscreen node s control panel to refine the edges around your subject This keyer isn t particularly good at handling spill so let s add a colour correction node to remove those green edges 10 Select the Premult1 node and then choose Colour gt HueCorrect from the right click menu 509 NUKE A a greenscreen alpha j n E 11 Select the g_sup parameter in the HueCorrect1 control panel to select the green suppr
186. the curve editor and select Edit Then select the editing command you want to use just like you would on any curve editor Renaming existing LUTs is currently not possible If you want to rename a LUT you need to add and name a new LUT copy the information from the old LUT into the new one and then remove the old LUT To reset the LUT curves back to their initial default shapes 1 Select Edit gt Project settings to open the settings for the script 2 Go to the LUT tab 3 From the list on the left select the LUT you want to reset To select several LUTs press Ctrl Cmd on a Mac while selecting the LUTs 4 Click reset To remove LUTs 1 Select Edit gt Project settings to open the settings for the script 2 Go to the LUT tab 3 From the list on the left select the LUT you want to remove Only remove LUTs that you have for example created by accident and are not using in your script To remove the LUT click the minus button The LUT is removed from the LUT settings the colorspace pulldown menu of Read and Write nodes properties panels the Viewer controls and the display_lut pulldown menu of Viewer settings If you remove a LUT that is used in a node the node continues to refer to the LUT by name and raises an error Selecting the LUT to Use To select the LUT to use when reading or writing an image 1 Double click to open the Read or Write node s properties panel 2 From the colorspace p
187. the left These slider operations are additive This result achieved by moving the slider to the left can also be achieved by clicking on the colour region using the Detail operational mode This shrinks the small polyhedron which contains all the blue or green background colours and releases pixels that were close to the background colour The S poly slider in the Fine Tuning mode is useful for restoring pixels that were lost because they were so similar to the back ground colour This slider dents the Primatte small polyhedron near the registered colour region Spill Process Section Complement Solid Defocus Spill Replacement Allows the user to choose between the three methods of colour spill replacement as covered in detail in Section 5 Spill Replacement Options and below no suppression Replaces the spill colour with the complement of the backing screen colour complement Replaces the spill colour with the complement of the backing screen colour solid colour Replaces the spill colour with colours from a defocused version of the background image defocused background Replaces the spill colour with a user selected solid colour 209 PRIMATTE NUKE Replace colour Slider When solid colour is selected this area allows the user to select a solid colour to use to replace the spill For all other spill replacement selections this area is greyed out and not activated Defocus Slider When defocused background is sele
188. the same time 1 The Cineon conversion is implemented as defined in Kodak s Cineon documentation 433 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE Root LUT Views reset Default LUT settings moniter sRGB viewer sRGB bit files sRGB 16 bit fles sRGB log files Cineon float files linear To create a new LUT 1 Select Edit gt Project settings to open the settings for the script 2 Go to the LUT tab 3 Click the plus button A dialog opens 4 Enter a name for the new LUT and click OK 5 Adjust the lookup curve to suit your needs Click on the curve to select it Ctrl Cmd Alt click to add points on the curve and drag the points to a new position To change the shape of the curve adjust the tangent handles The new LUT is now available in the global LUT settings the colorspace pulldown menu of Read and Write nodes properties panels the Viewer controls and the display_lut pulldown menu of Viewer settings To edit LUTs 1 Select Edit gt Project settings to open the settings for the script 2 Go to the LUT tab 3 From the list on the left select the LUT you want to edit 4 Adjust the lookup curve to suit your needs Click on the curve to select it Ctrl Cmd Alt click to add points on the curve and drag the points to a new position To change the shape of the curve adjust the tangent handles 434 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE To use the usual editing commands such as copy and paste right click on
189. to direct their output to a specific channel and parent channel set You have the option of processing these channels in each subsequent node or leaving them unchanged Many nodes feature an output or channels setting which lets you direct the output of the Current node to a specific channel set and channel You can also use the output or channels list to create new channel sets and channels CHANNELS NUKE Some nodes do not include an output or channels setting in their parameters For these you Can connect other nodes such as Channel Copy or Shuffle to create and manage channel out put in the node tree To create a new channel set and or channel 1 Open the properties panel for the node whose output will create the new channel From the output or channels pulldown list select new Under Name enter the name of the channel set and under Channels the new channel name T Hew layer For example as shown in the figure above you would enter mask and robotvisor to create a new channel robotvisor in the channel set named mask If the set does not already exist Nuke will create it 4 Click OK You can also create new channels with the Shuffle and ShuffleCopy nodes These are explained later under Swapping Channels Calling Channels By default most nodes in Nuke attempt to process the current channels in the rgba set and put output in those same channels However many nodes also contain an inpu
190. to the mask connector on the over node This effectively removes the aquarium reflections in the image 502 NUKE You might want to scrub through the timeline to see if there are places where you need to adjust the rotoshape If you want to take this a little further you can now add the goldfish to the composite from the second example 17 Select and drag the over node and the Bezier1 node below the node tree you used for the IBK example 18 Drag the Viewer node over as well and keep it connected to the over node 19 Drag the B connector from the Reformat2 node and connect it to the over node in the IBK node tree The Viewer shows the result Of course you might want to add a Transform node after the first over node to size and position the goldfish Otherwise this project is completed 503 NUKE Keying Video Nuke s Keyer node provides standard controls for pulling luma keys green and blue screens and colour channels We ll use this keyer and a few other nodes to handle a special keying Situation video We ll begin by inserting a group of nodes that allow you to pull a cleaner matte by filtering the compression artifacts in the chroma red and chroma blue channels of digital video This involves converting the image back to its original colourspace blurring the channels with the artifacts and then converting the image back to Nuke s native linear colourspace To prepare video footage for
191. to the src input of the SplineWarp node and the destination image the image you want the source image turned into to the dst input Attach a Viewer to the SplineWarp node _ Spline Warp 1 5 Inthe SplineWarp node s controls set show to src You should see the source image in the Viewer 259 WARPING AND MORPHING IMAGES NUKE 6 Identify some features that are similar in the source and the destination images For example if you are morphing together images of people or animals these features might include their eyes noses and mouths as well as the outlines of their faces and heads 7 Inthe Viewer Ctrl Alt click Mac users Cmd Alt click to draw curves around the key features you identified in the previous step For more information on how to create the curves see o warp an image using the SplineWarp node on page 252 8 Click copy under Source Curves and paste under Destination Curves This copies the source Curves you created in the previous step into the destination curves making them identical 9 From the show pulldown menu select dst You should now see the destination curves and the image connected to the dst input 10 Adjust the destination curves to conform to the features of the destination image 11 In the SplineWarp node s controls select blend under show 12 Scrub to the frame where you want the morph to begin Bring the distortion slider down to O the source image Click on the animation bu
192. to use from the fbx file Fbx files support multiple takes one of which is usually a default take with no animation 5 From the node name pulldown menu choose the transform marker or null you want to import from the fbx file 6 If you do not want to use the frame rate from the fbx file for sampling the animation curves in the frame rate field enter a new value frames per second To override the frame rate defined in the fbx file and use the one you defined here check use frame rate 7 If you want to modify the transform properties imported from the fbx file uncheck read from file on the Axis tab and make the necessary modifications As long as read from file is unchecked your changes are kept 8 To reload the transform properties from the fbx file make sure read from file is checked and click the reload button on the File tab Importing Meshes from fbx Files The ReadGeo node lets you import meshes or NURBS curves patch surfaces converted to meshes from fbx files Using one ReadGeo node you can read in a single mesh or all the meshes in an fbx file The mesh s vertices normals UV s and vertex colours are read on a per frame basis or at frame 0 If there are any shape or cluster deformers they are applied to the vertices Materi als or textures are not read in 325 3D COMPOSITING NUKE To import a mesh from an fbx file 1 2 10 11 Select 3D gt Geometry gt ReadGeo to insert a R
193. translate Set key rotate x scale x f No animation uniform scale skew x O pivot x 0 This opens the Curve Editor window in the same pane as the Node Graph The outline at the left side of the Curve Editor displays a list of the parameters you ve animated and the 530 NUKE curves show the values plotted over time Each dot shows the value recorded for a value on a key frame Curve Editor Cameral translate Yes we know They don t look like curves yet You only set two key frames remember You can press Ctrl Alt Mac users press Command Option and click on any line to add more key frames However let s assume you want to create a smooth arc between the first and last recorded position of the camera Rather than set more key frames let s just change the shape of the curve 10 You want to control the shape of the camera path along the z the distance between the Origin point and the camera so click the translate z parameter in the Curve Editor Click on the first point of the translate z curve to select it and drag the tangent handle upward as shown below E Node Graph Curve Editor Cameral _ translate x rotate xi y15 3799 From this point forward the curve increases the distance of the camera on the z axis which you ll now see in the Viewer 531 NUKE 11 Click on the last point of the translate z curve to select it and drag it upward also to finish the desired
194. with 0 1000 1 100 2 200 3 300 4 400 5 500 6 600 7 700 8 800 and 9 900 Open the node s properties panel in a floating window 548 APPENDIX A HOT KEYS Keystroke s Ctrl A Ctrl B Ctrl C Ctrl D Ctrl G Ctrl P Ctrl Return Ctrl Shift Ctrl W D Delete F F12 N p Return Shift Shift 0 1 2 3 Shift drag Shift A Shift Ctrl C Shift Ctrl X Shift U NUKE Action Select all nodes in the Node Graph or group window Node buffer toggle Copy selected nodes Disconnect upstream node from selected node Nest selected nodes inside a Group node keeping the original nodes in the layout Ctrl Enter opens the new Group node Toggle proxy resolution as defined on the Settings properties panel See also Ctrl P under Viewers Open window for selected group node Opens the Search and Replace dialog for the selected Read or Write nodes Close current script file Disable enable selected node Remove selected nodes Fit the selected nodes or if no nodes are selected the entire node tree to the Node Graph panel or group window Clear buffers Display information for selected node Insert Copy node Note that for this to work you first need to click on the Node Graph to select it If you have selected the Viewer pressing K stops playback See K under View ers Insert Merge node Rename the selected node Insert Bezier node Open panel for selected n
195. with the extension autosave To change this enter a full directory pathname in the autosave filename field e autosave after idle for to define how long in seconds Nuke waits before performing an automatic backup after you have left the system idle e force autosave after to define how long in seconds Nuke waits before performing an automatic backup regardless of whether the system is idle 96 MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE 3 Click Save If you close the Preferences dialog without clicking Save Prefs your changes will only affect the cur rent session of Nuke For the automatic backup to work you must save your script first so that the autosave can reference the file We d hate for you to lose your work so please do this early on in the process To turn off automatic backup 1 Select Edit gt Preferences The Preferences dialog opens 2 Set the autosave after idle for and force autosave after fields to 0 From now on Nuke will not perform any automatic backups and you are more likely to lose your work in the case of a system or power failure Recovering Backups After experiencing a system or power failure you are likely to want to recover the backup files created by Nuke s autosave function To recover backups 1 Relaunch Nuke A dialog opens that asks you if you want to recover the autosave file 2 Click OK Nuke opens the backup file for your use There may be times when you don t want to loa
196. with more control points They allow you to sub divide a card giving you finer control for warping an area You can subdivide the card into an evenly spaced grid or pick a location to add a row column or both To add a card object 1 Click 3D gt Geometry gt Card to insert a Card node 2 Drag the Card node s img pipe to the Read node that has the image you want to apply to the card Connect the Card node to the appropriate Scene node to add it to the 3D scene 4 Use the card object s transform controls to manipulate the position scale and rotation of the card in 3D space For more information see ransforming from the Node Properties Panel on page 299 Deforming Card Objects The Deform tab on the Card panel lets you convert the card into a mesh surface that may be pulled and reshaped A bicubic deformation offers the greatest degree of surface elasticity You can add any number of control points on the card and translate these points and their tangents in any direction The control point tangents exert a magnetic like influence over the objects surface 283 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Figure 13 9 The Card node can have any number of control points you can translate To deform a Card object 1 Double click the Card node to open its controls 2 Go to the Deform tab and select the mesh type for the deformation bilinear or bicubic Cardi none Tor Card L ri Deform Node bilinear type PN beubie rese
197. you have checked swap Tip If you set the log x y and z values to 1 and check swap the LogGeo node produces no change in the incoming geometry If you want to try out how the node works this is a good place to start as you can then gradually adjust the values from there 304 3D COMPOSITING NUKE The following images illustrate the effect of the LogGeo node on the default Nuke cylinder and sphere when swap is checked in the LogGeo controls Notice that if these objects were not positioned in the default location centered around 0 0 0 the results would be different Log x y and z set to 0 5 Log x y and z set to 2 Log x y and z set to 3 Figure 13 19 The LogGeo node applied to the default cylinder and sphere Modifying Objects Using an Image With the DisplaceGeo node you can modify geometry based on an image When using the node each vertex is displaced along its normal with a value corresponding to the image pixel the vertex s uv attribute points to The higher the pixel value the greater the displacement The following image illustrates the principle behind the DisplaceGeo node A Card node is mod ified to resemble the pattern of a Checkerboard image 305 3D COMPOSITING NUKE F F io W defouk Go x a z 2 OM Rey By DisplaceGeot Node channels Bred BM ogreen amp blue SOUrCS luminance r scale 0 229z weight 1 yoa offset xO y filter size 2 filter Parzen atrib name Uw tg
198. you want to set e value is the value you want to give to the control For example if you wanted to create a Blur node and set its size parameter to 10 you would need to enter nuke nodes Blur size 10 You can check the results in the Blur node s properties panel where the value in the size field Should be set to 10 To create a node and rename it enter nuke nodes nodename name newname where e nodename is the name of the node you want to add e newname is the name that you want to give to the node For example if you wanted to create a Camera node but call it Projection Cam you would enter nuke nodes Camera name Projection Cam 386 THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE To create a Read node enter nuke nodes Read file ffi epath filename ext where filepath filename ext represents the path to the image you want to read in For exam ple if you wanted to read in myimage cin from C Temp you would enter nuke nodes Read file C Temp myimage cin Assigning Variables Since you are likely to want to play with the node after creating it it makes sense to assign the node to a variable Then in your subsequent statements you can use the variable to refer to the node To add a node and assign it to a variable enter variable nuke nodes nodename where variab e represents any character or string of characters you want to use as the varia ble and nodename the name of the node you want to crea
199. 6 reroror w EK 339 Reproducing X and Y Vali S i 0 2 4 as saa 4 46 54664 0 8 4 6s 644 6 OWE eeror 6 O 340 Swapping VICWS 6 04 o04s5e504505 eeheeuset in esuusoeeSeadatgauees os 341 Converting Images into Anaglyph 0 0 cece ee ee ee eee ees 342 Changing COnvergente s lt lt 2444404 564408664 540644448564b 404000 ooo oo 343 Rendering Stereoscopic Images ccc ee ee eee eee eee 34 7 Previews and Rendering ccc cece cece eee eee nee nee 349 Previewing OUROUL o5 044 2444404304064 66446 665455445556 043 550500544 408 349 Previewing in a Nuke Viewer 0c ccc eee eee eee eee eee ee eee eee eee eee 349 Flipbooking Sequences 0445s 64044084 6464405645450 46 tee De aOR oso 350 Rendering Output onks cadens oo Gan wade oats e ned egaee eee eetedee ead HSA 351 Render Resolution and Format 0 2 eee cee eee eee eee eee eee eee ees 351 Grout Write Nodes ees 2 4 coc a ha ceo ea 6 455 be oa 6 ees ose tnt eae 352 File Name Conventions for Rendered Images cece cece cece eee eee ees 355 Render FaliiSs 2 on oe 844 586 bose oUe aed awaas ee ten See nh eeoueae Se 424 356 EXPreSSIONS 2 ce cc cc ee eee eee eee ence e nen nee ees 357 Understanding Expression Syntax ccc eee ee ee eee nee 357 Linking Expressions 4a 44 064 4s4es heen oe ie dbwe hea bs eens cdeee es oH 357 Adding Mathematical Functions to Expressions cece eee eee 359 Setting Interface Preferences
200. 66 Oo EOS eh 665848 s cae lee Assigning Constants 4s o 4 o 34 0 es 66 Ga eed eae eo bos ooo eee 34s 6462 Creating Swap Channel Sets 1 4 064s waso cab boeeebeeedea dence eadaeaee ee ohana ie SUMMARY 56ers a ade choos cdatwen Fae aee tens bho eset cae epee Selo Merging ImageS ccc cece ce cee cece eee tee cence eee oe LLG Layering Images Together with the Merge Node 2 2 126 Merge Operations 445 i6 lt o e440 boa Kee Oho es ho whee eee sae oasa 127 Generating Contact Sheets ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee eee ee ISS Copying a Rectangle from One Image to Another 135 e e e e e e e e e e e Colour Correction and Colour Space 0 00 cece eee oe 138 Making Tonal Adjustments 0 cece ce cece ee eee eee eee eee ee 138 Using Histograms ss s a 4 4 4 4 65 sad os oe C406 kriss End euoee babeeee ks eela Sampling White and Black points 00 cc eee e ee eee ee eee eee eee ee oe ISI Making Basic Corrections s 5 a4 4 4 6 6 is4 004 90484544408 444000e4e08 64 04 s 14U GING SIIGENS 4 oo 60s 4 eas oo oe Sy Se Soe ee ew See eeee eee en dss E Using Colour Curves 44440 eas 04 ee oo 44 49 bore wa be hes boeken hoes ea osaanlel Making Hue Saturation and Value Adjustments 20002 44 143 Correcting HSV ce ee ee eee ee ee ee eee eee eee eee eee ee eee oe L4G Corectia BUG es rrr canny bo oo bode bob ee eee ES eee
201. 7
202. 87 THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE interface and assign the parameter to the variable k Finally you add the parameter k to the Blur node s b controls Blur User Node My Control 0 k i If you wanted to create a slider control rather than an input field you d need to use the fol lowing statements replacing Array Knob with WH_Knob b nuke nodes Blur k nuke WH_Knob myctrl My Control b addKnob k The following lines instead would produce a checkbox control b nuke nodes Blur 0 k nuke Boolean Knob myctrl My Control b addKnob k Now you have a control but it has no tool tip Let s add one Enter the following statement k setTooltip My tooltip This adds a tool tip with the words My tooltip to the control created earlier and assigned to variable k Blur User Node My Control 0 k myctrl My tooltip To see the tool tip you may need to close and reopen the node s properties panel Connecting Nodes and Setting Their Inputs By default the nodes you add to your node tree are connected to the last selected node How ever you can also use a Script to set an input for a node 388 THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE Let s imagine you want to add two Read nodes and a Merge node in this case an over node to your node tree and connect the Read nodes to the over node s A and B inputs numbers 1 and 0 like this Figure 18 3 Read nodes and a Merge over
203. ANTIES INCLUDING BUT NOT LIM ITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT INDIRECT INCIDENTAL SPECIAL EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES INCLUDING BUT NOT LIM ITED TO PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES LOSS OF USE DATA OR PROFITS OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY WHETHER IN CONTRACT STRICT LIABILITY OR TORT INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE 575 APPENDIX D THIRD PARTY LICENSES NUKE Library OpenEXR Python Description File format support Source code language License Copyright 2002 Industrial Light amp Magic a division of Lucas Digital Ltd LLC All rights reserved Redistribution and use in source and binary forms with or without modification are permitted provided that the following conditions are met Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice this list of conditions and the following disclaimer Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and or other mate rials provided with the distribution Neither the name of Industrial Light amp Magic nor the names of its
204. Ad e eo e 280 NUKE 3D Scene Geometry ac enepunvseseaeeeeh ese seed acneneeo Gareearece ese 282 Working with Cards 4 9 94 ss 49 0 yee bee tiaia ae ee a ee ed ee Ss 283 Working with CubeS 4 dase eu adnee deen beans ee ua eee oan oad ek oe KS 286 Working with Spheres 44 4 b4 44 4 o5e bbe oe eee es ogee noeeeee ee sae abe 84 287 Working with OBJ ObjeCos 4 4444 0 4944 49 44949 44 5554540845 2098545045 e 288 Parenting to Axis ODOC lt 4044 4 4 46044 60 042 b 260ed OOS SHS ee SWS eRe SOS 288 Merging BIGGS 45 lt 0404500 saad ote ee eE He ADS Se RE DDE eee eR oes 290 Object Material Properties 0 ec ce ec ee ec eee eee e teen nee 290 Projecting Textures onto Objects 20 cece ee ee ee ee nee 294 Projecting Textures with the UVProject node ec cee eee ee ee eee eee eee 294 Projecting Textures with the Project3D Node 0 eee eee eee eee eee ees 295 Merging SNAGCNS 6 25 onG eeu sed eceseut ew baunee a4 ss 4e ue Sees Bese oan 295 Object Display Properties 0 ce cc ee ee ee eee eee en nee 296 Transforming ObjectS o4 06054 cane catdew scan eee bake ee boda ee eaddww bh wes 298 Using the Transform Handles 0c cc cee ec cee eee eee ee eee eee eee eee 298 Transforming from the Node Properties Panel 00 c ee eee eee rore ees 299 Transformations and the Pivot Point 0c ce eee eee eee ee eee ee eee ees 300 Using the TransformGeo Node cc eee ee
205. As a search String you can enter all or part of a node name For example you can search for all Blur nodes in your script by entering bl as the search string 42 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Using regular expressions you can also do more complex searches such as searching for all the Read and Write nodes in a script To search for nodes Select Edit gt Search or press to bring up the search dialog 2 In the search field enter the string you want to search for If you want to search for all nodes in the script enter an asterisk If you want to search for all Read nodes in the script enter Read If you want to search for all the Read and Write nodes enter the following expression Read Write 3 Click OK Nuke searches for the nodes in the script and selects any matches it finds When you enter expressions in the search dialog remember that the search field only takes regular expressions Any characters that have specific meanings in regular expressions such as and need to be preceded by the character Viewing Information on Nodes You can obtain more detailed information from any node by selecting that node and then pressing the i key This will display an information window associated with that node particularly useful when troubleshooting Customising the Node Display You can modify the colour name and notes that a particular node displays Doing so can make it easier for other artists to
206. Channel CheckerBoard Color ColorBars Fitter Colones Keyer CurveTool A file browser appears This where you select the image file you want to import When you browse through your directories from this window Nuke will display sequentially numbered files as one item in the directory Browse to the Nuke_Tutorials CompBasics directory 4 Add a bookmark to this directory Right click over the list on the left side of the file browser window and choose Add from the pop up menu 452 NUKE j Home Ha me Root Current engine_rgba smoke_left wh Nuke smoke_right wh D Ada Edit Remove 5 Type a name for the bookmark or keep the default which is the directory name Then click OK Name CompBbasics Folder luke_Tutorials CompBasics image browser amp script bro ri h font browser geo browser misc browser python browser Tooltip Icon Cancel 6 Open the engine rgba directory select the engine v01 04d exr image sequence and click Open i Home Name Root Current Nuke ig Fg e BRI edit E 4 Program Files Nuke_Tutorials CompBasics engine_rgbafengine v01 04d exr 1 28 Sequences Filter 453 NUKE Nuke retrieves the image sequence and displays it as a thumbnail on the node The Read control panel displays the resolution and the frame range for the image Nuke reads images from their native format but the Read node outputs the result u
207. Connect the Viewer to the ScanlineRender node and you have the most basic 3D system in Nuke 12 Press Tab over the Viewer to change to the 2D view You won t see the Nuke emblem hey where did it go We saw it before 13 Press Tab again to switch back to 3D You ll see the default camera position is too close to view the card Let s move things around to get an image for 2D 519 NUKE HO H 05 0 00 V 0 01 mx 001920 1060 x 1544 y 646 1 Alt or Option drag with the middle mouse button to dolly out and show more of the 3D workspace 2 Select the camera You can do this by clicking the camera object in the Viewer or clicking the Cameral node in the node graph 3 Drag the transform handles to move the camera away from the card along the z axis H H 0 8 0 00 Y 0 0i mbox 001920 1080 x 1544 y o46 As you drag the camera look at the camera s control panel You ll see the x y z transform values reflect the camera s current position 520 NUKE Cameral Camera Projection File Node read from file display wireframe X selectable import chan file export chan file translation position transform order SRT rotation order ZAY translate x rotate 20 scale x za i uniform scale 1 y NOS d MEURE AAEL z pivot x 0 4 Press the Ctrl key Mac users press Command over the Viewer and the transform handles change to rotation rings 5 Drag the green ring to rotate the camera around t
208. D Grouping Nodes in the Node Graph 0 cece ee eee ee ee eee ee NOD Grouping Nodes with the Backdrop Node 00 cece enorer eneee see IQ2 e e e e e e e e e o e e e e e e e e e Grouping Nodes with the Group Node 00c eee osne eeeeee eee ee 104 Adding Notes to the Node Graph 0 ce ee ee ee ee ee ee ee LOS REI ERENCE oo o o o o o oo Hl T TIH 10 Organisation of the Section 0 cc cc ee ee ee ee eee ee eee oe LOT Reformatting Elements 0 0c ccc cc ce eee eee eee eee oe LOZ Reformatting Images eee eee ee ee ee ee eee e ee eee e ee LOT Using the Reformat NOUGs 65 4 4443 6 3444 45445246445645 06445509e8se obo ee UO Cropping Elements 4544 045 0094 been nee ee eae ead eo e4 obaaeene eee aan bo Adjusting the Bounding Box ce cece eee eee eee cece en eee l IGA Resizing the Bounding BOX 0 444 044 04 0005 4 44006 o0eeebdoedesaeav eed veel IA Copying a Bounding Box from One Input to Another 000eeee0008 06119 Adding a Black Outside Edge to the Bounding Box ee0eeeeeeeee444 116 Channels oo
209. E You launch the PLE from a terminal a window where you can enter commands directly rather than making selections through a user interface To launch the PLE e On Windows Select the Personal learning Edition from Start gt All Programs gt The Foundry gt Nuke5 1v5 OR Using a command prompt navigate to the Nuke application directory by default Program Files Nuke5 1v5 and enter nuke5 1 ple e On Linux Open a terminal navigate to the Nuke application directory by default usr local Nuke and enter Nuke5 1 ple e On Mac OS X Open a terminal navigate to Applications Nuke5 1v5 Nuke5 1v5 app Con tents MacOS and enter Nuke5 1 ple About the Personal Learning Edition The Nuke Personal Learning Edition is a special version of Nuke that you can run without a license The Personal Learning Edition is meant for personal educational and other non com mercial use It is aimed at students industry professionals and others interested in Nuke It includes all the features of the commercial version of Nuke offering you a chance to explore and learn the application fully while using it from the comfort of your own home Differences between the PLE and the Commercial Version of Nuke The PLE is a fully functional version of Nuke but being aimed for non commercial use only it does differ from the commercial version in some aspects Here are the main differences e Watermark The PLE displays a watermark shown b
210. For example a value of 5 turns into 5 Both the new curve and the original curve are displayed The solid line represents the actual Curve and the dotted line contains the key frames that you can modify To use an expression to modify a curve Enter the expression in the expression field at the bottom of the Curve Editor ColorCorrectL gamma r sinisi 65 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE OR Right click on the Editor and select Edit gt Edit expression 2 Inthe dialog that opens type the expression you want to use for the curve for example sin x x 3 Click OK Viewers Viewer nodes unlike process nodes don t alter data in any way rather they act as windows on it Each Viewer node displays the render output of any connected process nodes in the Viewer panel Viewer nodes are essential for quickly assigning the right values to parameters because they allow you to edit in context that is edit a given node s parameters upstream in a script while viewing the effect of those changes downstream You can place as many Viewer nodes in a script as you wish which allows you to simultane ously view multiple outputs You can also pipe the output from up to ten process nodes into single Viewer node and then cycle through the various displays This allows you to easily compare an image before and after processing by a given effect The maximum image size the Nuke Viewer can display is 2 28 268 435 456 pixels This
211. IMATTE NUKE The Detail Sampling Tools The Detail and Detail modes are a refined version of Clean BG Noise and Restore Detail discussed later in this document For example when you see some dilute noise in the backing area but dont want to remove it completely because it affects some fine detail in a different area try using Detail It will attenuate the noise gradually as multiple samples are made on the pixel You should stop the sampling when important fine details start to disappear Detail Figure 7 11 Effect of Detail Repeatable Sampling Spill Replacement Options The proper processing of spill on foreground objects is one of the many useful features of Pri matte You can move between these four modes to see how they affect the image clip you are working with The four methods are as follows no suppression complement solid color defocused background 1 No Suppression no suppression 2 Complemental Spill Replacement complement 3 Solid Colour Spill Replacement solid colour 4 Defocus Spill Replacement defocused background No Suppression no suppression In this mode no suppression is applied 196 PRIMATTE NUKE Complemental Replacement Mode complement This is the default spill replacement mode This mode will maintain fine foreground detail and deliver the best quality results If foreground spill is not a major problem this mode is the one that should be u
212. Ld Ad e Ad Ld e e d Ad Ld Ld e Ld Ad Ld e e d d e Ad Ad e e e Ld 21 9 U a P sing aint e Ld Ld Ld e oe Ad e e Ld Ld Ld e Ld Ld Ad e 220 Connecting the Paint Node cee eee ee ee ee eee en ep LLD Applying StrokeS 625 4 250445 ceaew ones 4 oeeee ee here Geared Gee ad o ee 220 Using the Freehand Tool 4 0 s 4 0 0 4 9 4 4 orboo4 SEG od b0 be bar eueran wees Using the Reveal Tool 4 4 o 6 0 saws oes eee det ae 64a 444 oa oor eee SS 4 42S Using the Eraser Tool x6 44 o4a 46 20 4 45 bee oe ood ee ee eee bee o e 222 Using the Clone Tool eses sa oa44c ooo o oo ow oS hee Oe ee Oe ae ods a EO Selecting Strokes for Editing 0 0 ce ec ee ee ee ee ee eee ee D3 Editing Stroke Attributes 0 0 ccc ccc ee ee eee ee eee eee een ne LDS 224 224 Editing Brush Size e e e e e e e e e e e Ad Ad e e Ld e Ad e e e Ad e e e e Ad Ld e e e e e Ld e Ad e e e Ld e e e 225 a a Editing Colour gt gt gt o o o o o o o ooo o olol Gl Ull Ul Ull UlT UlT T UlT T UlT TT UlT TTH U HU T TH IT ITI UlTITI UTITI UTITI UlTiITI UTtITIM UTtITIM UTtITIM GTITI G e Editi O i iting DACs sirenen ES SOR OSS ROE oS ea AS SCRE eE O Editing Brush Hardness s 4 0 4 4 6 4 4 4444 9 Kaw oa 44 004 6 od OS od e
213. MPORAL OPERATIONS NUKE of five frames in which the first clips gain ramps downward to zero while the second s ramps upward to 100 Figure 9 6 Dissolve Figure 9 7 Cut 7 In the First Frame field type the number of frames if any by which you want to slip the clip Enter a negative value to subtract frames from the head of the merged clip Enter a positive value to add frames to the head of the clip 8 Slipping the merged clips may create empty black frames at its head or tail As appropriate choose First frame or Last frame if you want these empty frames to appear as copies of the first or last frame 246 10 Warping and Morphing Images Nuke s warping and morphing tools allow you to distort elements in an image apply and correct lens distortions and morph one image into another The nodes designed for these operations include the GridWarp node the SplineWarp node and the iDistort node In this chapter we focus on the GridWarp and SplineWarp nodes Warping Warping refers to manipulating an image so that elements in the image are distorted Unlike many of the transformations described under ransforming Elements on page 159 warps are transformations that only affect some of the pixels in an image rather than all of them For example you might make an animal s eyes bigger or a person s smile wider without affecting the rest of their features This is not to say that the pixels around the area you are moving
214. Motion Blur to the 3D Scene ee ec ee ee nee 319 Importing Channel Files Cameras Lights Transforms and Meshes from Other PO PHCAGIONGSs 4 05 4404 6 6 44 4444 44 4058S 69 545 SENS 4 e S SS Oe 321 Applying Tracks to an Object 404 4 4 6 5 444 4049 695 40 04 4740 4 4 44 44RD OS RSS eo 321 Working with fbx Files 2 424 4 4004 des 045 eew tes 66h enh es oes ee ee Se 634 322 Importing Cameras from Boujou 5 04 6 21 59 4444 0 444044 64a oO OR AOS ORDERS OHS 326 Rendering a 3D Scene ee cc ce ee eee teen ee nee 327 NUKE Adjusting the Render Parameters 0 cc cee eee eee eee eee eee eee ee eee 328 Working with Stereoscopic Projects cece cee eee 329 Setting Up Views for the Script 0 ee cee ee ee ee eee nee 329 Loading Multi View ImageS 0 cc eee ee eee ee nee e ee eee 331 Displaying Views in the Viewer cece cece cee eee ee eee ess eee 333 Selecting which Views to Apply Changes to cc eee ee ee eee eee 335 Splitting Views OF ssr erereseritresrr eterraren aeres 335 Selecting the View to Process When Using the Paint Node 000000 eee 336 Performing Different Actions on Different Views 0000 00 337 Reproducing Changes Made to One View cece ee eee eee eee 337 Reproducing Paint Strokes 4 s s4 04 lt s446 46 see e 44 na ee a4 aes eS oad oe e 338 Reproducing Roto Shapes 2 lt ia04064040064560 54006004050
215. NCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS OR LOSS OF PROFITS OR THE COST OF PRO CUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE RELEASED PARTIES KNOW OR HAVE REASON TO KNOW OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES AND REGARDLESS OF WHETHER ANY REMEDY SET FORTH HEREIN FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PUR POSE No action arising out of or related to this Agreement regardless of form may be brought by Licensee more than one 1 year after Licensee s initial receipt of the Software provided however to the extent such one 1 year limit may not be valid under applicable law then such period shall limited to the shortest period allowed by law SECTION 12 TERM TERMINATION This Agreement is effective upon Licensee s acceptance of the terms hereof by clicking on the Accept button on installation and Licensee s payment of the License Fee and the Agreement will remain in effect until termination If Licensee breaches this Agreement The Foundry may terminate the License granted hereunder by notice to Licensee In the event the License is ter minated Licensee will either return to The Foundry all copies of the Software and Documenta tion in Licensee s possession or if The Foundry directs in writing destroy all such copies In the later case if requested by The Foundry Licensee shall provide The Foundry with a certifi cate signed by an officer of Licensee confirming that the foregoing destruction has been com pleted SECTION 13 CONFIDE
216. ND CONTRIBUTORS AS IS AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES INCLUDING BUT NOT LIM ITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT INDIRECT INCIDENTAL SPECIAL EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES INCLUDING BUT NOT LIM ITED TO PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES LOSS OF USE DATA OR PROFITS OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY WHETHER IN CONTRACT STRICT LIABILITY OR TORT INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE 572 APPENDIX D THIRD PARTY LICENSES NUKE Library FTGL JG JPEG Description OpenGL sup port File format support License FTGL OpenGL font library Copyright 2001 2004 Henry Maddocks ftgl opengl geek nz Copyright 2008 Sam Hocevar sam zoy org Copyright 2008 Sean Morrison learner bricad org Permission is hereby granted free of charge to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files the Software to deal in the Soft ware without restriction including without limitation the rights to use copy mod ify merge publish distribute sublicense and or sell copies of the Software and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so subject to the following
217. NDIX A HOT KEYS Node Graph Keystroke s up or down arrow Alt up arrow Alt down arrow Alt Alt B Alt C Alt F Alt K AIt LMB drag Alt MMB drag Alt Shift K Alt Shift U Alt U B Ctrl Ctrl down arrow Ctrl up arrow Ctrl Ctrl Alt LMB ona node NUKE Action Zoom in also zooms in Zoom out Snaps all nodes to the grid See also Shift under Node Graph Opens a new Viewer window with representing the number of the connection 0 to 9 you want to establish between the new Viewer and the selected node Inserts Dot node Selects the previous or next node in the tree Increment the version number in the selected node s filename Decrement the version number in the selected node s filename Zoom out by a specific percentage The represents a number between 0 and 9 with 0 10 1 100 2 50 3 30 4 25 5 20 6 16 7 14 8 12 and 9 11 Duplicate and branch selected nodes Duplicate selected nodes Generate flipbook for selected node using FrameCycler Clone selected nodes Pan workspace Zoom in zoom out workspace Remove selected nodes from clone group declone Splay last selected node to input A Splay first selected node to input A Insert Filter Blur node Display connector dots Drag one to set a dot and create an elbow Move selected node downstream Move selected node upstream Zoom in by a specific percentage The represents a number between 0 and 9
218. NG INTERFACE PREFERENCES NUKE Setting Function enable Check this if you want to display clone arrows in the Node Graph unconnected top input arrow Adjust the length of the unconnected input arrows that appear on top of nodes in length the Node Graph By default this value is set to 35 pixels The maximum value is 70 unconnected left right input Adjust the length of the unconnected arrows that appear on the sides of some arrow length nodes in the Node Graph This affects any mask inputs and extra Viewer or Scene node inputs for example By default this value is set to 4 pixels The maximum value is 70 unconnected output arrow Adjust the length of unconnected output arrows in the Node Graph By default this length value is set to 8 pixels The maximum value is 70 arrow head length Adjust the length of arrow heads in the Node Graph By default this value is set to 12 pixels There is no maximum value 376 SETTING INTERFACE PREFERENCES NUKE Setting Function arrow head width Adjust the width of arrow heads in the Node Graph By default this value is set to 8 pixels There is no maximum value arrow width Adjust the width of the arrows in the Node Graph By default this value is set to 2 pixels There is no maximum value allow picking of connected When this is checked you can click on an arrow head and drag it to a new location arrow heads When this is NOT checked connected arrow heads are
219. NTIALITY Licensee agrees that the Software and Documentation are proprietary and confidential infor mation of The Foundry and that all such information and any communications relating thereto collectively Confidential Information are confidential and a fundamental and important trade secret of The Foundry Licensee shall disclose Confidential Information only to Licensee s employees who are working on an Authorized Project and have a need to know such Confi dential Information and shall advise any recipients of Confidential Information that it is to be used only as authorized in this Agreement Licensee shall not disclose Confidential Information or otherwise make any Confidential Information available to any other of Licensee s employees or to any third parties without the express written consent of The Foundry Licensee agrees to segregate to the extent it can be reasonably done the Confidential Information from the con fidential information and materials of others in order to prevent commingling Licensee shall take reasonable security measures which such measures shall be at least as great as the measures Licensee uses to keep Licensee s own confidential information secure but in any case using no less than a reasonable degree of care to hold the Software Documentation and any other Confidential Information in strict confidence and safe custody The Foundry may request in which case Licensee agrees to comply with certain reaso
220. OI 1 Click the ROI button until it turns red The overlay for the current ROI appears in the Viewer 2 To reposition the ROI Drag to select all sides of the ROI then drag the ROI to the desired location 3 To resize the ROI e Drag any corner of the ROI until you achieve the desired size 349 PREVIEWS AND RENDERING NUKE To disable the ROI render feature Click the Viewer s ROI button It turns gray signalling that it is off The Viewer will now render all of the visible image Flipbooking Sequences Flipbooking a sequence refers to rendering out range of images typically at proxy resolution then playing them back in order to accurately access the motion characteristics of added effects You have two options for flipbooking within Nuke e You can enable automatic disk caching of rendered frames then play these frames back using Nuke s native Viewer This option does not let you define a specific playback rate e Or you can render out a temporary image sequences to FrameCycler a RAM buffering play back utility which is automatically installed with your copy of Nuke and plays back sequences at the defined frame rate Flipbooking within Nuke To flipbook image sequences inside the Nuke Viewer you must first enable the automatic disk caching of rendered frames You do so by setting two preferences that define the location and size of the cache Once you set these preferences the Nuke Viewer automatically saves
221. OME environ ment variable If this variable is not set which is common the nuke directory will be under the folder specified by the USERPROFILE environment variable To find out if the HOME and USERPRO FILE environment variables are set and where they are pointing at enter gt HOME or USERPRO FILE into the address bar in Windows Explorer If the environment variable is set the folder it s pointing at is opened If it s not set you will get an error Here are examples of what the pathname may be on different platforms Linux users ogin name Mac Users ogin name Windows drive etter Documents and Settings ogin name XP or drive letter Users ogin name Vista Defining Common Preferences The Nuke Preferences dialog Edit gt Preferences allows any user to make myriad behaviour and display adjustments to the interface However you may wish assign certain default pref erences for artists To define default preferences 1 Select Edit gt Preferences to display the Preferences dialog 2 Modify the controls within the dialog as necessary For descriptions of what the controls do see he Available Preference Settings on page 368 431 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE 3 Click Save Prefs Nuke writes the modified preferences to a file called preferences5 nk which is stored inside your home directory nuke directory Tip If you re not sure of the location of your home directory on Linux and Mac you can go
222. OTHERWISE INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WAR RANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IN NO EVENT SHALL SAM LEFFLER OR SILICON GRAPHICS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPE CIAL INCIDENTAL INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE DATA OR PROFITS WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE AND ON ANY THE ORY OF LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PER FORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE 574 APPENDIX D THIRD PARTY LICENSES NUKE Library OFX Description Plug in API License Copyright 2003 2004 The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd All rights reserved Redistribution and use in source and binary forms with or without modification are permitted provided that the following conditions are met Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice this list of conditions and the following disclaimer Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and or other mate rials provided with the distribution Neither the name The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd nor the names of its contribu tors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software with out specific prior written permission THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS AS IS AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARR
223. On start up Nuke scans various directories for Python scripts that customise the behaviour of Nuke For example the buttons on the toolbars are configured with the toolbars py script It looks in specific subdirectories of the Nuke application directory as follows e Linux usr local Nuke5 1v5 nukescripts e Windows drive etter Program Files Nuke5 1v5 nukescripts or drive letter Program Files x86 Nuke5 1v5 nukescripts e Mac OS X Applications Nuke5 1v5 nukescripts It s worth saying that you should edit these files with care as mistakes could stop Nuke from run ning Loading OFX Plug ins On start up Nuke scans various directories for OFX plug ins that will bring additional func tionality to Nuke Paths to these directories vary between operating systems but here are examples of where you may find them e Linux usr OFX Nuke usr OFX Plugins e Windows C Program Files Common Files OFX Nuke or when using 64 bit Nuke on 64 bit Windows Program Files x86 Common Files OFX Nuke C Program Files Common Files OFX Plugins or when using 64 bit Nuke on 64 bit Win dows Program Files x86 Common Files OFX Plugins e Mac OS X Library OFX Nuke Library OFX Plugins If you want Nuke to look for OFX plug ins somewhere else you can Just define the environ ment variable OFX PLUGIN PATH to point to the new directory For example on Mac OS X 411 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE setenv OFX_PLUGIN_PATH Shar
224. Open a script file Exit Nuke Redo last action Undo last action Save script and specify name Save As See also Alt Shift S under Viewers Open Nuke Preferences dialog Expand the focused panel to the full window Raise the right click menu Properties panels Keystroke s up or down arrow Alt LMB drag Alt R or Ctrl R Ctrl A Ctrl Enter NUM Ctrl LMB Ctrl LMB drag Ctrl Return Ctrl Tab or Shift Ctrl Tab LMB drag Return Shift Ctrl A Shift LMB drag Tab or Shift Tab Action Increment up or decrement down the value in a parameter field Click first on the field or press Tab to move focus to the parameter Increment drag left or decrement drag right while dragging over the value in a parame ter field Fit Properties Bin to open panels Select all nodes in the Properties Bin Close current panel Reset slider value to default Link values between parameter fields Close panel no parameters selected Move to next tabbed page Ctrl Tab or the previous tabbed page Shift Ctrl Tab in the properties panel Copy the current value from one parameter field to another Chooses selected UI control default OK Close all open properties panels Copy animation curve or expression from one parameter field to another Move focus to next Tab or previous Shift Tab parameter May need to click on a param eter first to establish the focus inside the properties panel 547 APPE
225. Python is a collection of Python bindings for the graphical user interface GUI toolkit wxWidgets Currently Nuke works with wxPython 2 8 on Windows Linux and Mac You can use wxPython to write custom wxWidgets applications or GUIs in Python and use them within Nuke WxPython needs to be installed separately to Nuke You can get a copy of wxPython from http wxpython org WxPython includes wxWidgets so you do not need to install the latter Both wxPython and wxWidgets are open source software that you can download and use free of charge Installation To use wxPython in Nuke you need to install the following tools THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE On On On Windows Install Python 2 5 1 from www python org Install wxPython for 2 5 unicode from http wxpython org You can install it anywhere you like as long as you point the sys path variable to it as described in step 3 Only if you install wxPython inside drive etter Program Files Nuke5 1v5 lib site packages or drive etter Program Files x86 Nuke5 1v5 lib site packages you do not need to perform step 3 Point the sys path variable to where the wxPython modules are installed To see the directories contained in the sys path variable enter print sys path in the Script Editor To add a directory to the sys path variable enter sys path append directory In this statement directory represents the directory you want to add for example sys path append C
226. Quadratic and Cubic types diminish the light at an exponential rate If you select No Falloff the distance between the light source and the object does not affect the lighting e To control the position of the light in the 3D space enter values in the translate fields Pointi Point Node color 1 intensity 1 falloff type No Falot display wireframe X selectable import chan file export chan file transform order SRT rotation order ZXY translate x rotate x scale x J uniform scale skew x pivot x Figure 13 24 Point light controls Spot Light A spot light is a point in 3D space that emits a cone shaped light in a given direction A real world example of a spot light is a desk lamp To add a spot light 1 Select 3D gt Lights gt Spot to insert a Spotlight node in your script 2 In the node s controls adjust the following e Drag the color slider to change the light colour e Drag the intensity slider to change the brightness of the light e Drag the cone angle slider to control the spread of the light how wide or narrow the beam is in degrees from O to 180 e Drag the cone penumbra angle slider to control the softness along the edge of the area of illumination A negative value fades inward from the circles edge A positive value fades outward from the circles edge The cone falloff should be set to zero ora low value in order to see the softness This feature is only visible in the rendered objects a
227. S xu o acn oie 6 sess bre oe een eee oe ee ere ee a eee es 451 Importing Image SequencesS ce cee eee ee eee eee eee 452 Navigating Inside the Windows cece eee ee ee eee eee eee 455 Working with ViewerS 046 66404 6464456504 644 Ke eeu Sas eon eer eoea eas 456 Reformatting IMGGCS lt 44 455 o49 24 0 404 44 6546550650 404 448 5550546045 485 459 Using Proxies and Down reS cece ce ee eee eee eee eee 460 Compositing Images ccc ce ee eee eee eee ee eee ees 461 Colour correcting IMAGES 444 644 640464605 644665664 44 3 0656444045 846 464 Masking Effects 2 0 4424000 dee woe eedeeeeseeeaaewouceewnenaneee aed 465 To create and apply a bezier Mask 1 0 4 64 sd ss 46 oo os be OR SERA OEE HES OD 465 NUKE Creating Flipbook Previews ccc ee ee eee eee ee ees 466 Rendering Final Output 0 0 ee cc ee ee eee nee een eee 467 POUOGUC ceset renerrien Gehan ee see sGeueee tastes eR eare neers eaeee Gus 470 Tutorial 2 Tracking Stabilising and Matchmoving 471 One Point Two Point Three Point Four 0 0 ce eee eee eee 472 Open the Tutorial Project File ee ee cc ee ee eee nee 472 Tracking a Single Feature o44444 6s404 6445 04 4065640504408 408546055 4 473 Tracking Obscured Features 240 44e450esaesneewheneek SOedarneees HAE 477 Stabilising Elements 0 0 cece ce ee ee eee ee ee eee en nes 478 Matchmoving ElementS
228. ScanlineF under B Scenel over Jander minus a wipe This last step superimposes the two elements in the Viewer The crosshair shown below in Figure 13 46 is the control that lets you adjust the location and angle of the wipe for the comparison 318 3D COMPOSITING NUKE nuke eji Viewer rmgba rgba alpha gt iG A Reconale under B Readl 1 24 a0 BB default fis b Bi O HH ee yf Ii i Ga0cdG0 bbos 3 34 4 channels rgba alpha i Figure 13 29 Comparing a 3D scene over a 2D image To create more realism for a 3D scene you ll want to add motion blur to it based on the move ment of your 3D camera This can be done in two ways 1 If you have moving objects in your 3D scene or the camera movement over the shutter time is non linear adjust the sample value in the ScanlineRender nodes parameters The image is sampled multiple times over the shutter period This way is the most accurate but also the slowest because the full rendering calculation is done multiple times for each pixel 2 If your 3D scene is static or nearly so and the camera movement over the shutter time is nearly linear add the MotionBlur3D and VectorBlur nodes after the ScanlineRender node in your script This way is faster to render 1 In the ScanlineRender node s controls go to the MultiSample tab 2 Increase the sample value to sample the image multiple times over the shutter period Tip By increasi
229. Space Conversions Transforming Elements 0 ccc ccc cece eee eee ee L5G Transforming in ZD 040e ba oe doh ee obese wee HOO OA ew bE deee a swelled Using the 2D Transformation Overlay ecc cece cece cece eee eee ee IDI Choosing a Filtering Algorithm 0 ccc eee cee eee eee eee ee eee eee oe LOD NUKE Translating Elements lt lt 44 5 s 6 lt 4 0 0 4 6 eo a eened hee bn oe eas ee eee ne sel OO Rotating Elements 04 lt lt 5 26 oes 640466044646 4 4 51 548 4645 8 ode ow oe SLD Scaling Elements ss 6aa0s So 45 ew base oe OalGe oe BOSSE he eb eee ad Oe ooo O Skewing ElMehts 0444 64 4 4 44 04 64464 46d04 6046444940409 08 e006e4 54108 Applying Core Transformations in 2 5D 0 eee eee ee ee eee oe 0 LOI Adding a Card3D Node lt s s see dase oo 4s 4 o ees OSG ON oes Coen soso 1 69 Specifying the Order of Operations cc ee ce eee eee ee eee eee eee oe LOT Choosing a Filtering Algorithm 206 364 04 8 s lt 4004s486 06 4008646460004 054109 Using the 3D Transformation Handles ccc cece cece cece cccces ce LIQ Translating Eleme lt 4 6444 5 4540 54 4 586 6464540945040 55 005460655065 45517 1 Rotating Elements 6 0 0 b 0 4 dna 6 6 4 6 4 26d 466 skriet Sb bh SD Oe ES oda Res wea VEZ Scaling Elements o5 420 4 6 406 0 6s 0 5 eee oo aw oh
230. TCL This chapter describes how you can use the Script Editor for executing Python scripts gives you examples of those scripts teaches you how to automate your scripts and directs you to sources of more information Workflow The workflow for using Python in Nuke is generally the following 1 Enter Python statements in Nuke s Script Editor to perform the actions you want to per form 2 Save your script with the extension py in a directory that is contained in the sys path variable 3 Later when you want to execute the same statement sequence import the py file into Nuke s Script Editor Nuke executes the statements in the specified order You can also run an interactive Python session outside of Nuke However on Mac OS X the Python interpreter and other applications that are bundled with Nuke such as IDLE can only be run from inside the directory where they are located Using the Script Editor You type Python scripts into Nuke s Script Editor To open the Script Editor To open the Script Editor click on one of the content menus and select Script Editor from the menu that opens THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE Properties Split Vertical Split Horizontal Float Pane Close Pane Float Tab lose Tab Show Tabs Curve Editor Toolbars Node Graph Properties Bin Script Editor New Viewer Figure 18 1 Opening the Script Editor Input and Output Panes The Script Editor is divided into tw
231. To clear the output pane Click the Clear output window button or press Ctrl Cmd Backspace x So now you know how to use the editor But what do you do with this knowledge if you don t know any statements Not much Next we look at some example scripts you can enter in the editor Example Scripts As you will soon notice after trying to enter a few scripts yourself the scripts are case sensi tive and will only work if you enter them exactly right There s a bit of flexibility when it comes to quotation marks and spaces though You can use both single and double quotes in your Statements and you don t necessarily need to add a space before the brackets like we have done in the following examples Creating Nodes and Setting Their Parameters This section explains how to create nodes and set their parameters using Python To create a node enter nuke nodes nodename where nodename is the name of the node you want to create for example Bezier or Blur You can only use this statement if you know the name of the node you want to create and can enter it explicitly in the statement For example to add a Blur node enter nuke nodes Blur 385 THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE There is also another statement you can use to create nodes in Nuke That is the nuke cre ate Node statement It can be useful if the name of the node is only available to you as a variable or is returned by a function or method If you wa
232. Using the Reformat Node You can use the Reformat node for three different purposes 1 To generate image sequences that match a desired image format in terms of both resolu tion and pixel aspect ratio the width to height ratio of the format s individual pixels 2 To create postage stamps low resolution frames which you might post to the web in order to storyboard a sequence The node scales the frame until it fits inside a rectangle whose dimensions you specify It also sets pixel aspect ratio to one square 3 To scale images The scale factor will be rounded slightly so that the output image has an integer number of pixels in the direction you choose in the Reformat node s controls Converting Images to a Desired Image Format When you read in elements Nuke stores their format settings and makes them available to the Reformat node You can then apply one of the existing formats to your images or create edit and delete formats yourself When creating a new format from scratch you define the overall resolution the cropped reso lution optional and the pixel aspect ratio As you define these parameters the Reformat oper ator graphically displays them for you in the manner shown below full dimensions itel r pixel dimensions crop dimensions only inside laspect 1 62963 portion will display as image To create a new output format 1 Click Transform gt Reformat to insert a Reformat node at appropriat
233. Whatever you enter here appears to the left of the control in the gizmo properties panel or in the case of buttons on the button If you leave this empty whatever is in the Name field is also used as the label e Tooltip Enter a short help text here It will appear along with the Name in a pop up tool tip when the user points the mouse at the control If you do not provide a tool tip whatever is in the Name field will be used as the tool tip e Hide Check this to hide the control from the users This can be useful if you want to make a new control to contain a complex expression that you can then refer to repeatedly by other controls e Start new line Uncheck this if you want the control to appear on the same line as the previous control in the gizmo properties panel 4 If necessary repeat the previous three steps to add more controls to your Group node future gizmo 5 Inthe Group node properties panel the controls are listed in the same order as they are in the Manage User Knobs dialog To move a control up or down in the properties panel select it in the dialog and use the Up and Down buttons 6 Once you have all the controls you need proceed to step 5 under Creating Gizmos on page 420 To create new controls 1 Right click on the dark grey background of the Group properties panel and select Manage User Knobs The following dialog opens Done 422 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE To add a new control tab s
234. Y OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IN NO EVENT SHALL THE TARGETJR CONSORTIUM BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL INCIDEN TAL INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE DATA OR PROFITS WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE SparseLib Sparse Matrix Library National Institute of Standards and Technology University of Notre Dame Authors R Pozo K Remington A Lumsdaine NOTICE Permission to use copy modify and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted provided that the above notice appear in all copies and supporting documentation Neither the Institutions National Institute of Standards and Technology University of Notre Dame nor the Authors make any representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose This software is provided as is without expressed or implied warranty InventorMath Maths library Open Inventor code is copyright SGI All rights reserved 578 Appendix E End User Licensing Agreement This END USER SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT this Agreement is made by and between The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd a company registered in England and Wales The Foundry and you as either an individual or a single entity Li
235. a few application preferences and project settings We know this sort of thing is not terribly exciting but it is terribly important so please be patient and we ll get through it as quickly as possible If you haven t already downloaded and moved the tutorial project files to the Nuke Tutorials directory you created turn to page 438 for instructions The Nuke icon may appear on your desktop If so double click it to launch the application Oth erwise start Nuke with one of the methods described below assuming you have installed Nuke to the default location e From the Start menu choose All Programs gt The Foundry and then select Nuke5 1v5 440 NUKE e Open the Applications Nuke5 1v5 folder and double click the Nuke5 1v5 icon e Open the usr local Nuke5 1v5 folder and double click the Nuke5 1 icon Tip If you re operating under Linux you can also launch Nuke from the command line of a terminal Simply navigate to the Nuke directory and enter the name of the nuke applica tion A clean copy of the main Nuke window appears Divider lines organize the window into differ ent panes Each pane has one or more pages of content separated by tabs at the top of the pane The Toolbar appears at the left edge of the main window W miea Eas a Gebel Figure 1 2 The main workspace By default the panes are setup to display the Viewer the Node Graph Curve Editor and Prop erties You ll create the s
236. a clip require the creation of additional or interpolated frames For example suppose you want to slow down the collision shown in the clip below by a factor of two This requires the creation of one interpolated frame for every existing frame in the clip 234 TEMPORAL OPERATIONS NUKE Original clip Retimed clip Interpolated frames Figure 9 1 Interpolating _ The simplest way for Nuke to interpolate is to duplicate existing frames and increase the length of the clip this is the default method of interpolation However this method can cre ate jittery playback especially when the image depicts very fast motion and the clip is retimed to be considerably longer than its original length For such cases Nuke provides different nodes for smoothly interpolating the frames Frame blending The Frame Blend node interpolates frames by generating an additive composite of the frames that precede and follow it rather than creating mere copies between the existing frames Here is an example of the difference between frame copy and frame blend interpolation In the first frame of Figure 9 2 you see a copy of the preceding frame In the second frame you see a new image generated by blending the previous and subsequent frames 235 TEMPORAL OPERATIONS NUKE _ Ghosting in the frame blended be image Figure 9 2 Frame copied versus frame blended interpolation The latter method creates ghosting arou
237. a marquee When you release the mouse button the Editor will zoom to fit the selected area in the Editor 58 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE To pan in the Editor Alt drag over the editor To reset zoom and panning 1 Right click on the Curve Editor 2 From the menu that opens select View gt Frame All or press A on the Editor Nuke centres the curve in the Editor resetting the zoom To centre a portion of the curve in the editor 1 Select the points you want to centre in the editor 2 Right click on the Editor and select View gt Frame Selected or press F on the Editor Nuke centres the selected portion of the curve in the editor If no points are selected Nuke centres the selected curve or all curves Editing Curves You edit curves by moving the points on the curve to new locations If necessary you can add more points to the curve You can also sketch curves freely use the usual editing functions such as copy and paste smooth curves with filtering interpolate curves loop reverse or negate curves and use expressions to modify curves To add points to a curve 1 Click on the curve you want to edit The curve turns yellow to indicate it s selected 2 Ctrl Alt click Mac users Cmd Alt click on the part of the curve editor you want to add a point to You can add points both on the curve and outside the curve OR Right click on the Editor and select Edit gt Generate The Generate keys dialog opens
238. ache size If this variable is not set the location is determined by the flipbook cache setting in the Preferences By default this setting points to NUKE TEMP DIR NUKE_DISK_CACHE_GB The maximum size the flipbook cache can reach in gigabytes If this variable is not set the location is determined by the flipbook cache size set ting in the Preferences 409 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE Environment Variable Description FC PATH If you want to use a different version of FrameCycler than the one shipped with Nuke you can use this to set the base directory of FrameCycler This points to the FrameCycler binary FC HOME This points to the directory that contains bin framecycler FC DISK CACHE The location where Nuke saves all recent images flipbooked with FrameCycler If this variable is not set the location is determined by NUKE_DISK_CACHE Loading Gizmos Plug ins and TCL scripts On start up Nuke scans various directories for files that customise the behaviour of Nuke It looks for information on favourite directories menu options image formats gizmos NDK plug ins generic TCL scripts and preferences It looks in specific subdirectories of the user s home directory and the Nuke application direc tory as follows e Linux users ogin name nuke usr local Nuke5 1v5 plugins e Mac OS X Users ogin name nuke Applications Nuke5 1v5 Nuke5 1v5 app Contents MacOS plugins e Windows In the nuke directory which c
239. ad from stdin This is the general syntax for using these options when launching Nuke at the command prompt nuke lt switches gt lt script gt lt argv gt lt ranges gt lt switches gt modifies the behaviour of Nuke when run from the command line A list of Switches is given in the table above These are sometimes called flags lt script gt the name of the Nuke script lt argv gt an optional argument that can be used in Nuke See the example below lt ranges gt this is the frame range you want rendering 404 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE Examples Let s consider some practical examples To launch Nuke and open a script nuke myscript nk Crazy know but I ve called my script myscript nk and the hyphen at the start of the filename has confused Nuke To get round this if you don t want to rename your file use the double hyphen syntax huke myscrapt nk Viewing Images To display an image nuke v polarbear tif To display several images nuke v polarbear tif whiteflower psd mountains cin To display an image sequence taxi 000 1 tif taxi 0002 tif taxi 0050 tif nuke y taxi 2 04d tit 1 50 Rendering on the command line To render frame 5 of a Nuke script nuke x myscript nk 5 To render frames 30 to 50 of a Nuke script nuke x myscript nk 30 50 To render every tenth frame of a 50 frame sequence of a Nuke script nuke x mMyscripl nk 1 50 10 This will render frames 1 11
240. added in the position you specified Clicking the button again has no effect because there is already a subdivision at the specified position 4 Ifyou selected bicubic under type you can adjust the way control point tangents behave when you are making your changes to the card Do any of the following e To have the original tangents adjusted to create a more uniform subdivision when you are using x subdivide y subdivide or uv subdivide check uniform subdivision If you do not check this Nuke maintains the original tangents e You can move the tangents in the Viewer by clicking and dragging If you want to move a tangent together with the opposite tangent so that the two tangents form a continuous line check smooth tangent To break the tangent from the opposite tangent and move the tangent alone uncheck smooth tangent e To change the length of the opposite tangent to always match the length of the tangent you are moving check mirror tangent If you do not check this the opposite tangent length is not changed 5 Drag the points displayed in the mesh to deform the card To translate the control points and tangents 1 If necessary double click on the Card node to display its controls and go to the Deform tab 2 Only the controls for the selected point are displayed in the bottom of the Card properties panel To translate another point you can select a new point in the Viewer or use the arrow buttons in the bottom of the Card c
241. adding OBJ type objects to 288 adding Sphere objects to 287 script editor 381 script information displaying 102 scripting languages Python 381 scripts 83 global frame range 242 playback speed 242 rendering 349 351 Searching for nodes 42 selecting filtering algorithms 160 masks 120 nodes 35 setting keyframes 56 setting up scripts 90 tracks 175 views 329 SGI format 557 ShuffleViews nodes 341 Simon filtering algorithm 162 skewing elements in 2 5D 172 elements in 2D 168 objects 299 sliders 51 slipping clips 244 smoothing tracks 180 spacebar 88 Sphere nodes 287 Sphere objects adjusting geometric resolution of 288 spill removing 193 194 replacement methods 196 209 suppressing 146 splicing clips 245 SplineWarp nodes 252 256 259 SplitAndJoin 337 Spotlight nodes 311 542 stabilising 471 478 Stabilize2D nodes applying tracking data to 186 stabilizing clips with 186 stabilizing clips 185 stereoscopic images reading 331 rendering 347 stereoscopic projects 329 displaying views 333 editing views 335 setting up views 329 StickyNote nodes 105 supported file formats 557 swapping channels 123 synchronising viewer playback 71 synthetic grain 149 system requirements 19 T Targa format 558 TCL 357 419 430 using in expressions 359 temporal operations 233 Text nodes 265 third party licenses 570 three point tracking 472 TiCkLe 357 419 430 TIFF format 558 Time Cut nodes 244 time distortion 233 time based operat
242. ag after a mouse button abbreviation i e MMB drag this tells you to press and hold the mouse button while dragging the mouse pointer Keystroke combinations with the Ctrl Alt and Shift keys tell you to press and hold the key and then type the specified letter For example Press Ctrl S means hold down the Ctrl key press S and then release both keys On Mac OS X replace the Ctrl key with the Cmd key Keystrokes in the tables appear in upper case but you do not type them as upper case If the Shift modifier does not appear before the letter just press the letter key alone Node Graphs Viewers Curve Editors Script Editors and Properties Bins Keystroke s Action Search by node name or class Alt G Go to a specific frame Alt Display script information such as the node count channel count cache usage and whether the script is in full res or proxy mode Alt S Make the active floating window fullscreen Alt Shift S Save script and increment version number See also Shift Ctrl S under Viewers Ctrl F Save current window layout The represents a function key number F1 through F6 Ctrl l Open new Viewer window 546 APPENDIX A HOT KEYS Keystroke s Ctrl LMB on panel name Ctrl N Ctrl O Ctrl Q Ctrl Y Ctrl Z Shift Ctrl S Shift S Space bar short press Space bar long press NUKE Action Float panel Launch a new project window in a new instance of Nuke
243. age onto the object If the object already has uv coordinates this node replaces them To use the UVProject node 1 Select 3D gt Modify gt UVProject to insert a UVProject node anywhere after the 3D object you want to modify Attach a Viewer to the node to see your changes In the node s controls use the display pulldown menu to select how you want to view your object in the Viewer while making changes to it 4 Connect an Axis or a Camera node to the UVProject node s axis cam input If you connect an Axis node project the texture uv coordinates onto the object using the axis transform values that is translation rotation scale etc If you connect a Camera node do a Similar projection as with the axis but also use the camera lens information such as the aperture 5 Adjust the following parameters e From the projection pulldown menu select the projection type Usually it s best to select a type that s close to the object s surface shape For example if your object is a sphere like a football or a planet select spherical e From the plane pulldown menu select the projection direction XY YZ or ZX to project the texture image along the z x or y axis This pulldown menu is only available if you selected planar as the projection type 294 3D COMPOSITING NUKE e To mirror the texture uv coordinates in the horizontal direction check invert u To mirror them in the vertical direction check invert v
244. ain 16 bit integer sRGB data not half float log files This is used when reading or writing cin or dpx files Also used by Truelight Cineon nodes when conversion to or from log colour space is required float files This is used when reading or writing image files that contain floating point linear data To change the Default LUT settings 1 Select Edit gt Project settings to open the settings for the script Go to the LUT tab From the pulldown menus under Default LUT settings select the LUTs you want to use by default for each file type or device The new defaults are now used for any LUT setting where you have not selected a specific LUT Any controls you have set to a specific LUT that is not set to default will continue to use the selected LUT and only those set to default will be affected Example Cases Below are some examples of situations where you might need to alter the default LUTs Working in video colour space Emulating compositor software that works in video colour space is not recommended How ever if you do need to do so do the following 1 Select Edit gt Project settings and go to the LUT tab 436 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE 2 Under Default LUT settings change the monitor viewer 8 bit files and 16 bit files values to linear This prevents Nuke from converting from sRGB into linear Nuke s nodes still assume linear data but the image processing is applied to your unlinearised video co
245. ake stroke visible from the current to end frame Press the Display from Now to End button L To make stroke visible only on current frame Press the Display on Current Frame Only button T To make stroke visible from the beginning to current frame Press the Display from Start to Now button 1 Press the Display for Set Range button A dialog box prompts for the frame range U To make stroke visible during a specified range for frames 2 Enter the start and end frames for the range during which you wish the stroke to appear and click OK Editing Stroke Stack Order Prior to applying a stroke or when altering a stroke with the Select tool see Se ecting Strokes for Editing on page 223 you can edit its foreground to background drawing order To move a stroke to the background behind all strokes Press the Move to Background button z 227 USING PAINT NUKE To move a stroke one step closer to the background Press the Move Back button To move stroke one step closer to the foreground Press the Move Forward button To move a stroke to the foreground in front of all strokes Press the Move to Foreground button Editing Stroke Vectors To edit a stroke vector you first need to activate the Select tool and select the stroke in the Viewer or the stroke list You can then modify the points that make up the stroke vector To add a point to a vector With the Select tool active select the paint stro
246. al and would correspond with a camera shutter of 180 degrees 4 Set the shutteroffset to control when the sampling of the input starts relative to the frame being rendered analogous to when the camera shutter opened to capture corresponding film or video footage you might have at the same frame You may need to adjust this by eye to align for example a garbage mask with an underlying feature 243 TEMPORAL OPERATIONS NUKE Editing Clips As a node based system Nuke doesn t have a timeline Nevertheless you can still perform editorial operations that you might associate with a timeline You can slip clips move them forward or backward in time cut them or splice them to other clips Slipping Clips Slipping a clip refers to moving it backward or forward in time There are any number of rea sons why you might want to do this for example to synchronize events in a background and foreground clip To slip a clip 1 Click Time gt TimeOffset to insert a TimeOffset node into your script Place it down stream from the element to which you want to slip Attach a Viewer to this node so you can see the effect of your changes In the TimeOffset properties panel check reverse input if you want to invert the clip make the last frame the first and so on 4 Inthe time offset frames field type the number of frames by which you want to slip the clip Enter a negative value to subtract frames from the head of the clip Ent
247. amera to the Project3D node Connect the Project3D node to the geometry node that should receive the 3D projection nu WN Double click the projection camera node to load its parameters 7 Click the Projection tab in the camera s panel and then enter the information you gathered for focal length horiz aperture and vert aperture 317 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Projection_CAM Cameraz Projection Node projection perspective focal length E0 horiz aperture 24 576 vert aperture 160 672 near Od far 10000 window translate u window scale u 1 window roll focal distance 2 Figure 13 28 Entering projection camera settings When you are finished view the 3D scene to check the placement of the projection The next section explains how to preview the 2D and 3D elements together to check the results of the composite To view a 3D scene over a 2D background image 1 Select the Scene node and press 1 to display its output to the Viewer 2 If necessary press Tab to toggle the Viewer to 3D mode 3 Select the rendering camera object or node and press H to look through it 4 Select the node with the 2D image you want to see in the Viewer and then press Shift 2 The Shift 2 keystroke connects the image to the Viewer assigning the next available connection number 2 and also sets up the compare wipe 5 Choose the desired option from the Viewer composite list i e none over under minus wipe A
248. ames for the rendered image sequences you can use the variable V with a capital V to represent the words left and right or any other full view names in the filenames for example filename V 04d exr To represent the letters and r or the first letters of any views use the variable v with a lower case v instead When rendering Nuke then fills this in with left right or r and renders all views you specify in the next step 4 Adjust any other Write controls as necessary and click Render Nuke prompts you for the frames to render as well as the views to execute assuming you have set up several views in the project settings 347 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE Nuke renders several views but writes them into separate files If you did not specify a view in the filenames using either the name of the view its first letter or a variable you can only render one view For command line renders you can pass the view argument with a list of view names to render sep arated by a comma If you do not specify a view argument Nuke renders all views 348 15 Previews and Rendering Nuke supports a fast high quality internal renderer with superior colour resolution and dynamic range without a slowdown in the workflow These are some of the key fea tures of Nuke s rendering engine e Multi threaded rendering to take advantage of multiple processors in its calcula tions e Scanline as opposed to
249. an active link to the parental node s The clone status is indicated with an orange line that connects the clone to its parent node The nodes also share the same name To declone nodes 1 Select the node or nodes you want to declone 2 Choose Edit gt Declone or press Alt Shift K 38 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Nuke removes the clone status of the selected nodes Disabling and Deleting Nodes To disable nodes 1 Select the node or nodes you want to disable 2 Select Edit gt Node gt Disable Enable or press D Nuke cancels the node s s effect on the data stream To re enable nodes 1 Select the node or nodes you want to re enable 2 Select Edit gt Node gt Disable Enable or press D To delete nodes 1 Select the node or nodes you want to delete 2 Select Edit gt Erase or press Delete Nuke removes the node s from the script Connecting Nodes As discussed when you add or paste nodes into to a script Nuke automatically generates pipes between the currently selected node and the new nodes As you build up a script you ll need to move these pipes or run new pipes between nodes In Nuke you make such modifica tions by dragging on the back end of the pipe the end without the arrowhead To disconnect a node Drag the head or tail of the connecting arrow to an empty area of the workspace OR Select the lower node in the tree and press Ctrl D Mac users press Cmd D Pech FL
250. an be found under the directory pointed to by the HOME environment variable If this variable is not set which is common the nuke directory will be under the folder specified by the USERPROFILE environment variable which is generally of the form drive etter Documents and Settings ogin nama Windows XP or drive let ter Users ogin name Windows Vista To find out if the HOME and USERPROFILE environment variables are set and where they are pointing at enter HOME or S USERPROFILE into the address bar in Windows Explorer If the environment variable is set the folder it s pointing at is opened If it s not set you will get an error drive etter Program Files Nuke5 1v5 plugins or when using 32 bit Nuke on 64 bit Win dows drive etter Program Files x86 Nuke5 1v5 plugins If you want Nuke to look for plug ins somewhere else rather than in these default locations you can also define a common plug in path yourself Thus by defining the Nuke plug in path you can assign yourself a common shared directory from which to control Nuke for multiple artists To define the Nuke plug in path 1 On each artist s machine create an environment variable called NUKE_PATH 410 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE 2 Assign the NUKE_PATH environment variable to the pathname of the directory where you intend store files related to Nuke customisations For example on Mac OS X setenv NUKE _PATH SharedDisk Nuke Loading Python Scripts
251. and select Set color to default Change the colour that indicates a control has been animated To set the colour back to default cyan right click on the button and select Set color to default Change the colour that indicates a key frame has been set To set the colour back to default bright cyan right click on the button and select Set color to default Change the type weight angle and size of the font used on the application inter face 373 SETTING INTERFACE PREFERENCES NUKE Node Colors Tab Setting Function autocolor Check this to colour nodes based on the class they belong to If you don t check this the All Others colour is used on all nodes Shade Nodes Check this to have the nodes in the Node Graph shaded If you don t check this no Shading is used Beziers Drawing Ops Colour Change the colour of the nodes that belong to each group To set the colour back to Ops Time Ops Channel ops default right click on the colour button on the right and select Set color to default Merge ops Keyer ops Write You can also change which nodes belong to each group by entering the names of the ops 3D ops Filters 2D nodes in the text input fields Xform User 1 User 2 You can use these controls to create a group of gizmos and change their colour in the Node Graph List the names of the gizmos without the gizmo extension in the input field and use the colour button to change their colour in the Node Gra
252. ansform order list select an option to define the order by which transforma tions are executed s signifies scale r rotation and t translation e From the rotation order list select an option to define the axial order by which rotations are executed To transform an object from its panel e To move the object along one or more axes increment or decrement the translate x y and z fields e To rotate the object increment or decrement the rotate x y and z fields e To scale the object on all axes simultaneously increment or decrement the uniform scale field e To scale the object asymmetrically on x y or z increment or decrement the scale x y and z fields e To skew the object warp it by rotating its local axes increment or decrement the skew x y and z fields to rotate the corresponding axis and associated object vertices 299 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Transformations and the Pivot Point When you make changes to an object s position scaling and rotation these occur from the location of the object s origin point or pivot By default the pivot point is located at the inter section of the object s local axes You can offset the pivot point and move it anywhere you like you can even move it outside of the object Subsequent local transformations will then occur relative to the new pivot point location To move the pivot point 1 Double click on the object node to display its parameters 2 Change
253. ansform parameter group to control the size of the font and keep scale set to 1 2 To increase or decrease the spacing between each letter adjust the kerning slider By using negative values you can make the letters overlap 3 If your text overlay contains several lines of text you can adjust the spacing between each line by using the leading slider By using negative values you can make the letters overlap 4 From the left side justify menu select how you want to align the text horizontally e left Align the text along the left edge of the on screen text box This leaves the right edge of the text ragged Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit Cras eu orci Curabitur id mi at urna vestibulum porttitor Nunc consequat dolor ut libero Vivamus cursus neque eu felis Curabitur id urna Nunc fringilla placerat pede Aenean ipsum e center Align the text from the centre of the on screen text box This leaves both edges of the text ragged Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit Cras eu orci Curabitur id mi at urna vestibulum porttitor Nunc consequat dolor ut libero Vivamus cursus neque eu felis Curabitur id urna Nunc fringilla placerat pede Aenean ipsum e right Align the text along the right edge of the on screen text box This leaves the left edge of the text ragged Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit Cras eu orci Curabitur id mi at urna v
254. anslate rotate scale or skew the text use the transformation overlay For more information on how to do this see Using the 2D Transformation Overlay on page 159 Alternatively you can adjust the translate rotate scale and skew parameters in the Text controls Fonts By using the FreeType library the Text node supports a large number of fonts including TrueType ttf fonts and PostScript fonts pfa and pfb To select a font 1 In the Text controls click on the folder icon next to font The File Browser opens 2 Browse to where you have stored the font and select it To preview the font click on the black arrow in the top right corner of the File Browser Select Open 3 Some font files contain more than one font face If you are using such a font file use the index field to the right of the font control to select the font face to use To adjust font size spacing and justification 1 To adjust the size of the font use the size slider When leading is set to O this parame ter also controls the spacing between each line of text When rendering the font the size parameter controls the font hinting used Font hinting adjusts which pixels are interpolated to more clearly render a font At small sizes and on low resolution output devices it has a big impact on the legibility of the font For best 268 CREATING EFFECTS NUKE results you should use the size parameter rather than the scale parameter in the Tr
255. arp1 Viewer 252 WARPING AND MORPHING IMAGES NUKE 3 If you need to animate the warp make sure autokey is checked in the SplineWarp node s controls This way the curves you will soon create will automatically be set as key shapes for the animation 4 Make sure show both curves is not checked and show is set to blend If there are areas in the image that you do not want to warp check first bezier masks deformation Then Ctrl Alt click Mac users Cmd Alt click on the image in the Viewer to draw a curve that isolates the area you intend to warp from the area you want to keep untouched The area outside the mask curve will not be warped The warp will be isolated to the area inside the mask curve When you select a point two tangent handles appear around it You can use these handles to modify the curves connecting the points To move several points together draw a marquee around them and use the transformation overlay that appears For more information on how to use the transformation overlay see Using the 2D Transformation Overlay on page 159 To close an open curve or open a closed curve right click on a point and select open close curve 253 WARPING AND MORPHING IMAGES NUKE To remove a point right click on the point and select delete point To remove an entire curve right click on a point on the curve and select delete curve Set show to src so you can create the source curves that define w
256. ask for the correction There s no need to pipe the output from that Soft Matte node it already exists in the data stream along with the other five channels that were created You simply attach a colour correction node for example the HueCorrect node then select the appropriate channel from the mask controls in this example mattes soft Again the mattes portion of the name indicates the parent channel set 119 CHANNELS NUKE mask input none i inject invert fringe mix a nons rgba red roba green rgbs blue rgoba alpha other channel depth 2 forward u forward y backward u backWard disparityL x disparityLl y disparityeR x disparityR y masks ratte Sont k Figure 2 3 Selecting a channel to mask colour correction Selecting Input Channels A node s channels field lets you select one or several channels for processing To select a single input channel 1 Open the properties panel of the node into which you wish to feed a channel 2 From the channels field select none 3 From the right most channel field the one which typically calls the alpha channel select the single channel you wish to process Bluri Blur Node channels rgba blue To select multiple input channels 1 Open the properties panel of the node into which you wish to feed channels 2 From the channels field select the channel set containing the channels you wish to process The set s channels appear with ch
257. ations depend on the device Some devices may not be supported 6 If utilized the compression schema on imported TIFF sequences must be LZW 7 This is the text based format in which Nuke s interface elements are stored 8 This format does not specify resolution so Nuke assumes a width of 720 pixels 558 Appendix C Converting from Shake to Nuke This appendix contains information that will assist Shake users in making the transition to Nuke Although Nuke does provide an intuitive workflow for a broad base of com positing tasks there will be a few cases where Shake artists may ask How do fi in the blank in Nuke The following information will help you fast track to the answers you need The first part of this appendix provides practical information for Shake artists including terms used in Nuke the layout of the user interface and differences in the workflow for common tasks The second part lists the commands you use to create node trees in Shake with their counterparts in Nuke Terms and Conditions Let s start with vocabulary differences between Shake and Nuke The following table lists sev eral Shake terms and their Nuke equivalents This table does not include the names of opera tors you use to create a node tree these are covered later in this appendix Shake Term Nuke Equivalent Description More Info Cache Buffer Cached or buffered image data is saved to disk Nuke User Manual so Nuke can
258. ault medium and large poly are both automatically created and are then modified based on the next couple of Primatte operations The third Primatte step Clean Foreground Noise is to sample and eliminate gray areas in the 100 foreground area of the image Before After Figure 7 20 Before and after foreground noise removal Again the user makes several samples on the dark greyish areas on the foreground object until it is solid white in colour Primatte is shaping the large polyhedron with each colour region that is sampled Care should be taken in both this and the previous steps to not sample too close to the edges of the foreground object Getting too close to the foreground object s edges will result in hard edges around the foreground object Primatte uses these samples to modify and shape the medium and large polys to the desired shape At this point the matte or key has been created and would allow the foreground objects to be composited into a new background image If the user changes the display mode from the black and white Matte View to the colour Com posite View there is usually colour spill on the edges and sometimes the centre of the fore ground objects When on the edges of the foreground object this spill comes from where the edges of the foreground object blended into the backing colour If it is on the centre of the foreground object it usually results from reflected colour from the backing screen The next Primatte s
259. ax shininess slid ers Adjust shininess channel to control how the input channels are used to map the black and white values to the minShininess and maxShininess parameters when a mapSh input is connected Choose red to use the red channel for the mapping green to use the green channel blue to use the blue channel luminance to use the luminance or average rgb to use the average of the red green and blue channels Choose 3D gt Shader gt Emission to insert an Emission node You can use this node to simulate lamps or other sources that emit light Adjust the emission slider to change the 292 3D COMPOSITING NUKE brightness of non illuminated areas for the surface The higher the value the more light the material seems to emit and the brighter it appears e Choose 3D gt Shader gt Phong to insert a Phong node This nose uses the Phong algorithm to provide more accurate shading and highlights The Phong node has several map inputs you can use to mask the effect of the node You can use e mapD to modulate the diffuse component e mapS to modulate the specular component e mapE to modulate the emission component and e mapSh to modulate the shininess value You can adjust the following sliders in the node s controls e color to change the material colour e emission to change the colour of the light the material emits e diffuse to control the colour of the material when illuminated e specular to control how bright
260. background branch 2 Select the incoming channels from the In 1 and In 2 optional pull down lists You can select up to eight channels in this manner 3 Select the channel sets to which you wish to direct the incoming channels from the pulldown lists on the right You can select up to eight channels in this manner 4 Ifthe outgoing channel set to which you wish to direct channels does not yet exist create it using the new option on the pulldown lists on the right 5 Click as necessary on the resulting matrix to swap channels Tip If you just need to copy a channel from one data stream into another use Channel gt Copy instead of Shuffle Copy Then specify the channel to copy and the destination channel for output 125 3 Merging Images With Nuke you can merge images in a wide variety of ways In this chapter we teach you how to use the Merge ContactSheet and CopyRectangle nodes The Merge node is used for layering multiple images together The ContactSheet node lets you create a contact sheet that shows your frame sequence s lined up next to each other in a matrix The CopyRectangle node can be used for copying a rectangular region from one image to another Layering Images Together with the Merge Node The Merge node with its compositing algorithms allows you to control just how your images are combined When using most of the available merge algorithms Nuke expects premultiplied input images How ever
261. between our foreground subject and the greenscreen background 10 Change the keying operation to Clean FG Noise This time sample areas of grey pixels inside the goldfish One or two small samples should be enough The colour pick pushes the selected pixels to the opaque part of the matte 490 NUKE You want to keep the grey pixels inside the fins to retain a semi transparent matte in these areas If you go too far you can always press the undo button in the control panel to step back to the previous action 11 Press A again over the Viewer to toggle to all colour channels Your image should look similar to the example shown below You may see some detail dropping out from the fins 12 Change the keying operation to Restore Detail and scrub over the fins to bring back some of the edge detail You may get different results than those shown here depending on the pixel values you sample from the image Use Restore Detail to push the selected pixels back toward the opaque part of the matte Use the Make FG Transparent operation to fine tune the semi transparent area You could go back and forth between cleaning the background and foreground but this usually produces a matte with crunchy edges The goal is to find the balance between foreground and background that produces an acceptable matte for your subject Later in this chapter you ll use the rotoscoping tools to clean up this matte and combine this with the i
262. bit per channel RGB a linear format This conversion takes place even if the clip you read in is in the Kodak Cineon format which is a logarithmic format The reverse of this conversion called a lin to log conversion also automatically takes place when you write the processed element back out of the script that is Nuke automatically converts it back into a Cineon element Overriding the Default Cineon Conversion Nuke uses the Kodak recommended settings when making Cineon conversions in either direc tion It s rare that you would want to override these settings but if it becomes necessary you can use Nuke s log2lin node 156 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE To override the default Cineon conversions 1 Double click on the Read node of the Cineon element whose conversion you wish to over ride 2 In the Read properties panel set the colorspace pulldown list to linear This halts the automatic log to lin conversion Click Color gt Log2Lin to insert a log2lin node directly after the Read node In the log2lin properties panel set the operation pulldown to log2lin Set black white and gamma to the appropriate values Copy the log2lin node and insert it just before the element s Write node NOM A W Open up the properties panel of the second log2lin node and set the operation pulldown list to lin2log This gives you the reverse of the conversion you created above S Double click on the element s Write no
263. bject as a whole by using a trilinear interpolation to warp the object s bounding box For example you can use this node to create animated object deformations such as the squish squash of a bouncing ball To modify objects using a trilinear interpolation 1 Select 3D gt Modify gt Trilinear to insert a Trilinear node anywhere after the 3D object you want to modify Attach a Viewer to the node to see your changes In the node s controls use the display pulldown menu to select how you want to view your object in the Viewer while making changes to it 4 To move each corner of the bounding box enter new coordinates in the pO p1 p2 p7 fields To cancel your changes and reset the box select reset shape to input 5 To not use the object s bounding box but define a box yourself go to the Source box tab and uncheck use incoming bounding box Adjust the srcO and scr1 coordinates define the box To change the colour of the box click the box button Lighting The nodes under the Lights menu let you control the lighting in your scene Using these nodes you can bring objects out or push them back create an illusion of depth simulate the condi tions in the real world or simply alter the feeling of the scene Nuke features four types of light you can use in your 3D scenes direct light point light spot light and environment light You can add these using the DirectLight Point Spotlight and Environment nodes In addition
264. black and white matte view of the image that looks like this i Figure 7 5 Matte Clean BG Noise Change the Actions Operation from Select BG Colour to Clean BG Noise If there are any white regions in the dark bluescreen area it is noise or shades of blue that did not get picked up on the first sample and should be removed Sample through these whitish noise regions and when you let up on the pen or mouse button Primatte will process the data and eliminate the noise Repeat this procedure as often as necessary to clear all the noise from the background 190 PRIMATTE NUKE areas Sometimes increasing the brightness of your monitor or the screen gamma allows you to see noise that would otherwise be invisible Before After Figure 7 6 Before and after background noise removal You do not need to remove every single white pixel to get good results Most pixels displayed as a dark colour close to black in a key image will become transparent and virtually allow the background to be the final output in that area Consequently there is no need to eliminate all noise in the blue screen portions of the image In particular if an attempt is made to meticulously remove noise around the foreground object a smooth composite image is often difficult to generate When clearing noise from around loose flying hair or any background foreground transitional area be careful not to select any of areas near the edge of t
265. ble Sampling In addition to the conventional Primatte operation modes previously mentioned six other tools are added Spill Spilli Matte Matte Detail Detail The Spill Sampling Tools Using the Spill and Spill modes you can gradually remove or recover the spill intensity on the foreground object by sampling the referenced colour region repeatedly The conventional Spill Sponge tool removes the spill component in a single action at one level and did not allow sampling the same pixel a second time Even though just a small amount of spill needed to be removed the spill sponge removed a preset amount without allowing any finer adjustment x x ija Spill e Figure 7 9 The effect of Spill repeatable sampling Using the zoom and pan capabilities of the Nuke application zoom into an area that has some blue edges and click on a pixel with some spill on it Repeated clicking will incrementally remove the spill Continue this operation until the desired result is achieved The Matte Sampling Tools The Matte and Matte modes are used to thicken or attenuate the matte information If you want a thinner shadow on a foreground object you can use the Matte mode as many times as you like to make it more transparent On the other hand you can use the Matte mode to make the matte thicker in that colour region Figure 7 10 Effect of Matte Repeatable Sampling 195 PR
266. bout a sampled pixel or region of pixels You can sample a single pixel from the Viewer by pressing Ctri Cmd while clicking a region from the Viewer by pressing Ctri Cmd Shift while dragging a single pixel from the node s input by pressing Ctrl Cmd Alt while clicking and a region from the node s input by pressing Ctrl Cmd Alt Shift while dragging From left to right the indica tor displays the following about the current pixel or sample its x and y position its Red Green Blue and Alpha values and other values depending on the colour type you have selected from the colour type menu on the right The Format indicator displays the image resolution and the size of the bounding box 74 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Using the Zoom List The Zoom list lets you select the magnification factor by which the current image is displayed This list also shows the hotkeys to press to quickly switch between the different zoom set tings 2 T Zoom in Zoom out fit F fill H Ctri s Ctri 7 Ctrl 6 i Ctrl 4 1 Ctri 2 Ctri 1 Alt 1 Alt 2 Alt 3 Alt 4 Alt 5 Alt 6 Alt 7 Alt 8 Alt 9 Figure 2 30 Selecting a display zoom Proxy Mode Nuke can generate low res proxies for displayed frames as needed when you press Ctrl Cmd P or click the proxy mode toggle button on the Viewer to activate the proxy display mode 2 2D default bli 1 Ol sRcB proxy mode toggle For more information Proxy Mode on page 92
267. buffer based rendering allows you to immediately see por tions of render output e Calculations performed with 32 bit precision using linear light levels This chapter teaches you how to use the renderer s various features to preview a scripts output and generate its final elements Previewing Output This section explains how to preview individual frames in a Nuke Viewer window and also how to render a flipbook for a sequence of frames Previewing in a Nuke Viewer When you connect a Viewer to a given node s output by selecting the node and pressing a number key Nuke immediately starts rendering the output in the Viewer using all available local processors Keep in mind the following tips in order to speed up this type of preview rendering e First if you don t need to evaluate the whole image zoom into the area of interest see Zooming on page 46 for more information Nuke will then render only the portion of scan lines visible within the Viewer e Alternatively you can use the Viewer s region of interest ROI feature to render only a por tion of the image while seeing that result in the context of the whole image To enable the ROI render feature 1 Press Alt W over the Viewer The Viewer s ROI button turns red indicating that the feature is enabled 2 Drag on the Viewer to draw the region of interest The Viewer will now render only the pixels within the region To edit the position or size of current R
268. captured the right values click the colour picker button again The colour Swatch reappears displaying the colour or colour average you sampled Using Colour Sliders and Colour Wheel Some parameters offer colour sliders and a colour wheel for inputting values These offer an intuitive and precise means for assigning just the right colour value to a parameter To display the colour sliders and colour wheel Click the parameter s colour picker button The colour sliders and wheel appear 2 52 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE currently selected colour last selected colour original colour the available slider sets show hide the colour wheel show hide the colour swatches use dynamic colours for Sy eG Si i BSS G Ha slider backgrounds fe GF p ie Left right click the slider label to nudge the value by 0 01 Drag here to adjust saturation Drag here to adjust the hue To customise the colour sliders and wheel window e From the TMI HSV and RGB buttons select which slider set you want to display The available slider sets are described below e To make the sliders horizontal rather than vertical resize the colour sliders window When the window is wide enough the sliders become horizontal e If you want the background of the sliders show what the value of the colour would be if the Sliders were set to the current position click the Dyn button e Click the colour wheel button to
269. ce Click the button to toggle between the following modes Button Function o Play the sequence once from the current frame to the head or tail stop Repeatedly play the sequence loop z Repeatedly play the image back and forth from head to tail Jumping to a Specific Frame You can move quickly to a specific frame on the timeline by choosing File gt Go to frame or by pressing Alt G entering a frame number in the dialog that appears and clicking OK Synchronising Viewer Playback The Lock Unlock button lets you toggle synchronized playback of Viewer windows By default all Viewers are locked that is if you cue to a frame in one Viewer all other Viewers follow suit Figure 2 25 Synchronizing Viewers When the lock icon changes from a closed lock to an open lock that Viewer s playback becomes independent of other Viewers and not cued to the other Viewers Pausing the Display The Pause button stops the Viewer from updating and holds the last frame rendered To reac tivate display rendering for all frames press the button again 2 v 2D default kli O O Hi skRcB A Click to stop Viewer update Click to manually update when Pause is active Figure 2 26 Pausing the display update of a Viewer You can click the render update button next to Pause or press U to manually update the dis play while keeping Pause active 71 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Displaying a Single Channel
270. ce rather than the background in the LightWrap effect Select the colour using the controls next to Constant Highlights Color 9 On the CCorrect tab you can colour correct the LightWrap effect produced Creating Star Filter Effects on Image Highlights With the Glint node you can create star shaped rays around all the bright points in an image The original image with bright points The image after using the Glint node To use the Glint node 1 Select Draw gt Glint to add a Glint node after the image you want to add star shaped rays to 2 From the channels pulldown menu and checkboxes select the channels to which you want to apply the effect 3 Inthe no of rays field enter the number of rays you want coming out of the bright points in your image For example if you want to create five pointed stars enter 5 4 To change the threshold for how bright the highlights in the input image need to be to cause the glint effect adjust the tolerance slider Only the pixels above the threshold will bloom with the effect 263 CREATING EFFECTS NUKE Low tolerance value High tolerance value 5 To determine the length of the rays adjust the length slider To give every other ray a different length and determine that length adjust the odd ray length slider 6 To determine how many steps the rays are formed of enter a value in the steps field The more steps you use and the shorter the rays are the smoother the rays
271. censee In consideration of the mutual covenants contained herein and for other good and val uable consideration the receipt and sufficiency of which is acknowledged by each party hereto the parties agree as follows SECTION 1 GRANT OF LICENSE Subject to the limitations of Section 2 The Foundry hereby grants to Licensee a limited non transferable and non exclusive license to install and use a machine readable object code ver sion of this software program the Software and the accompanying user guide and other doc umentation collectively the Documentation solely for Licensee s own internal business purposes collectively the License provided however Licensee s right to install and use the Software and the Documentation is limited to those rights expressly set out in this Agreement SECTION 2 RESTRICTIONS ON USE Licensee is authorized to use the Software in machine readable object code form only and Licensee shall not a assign sublicense transfer pledge lease rent share or export the Soft ware the Documentation or Licensee s rights hereunder b alter or circumvent the copy pro tection mechanisms in the Software or reverse engineer decompile disassemble or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of the Software c modify adapt translate or create derivative works based on the Software or Documentation d use or allow the use of the Software or Documentation on any project other
272. check read from file on the Light tab and make the necessary modifications As long as read from file is unchecked your changes are kept 324 3D COMPOSITING NUKE 9 To reload the light properties from the fbx file make sure read from file is checked and click the reload button on the File tab Importing Transforms from an fbx File The Axis node reads in transforms markers and nulls locators from fbx files You can use it to import one transform marker or null per Axis node To import a transform from an fbx file 1 Select 3D gt Axis to insert an Axis node in your script Connect the Axis node to a Scene node 2 Inthe Axis controls check read from file This enables the controls on the File tab allowing you to import transforms from an fbx file It also disables controls whose values are filled in from the fbx file As long as read from file is checked you cannot modify these values You can however view them and use them in expressions The values are reloaded from the fbx file every time the node is instantiated so any changes you make in the fbx file s values will be reflected in the Axis controls Axisl Axis File Node fila take name node name frame rate 2e use frame rate 3 On the File tab click the folder icon to open the File Browser Navigate to the fbx file that contains the transform you want to use Click Open 4 From the take name pulldown menu select the take you want
273. clips head to tail thus allowing action to flow from one shot to the next When you splice clips you have options for e Fading to or from black e Dissolving from the first to second clip e Slipping the combined clip in time To splice clips 1 Click Time gt AppendClip to insert an AppendClip node into your script 2 Attach its 1 and 2 pipes to the clips you want to join The clip attached to pipe 1 will precede the one attached to pipe 2 Attach a Viewer to this node so you can see the effect of your changes 4 If necessary expand the script length to accommodate the total length of the newly merged clip e Click Edit gt Project settings The Project settings properties panel appears e Enter frame range values that matches the total length 5 In the Fade In and Fade Out fields of the AppendClip properties panel type the number of frames if any you want to fade to or from black For example typing a 5 in the Fade In field would result in the following effect at the head of the merged clip The inverse of this effect would occur at the a of the merged clip were you type 5 in the Fade Out field 6 In the Cross Dissolve field type the number of frames if any of overlap you want between the first and second clip For example leaving Cross Dissolve at the default of O creates a simple cut the transition from the first to second clip is instantaneous Typing in a 5 creates a time span 245 TE
274. colour swatch button C A To copy a colour from one colour swatch to another drag and drop the colour swatch with the desired colour on top of the swatch whose colour you want to change e To toggle between using the slider and manually entering values for each of the chan nels click the channel chooser button which displays the number of available chan nels Color Replacement srccolor 1 colour swatch colour picker 3 channel Figure 2 18 Options for colour selection To sample a colour from the Viewer 1 In the parameters click the colour swatch to activate the eye dropper Move your mouse pointer over the Viewer from which you wish to copy colour values Zoom and pan as necessary until the region from which you want to sample is clearly visible 4 Ctrl Cmd click to sample a colour value from the Viewer or Ctrl Cmd Alt click to sample a colour from the node s input while viewing its output To sample a region rather than a single pixel s colour value also press Shift The input fields associated with the colour picker update to reflect the colour values of the sampled pixels In the case of a sampled region Nuke inserts the average colour values of all inlying pixels 5 If you didn t manage to sample just the right pixel or quite the right region Ctrl Cmd click Ctrl Alt click Ctrl Cmd Shift click or Ctrl Cmd Alt Shift click again A new overlay appears and the old one disappears 6 When you ve
275. conversion and lets the one you create above have priority Changing the Viewer Colour Space By default a script s Viewers display images in Nuke s native colour space You can however set a script s Viewers to display images in non native colour spaces This allows you for example to see a Cineon element as it appeared prior to the log to lin conversion Changing 157 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE the display colour space in no way affects your rendered output You are applying a display only lookup table For more information on the available LUTs see A tering a Script s Lookup Tables LUTs on page 433 To change the displayed colour space for individual Viewers Select the desired colour space from the Viewer s LUT menu on the top right corner To change the displayed colour space for all Viewers 1 2 3 4 Click Edit gt Project settings to display the Settings dialog Click the LUT tab to display the current lookup table settings Set viewer to the desired colour space Or edit the lookup gamma curve to alter the Viewer display This allows you in effect to create a lookup table on the fly For example drag down the lookup curves end point to 0 5 to create a lookup table that decreases the brightness of all pixels by half 158 5 Transforming Elements This chapter explains how to perform a range of 2D and 2 5D spatial transformations You learn how to apply geometric transforma
276. cript after the folder path for example firstscript_vO1 nk 95 MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE 4 Click Save Tip The vQ1 string in the end of a script name allows you to use the Save new version feature Selecting File gt Save new version saves the current version of your script and increments its name that is saves the different versions under different names using v01 v02 v03 and so on in the end of file names This only works when the file name includes a number that can be incremented Automatic Backup of Scripts You can define where and how often Nuke makes automatic backups your files or turn off the autosave function To define autosave options for a script 1 Select Edit gt Preferences The Preferences dialog opens Appearance Node Colors i Wiewers Sonpt Editor Presets Choose Preset Files amp Paths sutesave filename Dfirstof value root came geteny HUKE TEMP _OIR sutosave autosave aftar idle for amp seconds force subocave ater Go seconds Hemory memory usage 7s S0 flipbook cache geteny NUKE TEMP_OIR flipbook cache size SOB x Node defaults E hew Merge nodes connect 4 input E sutokey on Bertier Script command E Script command defaults to TEL Revert to Saved Save Prefs Close 2 Edit the following settings e autosave filename to define where and under what name Nuke saves your automatic backup files By default the files are saved in the same folder as your project files
277. cript for this project inside the Node Graph page on the Node Graph Curve Editor pane We ll talk about each of these onscreen controls when you need them for the project The Toolbar includes the options you can use to build your project such as importing images layering images drawing shapes and masks applying colour correction and so on Each Tool bar icon displays a menu of operators or nodes that you can select Roll the mouse pointer over the Toolbar and you ll see pop up tool tips that identify each icon 441 NUKE Using the Menus The Nuke menu bar appears at the top of your screen outside the main window This menu begins with the options File Edit Layout and so on When instructed to do so make selections from the menu bar or click the right mouse button to choose from a pop up version of the menu bar File Edit Layout Viewer Render Help New Ctr n Oper Ctr Save R Ctri s Save As Ctri Shitt S Save New Version Alt Shitt eS Recent Files gt Import Script Export Nodes As Script Script Command x TCL File Altex Goto Frame Alt G Script Info Alt l Close Gtr Exit Ctri Q Figure 1 3 The Nuke menu bar The right click menu is highly contextual Its options change according to the location of the mouse pointer Right click over the Node Graph for example and you ll see the options from the menu bar and the nodes you can insert from the Toolbar Right click over t
278. cript hk K Figure 2 5 Moving from the Properties tab to the Script Editor tab Toolbar Menu Bar and Content Menus The toolbar is located on the left hand side of the Nuke window By default it consists of twelve icons The different nodes are grouped under these icons based on their functions You use the toolbar to add nodes to the Node Graph The menu bar is located on top of the Nuke window Its menus such as the File or Edit menu let you perform more general actions related to the whole script the Viewers or editing rather than certain individual nodes 31 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE File Edit Layout Viewer Render Help Figure 2 6 The toolbar and the menu bar In addition to the toolbar and the menu bar you should also familiarise yourself with the con tent menus They are the gray checkered boxes in the top left corner of each pane If you click on the box a pop up menu opens You can use the options in the pop up menu to customise the window layout Properties split Vertical Split Horizontal Float Pane Close Pane Float Tab Close Tab Show Tabs Curve Editor Toolbars Node Graph Properties Bin Script Editor New Viewer Figure 2 7 Using the content menus Finally to work faster you can right click on the different panels to display a pop up menu with options related to that particular panel 32 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE P New K Edit Render Open save Image Sa
279. ct ratio e distort to scale the original so that both sides fill the output dimensions This option does not preserve the original aspect ratio so distortions may occur Choose the appropriate filtering algorithm from the filter pulldown list see Choosing a Filtering Algorithm on page 160 When scaling an image with Key Simon and Rifmen filters you may see a haloing effect which is caused by pixel sharpening these filters employ If necessary check clamp to correct this problem 112 REFORMATTING ELEMENTS NUKE Cropping Elements To crop a frame is to cut out the unwanted portions of the image area f To crop elements 1 2 Click Transform gt Crop to insert a Crop node at appropriate place in your script Connect a Viewer to the output of the Crop node so you can see the effect of your changes Define the crop boundaries e Inthe Viewer drag on any side of the frame to reposition it e Or in the Crop properties panel increment or decrement the box field x stands for left side y for bottom side r for right side and t for top side To fill the cropped portion with black check black outside To fill the cropped portion by expanding the edges of the image uncheck black outside To adjust the image output format to match the cropped image check reformat Increment the softness field if you wish to vignette the edges of the cropped portion 113 REFORMATTING ELEMENTS NUKE Adj
280. cted Channels from Input 2 The second group of channel boxes are the channels supplied by input 2 on the node 123 CHANNELS NUKE Channel Outputs The combination of the boxes checked in the channel matrix create the list of channels that are output to the channel set selected in the top pulldown menu on the right This four channel stream acts as the second set of outputs from the node It allows you to output another four channels from the node for a total of eight channels of output to match the possible eight channels of input In this case this second set of outputs has not been utilized Tip While not required it s good practice to use the first set of outputs for swapping channels in the current data stream and the second set of outputs for creating new channels This protects the default RGBA set from unintentional overwriting and makes it easier for other artists to understand the workings of your script The basic process then for swapping channels is to first select your incoming channel sets from the 1 in and 2 in or in the case of the Shuffle node the in 1 and in 2 pulldown menus Then select your outgoing channel sets from the pulldown menus on the right Then make the actual channel swaps by clicking on the resulting matrix For example to take the simplest case suppose you wanted to copy red channel of the RGBA set into its alpha channel You would click on the matrix to create the following conf
281. cted this area allows the user to adjust the amount of defocus applied to the background buffer image For all other spill replacement selections this area is greyed out and not activated Output Section Output Mode Selector These are the three formats for the output of the node composite outputs the composite result of the Primatte node premultiplied outputs the premultiplied result of the Primatte node unpremultiplied outputs the unpremultiplied result of the Primatte node The Primatte Algorithm There are three Primatte algorithms Here is a chart that shows the main differences between them one for each color vector Replacement Complement Replacement Replacement Very Light For a description of the Primatte algorithm see Explanation of how Primatte works below 210 PRIMATTE NUKE For a description of the Primatte RT algorithm go to Explanation of how Primatte RT works on page 217 For a description of the Primatte RT algorithm see Explanation of how Primatte RT works on page 218 Explanation of how Primatte works The Primatte chromakey algorithm is a sophisticated method of colour space segmentation that can be easily explained to help a user achieve maximum effectiveness with the tool Basi cally Primatte segments all the colours in the foreground image into one of four separate cat egories The result is a spill suppressed foreground image and a matte which is used to apply the modifie
282. ction Using the 3D Viewer for more information Using the 3D Viewer When you have a 3D setup in your script any Viewer window can toggle between the 2D and 3D display modes The 2D mode shows the result of a rendered scene the 3D mode shows the perspective from one camera in the scene Viewerl roba rgba alpha RGB 2037 30 a Camere Y EEIT zi Hi amp N PE wy TF p vattes inside_lights highlight retraction rellecthon_gl ssy reflecton_s fps 24 Global ir Figure 13 6 The 3D Viewer When you do not have a Camera node in your script the 3D Viewer uses default views see Figure 13 7 below for the list of options These views are similar to different cameras that you can look though but they don t appear as objects that you can manipulate in the scene Switching to the 3D Viewer Open a Viewer and press Tab or V to toggle between the 2D and 3D modes or select the view you want from the list at the top right corner of the Viewer window Camer 42 Wr rtside rai 3D perspec mr tive amp Ifside Shift x o top v graphic bottom Shift Y views front Z back Shit ZzZ Figure 13 7 Switching to the 3D Viewer 280 3D COMPOSITING NUKE The built in views give you different perspectives on your 3D scene You can quickly switch between the views by pressing the hot keys for right view X left view Shift X top view C bottom Shift C front Z back Shift Z and
283. ctions on the two views you can add a OneView node to separate one view for processing To extract a view for processing 1 Select Views gt OneView to insert a OneView node in an appropriate place in your script 2 In the OneView node s controls select the view you want to make changes to from the view pulldown menu All views are extracted and any changes you make are only applied to the view you selected regardless of which view you are displaying in the Viewer To make changes to a different view select it from the OneView node s view pulldown menu To merge views from two separate streams select Views gt JoinViews to combine the views or delete the OneView node from your script If you need to extract all views process them individually and then merge them together use the Split and Join menu item This menu item is actually a combination of the OneView and JoinViews nodes It first extracts all the views you have set up in your project settings and then merges them back together It s no different to using several OneView nodes together with a JoinViews node but makes working faster because you do not need to add each node in a separate go To use the menu item select Views gt Split and Join For example if you have created views called left and right in your project settings and use a Split and Join menu item after your Read node you get the following node tree oneview onewWiew2 left right Joiniviews 1
284. current position of the cursor When this is NOT checked pop up dialogs appear in the middle of the Nuke applica tion window When this is checked right click menus are opened with the previously selected item under the cursor When this is NOT checked right click menus are opened with nothing under the cur Sor Function Change the background colour of most user interface elements menus tool bars panes control panels Viewers and pop up dialogs To set the colour back to default dark grey right click on the button and select Set color to default Change the colour of input fields the input pane of the Script Editor and the left part of the Curve Editor To set the colour back to default light grey right click on the button and select Set color to default Change the colour of the highlighting that appears when you hover the cursor over a control select a file or folder in the File Browser or scrub to a new frame on the timeline To set the colour back to default light orange right click on the button and select Set color to default Change the colour of labels and text on the application interface Note that this does not set the colour of the labels on the nodes in the Node Graph To set the colour back to default white right click on the button and select Set color to default Change the colour of buttons and pulldown menus To set the colour back to default medium grey right click on the button
285. d To render the result of your composite 1 Select the last Over node at the bottom of the node tree 2 Right click and choose Image gt Write to add a node for output 3 In the control panel for the Write node click the file folder icon 467 NUKE Writel Write Node channels ab red HM green amp blue x file file folder icon proxy colorspace default premulhiplied raw data VIEWS main file type render_order Render 4 Browse to the Nuke Tutorials directory Mame Compbasics Keying Tracking edi 4 CProgram Files Nuke _Tutorialss M Sequences Fitter Save Cancel 5 Click the new folder icon in the upper left corner of the browser and type Rendered as the name for the new folder Click OK 6 Select the folder you just created You should see the Nuke Tutorials Rendered pathname displayed at the bottom of the browser 7 At the end of the Nuke Tutorials Rendered pathname type first comp 04d exr as the name for the rendered image sequence and then click Save 8 Choose Render gt Render All to render the images or simply click the Render button inside the Write control panel 9 Nuke prompts you to specify the frames to render Enter 1 28 as the frame range and click OK A status window appears that shows the progress of your render When the render is com plete you ll find the sequential images in the Nuke Tutorials Rendered director
286. d 4 for all the frames you want to set as key frames To delete a key frame Using the Viewer timeline scrub to the frame where you want to delete a key frame In the Paint node controls select the paint stroke whose key you want to delete Do one of the following 229 USING PAINT NUKE e lf you want to delete a key set to animate a vector click the cut button under curve keys The vector overlay which you can see in the Viewer whenever the Paint node s Select tool is active turns from light green to pink to indicate a key isn t set at the current frame If no attribute keys are set for the selected paint stroke either the frame marker on the timeline turns from cyan to the default colour e lf you want to delete a key set to animate attributes click the cut button under attribute keys Nuke deletes the attribute key but the frame marker on the timeline may not turn from cyan to the default colour This is because keys may still be set to animate the shape of the selected paint stroke Copying Pasting and Cutting Stroke Attributes After creating a paint stroke you can copy paste and cut its attributes such as colour and brush size to use them in other paint strokes Copying Attributes The copy button under attribute keys lets you copy the attributes of selected strokes at the Current frame to the clipboard Unlike the cut button described below it does not delete any keys set To copy attributes 1 In the
287. d display calculation This can be a down scaled image that Nuke generates on the fly Alternatively you can use Read nodes to specify a proxy file that is read in place of full size images for more information on how to do this see Loading Image Sequences on page 97 The proxy settings you define in the project settings affect both the proxies Nuke generates on the fly and proxies read from files Below we discuss setting a proxy format and or a proxy scale Note that proxy versions of images are only used if you have activated the proxy mode see Toggling In and Out of Proxy Mode on page 95 When the proxy mode is off Nuke will always use the full res files Proxy Format and Proxy Scale In the Project settings dialog you have the option of defining a proxy format and or a proxy scale that you use in the proxy mode 92 MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE For the proxy format you can define the image resolution as well as additional information about offsets and pixel aspect ratio When using the proxy format the scaling is proportion ate to the full size proxy format relationship not scaled to the proxy format For the proxy sca e you only define a simple scale factor by which your images are scaled down whenever the proxy mode is activated For example you can use the scale factor of 0 5 to scale your images down to half the size If you like you can define both a proxy format and a proxy scale and then choose which one to use
288. d foreground to a suitable background Primatte works in 3D RGB colour space Here is a visual representation of the Primatte algo rithm after an image has been processed By operating the Primatte interface the user essentially creates three concentric multi fac eted polyhedrons These can be pictured as three globes or polyhedrons or polys one within the other which share a common centre point The creation of these polyhedrons separates all possible foreground colours into one of four regions inside the small polyhedron 1 between the small and medium polyhedrons 2 between the medium and the large polyhedrons 3 and outside the large polyhedron 4 Primatte Polyhedrons Overview V in 3D RGB Colo Red 4 Small Polyhedron Large Polyhedron Blue 211 PRIMATTE NUKE The four regions created are described as follows Region 1 inside the small polyhedron This region contains all of the foreground image col ours that are considered 100 background These are the green or blue or whatever colours that were used as the backing colour of the foreground image Region 2 between the small and medium polyhedrons This region contains all the fore ground colours that are at the edges of the foreground object s in glass glass reflections shadows sheets of water and other transparent and semi transparent colour regions These colour regions also have spill suppression applied to them to remove colo
289. d here but if you saved a layout to a different function key any key between F1 and F6 then you can press Shift followed by the key to retrieve the layout 88 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE To use window layout 1 as the default when loading scripts 1 Select Edit gt Preferences to open the preferences dialog 2 Go to the Windows tab 3 Check use window layout 1 when loading scripts This is usually checked by default 89 3 Managing Scripts In this chapter you learn about Nuke s project files called scripts The topics covered include setting up saving and loading scripts Working with Multiple Image Formats Nuke supports multiple file formats such as Cineon TIFF OpenEXR HDRI and RAW camera data via the dcraw command line program and allows you to mix them all within the same composite By default Nuke converts all imported sequences to its native 32 bit linear RGB colorspace You can however use the Colorspace node to force one of several color models including sRGB Cineon rec709 gamma 1 80 2 20 HSV or HSL The Log2Lin node lets you convert between logarithmic and linear colourspace and vice versa There are no restrictions on image resolution you can freely mix elements of any resolution within the same script You can for example use a 2k film plate as the background for video shot in PAL format and then output the result in HD1080i Nuke automatically adjusts its Viewer to accommodate t
290. d meshes into Nuke from fbx files created in other applications use the following nodes e for cameras the Camera node e for lights the Light node e for transforms the Axis node e for meshes or NURBS curves patch surfaces converted to meshes the ReadGeo node All these nodes include similar controls for handling fbx files as you will notice from their descriptions below The FBX SDK reads fbx files produced by Autodesk MotionBuilder versions 5 5 and later The FBX SDK writes fbx files compatible with MotionBuilder version 5 5 and later and earlier versions of the Autodesk FBX SDK 6 0 7 0 2005 12 and later 322 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Tip If you have trouble with FBX files it may be because they were written with an older version of FBX If they load very slowly it is also possible that they are ASCII rather than binary To get around these problems you can use the FBX converter on the Autodesk web site It converts between various dif ferent formats including older FBX versions ASCII and binary and is available on Windows Mac OS X and Linux To download the FBX converter 1 Go to http usa autodesk com adsk servlet index sitelD 123112 amp id 10775855 2 Scroll down to FBX Converter and click on one of the links to start the download Importing Cameras from an fbx File The Camera node lets you read in the standard fbx cameras Producer Perspective Producer Top Producer Bottom Producer Righ
291. d the autosave file and rather need to load the last saved version For example consider a situation where you modified a script but decided not to commit the changes and so exited Nuke without saving In all likelihood Nuke autosaved some or all of your changes in which case if you open the autosaved file you will not be work ing on the original script as intended If you accidentally open an autosaved script then sim ply close it and reload the last saved version Loading Image Sequences When you are ready to start compositing you may want to begin by importing a background or foreground image sequence Typically you would read in both full and proxy resolution versions of the sequence You can read in several image sequences in one go To import an image sequence 1 Select Image gt Read or press R over the Nuke window MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE A Read node is inserted in the node graph Read Read Sequence Node file on Data Nuke_Tutorials CompBasics engine_rgba engine v01 04d exr I format 1440x1152 proxy proxy format root proxy_format 640x480 frame range 1 hold 28 frame missing frames error hd reload colorspace default premultiplied raw data Browse to the image sequence you want to import For instructions on using the file browser see Using the File Browser on page 83 Select the file you want to open If you want to open several files at the same time Ctrl click Mac users Cmd click on
292. d to refer to it using an expression in some other control on a node inside the Group For more information see the examples below and refer to Expressions on page 357 If necessary repeat the previous four steps to add more controls to your Group node future gizmo In the Group node properties panel the controls are listed in the same order as they are in the Manage User Knobs dialog To move a control up or down in the properties panel select it in the dialog and use the Up and Down buttons Once you have all the controls you need proceed to step 5 under Creating Gizmos on page 420 To delete controls 1 Right click on the dark grey background of the Group properties panel and select Manage User Knobs 2 Inthe dialog that opens select the controls that you want to delete from the list and click Delete 3 To delete an entire tab select all controls on the tab as well as the tab name and click Delete Examples Below are some examples on how to create new controls for gizmos To try them out do the following preparations Ie Select Draw gt Text and Draw gt Rectangle Create the following setup 423 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE 2 Double click on the Rectangle 1 node 3 In the Viewer resize and reposition the rectangle until it looks like the following 4 Inthe Rectanglel properties panel go to the Color tab Click on the 4 button to display multiple values rather than the slider Enter 1 as the va
293. d to select the channel you wish to invert Multiplying Channel Values To multiply a channel s values is to times them by a given factor which has the effect of light ening the channel while preserving the blackpoint This operation is also knows as gain 5 a a ee i ae a Figure 4 20 Multiplying channel values For this effect you use Nuke s Multiply node To multiply channel values 1 Click Color gt Math gt Multiply to insert a Multiply node at the appropriate point in your script 2 Connect a Viewer to the output of the Multiply node so you can see the effect of your changes 3 Inthe Multiply properties panel use the channels field to select the channel whose values you wish to multiply 4 Use the value slider to input the factor by which to you want to times the channel s values Applying Expressions to Channel Values Up till now the discussion has focused on how to apply simple mathematical formulae addi tions subtractions multiplications etc to a channel s values Nuke s Expression node how ever allows you to apply complex fomulae to a channel s values The actual syntax for expressions is rather complex and thus must be deferred to Chapter 16 Expressions on page 357 For now you can read about the basics of how to operate the Expression node To apply expressions to channel values 1 Click Color gt Math gt Expression to insert an Expression node at the appropriate point
294. de In the Write properties panel set the colorspace pulldown list to linear This halts the automatic lin to log conversion and lets the one you create above have priority Making Other Colour Space Conversions You can also convert elements from Nuke s native colour space to other colour spaces more appropriate to a given process or intended display device For conversions such as this use Nuke s Colorspace node which supports RGB HSV YUV CIE and CMS formats and various subformats To convert an element in Nuke s native colour space into another colour space 1 Click Color gt Colorspace to insert a Colorspace node into the appropriate place in your script 2 In the Colorspace properties panel set the rightmost pulldown menu in the out controls to the appropriate standard Set the pulldown menu in the middle of the out controls to the appropriate standard Set the leftmost pulldown menu in the out controls to the colour space of your choice If you wish to reverse this conversion later in the script e Copy the Colorspace node and insert it at the appropriate point in your script e Set the out controls to sRGB D55 and RGB e Set the in controls to match the values you entered in steps 2 3 and 4 above 6 If you wish write out the element in the new colour space e Double click on the element s Write node e Inthe Write properties panel set the colorspace pulldown list to linear This halts the automatic
295. de s mat input This is a good way to apply a global material to all objects You can use the map connectors to input a mask image to limit the effect of the material change To see the effect of changes to an object s material properties transparency and lighting must be enabled for OpenGL rendering Press S over the 3D Viewer and check transparency and headlamp on the 3D tab ey SKyY_Tile rgb Figure 13 16 Diffuse and Specular nodes To define material properties e Choose 3D gt Shader gt Diffuse to insert a Diffuse node This node lets you adjust the col our of the material when illuminated The material appears darker as the surface points away from the light as the light is not falling on it Adjust the white slider in the Diffuse panel to control the diffuse colour By default this is in greyscale but you can adjust the individual r g and b values The higher the value the brighter the material 291 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Choose 3D gt Shader gt Specular to insert a Specular node You can use this node to con trol how bright and wide the highlights on the material seem The location of the viewpoint is significant the specular highlights are the brightest along the direct angle of reflection Adjust the white slider to control the brightness of the specular highlight The higher the value the shinier the material seems To control the width of the highlights adjust the min shininess and m
296. defaults to when you defaults to TCL select File gt Script Command When this is checked the dialog defaults to TCL When this is NOT checked it defaults to Python Windows Tab Setting Function window Positions Clear When you rearrange floating windows such as the colour picker window Nuke remembers their position the next time you open them You can use this control to clear the remembered positions tooltip delay Define how long in seconds you need to hover the cursor over a control before Nuke displays its tool tip If you set this value to O no tool tips are displayed 370 SETTING INTERFACE PREFERENCES NUKE Setting Function floating window hint This preference only has an effect on Linux and can be used to fix problems with floating windows What you should set it to depends on the window manager you are using GNOME or KDE e Utility GNOME Choose this if you are using the GNOME window manager If you haven t specifically selected to use KDE you re most likely using GNOME e Normal KDE Choose this if you are using the KDE window manager If this option is not used on KDE all the floating windows vanish when you move focus away from Nuke Script Loading re open viewers when load When this is checked and you open a saved script any Viewers in the script are ing saved scripts opened in the Viewer pane When this is NOT checked you need to open the Viewers manually by double click ing on them
297. determines your high or opaque values Drag the first yellow handle to the right until it reads 303 approximately and watch the effect in the Viewer 506 NUKE This sets the low value for the matte Any pixels that fall below this value are clipped to black 4 Drag the yellow handle located at the upper right edge to the left until it reads 455 approximately range This sets the high value for the matte Pixel values above this setting are clipped to white At these settings it s not quite matte worthy so let s make an adjustment 5 Drag the first handle to change the low setting from 303 to 424 and drag the second handle to change the high value from 455 to 61 As you adjust the location of the handles the slope of the line controls the softness or level of greys for the matte edge A gradual slope produces a softer edge A sharper slope produces a jagged or crunchy edge drag the first handle on top of the second handle and you ll see what that means 507 NUKE operation luminance key second handle third handle ee ene Slope of line controls edge softness 298 1 60 target range for pixels to first handle key ft fourth handle 0001 The default positions let you control the low and high values assuming your image has distinct light and dark areas However sometimes the subject of the matte falls into the middle grey area the third and fourth handles on
298. developers kit Generic TCL TiCkLe scripts Template scripts Common preferences Script s lookup tables LUTs What Is a Terminal and How Do I Use One Many tasks in this chapter tell you to enter commands from a terminal or shell This refers to a window where you can enter commands directly rather than making selections through a user interface The following describes how to open such a window for your operating system Linux Click the right mouse button over the desktop and choose New Terminal or Open Terminal from the pop up menu Windows From the Start menu choose All Programs gt Accessories gt Command Prompt Mac OS X Click on the Terminal dock icon OR Browse to the Applications gt Utilities folder on your system hard drive and double click the Terminal icon 401 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE Inside the terminal or shell you ll see a command prompt which looks similar to this E Command Prompt O x Microsoft Windows XP Wersion 5 1 2608 a CG Copyright 1985 260601 Microsoft Corp ii Dis Pa Figure 19 1 Command prompt window for Windows XP Once you see the command prompt you can enter commands to perform various tasks like listing the files in a directory or running programs Here are some specific examples e On Linux or Mac OS X type pwd and press Enter to view the path of the current directory On Windows the equivalent command would be cd e On Linux or Mac OS X type
299. dit the position of the camera s forward clipping plane Objects in front of this plane will not be rendered or displayed 5 Drag the far slider to edit the position of the camera s rearward clipping plane Objects in behind this plane will not be rendered or displayed 6 Increment the window translate u horizontal axis and v vertical axis sliders to translate the camera s output along either axis 7 Increment the window scale u horizontal axis and v vertical axis sliders to scale the camera s output on either axis 8 Drag the window roll slider to rotate the camera s output on z Projection Cameras In addition to viewing and rendering a 3D scene cameras can also project a 2D still image or image sequence onto geometry in the scene This is similar to the front projection systems used in practical photography where a background image or other element is projected onto the stage and photographed with other elements In Nuke a projection camera can receive camera data tracked from the original shot or another shot to setup a projection that is match moved to another source This setup requires these nodes a projection camera a Scene node a Project3D node a geometry object node what you ll be projecting onto and a 2D node with the image that you want to project First a Little Math When you create a projection camera you need to gather some information and do a few small calculations to make sure the proj
300. djust the second TransformGeo node s transform controls you ll notice that the first object automatically rotates to face the second object For more information on how to adjust the transform controls see Using the Transform Handles on page 298 and ransform ing from the Node Properties Pane on page 299 Modifying Object Shapes Many nodes under the Modify menu let you modify the shape of an object as a whole Modify ing only selected portions of an object is currently not supported You can modify 3D objects using lookup curves power functions images a Perlin noise func tion a distortion function and a trilinear interpolation Modifying Objects Using Lookup Curves The CrosstalkGeo and LookupGeo nodes offer you direct global control over each of the vertex x y and z values respectively You can for example only modify all the y values without touching the x and z values 302 3D COMPOSITING NUKE You change the different vertex values x y or z by modifying their associated 2D curves in lookup tables LUTs The x axis in the LUT represents the current vertex value and the y axis the new vertex value By default the curve is a diagonal line where all the points in the curve have the same value on the y axis the new value as they do on the x axis the current value Because both x and y values are the same there is no change in the object s shape By modifying for example the CrosstalkGeo node s y LUT the fol
301. drop node labeled Setting Up a 3D System You ll see a Read node with the image you ll use for this example 2 Right click over the nuke_sign jpg node and choose 3D gt Geometry gt Card 516 NUKE Merge Transform Views Other Lights Modify Cylinder Shader Sphere Camera ReadGseo Scene WriteGeo SeaniineRender This attaches a Card1 node Let s see what it looks like in 3D 1 f Yieweri fon Attach a Viewer to the Card1 node and Nuke switches the Viewer to 3D Wow that s amazing It looks exactly like the 2D Viewer How can anyone tell the difference Check the lower left corner of the Viewer and you ll see an orientation marker for the three axes in 3D You ll also see that 3D is displayed on the view list Viewerl gt rgba rgba alpha RGB A Cardi 4f bl u y i i Pals HDO 1920x1080 bbox 0011 517 NUKE That sign is a little darker than expected isn t it Actually you can t see the image yet because the default view of the 3D workspace is at the origin or centre of the space Perhaps zooming out will improve the view 4 Press the Alt key Windows Linux or the Option key OS X and drag with the middle mouse button to zoom or dolly Drag to the left and you ll zoom out gt rgba rgba alpha es 4 3D H 74 EPI i J 1 IE sRGB i 5 0v b10 Jan 28 2008 jan 28 2008 640x460 bbox 0011 Hey look There s the Nuke emblem In the
302. e F Choose 3D gt Lights gt Spot and connect the light node to the Scene2 node 2 In the Spotlight1 control panel rename the light to Keylight Keylight Spotlight Node color 1 intensity 1 cone angle 40 3 Switch to the top view and drag x axis handle red to move the light to the left 4 Drag the z axis handle blue to move the light closer to the bottom edge of the screen Then press the Ctrl or Command key and rotate the light to face the pillar object 542 NUKE 5 Switch to the 3D V view and rotate the view so you can see both the Keylight and the pillar geometry Drag the y axis handle green to move the light up above the pillar Press the Ctrl or Command key and rotate the light down to shine on the pillar That s the basic setup for lighting and surfaces but there are other tools for more complex setups Refer to the Nuke user guide for more information on the 3D lighting and surfacing tools In this chapter you learned how to setup a 3D workspace for your composite and how to work with 3D geometry and lighting These are all prerequisite skills for more advanced topics such as camera projections matchmoving and set replacement 543 NUKE End of Tutorial 544 APPENDICES his section contains supplemental reference information that you may need when T using Nuke Organisation of the Section The section consists of four appendices e Appendix A
303. e Depart ment of Defense the software shall be classified as Commercial Computer Soft ware and the Government shall have only Restricted Rights as defined in Clause 252 227 7013 1 of DFARs Notwithstanding the foregoing the authors grant the U S Government and others acting in its behalf permission to use and distribute the software in accordance with the terms specified in this license 577 APPENDIX D THIRD PARTY LICENSES NUKE Library VXL SparseLib Description Computer vision Source code library License Copyright 2000 2003 TargetJr Consortium GE Corporate Research and Development GE CRD 1 Research Circle Niskayuna NY 12309 All Rights Reserved Reproduction rights limited as described below Permission to use copy modify distribute and sell this software and its documen tation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee provided that i the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies of the software and related documentation ii the name TargetJr Consortium represented by GE CRD may not be used in any advertising or publicity relating to the software without the specific prior written permission of GE CRD and iii any modifications are clearly marked and summarized in a change history log THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND EXPRESS IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WAR RANT
304. e Images HDRI When HDR images are created several differently exposed images are combined to produce a single image of the surrounding environment As a result HDR images have a wide range of values between light and dark areas and represent the lighting conditions of the real world more accurately To use environment light you first need to shoot a real life environment as an HDR image Using the Environment Maps node you then convert this image into a spherical mapped image The sphere is used to surround the 3D objects so that the mapped image colour illumi nates them 312 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Environment light only works with shiny object materials that can reflect the mapped image It results in a very realistic lighting that makes it easier to integrate the objects into the envi ronment To add an environment light 1 Read an HDR image of the environment into your script 2 Select Transform gt Environment Maps to insert a SphericalTransform node after the HDR image You use this node to convert the HDR image into a spherical mapped image In the nodes controls select the Input Type and the Output Type in this case Sphere 3 Select 3D gt Lights gt Environment to insert an Environment node in your script Connect the SphericalTransform node to the Environment node s map input and the Environment node to the Scene node 4 Inthe Environment node s controls adjust the following e Drag the color slide
305. e SOB Node defaults E new Merge nodes connect 4 imp E sutokey on Bertier Script command E Script command defaults to TCL Revert to Saved Save Prefs Close Figure 17 1 Nuke preferences Changing Preferences The function of each preference is described below under he Available Preference Settings on page 368 When you make a change to a preference in most cases the interface registers that change immediately for example an interface element displays in the new colour Saving Preferences Nuke stores your preference settings in a file called preferences nk which resides in your Home directory Each Nuke user can maintain his or her own unique settings If you make changes inside the preferences dialog you need to explicitly save your changes to this file by clicking Save Prefs If you simply close the Preferences dialog they will only be in effect for your current session To reset any changes you made and use the preferences saved in preferences nk click Revert to Saved To save your preferences Make the desired changes inside the preferences dialog then click the Save Prefs button Nuke writes the new settings to preferences5 nk file which you can find in the nuke directory 367 SETTING INTERFACE PREFERENCES NUKE e On Windows The nuke directory can be found under the directory pointed to by the HOME environment variable If this variable is not set which is common the nuke directory will be under t
306. e SOU NUKE Ti Name imespan and Frame Rate oe oe oe eo oe cf o oe eo oe cf cf oe 90 f Full size Formats ff e e cf oe cf e cf e cf cf cf o o cf cf eo oe cf cf Proxy Mode a oe 92 Cachi 95 ac Ing cf oe cf oe cf cf e cf e cf cf cf cf cf cf e cf cf cf oe cf oe cf Saving Scripts and Recovering BackupS cece cece eee cece es 0 ID Saving SOMOS 24440 4unance ace eee EESE REPENT sea rA eek che dese teas Hee Automatic Backup of SClPtSs s lt 0 00 644 244556 s06 boos heed oooh de ecw does DaSTO Recovering BackupS 4 lt 4 scwwsdsoeso deeb beds odeceee couebecsveceew send Loading Image SequenceS ou 5 404 60 44a8 40406054 409 o44s CR eee dees oad Naming Conventions s 40 4446 5065 6644 4 e000 ss be Gene oeenareaeeda ares oe edo Reformatting Image Sequences s99 Loading N ke SCriptS 4 2 sc 46 sme 44 oes dee Gaede Shouse siseses shel UU Closing Nuke ScriptS 6 xs 44eu neg eos ooo bus on 6 hae eeee ae rene tous aot Defining Frame Ranges ccc ee ee ee eee eee eee e eee e ee oe LOD Filename Search and Replace cece cee ee ee eee ee eee ee IOI Displaying Script Information 0 cece cee ee ee eee eee ee LO
307. e Shader menu s MergeMat node you can combine two shader nodes together using compositing algorithms like none replace over and stencil The MergeMat node is particu larly useful for combining multiple Project3D nodes allowing you to composite 2D images pro jected onto the 3D geometry atop each other You connect the shader nodes to the MergeMat node s A and B inputs A refers to the fore ground element and B to the background element 295 3D COMPOSITING NUKE To merge shaders 1 Select 3D gt Shader gt MergeMat to add a MergeMat over node after the two shader nodes you want to combine 2 Connect the MergeMat node to the img input of the 3D object you want to project the images on For example if you wanted to combine two Project3D nodes and composite their results onto a sphere your node tree would look something like the following 3 For operations such as over that need an alpha channel mask select which channel to use for the alpha from the Alayer pulldown menu 4 From the operation pulldown menu select how you want to composite the results of the two shader nodes together e to only use input B in the composite select none e to only use input A in the composite select replace e to composite input A over input B using the mask select over e to use input B outside the mask area select stencil e to use input B inside the mask area select mask e to add input B to input A select plus
308. e Text operation select the mask channel from the mask menu To invert the mask check invert To blur the edges of the mask check fringe 8 To adjust the opacity of the text use the opacity slider The possible values run from O invisible to 1 fully opaque 9 To invert the inside and outside of the text shape check invert Examples The following table gives examples of TCL expressions TCL variables and decimal entities you can use in the message field of the Text node Message Prints TCL expressions date Week day day month hh mm ss and time zone For example Thu Jan 15 14 22 20 GMT date a Abbreviated week day name For example Thu date A Full week day name For example Thursday date b Abbreviated month name For example Jan 266 CREATING EFFECTS Message date B date d date D date H date I date m date M date p date r date S date T date y date Y date z date Z frame value root name TCL variables env ENV RONMENT VARIABLE version_long threads decimal entities amp 163 amp 169 NUKE Prints Full month name For example January Day 01 31 Date dd mm yy For example 15 01 09 Hour 00 23 Hour 01 12 Month 01 12 Minutes 00 59 AM or PM Time 12 hour clock For example 11 04 07 AM Seconds 00 59 Time 24 hour clock For example 14 06 54 Abbreviated year 00 99
309. e a 3D effect when viewed with 2 colour anaglyph glasses To convert your images into anaglyph 1 Select Views gt Stereo gt Anaglyph to insert an Anaglyph node in an appropriate place in your script 2 Use the views controls in the Anaglyph properties panel to select which views you want to use for the left and the right eye Nuke converts the input images into greyscale anaglyph images The left input is filtered to remove blue and green and the right view to remove red 3 To add colour into the images drag right on the amtcolour slider or insert a value between O greyscale and 1 d into the amtcolour input field Anaglyphi Anaglyph Node VIEWS amtcolour 0 465 j right red horizontal offset O 342 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE If the images include areas that are very red green or blue adding more colour into them may not produce the best possible results 4 To invert the colours and use the red channel from the right input and the blue and green channels from the left check the right red box 5 To control where the images appear in relation to the screen when viewed with anaglyph glasses enter a value in the horizontal offset input field To have the images appear in front of the screen you would usually enter a negative value To have the images appear further away you would usually enter a positive value This is not the case if you have swapped the left and right views arou
310. e controls and select minus from the operation pulldown menu The blurred image is subtracted from the original image 150 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE The purpose of this and the previous step is to subtract any overall gray level from the grain so that only the grain is left 6 Select Color gt Math gt Add to insert an Add node after the minus node In the Add node controls enter 0 5 in the value field This adds a value of 0 5 to all channels This step is necessary because the ScannedGrain node subtracts 0 5 from the channels when it reads the grain file the subtraction is needed to store negative numbers in most file formats 7 Select Image gt Write to insert a Write node after the Add node Render the output Any file format will do for example we have used the rgb extension in the grain files on our website Te To download film stock sequences 1 Select Help gt Tutorials 2 Click on a grain sample to download it The downloads are in compressed tar format tqz The grain samples are rgb files To add scanned grain with the ScannedGrain node 1 Click Draw gt ScannedGrain to insert a ScannedGrain node at the appropriate place in your script 2 Connect a Viewer to the output of the ScannedGrain node so you can see the effect of your changes 151 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE ScannedGraini ScannedGrain Node grain O Program Files Nuke_5 1v1 file dir prog
311. e curves to a new position The pixels in these areas are moved in the direction you moved the points 254 WARPING AND MORPHING IMAGES NUKE 12 To better see what the warped image looks like press O on the Viewer to toggle the overlay off To compare the original and warped images press D repeatedly on the SplineWarp node to disable and enable it If you see changes in the areas you don t want to warp go back to modifying the mask or the destination curves 13 If necessary move to other frames and animate the destination grid to match any movement in the destination image 14 If necessary adjust the controls described in the following table Control What it does show Select the image to output e src the unwarped image from the src input e srcwarp the warped image from the src input e dst the unwarped image from the dst input e dstwarp the warped image from the dst input e blend a dissolve between the warped images from the src and dst inputs show both curves Check this if you want to display both the source and destination curves in the Viewer at the same time curve resolution Increase this value to improve the accuracy of how the warp matches the curves preview resolution Increase this value to improve the quality of the OpenGL preview distortion The overall distortion is multiplied by this amount The lower the value the less the image is distorted At 0 you get the source image while at 1 you ge
312. e eae a ee Some eae earn we FO Gert HOI 52 54 0640 5465 S558 6396S esos beet oeee Reese bee eteese es 455 10 Viewing Online Help 6 o lt 0 2 lt 6 4 4 o ddn 6H aSbwo 2945 SS ROR ES EES Gee OSLO Contacting Customer Support a 4 4 a0 4 oe es ea oe ad ooh ee dad Sa oes Sow FE GETTING STARTED 0 ccc ccc cece eee eee 18 About the Chapters 2 024 na40e bee ede kinik eee eee ae es ee eed ea eee Se IO Installation and Licensing 0 ccc cc cee eee eee ee el IY System Requirements 4 c custaduedeceeci cease deen decadetvawnecdd dael9 Windows and LINUX s s 0 04 4 405445404 8 aw bo 4 bee 4 onde 4 oe os oe wee HES M OCX dea 6 6 oe soe 4 oe ek a ae ee eee hea eee Cael Licensing NUKE 6420 aus ener eras A ReCee ORE Es kee tiner taen ears Bale Obtaining Licenses 0 cc ccc eee ee ee ee eee eee eee eee cesses es 0 LO installing LICENSES 40 4 have du 4 0564 os des pEr didaur CdR eee bose wad Further Reading 46445564465 cp 044005 440466 bob ob ay eee ewes ssuoenes Sell STAN ING INGE acs 4o 43 4 a8 Go nary kinse ieir krae en Sha ee was sen seew a yak Installation on Windows 4 1 4 145 aoa oeue deen se baw e eho e eed Bee eee eure e22 Installation on LinuX 4 d pa4o Gee ode eae be ee 4h ORE ho Oe oe eee eed Installation on Mac OSX 4 4 64 922545 ban oo eee oo eed ehh ewe baacwed an aaee4 Launching NUKE 2 4 0 40404 o2e6 2oe6 ooeas ones ox ie eeeneewse oe eonen eo 2D Launching the Commercial Version
313. e ee ee tee eee eee eee nes 300 Modifying Object SiapeS 0 ic cts ee dune as eaneedee ew hea ed ed edeudoa Jas 302 Modifying Objects Using Lookup Curves 0 cece eee cece eee eee ee ee ees 302 Modifying Objects Using a Power Function 0 20 c cece eee eee e eee eee 304 Modifying Objects Using an Image 0 cece ee ee eee ee ee eee ee ee eee 305 Modifying Objects Using a Perlin Noise Function ccc cece eee e ee eee 307 Modifying Objects Using a Distortion Function 00 cee eee eee eee eee 308 Modifying Objects Using a Trilinear Interpolation 0 cc eee eee ee ee eee 309 OONO 2 24 55 44 46 525 5 Gobo eNe ee eee eos 309 Direct Hight 44644446 oo 5554 46 WG oh ceo ors 8 ES a wee EES os oe ae 310 Polat bighi sareen bed on bbe ewes cea eee oe eee es ee 2 be eewde sou 4 84 310 ae A Ee o2 4 4 8 6 oo ncee ee bos oes Bae See eee eee ea eeas aes eee 311 Environment ENGIN sv a ore 4 44 44 oes ha 4 hs ge we ee ee ea oe aes 312 The Light NOGGs cen Su cancedhoo5 6 bocce hes aden Oho e eee eae eae ees os 314 Manipulating Object Normals 0 cece eee eee teen nee 315 Working with CameraS sssssassaessessesseesuerneereeue OOD ORS 315 Projection CameraS 46 caacact ae cs cen tn b4e ou oe Guewede eee edcus Sede e 316 Pits tea LIME U 24a 44s 644 oes Bw 4 ae he 4 4 we ee os be ge Gs 316 Setting Up the Projection Camera Script 0 2 ce eee c eee eee eee ee eee 317 Adding
314. e ee eee cece eee eee eee oe LIB Complemental Replacement Mode complement ec0eceeeeeeeceee vec III Solid Colour Replacement Mode solid colour eee eee ec ec cece ee ee IG Defocus Spill Replacement defocused background 0eceeeeeeevces ee 198 Primatte Tools and Buttons ccc ec ee ee ee ee eee ee eee oe A IIY mitiali ze Section 4 424 n n oso bh cas ooo anes tone sn eaee eee cee deen eees 4eloo D grain SeCHOM 6 44 44 ob erandite ERK ESHER EEDA OAR hee eee ERELUD Actions SECTION lt ao uu Gaae athe e ao oeures es oor Os Ghawewe eee cuneees HEEL UO Fine Tuning SOC 2 c 4 oo 4 uc b a4 oot ne wee 6 oss Bb es aes aa ow pba es oe UO Spill Process Sectio lt lt 42 42444406 5465444445506 58445 sor nee raaa bes eee Output SOCIO he irre rarse kre tr 3G Sd ae o OES bass Sore bres nee Sedans s eee The Primatte Algorithm 0 cece ce ee ee eee eee eee eee ee 210 Explanation of how Primatte works 02 e ee eee eee eee eee ee ee cece ee QI Explanation of how Primatte RT workS 0 0 ce eee eee eee cece cece eee ce Ll Explanation of how Primatte RT works 0 0 ee ec eee eee eee eee eee e ee oe 218 Contact DEIS asacceanauee eee o oan p4Gse oh eae reene eee enaere le Main office oo bs od aon oes w Soe oh eee eS eRe Ene ee ou enee Sues Buel IO Primatte offie sssr lt s4 a 06 o 5 4o triak Oo ho oe ee OHS cOReeoe Gaede es ee ae LO Proprietary Notices e e La e e eo Ld Ld Ad d
315. e extent that Licensee is authorized to make copies of the Software or Documenta tion under this Agreement Licensee shall reproduce in and on all such copies any copyright and or other proprietary rights notices provided in and on the materials supplied by The Foun dry hereunder Nothing in this Agreement shall be deemed to give Licensee any rights in the trademarks service marks patents trade secrets copyrights or other intellectual property rights of The Foundry or any Third Party Licensor and Licensee shall be strictly prohibited from using the name trademarks or service marks of The Foundry or any Third Party Licensor in Licensees promotion or publicity without The Foundry s express written approval SECTION 5 LICENSE FEE Licensee understands that the benefits granted to Licensee hereunder are contingent upon Licensee s payment in full of the license fee payable in connection herewith the License Fee SECTION 6 UPGRADES ENHANCEMENTS As long as Licensee pays the applicable fee for annual support upgrades and updates Annual Upgrade and Support Program The Foundry or its authorized reseller will provide Licensee with access to upgrades and updates if any made available by The Foundry on the terms and conditions set forth in this Agreement unless such upgrade or update contains a separate license The term shall begin upon the date of purchase and continue for 12 months unless otherwise expressly agreed to in writing by
316. e file name in the Write node s proxy field If you do not specify a proxy file name the render will fail with an error It never resizes the proxy image and it will not write the proxy image over the full size one To view and change the proxy resolution for the current script file choose Edit gt Project settings from the menu bar or press S with the mouse pointer over the Node Graph or the Properties Bin PREVIEWS AND RENDERING NUKE name lock all connections frame range 1 100 lock range fps 24 full size format PAL 720x576 1 067 proxy mode format proxy format PAL proxy 360x273 Figure 15 1 Changing the output resolution under Project settings From the Project settings properties panel you can select a new render format from the list of predefined resolutions and toggle proxy rendering You can also choose the new option under either full size format or proxy format or use the proxy scale fields to define cus tom render resolutions for the composite When rendering in proxy mode use the pulldown menu on the right to select whether to use the resolution defined under proxy format or proxy scale For more information on these settings refer to Proxy Format and Proxy Scale on page 92 Output Write Nodes With the correct resolution and format selected you then insert Write nodes to indicate where you want to render images from the script Figure 15 2 Inserting Write nodes for rendering One Write node
317. e files used with the tutorials in this user guide e Mailing Lists information on Nuke related e mail lists Contacting Customer Support Should questions arise that this manual or the online help system fails to address you can contact Customer Support directly via e mail at support thefoundry co uk or via telephone to our London office on 44 0 20 7434 0449 or to our Los Angeles office on 310 399 4555 during office hours PREFACE 17 GETTING STARTED y now you are probably itching to dive into and play with Nuke so let s get you Started This section provides you with all you need to start compositing with Nuke For more detailed information on Nuke and its functions see the Reference section on page 107 in this manual About the Chapters Before you can start exploring Nuke s wonders you of course need to install Nuke on your machine For instructions on how to do so and launch either the commercial version of Nuke or the Nuke Personal Learning Edition refer to Chapter 1 nsta ation and Licensing on page 19 Once you have successfully installed and launched Nuke you can sit back and start familiarising yourself with the interface Chapter 2 Using the nterface on page 29 is designed to help you understand the workflow the workspace and the different controls It also provides you with information on adjusting the interface to suit your preferences Finally to learn about scripts and script management turn t
318. e fore ground object often become harsh and jagged leading to a poor key These tools were created to hopefully help when a compositing artist is faced with a grainy image Degrain type The Degrain type selector gives the user a range of grain removal from none to large If the foreground image has a large amount of film grain induced pixel noise you may lose a good edge to the foreground object when trying to clean all the grain noise with the Clean BG Noise Actions mode These tools allow the user to clean up the grain noise without affecting the quality of the key A short tutorial explaining when and how to use these tools is at the end of this section none When none is selected the user gets the colour of the exact pixel sampled This is the default mode small When small is selected the user gets the average colour of a small region of the area around the sampled pixel This should be used when the grain is very dense medium When medium is selected the user gets the average colour of a medium sized region of the area around the sampled pixel This should be used when the grain is less dense large When large is selected the user gets the average colour of a larger region of the area around the sampled pixel This should be used when the grain is very loose 203 PRIMATTE NUKE Tolerance Slider Adjusting the tolerance slider this should increase the effect of the Clean BG Noise tool with out changing the
319. e gives you more examples of frame ranges you can define Frame Range Expands To 3 3 1 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 10 2 1 3 5 7 9 frame range from 1 to 10 in steps of 2 1 10 3 1 4 7 10 frame range from 1 to 10 in steps of 3 10 2 2 10 8 6 4 2 frame range from 10 to 2 in steps of 2 1 4 1 8 10 1 12 14 1 1 2 3 4 8 9 10 12 13 14 multiple ranges separated by spaces Filename Search and Replace With the Search and Replace function you can quickly replace all or part of filenames or file paths in the Read and Write nodes in your script To search for a filename or filepath and replace it 1 Select the Read or Write node s where you want to replace all or part of a filename or filepath 2 Select Edit gt Node gt Filename gt Search and Replace OR Press Ctrl Shift Mac users press Cmd Shift 3 In the dialog that opens enter the string you want to search for and the string you want to replace it with Click OK 101 MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE Nuke searches for the string in the selected nodes and replaces it with the new string You can also enter expressions into the Search and Replace dialog Just remember that the search field in the dialog only takes regular expressions Any characters that have specific meanings in reg ular expressions such as and need to be preceded by the character For example getenv HOME would need to be entered as getenv HOME
320. e into your script 4 Connect the source image the image you want to turn into another image to the src input of the GridWarp node and the destination image the image you want the source image turned into to the dst input Connect a Viewer to the source image or its Reformat node if one exists 5 To make the grids the same size as the input images click the image size buttons under both Source Grid presets and Destination Grid presets iGridVitarp Render Source Grid m mda lock key copy paste 56 delete grid curve add remove presets image size h Destination Grid key paste grid curve a remove presets image size h Settings 6 In the GridWarp controls check hide under Destination Grid 7 Identify some key features in the source image that correspond to features in the destination image and adjust the pink source grid to conform to these features For more information on how to adjust the grid see 70 warp an image using the GridWarp node on page 24 7 8 Click copy under Source Grid and paste under Destination Grid This copies the source grid you created in the previous step into the destination grid 9 Uncheck hide under Destination Grid Instead check hide and lock under Source Grid 258 WARPING AND MORPHING IMAGES NUKE Source Grid W hide W lock hey co paste rf delete all gnid curve add remove presets image size Destination Grid Fide leek 10 Attach the Viewer to the destinatio
321. e mask controls so that you can limit each type of correction with a different mask mask input W inject invert L fringe mix T Figure 4 15 Selecting a mask channel To mask a colour correction 1 Open the node s properties panel and locate the mask controls 2 From the first pulldown menu select 148 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE e mask to use a channel from the node s mask input as the matte Connect the mask to the node with the mask input connector if you haven t already done so If you check inject in the mask controls the mask from the mask input is also copied into the predefined mask a channel This way you can use the last mask input again downstream You can also set a stream of nodes to use mask a as the mask and then change the masking of all of them by simply connecting a new mask into the mask input connector of the first node e input to use one of the channels in the node s primary input as the matte e output to use a channel as it exists in the node after the node processes Select the channel you wish to use as the mask from the pulldown list If necessary check the invert mask box to reverse the mask If the overall effect of the node is too harsh you can blend back in some of the input image by dragging on the mix slider 6 If you want to output only the portion of the frame underlying the mask check the un premult by box Applying Grain Grain matching ensuring t
322. e on several operating systems you may want to configure Nuke to replace the beginnings of file paths so that scripts created on one platform will also work on another For example to ensure file paths created on Windows also work on Linux and vice versa you can do the following 413 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE 1 Create a file called init py in your plug in path directory if one doesn t already exist For more information on plug in path directories see Loading Gizmos Plug ins and TCL scripts on page 410 2 Open the init py file in a text editor and add an entry in the following format import platform def filenameFix filename if platform system in Windows Microsoft return filename replace SharedDisk p else return filename replace p SharedDisk return filename This way the Windows file paths beginning with p in the above example will be replaced with the Linux file paths beginning with SharedDisk whenever a Nuke script is used on Linux Otherwise the Windows file paths are used Defining Custom Menus and Toolbars You can freely add custom menus and menu options as well as toolbars and toolbar options to the Nuke interface Artists can then use these options to trigger gizmos and plug ins stored in the plug in path directory For example to add a new menu in the default Toolbar with an option to trigger a gizmo called MyGizmo you can do the following 1 In your home direc
323. e path and filename you specified as the proxy filename in the Write node If the proxy field is empty or pointing to an invalid path Nuke returns an error It s easy to toggle to proxy mode and then forget your images will be rendered in the lower resolution Before you execute a render it s always a good idea to check which resolution is active In the Viewer the label at the lower right corner of your image will indicate whether you are in full res or proxy mode Rendering Multiple Channels When you insert a Write node Nuke assumes that you need only the RGB channels in the final render In many cases this is acceptable because you wont need the alpha channel or other channels from the node tree when you deliver final shots to your clients However sometimes you need to render intermediate files such as mattes projection elements or subcomps and include all the channels in your node tree Write Write Node channels red M green blue file none rob rgba iltiplied raw data main other layers file type Peer render_order Render For example rather than manage several elements for an animated character you could com bine the character animation the lighting passes alpha channel and a depth mask in one image sequence on disk This makes it easier to manage elements in the final composite and simplifies the artist s workflow To output all channels change the Write node s Output list from RGB to All Channe
324. e place in your script generally before a Write node 2 Connect a Viewer to the output of the Reformat node so you can see the effect of your changes Select new from the output format pulldown menu The New format dialog appears Type a name for the new format in the name field In the file size fields type the full output resolution in pixels ann A W If you want to crop the full output resolution for example to create a letter box 109 REFORMATTING ELEMENTS NUKE e Check image area e Increment the x field to define the left boundary of the crop The display updates to show you the left boundary of the crop relative to the full size input e Increment the y field to define the bottom boundary of the crop e Increment the r field to define the right boundary of the crop e Increment the t field to define the top boundary of the crop If the destination display device for the image sequence uses nonsquare pixels type the appropriate pixel aspect ratio in the pixel aspect field for example if your destination is a digital video display type 1 1 Tip You can also add formats to Nuke via entries to the menu py file 1 Open the menu py file located in same directory as your Nuke executable 2 Add an entry similar to the following example nuke addFormat 720 486 0 O 720 486 0 9 NTSC video where the numbers specify respectively the format s full horizontal resolution full vertical resolu t
325. e point of the transform jack and move it over the current position of the goldfish 9 Go to end of the timeline to frame 60 Drag the shape once more to adjust for the movement of the goldfish 500 NUKE If your bezier shape is similar to the one shown above then you probably don t need more than the three key frames at frames 1 50 and 60 However you may want to scrub through the timeline and make adjustments 10 Scrub to frame 60 on the timeline and you ll see the roto gets a little close to corner line that we want to remove from the aquarium glass 11 Click on an empty spot in the Viewer to deselect all points Then right click on the point near the goldfish s nose and choose break from the pop up menu to break the point s tangent handle select all smooth oreak cusp blur unblur Now for good measure let s create a feathered edge for this particular point 13 While pressing the Ctrl key Mac user press Command drag the point away from the fish to create a feathered edge for this point at this frame 501 NUKE So you ve drawn and animated the rotoshape Let s wire it into the node tree to mask out the garbage 14 Drag the bg connector off the Primattel node to disconnect it from the Reformat2 node 15 Choose Merge gt Merge from the pop up menu Connect Primatte1 to the A input on the over node Connect Reformat2 to the B input 16 Connect the Bezier node
326. e second channel in a channel set if you are processing another set besides RBGA To increase the channel s value drag up To decrease it drag down e The blue slider B lets you control the blue channel s value or the third channel in a chan nel set if you are processing another set besides RBGA To increase the channel s value drag up To decrease it drag down The alpha slider is included in all three slider sets e The alpha slider A lets you control the alpha channel s value or the fourth channel in a channel set if you are processing another set besides RBGA To increase the channel s value drag up To decrease it drag down To use the colour swatches When you have found a good colour you may want to Save it in one of the colour swatches for further use To do so adjust the colour wheel or sliders until you are happy with the colour and right click on the colour swatch where you want to save it You can also drag and drop a colour into a colour swatch from any other colour button or swatch To open another colour picker window To open another colour picker window while keeping the first window open Ctri Cmd click on another parameter s colour picker button To switch between the current and previous or original colour The rectangle above the sliders shows the original colour on the right next to the currently selected colour on the left When you drag the markers to adjust the colour the last selected
327. e the grey rectangles represent elements depicted in a stereo image screen y screen level level Es audience audience Figure 14 5 Changing convergence changes the perceived depth of the images Often the element of an image that appears closest to the audience is used as the conver gence point However to make an element in your image jump out of the screen you need to converge on something behind this element To calculate the convergence shift the ReConverge node needs a disparity field that maps the location of a pixel in one view to the location of its corresponding pixel in the other view To create the disparity field you can use The Foundry s O DisparityGenerator plug in which is part of the Ocula plug in set Alternatively you can create the disparity field in a 3D applica tion Once you have the disparity field you can store it in the channels of an exr file or use the ShuffleCopy node to add the disparity channels in the data stream where you need them 344 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE If you have Ocula installed you can choose to use it when changing convergence If you select to use Ocula extra refinements are done when performing the convergence shift This can improve the results when working with live action footage When working with CG images however the disparity fields should be accurate to begin with and produce good results even without Ocula Note that the ReConverge node
328. e to a new in and out frames as shown in Figure 2 38 or enter a new playback range in the playback range field Figure 2 24 Adjusting the frame range for the current Viewer The fps field frames per second initially displays the project s playback speed Nuke will attempt to maintain this speed throughout playback although this adjusts depending on the resolution of the imagery and your hardware configuration The Frame Increment field lets you specify the number of frames by which the Previous increment Next increment buttons cue the sequence The following table lists the functions of the playback buttons Buttons Functions CS The Previous increment and Next increment buttons cue forward or back by 10 a frames by default These are useful for heavy keyframing tasks You can adjust the increment value as necessary The First frame and Last frame buttons cue the sequence to the first and last frame The Previous key frame and Next key frame buttons cue the sequence to the script s previous or next key frame The Play backward and Play forward buttons play the sequence backward or for ward at the script s frame rate The Back 1 Frame and Forward 1 Frame buttons cue the sequence to the previous or next frame The Stop button halts playback 70 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE The Playback Mode button lets you control how many times and in what direction the Viewer plays back the sequen
329. e to evaluate the curve and add the result to the vertex x value 5 Adjust the curve as necessary To insert points on the curve Ctri Cmd Alt click on the curve Modifying Objects Using a Power Function The LogGeo node lets you modify the shape of your 3D objects using a power function Using this node you can raise each of the vertex x y and z values to a power X YY Z7 This can have a different effect depending on whether you are dealing with negative or positive values To modify objects using a power function 1 Select 3D gt Modify gt LogGeo to insert a LogGeo node anywhere after the 3D object you want to modify Attach a Viewer to the node to see your changes In the node s controls use the display pulldown menu to select how you want to view your object in the Viewer while making changes to it See Object Display Properties on page 296 4 Check swap This swaps the values and the powers they are raised to around for example changes 5 into 7 5 In the log x y and z fields enter the power you want to raise the respective vertex values to For example if you want to raise the vertex z values to the power of 20 enter 20 in the z field Alternatively you can adjust your 3D object in the Viewer by dragging the white control point to a new location You can find the control point just outside the object 6 To clamp the negative x y and z values to 0 0 check clamp black This option is only valid if
330. e written to the same output channels 8 If necessary you can also adjust the following controls e To dissolve between the original input B image at 0 and the full Merge effect at 1 adjust the mix slider A small light grey square appears on the node in the node graph to indicate that the full effect is not used e If you want to mask the effect of the Merge operation select the mask channel from the mask pulldown menus To invert the mask check invert To blur the edges of the mask check fringe 126 MERGING IMAGES NUKE Note that you should not use the alpha of the inputs for the mask It produces errone ous results though the error is often hard to see you can achieve better results by turning on alpha masking e From the Set BBox to pulldown menu select how you want to output the bounding box The default is union which combines the two bounding boxes You can also choose intersection to set the bounding box to the area where the two bounding boxes overlap A to use the bounding box from input A or B to use the bounding box from input B e By default Nuke assumes that images are in linear colour space However if you want to convert colours to the default 8 bit colour space defined in the LUT tab of your project settings usually sRGB check Video colorspace The conversion is done before the images are composited together and the results are converted back to linear afterwards Any other channels than the red
331. e_anamorphic Gizmos Custom Plug ins and Generic TCL Scripts Nuke allows artists and technical directors to create g zmos which are simply groups of Nuke nodes that may be reused by other artists These are equivalent to Shake s macros Studios commonly use gizmos to consistently apply certain colour grading techniques process incom ing footage according to a particular conversion formula and process outgoing footage in preparation for film printing A gizmo is a Group Node that you create and save in a separate gizmo file in your Nuke plug in folder Nuke scripts can use this gizmo just like any other node type Saved scripts only contain the name and control settings for the gizmo the definition is in the gizmo file and it is 419 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE read at the same time the Script is loaded into Nuke Thus you can alter the implementation of the gizmo and change all the scripts that are using it Unlike other nodes gizmos cannot be cloned For more information on cloning nodes see C oning Nodes on page 38 Creating and Sourcing Gizmos Using Nuke s Export gizmo command you can export a group of nodes and explicitly control which controls may be edited by the artists to ensure the processes within the gizmo are con sistently applied Creating Gizmos To create a gizmo 1 Select the nodes you want to include in the gizmo Select Other gt Group from the Toolbar or press Ctrl Cmd G to group the nod
332. each view Once you have split off a view you can apply changes to the existing views separately Simply click on the small arrow on the left side of a control you have split off This divides the control so that you can give separate values for each view saturation Saturation Figure 14 2 Adjusting a split control for only the split view and for all views separately To unsplit views 1 In the node s controls click the view button T 2 From the menu that opens select Unsplit view For example to unsplit a view called left you d select Unsplit left 3 Repeat step 2 for all views you want to unsplit The view is unsplit and all changes you made after splitting it off are lost Selecting the View to Process When Using the Paint Node To select the view to process 1 Open the Paint node s controls 2 From the view pulldown menu select the view you want to process To apply changes to all views at the same time select all Selection source color offset opacity View brush size brush hardness pressure alters comp mode color ri u 0 y round 1 X all left right K opacity size hardness edit pressure draw X 3 If you selected to process just one view make sure you are viewing the selected view in the Viewer when making your changes 336 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE Performing Different Actions on Different Views In case you need to perform totally different a
333. eadGeo node into your script In the ReadGeo controls click the folder icon next to the file field and navigate to the fbx file that contains the mesh you want to import Click Open ReadGeol ReadGeo Node a read trom file file P Testing Nuke FilelO fbx cottage_Filmbox fbx n reload take name Default 7 node name None r frame rate 24 use frame rate all objects read on each frame display textured 8 selectable render textured Make sure read from file is checked This enables the file controls below It also disables any controls whose values will be filled in from the fbx file You can view these values and use them in expressions but as long as read from file is checked you cannot modify them Any changes in the fbx file s values are reflected in the ReadGeo controls however because the values are reloaded from the fbx file every time the node is instantiated From the take name pulldown menu choose the take you want to use Fbx files support multiple takes Usually one of them is a default take that contains no animation From the node name pulldown menu select the mesh you want to import from the fbx file To adjust the frame rate used to sample the animation curves enter a new value frames per second in the frame rate field The frame rate you enter is only used if you check use frame rate Otherwise the frame rate from the fbx file is used If you want to import all the meshes in the fbx file rat
334. ease 64 installer on a 64 bit machine 4 Follow the on screen instructions By default Nuke is installed to usr local Nuke5 1v5 23 INSTALLATION AND LICENSING NUKE 5 If you didn t add a license key during the installation do that now Proceed to Launching Nuke on page 25 Tip To install Nuke silently you can simply unzip the installer file This creates the properly formed Nuke directory tree in the current directory By installing Nuke silently you agree to the terms of the End User Licensing Agreement To see this agreement please refer to Appendix E End User Licensing Agreement on page 579 or run the installer in standard non silent mode Installing Nuke Remotely from the Command Line If you need to install Nuke on render machines using the command line do the following 1 Download the correct tgz installation file from our web site at www thefoundry co uk Which installation file you download depends on whether you are using a 32 or a 64 bit machine 2 Extract the installer from the tgz archive with the following terminal command tar xvzf Nuke5 1v5 linux x86 release 32 tgz on a 32 bit machine tar xvzf Nuke5 1v5 linux x86 release 6 4 tgz on a 64 bit machine This will give you an installer file 3 Use the following terminal command to log in to your render machine as root ssh root render machine Replace render machine with the name of your render node 4 Make a directory to install Nuke to mkdi
335. eck boxes Blur Node channels X red M green X blue X rgba alpha 3 Uncheck those channels which you don t wish to process The node will process all those you leave checked Selecting Masks The mask controls in a node s properties panel let you select a single channel for use as a matte in a given process typically a colour correction The given process will thereafter be limited to the non black areas of the selected channel 120 CHANNELS NUKE You can use one of the script s existing channels as the matte or attach a mask to the node with a mask input connector You can find mask input connectors on colour correction and filter nodes such as HueCorrect and Blur At first they appear as triangles on the right side of the nodes but when you drag them they turn into arrows labeled mask You connect them the same way as any other con nectors If you cannot see a mask input connector open the node s properties panel and make Sure mask is set to none Before dragging the connector When dragging the connector Figure 2 4 Using the mask input connectors that appear on some of the colour filter channel and merge nodes To select a channel for use as a matte from the mask input 1 Connect a mask to the node with its mask input connector If you cannot see the mask input connector open the node s controls and make sure mask is set to none inject invert fringe By default when a mask input is co
336. ection works Here are the bits of information you need e Focal length of the lens that photographed the projection image e Resolution of scanned image e Scanner pitch of the film scanning device 316 3D COMPOSITING NUKE After you have this information you need to do these calculations to get the horizontal and vertical aperture settings for the projection setup horiz res scanner pitch horizontal aperture vertical res scanner pitch vertical aperture So for example if your image resolution is 720 x 486 and the scanner pitch is 20 then these are the results 720 20 horizontal aperture 36 486 20 vertical aperture 24 3 Generally for most professional projects you can get the lens focal length from the camera report for the shot s If that is not available you may be able to extrapolate lens information by running the shot through a 3D tracking application such as Boujou Syntheyes or RealViz Setting Up the Projection Camera Script Once you have the horizontal and vertical aperture and the lens focal length for the image you want to project you can complete the projection camera setup To add a projection camera 1 Choose 3D gt Camera to add a new camera to your script and rename the node to identify it as a projection camera Choose 3D gt Shader gt Project3D to add a Project3D node to the script Connect the 2D image i e Read node to the Project3D node Connect the projection c
337. ed or repositioned Positioning Track Anchors A pattern and search area accompany each track anchor The pattern area encompasses the grid of pixels that the system attempts to follow across multiple frames This pattern should be as distinct as possible from the surrounding frame and remain visible throughout the majority of the sequence For example you might choose as a pattern a high contrast window corner which stays in frame throughout an entire shot The search area defines the portion of the frame in which the system looks for the pattern Figure 6 1 The search area contains the space where the tracker will search for the pattern The pattern area contains the pixels that the tracker will attempt to lock onto for the track Positioning track anchors involves moving and sizing the boundaries of both the search and pattern areas Start by moving both boundaries over the pattern to be tracked then fine tune the position and size of each In the end the search area must be larger than the pattern area 177 TRACKING AND STABILISING NUKE To move both the search and pattern boundaries 1 Drag on the frame to select both boundaries with the marquee 2 Click on the border of either boundary then drag both over the pattern to be tracked stop when the pattern boundary overlay s x sits directly on top the feature To adjust the position of either the search or pattern boundaries 1 Click to the line portion of e
338. edDisk OFX Defining Common Favourite Directories Favourite directories can be accessed by artists with a single click from any Nuke file browser Typically you would create these favourites for common directories on a project To define a common set of favourite directories 1 Create a file called menu py in your plug in path directory For more information on plug in path directories see Loading Gizmos Plug ins and TCL scripts on page 410 2 Add an entry in the following format nuke addFavoriteDir DisplayName Pathname e Replace DisplayName with the string you want as the display name for the directory link for example Home or Desktop e Replace Pathname with the pathname to the directory to which the favourite should point 3 In the above entry you can also add the following optional arguments after Pathname e type This is an integer and a bitwise operator OR a combination of nuke IMAGE nuke SCRIPT or nuke FONT nuke IMAGE restricts the favourite directory to appear only in the image file browser which Nuke opens for file Read Write operations nuke SCRIPT restricts the favourite directory to appear in the script file browser which appears when you choose File gt Open or a similar menu selection to open or import script files nuke FONT restricts the favourite directory to appear in the font browser e icon Name Replace Name with the name and file extension of the png or xpm image
339. edit button to edit the name or pathname to a bookmark e Click the button to remove a directory bookmark To limit the file list to specific file types use the filter pulldown menu and Sequences check box To use the filter pulldown menu and Sequences checkbox e Select nk to display only Nuke script files e Select to display all files except hidden files regardless of whether they re associated with Nuke e Select to display all files including hidden files e Select to display directory names but not their contents e Check Sequences to display image sequences as single titles as in fgelement 04d cin 1 50 rather than fgelement 0001 cin fgelement 0002 cin fgelement O003 cin and so on Pathname Field The pathname field displays the current directory path lets you navigate to a new path and also enter a filename for scripts and rendered images job Home training example scnpt nk Sequences Filter nk Figure 2 41 Pathname field To use the pathname field 1 To navigate to a directory type the pathname in the field and press Tab 2 To enter a script name browse to a directory path and enter the file name after the displayed path To preview files in the file browser 1 Click the black arrow in the top right corner of the file browser 84 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Script to open Size Modiied 2503 2008 1257 The file browser expands to include a small viewer
340. efore and after tonal adjustment Several of Nuke s colour correction effects offer tonal adjustment tools Of these Grade and Histogram are probably the most intuitive to operate 138 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE Using Histograms The properties panel for the Histogram node includes a window that graphs the number of pixels at each brightness level This is a useful gauge to see whether an image has a good dis tribution of shadows midtones and highlights Pixel count Brightness Figure 4 2 The histogram maps the distribution of shadows midtones and highlights To define tonal range with the Histogram node 1 Click Color gt Histogram to insert a Histogram node at the appropriate place in your script 2 Connect a Viewer to the output of the Histogram node so you can see the effect of your changes 3 Drag the leftmost input range slider till it roughly lines up with the initial boundary of the histogram 4 Drag the rightmost input range slider till it roughly lines up with the final boundary of the histogram 5 Drag the middle input range slider to define the midtone or neutral value Sampling White and Black points The Grade node lets you define white and black points by sampling pixels from a Viewer frame To define tonal range with Grade 1 Click Color gt Grade to insert a Grade node at the appropriate place in your script 2 Connect a Viewer to the output of the Grade n
341. el set you wish to remove from the channels fields 3 If you don t wish to remove the entire channel set uncheck the boxes corresponding to the channels which you still wish to be able to call downstream 4 Click OK to close the properties panel The channel set and or the channels you removed will no longer be displayed in node parameters downstream from the Remove node Removing channel sets and or channels does not free up space for the creation of new channels and sets Once you create a channel it permanently consumes one of the script s 1023 available channel name slots You are free however to rename channels and or assign them new outputs Swapping Channels Nuke features two main nodes for channel swapping Shuffle and Shuffle Copy Shuffle lets you rearrange the channels from a single image 1 input and then output the result to the next node in your compositing tree Shuffle Copy lets you rearrange channels from two images 2 inputs and output the result Let s take a look at the ShuffleCopy node first Channels from input 1 Channels from input 2 ShuffleCcoapy 1 in rgba F gba oe a green x blue alpha eee hE L none tid 1 4 E m E E 4 La aA i id Figure 2 6 The Shuffle Copy matrix Channels from Input 1 The first group of channel boxes are the channels supplied by input 1 on the node As shown above the foreground element s default RGBA set is sele
342. elect all nodes Then choose 3D gt Shader gt BasicMaterial Drag the BasicMateriall node onto the connector between concrete jpg and Sphere maseopapD concrete Jpg BasicMateriall Cylinderl Spherel i i In the Basic Material control panel you will see parameters to define the amount of light emission diffusion and specular properties of the surface You can mask these properties by connecting images to the mapS specular mapE emission and mapD diffuse connectors but this is not required for this example 541 NUKE BacsicMateriall Basichaterial Node Me bf lj channels rgba W rod Moreen B blue W rgba alpha a emission 0 25 E 3 BasicMaterial1 diffuse Oe mn 3 specular 0 75 B 3 min shininess 10 max shininess 0 shininess channel luminance ki Set the light emission control to 0 25 Set diffuse to 0 18 and specular to 0 75 Adjust the min shininess and max shininess values to adjust the quality of the specular highlights Once again nothing seems to happen That s because you haven t yet added a light into the scene All surfaces are illuminated with the same level of brightness so there are no specular highlights or other controllable light properties visible It s not very exciting but don t worry you get to add a light into the scene soon 5 Make two copies of the BasicMateriall node and attach a copy before the Cylinder1 node and before the Cubel nod
343. elow on any images in the Viewer as well as images rendered out to files This is to prevent the commercial use of the images 27 INSTALLATION AND LICENSING NUKE e External data storage All external data storage is encrypted in the PLE including Nuke scripts these are saved with the extension nkple gizmos saved with the extension gzple and copying to the clipboard Among other things this means the PLE saves files in an encrypted format unlike the commercial version of Nuke which saves scripts unen crypted as plain text The commercial version of Nuke cannot load files created with the PLE The PLE however can load scripts and gizmos created with the commercial version e Scripting In PLE mode Nuke restricts the amount of nodes that can be retrieved at a time by scripting Functions such as nuke allNodes Q in Python will return only the first 10 nodes available rather than all of them at once and scripts written to iterate through the Node Graph will not be able to retrieve any more nodes beyond a set point The commercial version of Nuke can retrieve any and all nodes at any time as the command names would suggest e WriteGeo The WriteGeo node is disabled in the PLE e Primatte The Primatte node is disabled in the PLE e FrameCycler FrameCycler is disabled in the PLE e Plug ins Only plug ins that are shipped with Nuke such as OFlow can be used in the PLE OFX plug ins such as The Foundrys Furnace and T
344. els rgb z red green amp blue TT ae 2 filter gaussian 15 crop to format mask input non inject M invert I fringe one mix 1 7 Select rgb in the channels menu and uncheck the red channel box You don t want the blur operation to process the image in the red channel the remapped Y or luma channel because this channel is uncompressed 8 Right click on the Blur1 node and add another Colour gt Colourspace node Change the in parameter to YCbCr and the out parameter to Linear This converts the image back to standard rgb linear 505 NUKE Colorspacez Colorspace Node channels rab A red M green amp blue in YCbCr D5 sRGB ha out Linear D65 sRGB ha Bradford matrix To pull a basic greenscreen key 1 Select the Colourspace2 node and choose Keyer gt Keyer from the right click menu This inserts a keyer named luminance key which is the default keying operation for this node 2 Attach a Viewer to the luminance key node and then press A to display the alpha channel In the control panel for the Keyer node you ll see the range graph Keyer Node input rgb Bred BM geen amp blue output 3 rgba alpha 7 replace invert luminance key TETT The range graph is where you ll adjust the low and high pixel values of the matte The first yellow handle on the left determines the low or transparent values of the key and second handle on the upper right
345. ence depending on which curve type you choose in the node controls e AutoCrop finds black regions or any colour you pick around the edges of the frame sequence and tracks their size and position over time This is useful for running a Crop node to remove unnecessary outer pixels and speed up the calculation e Avg Intensities is useful for obtaining the average pixel values in a frame sequence and then matching that intensity elsewhere It takes the first value in the frame range and the next value selected adds them together and divides by two returning the average between the two You might want to use it to match the background plate s fire flicker in the smoke in the foreground plate for example e Exposure Difference analyses the exposure changes in the frame sequence It takes the first value in the frame range and the next value selected and returns the difference between the two You can use the results to match the same exposure elsewhere e Max Luma Pixel tracks the brightest and dimmest pixels in the frame sequence This can be useful in the following case for example Let s say you have a night time sequence depicting a person moving inside a dark house holding a flashlight and want to add lens flare on the moving flashlight Knowing where the brightest pixel is located over time allows you to match move the lens flare and position it correctly without having to manually animate it Curvetooll CurveTool AutoCropData Inten
346. ents the breadth of the stroke 6 Apply strokes as necessary Selecting Strokes for Editing If you ve already applied a stroke but wish to make changes to it you can select it with the Select tool To select a stroke 1 Click the Select tool 2 Select the stroke you wish to edit either by clicking on it in the Viewer or by clicking on its name in the stroke list To select several strokes Ctri Cmd click on their names in the stroke list Editing Stroke Attributes Prior to applying a stroke or after selecting a stroke with the Select tool you can edit the fol lowing attributes each of which is animateable The attributes you edit prior to applying a stroke will vary according to the tool you plan to use 223 USING PAINT NUKE Editing Colour When using the Freehand tool see Using the Freehand Tool on page 221 you can set the RGBA colour values of the stroke using Nuke s standard colour controls see Chapter 2 Using the Colour Picker and Colour Controls on page 51 Color set to white the default Color set to light blue Figure 8 5 Editing the color attribute Editing Opacity You can set the opacity of the stroke using the opacity slider You can also temporarily make the stroke invisible that is completely transparent by checking the hide box A low opacity value A high opacity value Figure 8 6 Editing the opacity attribute Finally if you are using a tablet you can tie a s
347. eplicated towards the edges of the image If nec essary you can remove these replicated edge pixels and fill everything outside the bounding box area with black To do this use the BlackOutside node A cropped bounding box with replicated edges The effect of the BlackOutside node Figure 1 3 Using the BlackOutside node to add a black edge to the bounding box To add a black outside edge to the bounding box 1 Select the image whose edges outside the bounding box you want to fill with black 2 Choose Transform gt BlackOutside to add a BlackOutside node in an appropriate place in your script Nuke fills everything outside the bounding box area with black 116 2 Channels Digital images generally consist of the four standard channels red green blue and alpha Nuke allows you to create or import additional channels as masks lighting passes and other types of image data A Nuke script can include up to 1023 uniquely named channels per compositing script For example you can combine multiple render passes from a 3D scene an image from the red green and blue channels a depth mask z depth channel a shadow pass a Specular pass lighting passes and multiple mattes all stored within one image sequence in your composite Overview Before getting into the actual mechanics of channel management it s important to review some basic concept about how Nuke processes channels Understanding Channels Think of a c
348. er a positive value to add frames to the head of the clip 5 Adjust the script length for the new output range Choose Edit gt Project settings and enter frame range values that match the output range you specified It s not mandatory that you adjust the script s frame range after slipping the clip If you don t the Viewer will fill the empty frames at the tail of the clip by holding on the last frame Cutting Clips Cutting a clip refers to shortening it by removing frames from its head or tail To cut a clip 1 Click Time gt FrameRange to insert a FrameRange node into your script Insert it down Stream from the element to which you want to cut Attach a Viewer to this node so you can see the effect of your changes In the frame range fields then enter the appropriate in and out point values For example if your original clip is 50 frames but you want to use only the last 25 frames in your composite you would enter 25 as the In point and leave the Out point at 50 244 TEMPORAL OPERATIONS NUKE 4 Adjust the script length for the new output range Choose Edit gt Project settings and enter frame range values that match the output range you specified It s not mandatory that you adjust the script s frame range after cutting the clip If you don t the Viewer will simply fill the empty frames at the head or tail of the clip by holding on the first or last frame Splicing Clips Splicing refers to joining
349. eral different image sequences in the contact sheet use multiple inputs If you want the contact sheet to include the frames of just one image sequence use only one input a GontactSheet1 1 lt 3 4 gt i 1 EZI 1 Connect a Viewer to the ContactSheet node so you can see the effect of your changes 4 In the ContactSheet properties define the Resolution width and height of the entire contact sheet in pixels 5 If you want to create a contact sheet from the frames of one input check Use frames instead of inputs In the Frame Range field define the frame range you want to include in the contact sheet 6 In the rows columns field specify into how many rows and columns you want to arrange the input images or frames 7 To adjust the size of the gaps between the images in the contact sheet increment or decrement the gap value The gap value set to 0 The gap value set to 50 8 From the Row Order and Column Order menus choose how you want to order the images or frames in the contact sheet 134 MERGING IMAGES NUKE Row Order TopBottom Row Order TopBottom Row Order TopBottom Column Order LeftRight Column Order RightLeft Column Order Snake Row Order BottomTop Row Order BottomTop Row Order BottomTop Column Order LeftRight Column Order RightLeft Column Order Snake Tip If you want to add any text such as the frame number on top of the images in the contact sheet insert a Tex
350. eration check lock all connections in the Group node s controls 3 Delete the unnecessary Group node from your script Adding Notes to the Node Graph Using the StickyNote node you can add notes to the Node Graph The notes can be any text or HTML mark up Usually they are made as annotations to the elements in the node tree To add a note to the Node Graph 1 Click on the part of the Node Graph where you want to add a note 2 Select Other gt StickyNote A note box appears in the Node Graph 3 Inthe StickyNote controls enter your note in the label field If you like you can use HTML mark up For example e to have a note appear in bold you can use lt b gt my note lt b gt This would appear as my note e to have a note appear in italics you can use lt i gt my note lt i gt This would appear as my note Stick yNotel Stick yNote type note here font Verdana 105 MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE 106 REFERENCE ach chapter in this section explains in detail a key feature of Nuke You can use the section to familiarise yourself with the features you are particularly interested in or to get answers to specific problems that arise during compositing Organisation of the Section These are the topics covered by this section Chapter 1 Reformatting Elements describes how you can reformat images through scaling cropping and pixel aspect adjustments This chapter also covers working with bounding bo
351. erations Translate Rotate epsilon Translate Scale max_error ota Grab new pattern every n frames 9 Click the Transform tab and choose stabilize from the transform list Trackers Tracker Settings Transform Node transform W none reference frame B ASNES o this frame roade match move remove jitter smooth T J add jitter translate ma s 10 In the Viewer click the play forward button and review the results 480 NUKE As the clip plays you ll see the features remain locked to the same position within the com positing frame Tip After you track and stabilise footage you can add a Transform gt Transform node after the Tracker3 node to adjust the position and the rotation of the stabilised image for a final composite Matchmoving Elements Matchmoving is the opposite of stabilisation The intent is to record and use the motion in an image and apply it to another element In the following example you ll use the tracker to matchmove and composite a mask image onto the performer in a background plate To matchmove an element 1 Find the node tree labelled Matchmoving Elements 2 Drag the time slider to the beginning of the timeline Select the ColorCorrect1 node and then choose Transform gt Tracker 3 Attach a Viewer to the new Tracker4 node and position the track1 marker over the performer s right ear 481 NUKE a Adjust the size of the pattern box and the sea
352. ere node to display its parameters and thereby select the object in the scene 2 Increment or decrement rows field to adjust the number of latitudinal divisions on the sphere 3 Increment or decrement columns field to adjust the number of longitudinal divisions on the sphere Working with OBJ Objects You can import into a Nuke scene 3D objects from other software programs which have been saved out in the OBJ Wavefront format You cannot manipulate OBJ objects at the vertex level from inside Nuke but you can texture and transform them zar Sees ae gt e as A ae Figure 13 13 An imported OBJ object To import an OBJ object Click 3D gt Geometry gt ReadGeo to insert a ReadGeo node 2 In the ReadGeo parameters click the file field s folder icon The file navigation dialog appears Navigate to the OBJ file then click Open Nuke reads in the OBJ file 4 Drag the ReadGeo node s img pipe to the Read node containing the clip you want to use as a texture 5 Drag one of the Scene node s numbered pipes to the ReadGeo node to place the OBJ object in the scene Parenting to Axis Objects An axis object works as a null object by adding a new transformational axis to which other objects may be parented Even when objects already have their own internal axes it s some times useful to parent in a separate axis 288 3D COMPOSITING NUKE For example the Axis node has been parented to the other object
353. ergence upon control 346 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE ReConvergel ReConverge Node Converge upon o i Convergence offset O H Mode shift right Use Ocula if available Trackerl Tracker Settings Transform Node grab clear offset Animation Controls clear all clear bkwd clea fwd center viewer predict track Tracker 1 amp enable Use to calculate T R tracki x 1 059631 Se 6a06 Tracker 2 enable Use to calculate T R Rendering Stereoscopic Images You can render several views using a single Write node When using the stereo extensions for the exr file format Nuke writes the output of both views into a single file With any other file types the views are written into their respective files To render exr files 1 Select Image gt Write to insert a Write node in an appropriate place in your script In the Write node s controls select exr from the file type pulldown menu From the views pulldown menu select the view s you want to render for example left right 4 Adjust any other Write controls as necessary and click Render Nuke prompts you for the frames to render Nuke writes several views into a single file To render files that are not in the exr file format 1 Select Image gt Write to insert a Write node in an appropriate place in your script 2 In the Write nodes controls select the file type of your images from the file type pulldown menu 3 When entering n
354. ers controls for assigning a mask to protect certain areas of the frame from translations For the sake of brevity this chapter only discusses the use of Transform but keep in mind you can use TransformMasked any time you need to process a transformation through a mask Its mask controls work in the same fashion as those described in Masking Colour Corrections on page 148 To translate an element using the Transform node 1 Click Transform gt Transform to insert a Transform node at appropriate place in your script 2 Connect a Viewer to the output of the Transform node so you can see the effect of your changes 3 In the Transform properties panel increment or decrement the translate x and y fields to slide the element along either axis Or drag on the centre of the transformation overlay Using the Position Node The Position node gives you just bare bones parameters for translating an element 165 TRANSFORMING ELEMENTS NUKE To translate an element using the Position node Click Transform gt Position to insert a Position node at appropriate place in your script Connect a Viewer to the output of the Position node so you can see the effect of your changes In the Position properties panel increment or decrement the translate x and y fields to slide the element along either axis Rotating Elements To rotate an element is to spin it around the pivot point Use the Transform node to rotate elements To rotate
355. erties panel 1 In the Group properties panel right click on the dark grey background and select Manage User Knobs In the dialog that opens select User and click Edit In the Label field enter a new name for the tab for example Version and status Click OK and Done to close the dialogs If you now look at the Group controls you ll notice that the User tab has been renamed to Version and status Groupi Version and status Group Version v03 as Hide version number Status Finished x Next we ll group the two version controls of the Group node under a title called Version con trols 1 In the Group properties panel right click on the dark grey background and select Manage User Knobs In the dialog that opens select Add gt Text to add text to your Group properties panel Enter versioncontas the Name for the control and Version controls as the Label Click OK and Done to close the dialogs This adds the text Version controls to the Group properties panel However the text does not appear where we want it to appear on top of the Version and Hide version number controls Let s move it up 428 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE Groupi Version and status Group Version v03 4 Hide version number Status Finished x Version controls 4 Right click on the Group properties panel again and select Manage User Knobs Select Version controls from the list and click Up three times Click Done The text should
356. erties panel 3 Enter status as the Name for the control and Status as the Label In the Menu Items field list the items you want to appear in the pulldown menu in this case Finished and Unfinished Pulldown Choice Marie Stas Label Status BM Hide 3M Startnewline Menu Items Finished Unfinished Finally enter Se ect the production status here as the Tooltip Click OK and Done to close the dialogs The Status control should now appear in the Group controls 427 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE Groupi User Group Version v03 tp X Hide version number status W Finished nnAnisned 4 On the Group Node Graph tab double click the Switch1 node to open its controls Right click on the which field and select Add expression 5 In the dialog that opens enter the following expression status 0 or parent status 0 This expression calls the control named status that you created earlier in this example For the pulldown menus the first item is O the next 1 the next 2 and so on From now on whenever Finished is selected under Status the green rectangle is shown When Unfinished is chosen the red rectangle is shown Example 4 This example teaches you how to visually group and rearrange the controls you created for the Group properties panel You can do this by renaming the User tab and using static text and divider lines to group the controls on the tab First we ll rename the User tab in the Group prop
357. es You may want to rename the group by entering a new name in the Group properties panel title field This step is optional and has no effect on the saved gizmo However it is often a good idea to give the Group the same name you intend to use for the gizmo 4 To control which controls the artists can adjust follow the instructions under Managing the Gizmo Controls below Click the export as gizmo button In the file browser that appears click Home Type nuke after the path displayed at the bottom of the file browser 7 Enter a name after the path and append a gizmo extension after the name This is the name of the command that will be written to any saved script that s using the gizmo The name should begin with a capital letter because Nuke uses this as an indication that the command is a node or a gizmo Thus it will produce a more useful error message if the gizmo file is not found when the script is loaded 8 Click Save Managing the Gizmo Controls You can add controls to your gizmo which at this point is just a Group node in two different ways e by picking and editing a control from the controls that by default exist for the nodes inside your Group node For example if the Group node contains a Grade node you can add any of the Grade node controls to your gizmo properties panel e by adding a control you have created yourself to your gizmo properties panel 420 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE To pick exist
358. es normalized to the 0 1 range When apply ing LUTs Nuke looks up the input value along the x axis to determine what the y value is to output Nuke provides the following set of default LUTs linear sRGB rec709 and Cineon You can also create an unlimited number of additional LUTs and edit or remove existing LUTs in the script s settings By default Nuke uses certain LUTs for certain file types or devices In most cases you do not need to touch these defaults However there may occasionally be cases when changing the defaults is necessary for example if your material has been shot with a camera that records in a custom colour space such as Panalog In those cases you can change the defaults in the script s settings so that you don t need to change the colour space on each Read or Write node If you do not want to use the default LUT for reading or writing certain individual images you can select the LUT to use in the corresponding Read or Write node s controls You can also select the LUT to use for a Viewer in the Viewer s controls or settings Displaying Adding Editing and Deleting LUTs To display LUT curves 1 Select Edit gt Project settings to open the settings for the script Go to the LUT tab From the list on the left select the LUT you want to display in the curve editor To select several LUTs press Ctrl Mac users press Cmd while selecting the LUTs All the selected LUTs are shown in the curve editor at
359. es the large poly a small amount incrementally in the colour region that is clicked on and the Spill tool dents it a small amount with each click The Matte and Matte tools do the same to the medium poly and the Detail and Detail do it to the small poly Explanation of how Primatte RT works The Primatte RT algorithm differs from the Primatte algorithm in that it has a six surface col Our separator instead of the 12 7 faceted polyhedrons This makes the Primatte RT algorithm much simpler and therefore faster to calculate The results and performance of Primatte RT falls in between the Primatte and Primatte RT options Where the Primatte RT algorithm might not work well is with less saturated backing screen colours and it also does not support the Complement Colour spill suppression method which is the spill suppression method that delivers the best detail For a well lit and photographed image or clip this algorithm will pro duce good results and render quickly 217 PRIMATTE NUKE Here is what a visual representation of the Primatte RT algorithm looks like after an image has been processed Explanation of how Primatte RT works Primatte RT is the simplest algorithm and therefore the fastest It uses only a single planar surface to separate the 3D RGB colorspace and as a result does not have the ability to sepa rate out the foreground from the backing screen as carefully as the above Primatte algorithm Like
360. es the values Used to composite 0 if A lt O and B lt O but stops two negative darker values from A values from becoming a with the image of B positive number Also dark grey smoke shot multiply available from Merge gt against a white back Merges gt Multiply ground for example out A 1 b Only shows the areas of Useful for combining image A that do not mattes overlap with the alpha of B Also available from Merge gt Merges gt Out 131 MERGING IMAGES Operation Algorithm over A B 1 a overlay multiply if B lt 0 5 screen if B gt 0 5 plus A B screen A B AB soft light stencil B 1 a Description Illustration This is the default oper ation Layers image A over B according to the alpha of image A Image A brightens image B overlay The sum of image A and B Also available from Merge gt Merges gt Plus Note that the plus algo rithm may result in pixel values higher than 1 0 If you want to clip val ues to a maximum of 1 0 use the screen operation instead Like plus but clips pixel values to a maximum of 1 0 Also available from Merge gt Merges gt ca Screen Image B gets lit up Not as extreme as the hard light operation soft light This is the reverse of the out operation Only shows the areas of p image B that do not stencil overlap with the alpha of A NUKE Example Uses This is the most com monly used ope
361. eseller to Licensee and b to the best of The Foundry s knowledge Licensee s use of the Software in accordance with the Documentation will not in and of itself infringe any third party s copyright patent or other intellectual property rights Except as warranted the Software and Documentation is being provided as is THE FOREGOING LIMITED WARRANTY IS IN LIEU OF ALL OTHER WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS EXPRESS OR IMPLIED AND THE FOUNDRY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF TITLE NON INFRINGEMENT MER CHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE FOUNDRY KNOWS OR HAS REASON TO KNOW OF LICENSEE S PARTICULAR NEEDS The Foun dry does not warrant that the Software or Documentation will meet Licensee s requirements or that Licensee s use of the Software will be uninterrupted or error free No employee or agent of The Foundry is authorized to modify this limited warranty nor to make additional warran ties No action for any breach of the above limited warranty may be commenced more than one 1 year after Licensee s initial receipt of the Software To the extent any implied warranties may not be disclaimed under applicable law then ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES ARE LIMITED IN DURATION TO NINETY 90 DAYS AFTER DELIVERY OF THE SOFTWARE TO LICENSEE SECTION 9 LIMITED REMEDY The exclusive remedy available to the Licensee in the event of a breach of the
362. ession curve 12 Over the Viewer press the Ctrl or Command key and scrub over the green edges Inside the HueCorrect1 control panel you ll see a yellow vertical line which marks the place in the curve that you need to lower to suppress the samples pixels 13 While viewing the edges you want to suppress adjust the g sup curve so that it looks similar to this When you re satisfied with the spill suppression you may want to add a quick garbage matte to remove the rigging 14 Click on an empty place in the node tree and add a Draw gt Bezier node 510 NUKE 15 While pressing the Ctrl Alt keys Mac users press Option Command click over the Viewer to draw a bezier shape around the man Four points should be enough 16 Select the Bezier node and press M to add a Merge node that s the shortcut for choosing Merge gt Merge from the menu and change the merge operation to mask Merge2 Node operation mask ss T Video colorspace set bbox to union x 17 Rewire the nodes as shown below The Bezier1 node should be connected to the A input on the mask node HueCorrect1 should be connected to the B input Connect the output of mask to the elbow dot Colorspace2 This method of masking is a little different than what you did in the previous example The point here is that there are different ways to structure these types of composites Your results should look similar to the screen capture below
363. essly prohibits any action that could adversely affect the property rights of The Foundry and or The Foundry s licensors including but not limited to the removal of the following or any other copyright trademark or other proprietary rights notice included herein Nuke compositing software 2009 The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd All Rights Reserved Nuke is a trademark of The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd Digital Domain is a registered trademark of Digital Domain Inc Primatte keyer tool 1997 2009 Photron USA Inc All Rights Reserved Primatte is a trademark of IMAGICA Corp Primatte patent is held by IMAGICA Corp In addition to those names set forth on this page the names of other actual companies and products mentioned in this User Guide including but not limited to those set forth below may be the trademarks or service marks or registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners in the United States and or other countries No association with any company or product is intended or inferred by the mention of its name in this User Guide ACADEMY AWARD is a registered service mark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds Windows is the registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation Mac Mac OS Tiger Shake Final Cut Pro and QuickTime are trademarks of Apple Inc registered in the U S and other countries Adobe and Photo
364. estibulum porttitor Nunc consequat dolor ut libero Vivamus cursus neque eu felis Curabitur id urna Nunc fringilla placerat pede Aenean ipsum 5 From the right side justify menu select how you want to align the text vertically 269 CREATING EFFECTS NUKE e baseline Align the baseline of the first line of text along the top edge of the on screen text box The baseline is the imaginary line upon which most letters rest This option allows you to reliably line up the baseline of different fonts Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit e top Align the text against the top edge of the on screen text box Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit e center Align the text from the centre of the on screen text box Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit e bottom Align the text against the bottom edge of the on screen text box Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit 270 CREATING EFFECTS NUKE Changing the Text Colour To change the text colour 1 In the Text node controls go to the Color tab 2 Adjust the color parameter or click on the colour picker button to select a colour for a the text 3 If you want to create a colour gradient across the text select anything other than none from the ramp e linear the ramp changes linearly from one colour into another e smoothO the ramp colour gradually eases
365. estination defined in the file field This step is necessary only in the case of Write nodes 2 Select Render gt Flipbook selected or press Alt F A dialog opens 3 Inthe Frames to flipbook field enter the first and the last frame you want to preview separated by a comma for example 1 35 Click OK Nuke renders as a temporary sequence the output of the selected node using the frame range and resolution defined in the script s settings This may take a few moments 4 Once the render is complete Nuke launches Framecycler and loads in the temporary sequence You can play it back and view it using Framecycler s media controls Framecycler comes packed with many features to complement flipbooking You can for example attach sound files to the image sequence cut it or splice it together with other image sequences Surf to www iridas com for more information Rendering Output Nuke can render images locally on your workstation or it can be setup to render images on a network render farm Before rendering verify that your project settings have the correct output format and proxy format selected Render Resolution and Format Before rendering a script it s important to check what is the currently active mode the full size or the proxy mode Nuke executes all renders at the currently active scale Thus when a script is rendered in proxy mode processing will be done at the proxy scale and image output will go to th
366. esults for a single feature In the next example we ll make it a little harder tracking a feature that moves out of view Tracking Obscured Features At the end of the previous example you may have noticed the track was dropped at frame 58 when the feature moved off the screen Disappointing Yes A disaster Probably not When features move out of frame or become obscured by other elements in the image you can use the track offset feature to pass the tracking operation to another feature in the image Nuke then attempts to continue the track along its current course To track a feature that moves off screen 1 In the project workspace locate the node tree Tracking Obscured Features 2 Double click the Tracker2 node to open its control panel This node tracks one of the chimneys in the clip you used from the previous example 3 Attach a Viewer to the Tracker2 node and scrub the timeline until you see the tracked feature move out of frame 477 NUKE As you can see track accurately tracks its feature through most of the clip until it moves off the screen at frame 44 This is where the problem starts 4 Press the plus key on your keyboard a few times to zoom in on the Viewer You want to select an alternate feature that stays in view during the length of the clip 5 At frame 44 press the Ctrl or Command key and drag the track1 point to the first chimney at the right The offset 1 label appea
367. ew location To add tabs 1 Click on the content menu button in the top left corner of the pane La 2 Select the type of tab you want to add for example Node Toolbar Node Graph New Viewer or Script Editor The new tab is added on top of the existing tabs To move tabs Click on the name of the tab and drag the tab to a new position inside the same pane or in another pane To close tabs 1 Make sure you are viewing the tab you want to close WOM 2 Click the x button in the top right corner of the current tab R Tabs and Floating Windows You can turn tabs and panes into floating windows and vice versa To turn a tab or pane into a floating window Make sure you are viewing the tab or pane you want to float 2 From the content menu select Float Tab or Float Pane Alternatively in the case of tabs you can also do one of the following e Click the float button in the top right corner of the current tab X OR e Ctrl click on the tab name Mac users Cmd click OR e Right click on the tab name and select Float Tab To turn a floating window into a tab or pane Click on the tab name or pane in the floating window and drag it to where you want it to dock 87 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE To close floating windows u Click the x button in the top right corner of the tab or pane Customizing Windows To make a pane expand to the size of the window 1 With your cursor
368. example vcredist x86 exe for the 32 bit version of Nuke Running Nuke without installing the libraries on your machine may work correctly particularly as many systems such as Windows Vista by default will already have them If the libraries are not present Nuke will still run correctly but some plug ins may fail to load with error messages such as This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect Reinstalling the application may fix this problem Please note that these libraries are set up automatically on the machine that runs the Nuke installer so users installing on their local machine will not need to worry about this issue Installing Nuke from the Command Line To install Nuke from the command line do the following 1 Download the correct exe installation file from our web site at www thefoundry co uk Which installation file you download depends on whether you are using a 32 or a 64 bit machine 2 To open a command prompt window select Start gt All Programs gt Accessories gt Command Prompt 3 Use the cd change directory command to move to the directory where you saved the installation file For example if you saved the installation file in C Temp use the following command and press Return cd Temp 4 To install Nuke do one of the following 22 INSTALLATION AND LICENSING NUKE e To install Nuke and display the installation dialog type the name of the install
369. expression Understanding Expression Syntax You enter Nuke expressions in the expression dialog which you can open by pressing the equals sign on a parameter In the dialog you can enter text that either references values from other parameters creating a linking expression and or applies mathematical functions of some kind to the current values Linking Expressions Through expressions you can link the parameters from one node and control the values of the parameters in other nodes When creating a linking expression type the elements listed in the table below remember to separate each element with a period Element Description Node name The node with the source parameter i e Transform 1 Parameter name The name of the parameter with the source value for example translate The name is defined internally and may not match the parameter s label that appear in the Nuke interface If nec essary hover over the parameter s field with your mouse pointer and its name will appear in the pop up tool tip Child parameter Some parameters include child parameters such as the fields for x and y axes or red green name and blue colour channels Child parameter names do match the label that appears before the optional parameters field for example X Time By default linking expressions pull values from the current frame number but you can read optional values from other frames either statically or dynamically that i
370. f erences is used Undoes the last change made to the node Redoes the last change undone Reverts any changes made after the properties panel was opened Displays a pop up help related to the node and its controls Floats the properties panel Clicking this button again docks the properties panel back in the Properties Bin if the Bin exists Closes the properties panel Floating control panels also include the following buttons Control Function Reverts any changes made after the properties panel was opened Revert Reverts any changes made after the properties panel was opened and closes the Sid properties panel Hitting this button right after a node was created also deletes the node from the Node Graph Closes the properties panel Close Many properties panels also contain several tabbed pages 48 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Readi Read Sequence Node label font Ve rdana cached W postage stamp disable Figure 2 16 The Read node s properties panel and the Node tab On the Node tab you can usually adjust the following controls Control Function label Lets you add comments to the node The comments are displayed on the node s sur face font Lets you change the font for any text displayed on the node Bolds any text displayed on the node Emphasizes any text displayed on the node Lets you change the font size of any text displayed on the node Lets you change the colour of any
371. faster approach than going into the associated animation curves To move track points with the overlay 1 Cue the Viewer to the frame corresponding to the track point you wish to move The search and pattern boxes move over the point 2 Drag the track point to the desired location The search and pattern boxes follow 179 TRACKING AND STABILISING NUKE Manipulating Track Curves and Smoothing Tracks A track is essentially just an animated transformation matrix Thus each track has animation curves which you can edit in order to refine a track You can also smooth tracks using the Tracker controls Moving Track Points with Curves To move track points with curves 1 In the Tracker properties panel click the animation button next to the track you wish to edit then select Curve Editor The Animation editor displays the x and y curves for the track these plot the position of each track point over time 2 Select the points on these curves which you wish to manipulate Click to select individual points drag to select multiple points with the marquee or press Crtl A to select all points 3 Drag the points to adjust their values As you do so the tracker overlay on the Viewer changes shape to reflect the new positions of the track points Smoothing Tracks Once applied to an element some tracks may exhibit too much jitter which is caused by the Tracker too precisely following the pattern You can use the Tracker c
372. feature or because of motion blur When this happens you can retrack the unusable part of the track with new search and pattern areas while keeping the track data consistent The end result is a continuous track calculated from multiple patterns To retrack part of a track with a new search area Check the enable box for only the track that requires retracking Cue the Viewer to the last frame where the existing tracking is usable Ctrl drag Command drag on Mac OS X the track anchor to reposition the search and pattern areas without affecting the position of the track point The offset allows Nuke to continue the track with the assumption that the offset feature remains at the same relative distance to the original feature 4 Click the Tracker s track forward or backward button if you are tracking backwards to continue calculating the track using the new pattern Because El gt the track point has been offset from the new search area the new track values continue smoothly from the existing ones Editing Tracks You can edit tracks via their Viewer overlays or their underlying animation curves Manipulating the Track Overlays The Tracker plots existing tracks as Viewer overlays These overlays offer an intuitive means of editing a track If for example you have a track in which the Tracker loses sight of its pat tern for one or two frames you can use the overlay to manually reposition the wayward track points This is often a
373. features a 2D tracker that allows you to extract animation data from the posi tion size and rotation of an image Using expressions you can apply the data directly to transform and matchmove another element Or you can invert the values of the data and apply it to the original element again through expressions to stabilise the image This is the general process for tracking an image 1 3 4 Connect a Tracker node to the image you want to track Choose the tracking operation you want to perform stabilise or matchmove Place tracking anchors over features in the image Calculate the tracking data Before you track it s important to playback the image several times This will help you identify the best features for the process as well as any problems with motion blur or features moving out of frame For some images you may need to filter or colour correct the image to boost the visibility of features before you attempt to track them Nuke saves the result as animation data so you can disable the filter nodes or colour correction after you get a successful track Tracking an Image The Tracker can analyse the movement of up to four different features in a single image Nuke generates one animation curve or track for each feature A single track is usually sufficient to record a feature s horizontal and vertical position across the 2D plane Two or more tracks are required to extrapolate scaling and rotation To track
374. ffuse Slider and if necessary Intensity again until you are happy with the result low diffuse high diffuse low intensity high intensity 5 If you want to create a uniform effect around the edges of the foreground rather than have the effect adjust itself according to the background check Disable luminance based wrap on the LightWrap tab 6 In case you don t want to merge the LightWrap effect with the foreground element in order to keep the LightWrap effect as a separate element check Generate wrap only on the LightWrap tab 7 By default the LightWrap effect is only applied inside the foreground element s alpha If you want to extend the effect outside it making the element seem to glow check Enable Glow 262 CREATING EFFECTS NUKE 8 On the Tweaks tab you can also adjust the following controls e FGBlur to determine how much the foreground matte is blurred The more blur the more of the background is added to the foreground e BGBlur to control how much the background is blurred before it is merged with the foreground element e Saturation to adjust the saturation of the effect e Luma Tolerance to increase or decrease the luminance values of the effect e Highlight Merge to control how the foreground element is merged with the background The default merge operation called plus adds the elements together producing a glow effect e Check Use constant highlight to use a constant colour of your choi
375. file without the file extension and press Return Nuke5S 1v5 win x86 release 32 on a 32 bit machine Nuke5 1v5 win x86 release 64 on a 64 bit machine e To install Nuke silently so that the installer does not prompt you for anything but displays a progress bar enter silent after the installation command NukeS 1v5 win x86 release 37 silent NukeS 1v5 win x86 release 64 silent e To install Nuke silently so that nothing is displayed enter verysilent after the installation command Nuke5 1v5 win x86 release 32 verysilent Nuke5 1v5 win x86 release 64 verysilent By running a silent install of Nuke you agree to the terms of the End User Licensing Agreement To see this agreement please refer to Appendix E End User Licensing Agreement on page 579 or run the installer in standard non silent mode Installation on Linux To install Nuke on Linux do the following 1 Download the correct tgz installation file from our web site at www thefoundry co uk Which installation file you download depends on whether you are using a 32 or a 64 bit machine 2 Extract the installer from the tgz archive with the following terminal command tar xvzf Nuke5 1v5 linux x86 release 32 tgz on a 32 bit machine tar xvzf Nuke5 1v5 linux x86 release 6 4 tgz on a 64 bit machine This will give you an installer file 3 Run the installer sudo NukeS 1v5 linux x86 release 32 installer on a 32 bit machine sudo NukeS 1v5 linux x86 rel
376. g To open the preferences press Shift S 3 If your statement includes several lines or you want to enter several statements at once press Return to move to the next line 4 To execute the statement click the Run the current script button on the top of the Editor or press Ctri Return Cmd Return on a Mac Tip You can also execute statements by pressing Ctrl Enter Cmd Enter on a Mac on the numeric key pad By default successful statements disappear from the input pane and appear in the output pane However if you want all statements to stay in the input pane after they are executed you can do the following 1 Press Shift S to open the Preferences dialog Go to the Script Editor tab Uncheck clear input window on successful script execution AA U N Click Close to save the preference for the current project only or Save Prefs to save the preference for the current and future projects If you enter an invalid statement Nuke produces an error in the output pane of the Script Edi tor leaving the invalid statement in the input pane Correct the statement and execute it again until you get it right Sometimes you may get an error if you copy and paste statements into the Script Editor from another source like an e mail This may be caused by the mark up or encoding of the source you copied the statement from To fix the problem re enter the statement manually If you want to have all executed Python commands ap
377. g on page 227 Click the Freehand tool Apply strokes as necessary Using the Reveal Tool The Reveal tool lets you pull pixels from background elements onto the foreground element You can pull pixels from directly beneath the pointer or you can introduce an offset in order to pull from a region adjacent to the pointer The Reveal tool requires at least one background input see Connecting the Paint Node on page 220 otherwise your strokes will draw in black _ te T Figure 8 2 Painting with the Reveal tool To use the Reveal tool 1 Set opacity brush size brush hardness and comp mode as described below see Editing Stroke Attributes on page 223 2 Set the timing of the stroke as described below see Editing Stroke Timing on page 241 221 USING PAINT NUKE 8 Click the Reveal tool LA o Set the source parameter to the input you want to pull pixels from If you wish to reveal pixels that are offset from the pointer Ctrl Cmd drag from the source to the destination to set the offset Alternatively you can enter the offset numerically using the offset parameter If you want to make sure the copied pixels are not filtered check round If this is not checked and you turn on the proxy mode even an integer offset may be scaled to a non integer Start painting The pointer overlay depicts the source of the offset as a crosshair within a circle and the destination as a circle the diameter of which represe
378. gain 140 gamma 140 HSV 144 hue 143 offset 140 saturation 143 value 143 anaglyph images converting into 342 Anaglyph nodes 342 analysing frame sequences 273 analysing pixels 273 animating parameters 56 AppendClip nodes 245 applying image formats 110 motion blur 243 tracking data to clips 183 Axis nodes 289 adding to scenes 289 Backdrop nodes 102 BasicMaterial nodes 541 Bezier nodes 498 Bicubic nodes 283 black points sampling 139 BlackOutside nodes 116 bounding box adding a black edge to 116 copying from an image 115 resizing 114 C calling channels 118 cameras dollying 281 editing lens characteristics of 316 resetting 281 rolling 281 Card nodes 283 adding to 3D scenes 283 CCorrect nodes 141 changing convergence 343 channel count 102 channel values applying expressions to 155 clamping 153 inverting 154 multiplying 155 offsetting 154 channels 117 applying mathematical operations to 153 calling 118 creating 117 deleting 122 displaying in a viewer 72 renaming 122 separating 51 swapping 123 tracing 122 CIN format 557 Cineon conversions 156 Clamp nodes 153 clamping channel values 153 Clean BG Noise 190 Clean FG noise 191 clips applying tracking data to 183 corner pinning 184 cutting frames from 244 dissolving between 245 editing 244 fading to black 245 retiming 233 slipping 244 splicing 245 stabilizing 185 warping 241 cloning nodes 38 Colorspace nodes 157 colour curves 141 colour picker 52 c
379. ground and press Enter 448 NUKE Background R Constant Node channels rgb X red M green amp blue none color r O 30705276 g 0 12879939 b O 60218304 4 0 format root format 640x480 frame range 1 1 From here onward we ll call this node the Background node 6 Close the control panel for the Background node When you need to reopen it just double click the node and the control panel will reappear 7 Click on the Background node to select it Then click the right mouse button and choose Draw gt Ramp from the pop up menu Bezier Diher Wapu Grain Scare are Gin rid Flare Lightvrap MarkerRiemo tal Paini Noise Fadia Rectangle R Sparkles Text 8 Drag the tail of the arrow from the Viewer1 node to the centre of the Ramp1 node You ll see the output of the Background node and the ramp controls displayed in the Viewer window 449 NUKE Background 9 Click the Colour tab inside the control panel for Ramp1 Then choose a dark colour that blends well with the colour you selected for the Background node Rampi Ramp Color Node color r0 01701382 g 0 01632661 b 0 04608966 a 1 10 Click the Ramp tab in the control panel to reactivate the overlay controls Then drag the pO and p1 control points to adjust the spread and angle of the ramp over the background 11 When you re happy with the results close the Ramp1 control panel to remove the overlay 450 NUKE
380. gument For example if you have created views called eft and rightin your project you can do the fol lowing n nuke nodes Blur n size splitViewQ n size setValue 10 view left n size setValue 20 view right This adds a Blur node into your script splits the Size parameter off and gives the left view the value 10 and the right view the value 20 Automating Procedures Okay so you know how to use the Script Editor to type in a sequence of Python statements that take care of a procedure But so far you ve still sat by your computer typing the state ments in It s clearly time to automate the procedure All you need to do is save your state ments and when you want to use them again later import them into the Script Editor To save statements in a Python module 1 On the top of the Script Editor click the Save a script button a 2 Save the script with the extension py for example firstmodule py in a directory that is contained in the sys path variable To see these directories enter print sys path in the Script Editor To add a directory to the sys path variable enter sys path append directory where directory represents the directory you want to add You have now created your first Python module THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE To open a Python script in the Script Editor 1 Click the Load a script button on top of the Script Editor The Script to open dialog m open
381. hange interpolation of selected control points to Linear Select a single point on the curve Draw a box to select multiple points Move all selected points Resize a selection box and scale the points inside Move all points inside the selection box Fit selection in the window Draw a box around an area and zoom to fit that area in the Editor Change interpolation of selected control points to Catmull Rom Copy selected curves Add or remove points to from selection Draw box to add remove points to from selection Break selected control points handles Change interpolation of selected control points to Smooth Bezier Script Editor Keystroke s Ctrl Ctrl Ctrl Backspace Action Step back to the previous statement Step forward to the next statement Clear output pane Ctrl Enter numeric keypad Run the script in the Editor 555 APPENDIX A HOT KEYS Keystroke s Ctrl Return Ctrl Shift Ctrl Shift Toolbar Keystroke s MMB Content Menus Keystroke s Ctrl LMB Colour Picker Keystroke s drag right or left on a slider label Alt drag right or left ona slider label AIt LMB on a slider label Alt RMB on a slider label LMB on a slider label RMB on a slider label Shift drag right or left on a slider label Shift LMB on a slider label Shift RMB on a slider label Action Run the script in the Editor Decrease the indentation level
382. hannel as a container that contains image data Once created or read into your composite the image data stored in a channel is available downstream in the network until the value is replaced with something else or the channel is removed The channel may even be empty depending on where you reference it in the compositing network Understanding Channel Sets Layers All channels in a script must exist as part of channel set also called a ayef You re probably familiar with the default channel set rgba which includes the channels with pixel values of red green and blue and also the alpha channel for transparency All channels in a composite must belong to at least one channel set Some channels like alpha may be available in other sets too Channel names always include the channel set name as a prefix like this set_name channel_name By default every script has a channel set called rgba When you first import an image element Nuke automatically assigns its channels to the rgba set that is the image channels are named rgba red rgba blue rgba green and rgba alpha The rgba set allows for the standard four channel workflow of most node based compositing systems However you re not limited to these four channels You can create new channels and assign them to new channel sets up to the limit of 1023 channels per script Creating Channels and Channel Sets It s important to understand that many types of nodes allow you
383. hat s used to highlight any words that are Python s keywords for example print and import in the Script Editor To set the colour back to default green right click on the button and select Set color to default string literals double Change the colour that s used to highlight strings inside double quotation marks in quotes the Script Editor To set the colour back to default red right click on the button and select Set color to default string literals single quotes Change the colour that s used to highlight strings inside single quotation marks in the Script Editor To set the colour back to default cyan right click on the button and select Set color to default comments Change the colour that s used to highlight comments anything beginning with in the Script Editor To set the colour back to default yellow right click on the button and select Set color to default Font Change the type weight angle and size of the font used in the Script Editor 380 18 The Script Editor and Python Have you ever thought of something you d absolutely love to be able to do with Nuke but that does not seem to have been a priority for Nuke developers Or would you just die to be able to automate some of the more tedious procedures so that they d take care of themselves while you aren t even at your desk Well we have just the answer for you Python one of the two scripting languages Nuke supports the other is
384. hat all of the elements in a composite including those which were digitally generated look like they were shot on the same film stock is often one of the final steps in achieving a convincing integration of all of a composite s elements Nuke offers effects for synthetically creating grain and for reading in practically created grain grain derived from actual film stock Grainless image Grained image Figure 4 16 Here s an example of applying grain to an image Using Synthetic Grain Nuke offers several nodes for creating synthetic grain Dither Grain and ScannedGrain Of these Dither is the crudest it basically just lets you specify the amount of noise per channel Grain includes presets for matching film stock and a means for controlling the mix between the generated grain and the backplate ScannedGrain offers film stock presets plus synthetic grain controls for applying practical grain To add synthetic grain with the Grain node 1 Click Draw gt Grain to insert a Grain node at the appropriate place in your script 149 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE A Connect a Viewer to the output of the Grain node so you can see the effect of your changes Grainzg_1 User Grainz 134 presets 3 3 green 2 9 blue 2 5 Irregularity red 0 6 green 0 6 blue 0 6 Intensity red O 416 green 0 46 blue 0 85 black r0 g minimum r g WEEL Apply only through alpha Invert alpha From the preset
385. have noticed that objects filmed in front of very bright backgrounds have the appear ance of softened edges as the light spills round from the background When adding foreground layers onto a background plate using the LightWrap node can dramatically improve the quality of your composite The composite without the LightWrap effect Note The composite with the LightWrap effect Note how the hard edges around the trailing hand and the the foreground fits better into the background bottom of the skirt Figure 11 2 The LightWrap node can improve composites with very bright backgrounds If you want to use LightWrap you should apply it on your foreground element before you com posite the foreground over the background with the Merge node To use the LightWrap node 1 Select Draw gt LightWrap to add a LightWrap node after your foreground and background images 2 Connect your foreground element to input A of the LightWrap node and the background image to input B 261 CREATING EFFECTS NUKE 3 Connect a Viewer to the output of the LightWrap node so you can see the effect of your changes 4 Adjust the Diffuse and Intensity sliders to control both the spread and brightness of the reflections on the foreground element These sliders need to be balanced out together You may want to start by bringing Diffuse all the way down to better see what you are blending in from the background Then adjust Intensity before going back to the Di
386. he CopyRectangle properties panel and double click on the Viewer node in the Node Graph repositioning the rectangle resizing the rectangle 4 To control how soft the edges of the rectangle seem adjust the softness slider The higher the value the softer the edges low softness value high softness value 5 To dissolve between the full CopyRectangle effect and input B adjust the mix slider 137 4 Colour Correction and Colour Space This chapter explains how to use Nuke s colour correction nodes to adjust the appear ance of the images in your composites Specifically you ll learn how to e Make tonal adjustments e Make basic contrast gain gamma and offset adjustments e Make hue saturation and value adjustments e Apply masks to colour corrections e Convert elements into nonnative colour spaces e Apply grain These topics provide a good overview of Nuke s colour correction nodes however not all options are covered here Look to Nuke s online help for instructions on using the other nodes found under the Color icon in the toolbar Making Tonal Adjustments Defining tonal range the blackpoint whitepoint and neutral value is typically the first step in colour correcting a clip Tonal range adjustments often improve contrast but more importantly they set the stage for subsequent colour corrections by properly dividing the colourspace into shadow midtone and highlight regions Figure 4 1 B
387. he Properties Bin and have all new properties panels appear in floating windows click the lock button on the Properties Bin Properties To empty the Properties Bin and close all the properties panels in it click the remove all pan els button Properties 5 K Controls That Appear on All Properties Panels These are the standard controls of every properties panel Control Function iv Co Hide or show the node s tabbed pages fo Centres the node in the Node Graph ry Centres one of the node s inputs in the Node Graph Select the input from the pull down menu that appears 47 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Control Function name field You can enter a new name for the node here for example Blur1 ex left Changes the colour of the node You can drag and drop this button on top of another colour button to copy the colour To revert to the default colour defined in your Preferences right click on the button and select Set colour to default An X on the button indicates the colour is unset and the colour defined in the Pref erences is used es right Changes the colour used for the node s controls in the Viewer You can drag and drop this button on top of another colour button to copy the colour To revert to the default colour defined in your Preferences right click on the button and select Set colour to default An X on the button indicates the colour is unset and the colour defined in the Pre
388. he Script Editor from nukescripts pyQtExamples import pyQtRender pyQtRender startQtRenderDialog What the two modules do is described below in more detail PyQtAppUtils py Launching PyQt from a Separate Thread in Nuke The pyQtAppUtils py file is an example of a module that initialises PyQt from a separate thread in Nuke To see what the module contains open the pyQtAppUtils py file from the nukescripts folder in a text editor PyQtRender py Using a GUI built in QtDesigner The pyQtRender py module first imports the pyQtAppUtils py module that launches PyQt from a separate thread in Nuke It then creates a dialog with a Render button The Render button renders the Write node that is currently selected in the dialog Dialog z Pp Witet OEK Cancel Figure 18 4 The pyQtRender py example uses a dialog built in QtDesigner To see what this module contains open the pyQtRender py file from the nukescripts folder in a text editor 400 19 Configuring Nuke This chapter shows visual effects supervisors how to configure Nuke for multiple art ists prior to the start of a project These are the common application settings dis cussed in this chapter Command line operations Environment variables Plug in directories Favourite directories Menu and Toolbar options Image formats Gizmos Nuke group nodes or subscripts that allow only select modifications Custom plug ins binary plug ins made via the Nuke software
389. he Viewer pane and youll see a menu of Viewer options a Node Graph Curve Editor File ew Cirk Eciit Open CrO Render a rks Image Save As Ctr Shift s Draw Save New Version Alt Shitt S i Recent Files Channel Import Script Color Export Nodes As Script Filter Script Command Keyer TCL File Figure 1 4 The right click menu 442 NUKE Try the right click menu when you can t find appropriate controls or menu options Many fea tures are hidden in the pop up menu until you re in the situation where you need to use them Nuke s menu bar at the top of the screen is organized a little differently between the operating systems but the right click menu contains the same options regardless of the system you re using to run Nuke Customizing Your Layout Nuke gives you several options for customizing the window layout It s time for you to claim your copy of Nuke and make it your own You don t need to customize the layout for this les son but why not try it now for your own personal amusement Here are some things you can do to reorganize the window layout e Drag a divider line between panes to change the size of the panes e To divide a pane click on the content menu the checkered box at the upper left corner of each pane and choose Split Vertical or Split Horizontal e To add a new tabbed page to a pane click on the content menu and choose one of content options such as New Viewer or
390. he Y axis Notice the x y z rotation values in the control panel reflect the angle of the rotation The blue handle rolls or rotates on the Z axis and the red handle rotates on X 6 Now select the card object and move it away from the camera Keep the control panel open for the Card node As with the Camera node the transform handles disappear from the Viewer when you close the control panel 7 Drag the card s transform handles to position it in the 3D workspace If you wish press the Ctrl key Mac users press Command over the Viewer and rotate the card 521 NUKE ox 00 1920 1080 1544 y 646 0 00000 H 03 0 00 0 Press Tab over the Viewer to switch between the 2D and 3D views to see the image the ScanlineRender node will produce 522 NUKE 5 0v1b10 Jan 28 2008 9 Before you continue to the next example close all the control panels that are currently open In this example it doesn t matter where you move the camera or card In reality however you often need to use specific values which you can enter directly in the control panels You can also import camera data or animation curves did you notice the import chan file button in the camera s control panel and apply them to the objects in the workspace Making a Scene We mentioned earlier the Scene node creates a place where multiple objects may be seen by the camera and the render node If you only have a single object you don t
391. he folder specified by the USERPROFILE environment variable which is generally of the form drive etter Documents and Settings ogin nama Windows XP or drive let ter Users ogin nama Windows Vista To find out if the HOME and USERPROFILE environment variables are set and where they are pointing at enter HOME or S USERPROFILE into the address bar in Windows Explorer If the environment variable is set the folder it s pointing at is opened If it s not set you will get an error e On Mac OS X Users ogin name nuke e On Linux users ogin name nuke Your new preferences will remain in effect for the current and all subsequent sessions Resetting Preferences To delete your preferences and reset them to default delete the preferences5 nk file The next time you launch Nuke it will rebuild the file with the default preferences The Available Preference Settings The preferences dialog is divided into the following tabs e Preferences Settings for colour schemes automatic backup of files memory usage cer tain node defaults and script command dialog defaults e Windows Settings for window positions tool tips window snapping and control panel behaviour e Appearance Settings for changing the colours and font on the application interface e Node Colors Settings for changing the colours of different nodes and Viewer overlays e Node Graph Settings for changing the appearance of the Node Graph for example
392. he frame sequence 10 You ll find the results of the analysis on the AutoCropData tab where the parameter values have turned cyan to indicate they are animated over time To see the animation curve right click on a parameter field and select Curve editor Curve Tool AutoCropData IntensityData MaxLumaData Node autocr pdata x ES ya 112E t 1068 Once Nuke has created the animation curve you can copy the animation or any of its values into a Crop node for example to match the analysed crop area there Ctrl Cmd click on the animation button and drag and drop it to another parameter to create an expression linking the two To analyse the intensity of a frame sequence 1 Select Image gt CurveTool to add a CurveTool node in an appropriate place after the image sequence you want to analyse and match Connect a Viewer to the CurveTool In the node s controls select Avg Intensities from the Curve Type pulldown menu Select the channels you want to analyse from the channels menu and checkboxes U e W N By default the region of interest that is to be analysed covers the entire frame If you want to analyse a smaller area resize and reposition the region of interest in the Viewer by dragging its edges to a new position You can also resize the region of interest using the ROI parameters in the control panel 6 In the frames for base average field enter the range of frames that each frame being analysed is compared against The f
393. he full res version Figure 1 9 Proxies in Nuke Nuke can generate proxies on the fly according to the sca e or format of your images You select the method under Edit gt Project Settings To toggle the proxy resolution defined under Project Settings you use the proxy button on your Viewer Alternatively you use the down res button to lower the display resolution of individual Viewers The down res button works both in the full res and proxy mode To activate proxy mode 1 Click the right mouse button over the node graph and choose Edit gt Project Settings 2 Make sure the Viewer window is open 3 Press the keystroke to toggle Proxy mode Ctri P A label inside the Viewer indicates that you are now in proxy mode 4 Move the mouse pointer over the Viewer and press the plus key several times to zoom in 5 Press Ctri P a few times to toggle between hi res and proxy mode 6 Before you continue press Ctrl P to switch back to full resolution To activate down res 1 Choose 4 from the down res list to change the display resolution to 25 of full resolu tion 460 NUKE x2 4 7 20 default x i OHN r amp With a reduced resolution Nuke requires less time to calculate and display your images 2 Change the down res setting back to 1 which is 100 of the active resolution If you turned off the proxy mode you should be back to full resolution If proxy mode is tur
394. he glint effect check mask and select a mask channel using the controls on the right e To dissolve between the original input image and the full glint effect adjust the mix Slider Creating Text Overlays Using Nuke s Text node you can add text overlays on your images You can simply type in the text you want to have displayed or use TCL expressions or TCL variables to create a text over lay Text overlays can also be animated so that their properties such as position size and colour change over time These features make the Text node useful for example for creating Slates or scrolling credits Creating a Text Overlay To create a text overlay Select Draw gt Text to create a Text node and connect a Viewer to it 2 In the Text node properties select the channels you want the text to appear in from the output controls 3 If you want to multiply any channels by the drawn text so that they are set to black outside the text shape select those channels using the premult controls 4 From the clip to menu select how you want to restrict the output image e noclip Do not restrict the output image e bbox Restrict the output image to the incoming bounding box e format Restrict the output image to the incoming format area e union bbox format Restrict the output image to the combination of the incoming bounding box and format area 265 CREATING EFFECTS NUKE e intersect bbpx format Restrict the output
395. he hair Leave a little noise around the hair as this can be cleaned up later using the Fine Tuning Sliders tool Clean FG Noise If there are dark regions in the middle of the mostly white foreground object that is if the key is not 100 in some portion of the targeted foreground choose Clean FG Noise from the PRIMATTE NUKE Actions operation pop up menu Use the same techniques as for Clean BG Noise but this time sample the dark pixels in the foreground area until that area is as white as possible Before After Figure 7 7 Before and after foreground noise removal These were the steps necessary to create a clean matte or key view of the image With this key the foreground can be composited onto any background image However if there is spill on the foreground object from light that was reflected off the background a final operation is necessary to remove that background spill get a more natural looking composite For the fourth step in the Primatte operation return the RGB view to the monitor window by clicking again on the A keyboard key This will turn off the alpha channel viewing mode and the Viewer window will again display the RGB view with the background image if you con nected one to the Primatte node The sample image below has gone through the first three steps and has examples of spill Notice the blue fringe to her hair and a blue tint on her right cheek arm and chest Figure 7 8 Blue spill vi
396. he image you re viewing 8 16 and 32 Bit Image Processing Some digital compositing systems especially those geared for video work are optimized for processing exclusively 8 bit elements that is images with 256 intensity values per channel Other systems allow for the mixing of 8 16 and 32 bit elements For Nuke which began as a film effects tool image quality is paramount Thus it supports the processing of exclusively 32 bit per channel elements Elements with lower bit depths are upconverted to 32 bits per channel upon import Thirty two bit support allows for a much richer palette of colours and floating point precision in all script calculations In practice this means that Nuke carries out every operation from an increase in gamma to a transform with much greater accuracy than a lower bit depth system You might expect that this boost in image quality would result in big sacrifice in speed This is not the case for a couple of reasons First Nuke can process scripts with great efficiency because they are uniformly in a 32 bit colorspace Moreover hardware manufacturers now routinely design their CPUs for 32 bit processing making them a efficient match for 32 bit per channel images Setting Up Your Script When you start working on a script you should first define the settings for it This involves assigning the script a name frame range frame rate and default full and proxy resolution for mat Name Timespan
397. he project settings you can do this manually using the Reformat node For more information see Reformatting Image Sequences on page 99 The full size format is also used to calculate proxy scaling if a proxy format is used For more information on the proxy mode and proxy formats see Proxy Mode on page 92 To set up a full size format 1 If it s not already open select Edit gt Project settings or press S to display the Project settings dialog 2 From the full size format pulldown menu select the resolution for the final output of rendered images If the format you want to use is not in the list select new The New format dialog appears oT MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE phi aspect 71 In the name field enter a name for the new format In the file size fields define the width and height of the format If you like you can also define additional information such as offsets and pixel aspect ratio Click OK to save the format It now appears in the pulldown menu where you can select it Proxy Mode When compositing with Nuke you can work in two different modes the full size mode or proxy mode n the full size mode images are read in exactly as they are on the disk and all positions are in actual pixels in these images This is the mode you want to use for accurate feedback and when rendering the final output The proxy mode instead lets you work with a low res version of the final output to speed up rendering an
398. heck Start new line Click OK and Done to close the dialogs The control you created appears in the Group properties panel now Groupi User Group Version v03 a3 Hide version number 5 In the Text controls go to the Node tab Right click on the disable control and select Add expression hide input cached postage stamp Set key Na animation Curve editor Ado xpress 6 In the Expression field enter hideversion or if you want to make it clear that the control is in the enclosing group you can also use parent hideversion This calls the control you created in steps 2 and 3 Click OK 426 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE From now on whenever Hide version number is checked in the Group controls the Text 1 node is disabled and you cannot see the version number it would otherwise create font Verdana MBA Va Gi hide input cached postage stamp W disable Groupi User Group Version v03 i X Hide version number Example 3 In this example we add we add a control labeled Status to the Group controls This control is a pulldown menu with two options Finished and Unfinished When Finished is selected the green rectangle is displayed When Unfinished is chosen you ll see the red rectangle instead 1 In the Group properties panel right click on the dark grey background and select Manage User Knobs 2 Inthe dialog that opens select Add gt Pulldown Choice to add a pulldown menu control to your Group prop
399. her than just one check all objects This overrides whatever you have selected under node name Each mesh you read in can have a transform These are baked into the mesh points and imported into Nuke To reload the mesh on each frame check read on each frame You should do this when you are reading in all objects and the objects are animated If you want to modify the transform properties imported from the fbx file uncheck read from file and make the necessary modifications As long as read from file is unchecked your changes are kept If the meshes you are importing from the fbx file are animated check read on each frame This reads in the meshes on each frame preserving the animation To reload the transform properties from the fbx file make sure read from file is checked and click the reload button Importing Cameras from Boujou Nuke is shipped with a script called import_boujou tcl which lets you load in cameras created with Boujou To import a camera from Boujou P Save the Boujou camera solve as a txt file 326 3D COMPOSITING NUKE 2 In Nuke click on a content menu button and select Script Editor The Script Editor opens in the pane whose content menu you used Properties split Vertical Split Horizontal Float Pane Close Pane Float Tab lose Tab Show Tabs Curve Editor Toolbars Node Graph Properties Bin Script Editor New Viewer 3 In the input pane of the Script Editor that is the
400. here to warp from Settings show fc show both curves W autokey X frstbezer masks deformaton curve resolution 7 In the Viewer Ctrl Alt click Mac users Cmd Alt click to create the pink source curves Usually you want the curves to conform to the subject of the source image For example if you are warping an animal s eyes you need to create curves that follow the edges of the eyes You probably want to create more than one curve around the area you are warping To begin a new curve make sure none of the existing points are selected and Ctrl Cmd Alt click on the image The curves are numbered in the order you create them If you need to animate the warp scrub to another frame on the timeline and adjust the curves to match any movement in the source image If autokey is checked key shapes are set automatically For more information on how to animate the warp see Animating Warps on page 255 Unless you want to create the destination curves separately click copy under Source Curves and paste under Destination Curves to use the curves you just created as the basis for the destination curves Source Curves ey Copy k paste Destination Curves key copy paste k 10 Then set show to srcwarp You should now see the blue destination curves that are 11 identical to the source curves assuming you copied the source curves into destination curves In the areas where you want to warp the image drag the points on th
401. hich is defined mathemati cally as exp x exp x 2 Smoothstep Returns O if x is less a b x See also step lerp a b x than a returns 1 if x is greater or equal to b returns a smooth cubic interpolation otherwise Matches the smoothstep func tion in other shading languages sqrt x Returns the non neg x See also pow pow2 ative square root of x 364 EXPRESSIONS Function step a x tan x tanh x to byte color com ponent to rec 709f color com ponent to sRGB color com ponent true trunc x Purpose Returns 0 if x is less a x than a returns 1 oth erwise Matches the step function other shading languages Returns the tangent x in radians of x Returns the hyper X bolic tangent of x which is defined mathematically as sinh x cosh x Converts a floating point pixel value to an 8 bit value that represents that number in sRGB Space Converts a floating point pixel value to an 8 bit value that represents that brightness in the rec709 standard when that standard is mapped to the 0 255 range Converts a floating point pixel value to an 8 bit value that represents that number in sRGB space Always Returns 1 See also false Round x to the near x est integer not larger in absolute value Operator Usage color_component color_component color component NUKE Related Functions See also smooth
402. hich the grain will not be subtracted adjust the low_clip slider Applying Mathematical Operations to Channels Nuke s Color icon in the toolbar houses a number of nodes which are designed to apply com mon mathematical operations to channels These operations include clamps offsets inver sions multiplications and expressions Clamping Channel Values To clamp a channel s values is to ensure that its blackest blacks and whitest whites will be vis ible on an intended display device Nuke s Clamp node lets you assign legal values to colours that are either too light or dark for the intended display device Figure 4 17 Clamping black and white pixels to legal values For this effect you use Nuke s Clamp node To clamp channel values 1 Click Color gt Clamp to insert a Clamp node at the appropriate point in your script 2 Connect a Viewer to the output of the Clamp node so you can see the effect of your changes 3 In the Clamp properties panel use the channels field to select the channel you wish to clamp 4 Drag the minimum slider to the legal value This has the effect of causing black values to go gray 5 Drag a maximum slider to the legal value This has the effect of causing white values to go gray 153 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE Offsetting Channel Values To offset a channel s values is to add a fixed value to them which in effect lightens the whole channel You ca
403. hin the workspace borders To pan with the map drag the pink rectangle to pan to a different view of the script When you pan or resize the window the map automatically appears when the workspace does not show the entire script When the whole script is contained within the window border then the map automatically disappears Tip The navigation map is resizeable Drag on its upper left corner to make it as large or small as you like 45 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Zooming You can zoom in on or out from the script in a couple of ways To zoom in Move your mouse pointer over the area you want to zoom in on and press the plus key repeatedly until the workspace displays the script at the desired scale OR Press Alt and drag right while holding down the middle mouse button To zoom out Move your mouse pointer over the area you want to zoom out from and press the minus key repeatedly until the workspace displays the script at the desired scale OR Press Alt and drag left while holding down the middle mouse button On Linux Alt middle drag may zoom the entire Nuke window instead of the Node Graph This is default functionality on Gnome To get around it you can use the Windows key instead of Alt when zooming Alternatively you can change your window preferences on Gnome to fix the problem 1 Select Applications gt Preferences gt Windows to open the Window Preferences dialog 2 Under Movement Key se
404. htingpasses p flecthon a 20 9 defaut id fe ba Ei iG OU sca Z fo 144021152 bbox 0 0 1440 1152 channels rgba lightingpasses 10 3 You now see the reflection mask from the image file Select rgba alpha from the Viewer channel list to reset this as the preferred channel when you press the A key Press A again to toggle the display and show all colour channels Select the Read node for the smoke left clip and press 2 at the top of your keyboard or on the numeric key pad 458 NUKE This creates a second connection to the Viewer from the selected node When the cursor is over the Viewer you can press a number on the keyboard to pick the connection you want to view 2 Move the mouse pointer over the Viewer and press 1 to display the engine vQ1 clip Press 2 to display the result of the smoke _left node In this manner you can connect multiple images to the same Viewer and then switch between the images 3 Select each of the other nodes and press a number to establish a connection to the Viewer 4 Move the mouse pointer over the Viewer and press the numbers on your keyboard to display each of the connected nodes As you switch between the different views the images may appear to be the same size However if you look in the lower right corner of the Viewer you ll see the images have different resolutions Figure 1 8 These images have different resolutions Nuke allows multiple resolu
405. icense has been created for you you will receive your license key foundry lic in an e mail or Internet download You should also receive the Foundry License Installer FLI applica tion to help you install the license key The instructions below tell you what to do with these To install a license 1 Make sure you have saved both the license key foundry lic and the Foundry License Installer application in the same directory You should receive these by e mail or if you purchased Nuke online in a download Double click on the Foundry License Installer application Click Install This checks the license file and installs it into the correct directory If you installed a node locked license key a license that allows you to run Nuke on one machine only you re good to go Proceed to Launching Nuke on page 25 If you are installing a floating license key you will be asked whether you want to create a client license file You should accept and save the file For more information on how to install floating licenses refer to the FFT user guide which you can download from our web site Further Reading There is a lot to learn about licenses much of which is beyond the scope of this manual For more information on licensing Nuke displaying the System ID number setting up a floating license server adding new license keys and managing license usage across a network you should read the Foundry FLEXIm Tools User Guide which can be down
406. ick copy under Source Grid and paste under Destination Grid This copies the source grid you created in the previous step into the destination grid 9 Connect the Viewer to the GridWarp node 249 WARPING AND MORPHING IMAGES NUKE 10 Hide the source grid check hide and lock it to prevent accidental changes check lock Show the destination grid instead uncheck hide It should look the same as the source grid only blue assuming you copied the source grid into the destination grid Source Grid x hide X lack hey copy paste 5e delete all grid curve add remove presets image size Destination Grid 11 In the areas where you want to warp the image drag the points on the grid to a new position The pixels in these areas are moved in the direction you moved the points Pixels in the nearby areas are also moved to accommodate the change but the distortion lessens the further you get from the repositioned points If you don t want a nearby area distorted add more grid lines between the area and the points you want to move before you drag the points to a new location 12 To better see what the warped image looks like press O on the Viewer to toggle the overlay off To compare the original and warped images press D repeatedly on the GridWarp node to disable and enable it If you see changes in the areas you don t want to warp go back to modifying the destination grid 13 If necessary animate the destination grid
407. icular track anchor doesn t stick experiment with a different position 4 Once all track anchors stick click the Tracker s track forward or track backward buttons to analyse the whole sequence El P When calculating multiple tracks simultaneously you may find that some tracks stick with accuracy to the pattern while others require resetting and reanalysis When you re happy with a given track uncheck its enable box This protects it from recalculation and let s you exper iment with better placement for the wayward tracks If you need to start over with a given track anchor you can reset the size of its search and pattern boxes and wipe its existing tracking data 178 TRACKING AND STABILISING NUKE To reset the size of an anchor s search and pattern boxes 1 Check the enable box for only the track anchor whose size you wish to reset 2 Click the reset button The track anchor s pattern and search areas are recentred to their default sizes To clear a track s animation data 1 Check the enable box for only the track anchor whose track you wish to remove 2 Under Animation Controls click the clear all button The selected track is removed that is all it s transformational data is wiped To only clear animation forward or backward of the current frame click clear fwd or clear bkwd Retracking Part of a Track A tracking pattern may become unusable when it moves out of frame is hidden by another image
408. ift X top le bottom SHIRA front Z back Shift zZ 3 Double click on the Cameral object either inside the Viewer or on the node graph to open its control panel 4 Move the camera to the right and rotate it to look at the centre of the 3D workspace 5 Click on the animation button next to the camera s translate parameters and choose Set key from the pop up menu 529 NUKE translate x 2 25 y 22 rotate x 0 y 44 9550005 z 0 scale x 1 yi zi No animation uniform scale 1 Set to default skew x O pivot x 0 z 0 Edit expressions The background of the parameter boxes change colour to show that a key frame is now set for these values at the current frame in the timeline Now you need to set a key frame for the rotation values Next click the animation button next to the camera s rotate parameters and choose Set key In the Viewer scrub to the end of the timeline Then move the camera to the left side and rotate it to face centre This automatically sets keys for the translate and rotate parameters for the last frame Drag through the timeline and the camera moves between the positions recorded by key frames Yawn With only two key frames the camera moves in a Straight line from start to finish Let s edit the animation curves to make this more interesting Click the animation button next to the camera s translate parameters and choose Curve editor from the pop up menu rotation order
409. ight controls check read from file This enables the controls on the File tab allowing you to read in lights from an fbx file It also disables all controls whose values will be filled from the fbx file You can still view these values and use them in expressions but you cannot modify them because they are read from the fbx file Any changes you make in the fbx file will be reflected in these values of the Light node 3 On the File tab click the folder icon and browse to the fbx file that contains the light you want to use Click Open Light1 Light File Node file N reload take name node name frame rate 24 use frame rate intensity scale 1 4 From the take name pulldown menu select the take you want to use from the fbx file Fbx files support multiple takes in the same file One of the takes is usually a default take without any animation 5 From the node name pulldown menu select the light node you want to import from the fbx file 6 If you want to override the frame rate used in the fbx file to sample the animation curves enter a new frame rate frames per second in the frame rate field Check use frame rate to use the rate you entered rather than the one in the fbx file 7 To scale the intensity channel values read from the fbx file adjust the intensity scale Slider If the light is too dark increase this value 8 If you want to modify the light properties imported from the fbx file un
410. igned by both parties If any action is brought by either party to this Agreement against the other party regarding the subject matter hereof the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover in addition to any other relief granted reasonable attorneys fees and expenses of litigation Should any term of this Agreement be declared void or unenforcea ble by any court of competent jurisdiction such declaration shall have no effect on the remaining terms of this Agreement The failure of either party to enforce any rights granted hereunder or to take action against the other party in the event of any breach hereunder shall not be deemed a waiver by that party as to subsequent enforcement of rights or subsequent actions in the event of future breaches This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law Copyright c 2009 The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd All Rights Reserved Do not duplicate 583 Index Numerics 2 5D transformations 169 2D transformations 159 3D 513 3D geometry 533 3D objects normals 315 3D scenes lighting 309 3D viewers 513 3D workspace 277 A Add nodes 154 adding a black edge to the bounding box 116 Axis objects to 3D scenes 289 Card objects to 3D scenes 283 Cube objects to 3D scenes 286 mathematical functions to expressions 359 motion blur 173 nodes 35 OBJ type objects to 3D scenes 288 Sphere objects to 3D Scenes 287 viewers 66 AdjBBox nodes 114 adjusting contrast 140
411. igner on page 400 To be able to use the pyQtAppUtils py example script that initialises PyQt from a separate thread make sure you use the following from the pyQtRender py file in your own projects from nukescripts import utils pyQtAppUtils 3 In order to communicate with Nukes event loop make sure any Nuke Python calls go through either nukescripts utils runInMainThread or nukescripts utils runInMainThreadWithResult For example to create a Blur node you could use e nukescripts utils runInMainThread nuke nodes Blur or if the result of the call is needed for example in this case to get the node object e b nukescripts utils runinMainThreadWithResult nuke nodes Blur You should only use these calls when interacting with Nuke from a separate thread Otherwise Nuke may hang Example In the nukescripts folder there are example modules that illustrate how to use PyQt to create a custom GUI inside Nuke You can find the modules in the following location e On Windows THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE drive etter Program Files Nuke5 1v5 nukescripts or drive letter Program Files x86 Nuke5 1v5 nukescripts e On Linux usr local Nuke5 1v5 nukescripts The example consists of two modules pyQtAppUtils py and pyQtRender py PyQtAppUtils py launches PyQt from a separate thread in Nuke while pyQtRender py is an example of how to use a GUI built in QtDesigner You can run both modules by entering the following in t
412. iguration ShuffleCopy i in roba id rgba red green blue alpha none Figure 2 7 Configuring the channel matrix You can see that the matrix makes use of the r channel standing for red twice It goes out once as the red channel and another time as the alpha channel 124 CHANNELS NUKE Assigning Constants The shuffle nodes also include parameters that let you assign white 1 or black 0 constants to any incoming channel So for example to reset the alpha channel to a full frame image you would configure the matrix as follows ShuffleCopy Node 1in raba 2 in raba g b a 44 green blue ER alpha E EEEH none E a ee a 4 Figure 2 8 Assigning constants to channels Creating Swap Channel Sets Finally note that if the channel set to which you wish to output channels does not yet exist you Can Create it using the new option on the pulldown menus on the right Once you select the new option you follow the same process for creating channel sets as is described in the Creating Channels and Channel Sets on page 117 In Summary The steps below summarize this discussion on swapping channels To swap channels 1 Click Channel gt Shuffle or ShuffleCopy to insert a Shuffle or Shuffle Copy node Remember you use Shuffle when you only want to swap channels in a single upstream node and Shuffle copy when you want to swap channels in two separate nodes like a foreground and
413. image to the intersection of the incoming bounding box and format area 5 If you want to clear the affected channels to black before drawing on them check replace By default replace is not checked and the text is drawn on top of the input image 6 Inthe message field enter the text you want to display a TCL expression a TCL variable or a combination of these For examples see Examples on page 266 You should enter TCL expressions in square brackets for example date To begin a new line press Return To display special Unicode characters such as foreign language characters and copyright signs you can e use decimal entities such as amp 60 to display lt or amp 169 to display e type Unicode characters such as lt or on your keyboard or cut and paste them from other applications UTF 8 character encoding is used to store them in the control s value and in the saved Nuke script The decimal entities only work if the font you are using has the character you want to display in it and you have checked turn amp nnn into Unicode We recommend using decimal entities rather than typing lt for example This is because future ver sions of the Text node may interpret HTML mark up In HTML some characters such as the greater than and less than signs are reserved If you used these signs within your text now future versions could mistake them for HTML mark up 7 If you want to mask the effect of th
414. in Node Graph connections split views indicators on nodes and Viewer and ShuffleViews node controls to make it easier to differentiate between views 4 If you want to add other new views click the new button 5 Inthe dialog that opens enter a name for the view for example middle Click OK New Wier mikddie E k 6 Repeat steps 4 and 5 as necessary until you ve got the views you want You can assign colours to all views by double clicking the area on the right of the view name 330 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE Colour new delete up Set up views for stereo A View selection uses buttons B Use colours in Ul 7 To delete an unnecessary view select the view from the list and click the delete button Note that deleting a view does not remove references to it from the script and any nodes that refer to the deleted view will produce an error You can now access the views in your project from the view pulldown menu of certain nodes controls You ll also notice that each view has its own button in the Viewer controls If you created many views you may want them to appear in a pulldown menu rather than as separate buttons in the Viewer and certain node controls To switch to using pulldown menus uncheck View selection uses buttons on the Views tab of the Project settings properties panel Setup views for stereo a selection uses buttons W Use colours in UI Figure 14 1 Sett
415. in proxy mode A proxy scale is easier to set up but a proxy format gives you more control over the low res versions of your images Below we first describe how to set up proxy formats and then how to define a proxy scale To set up proxy formats 1 If it s not already open select Edit gt Project settings or press S to display the Project settings properties panel 2 If you want to use a proxy format rather than a proxy scale whenever the proxy mode is activated select format from the pulldown menu on the right 3 From the proxy format menu select the resolution to use while working to speed things up Notice that your images are not scaled to this resolution but the scaling is proportionate to the full size proxy format relationship Nuke divides the proxy format width by the full size width and uses the result as the scale factor If the proxy format you want to use is not in the list select new The New format dialog appears pb aspect 7 In the name field enter a name for the new format In the file size fields define the width and height of the format Tip You can type formulas in numeric fields to do quick calculations For example if your full size format width is 4096 and you want your proxy format width to be 1 2 of that you can enter 4096 2 in the New format dialog s file size w field and press Enter Nuke then calculates the new width for you Click OK to save the format It now appears in the pul
416. in the Read nodes for how to do this see Loading Image Sequences on page 97 If you don t have a proxy file you can create one by activating the proxy mode and rendering your full size images using a Write node see Rendering Output on page 351 The proxy file does not need to match the proxy resolution in use The closest larger image full size or proxy file will be scaled down to the required size However if your proxy images match your typical proxy settings you will save this time Write Nodes and Proxy Files It is worth mentioning here that when a script is rendered in proxy mode processing will be done at the proxy scale and image output will go to the file name in the Write node s proxy field If you do not specify a proxy file name the render will fail with an error It never resizes the proxy image and it will not write the proxy image over the full size one For more information see Rendering Output on page 351 94 MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE Toggling In and Out of Proxy Mode It s usually smart to work in proxy mode because most operations work quickly and more effi ciently under the low res display You can switch between low and high resolution when you need greater precision for example when pulling a key or tracking or when you re ready for final rendering To toggle between full resolution and proxy mode 1 Click on an empty area of the Nuke window 2 Press Ctrl P to toggle the display mode Cmd P on
417. in the pane 2 Press spacebar quickly Pressing and holding the spacebar brings up a context senstive menu for that pane To make a window fullscreen 1 Make sure the window you want to make fullscreen is active This could be the main appli cation window or a floating Viewer Making it fullscreen removes the window borders 2 Press Alt S Hiding Tab Names and Controls You can hide the names and control buttons of tabs as you may not need them with all pan els such as the Toolbar panel To hide the names and controls on tabs From the content menu disable Show Tabs To show the names and controls on tabs 1 Move your mouse pointer over the very top of the pane area until the top edge of the pane brightens up 2 Right click to open the content menu 3 From the content menu enable Show Tabs Saving Layouts You can Save up to six favourite layouts and retrieve them as necessary You can also use these features to setup the Nuke interface for dual monitors To save a layout 1 Open and arrange the Nuke panes panels and tabs as desired 2 Select Layout gt Save layout 1 startup default or press Ctri Cmd F1 to save the default layout Select Yes in the confirmation dialog that appears This step shows F1 as the keystroke but it can be any key between F1 and F6 To retrieve a layout Select Layout gt Restore layout 1 startup default or press Shift F1 to retrieve the default layout F1 is use
418. in your script 2 Connect a Viewer to the output of the Expression node so you can see the effect of your changes 3 In the Expression properties panel use the channel menus and buttons to select the channel to which you wish to apply an expression 4 Type the actual expression in the field next to the channel 155 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE For example to assign noise to the red channel then boost the gain of that result by 20 you would type random r 20 5 If necessary you can apply different expressions to different sets of channels by repeating the above steps for the other channel menus and buttons 6 If you need to use a long expression in several fields you can use the fields on top of the properties panel for assigning the expression temporarily to a variable Enter your variable on the left side of the sign and the expression on the right You can then use the variable to represent the expression in the fields next to the channels zi 2D Bb default 46 i i Il sca ot Expressionl hypotes yi l E ae by r a T x x x ft j aj ai rgb Bred E amp blue a kag oosir rir rgb r d green bine z 4 i 4 rab ol r d green Blue x am Figure 4 21 A checkerboard modified using an Expression node Transforming the Colour Space Whenever you read a clip into a script it is automatically converted to Nuke s native colour Space which is 32
419. inder and custom plug ins compiled with the NDK can only be used in the commercial version of Nuke In other respects the PLE contains all the functionality of the commercial version of Nuke 28 2 Using the Interface This chapter is designed to help you understand Nuke s workflow learn how to use the interface and customise the interface to suit your preferences Understanding the Workflow Nuke utilizes a node based work flow where you connect a series of nodes to read process and manipulate images Each node in the project an image keyer a colour correction or a blur filter for example performs an operation and contributes to the output Figure 2 1 A Nuke project consists of a network of linked operators called nodes Saved projects are called script files You can open a Nuke project file in a text editor and you will see a series of sequential commands which are interpreted and executed when you render the output Figure 2 2 A simple Nuke script In Figure 2 2 you see an example of a very simple Nuke script Two Read nodes reference image sequences on disk Effect nodes extract a matte and blur an image A merge node named over composites the foreground image over the background Finally a Write node renders and outputs the completed composite to disk You ll also see a Viewer node which displays the output of any node in the script The Nuke Window Panes and Panels Nuke s main window is
420. ing a Filtering Algorithm on page 160 When scaling an image with Key Simon and Rifmen filters you may see a haloing effect which is caused by pixel sharpening these filters employ If necessary check clamp to correct this problem Scaling Image Sequences i Click Transform gt Reformat to insert a Reformat node at appropriate place in your script generally before a Write node Connect a Viewer to the output of the Reformat node so you can see the effect of your changes From the type pulldown menu select scale In the scale fields enter scale factors for the width and the height To scale both directions together using the same scale factor click the 2 button Use the resize type pulldown menu to choose the method by which you preserve or override the original pixel aspect ratio Select e width to scale the original so that it fills the output width Height is then scaled in such a manner as to preserve the original aspect ratio e height to scale the original so that it fills the output height Width is then scaled in such a manner as to preserve the original aspect ratio e fit to scale the original so that its smallest side fills the output width or height The longest side is then scaled in such a manner as to preserve the original aspect ratio e fill to scale the original so that its longest side fills the output width or height The smallest side is then scaled in such a manner as to preserve the original aspe
421. ing controls 1 Right click on the dark grey background of the Group properties panel and select Manage User Knobs The following dialog opens 2 To pick a control you want to give the users control of click on the Pick button This opens a dialog that lists all the nodes that the group contains Pick Knobs to Add Mylima Rectangle Switch Outputi inputi T xtl Rectangle Clone using expression Expand the list items as necessary to see the controls you can include in the gizmo controls Select a control and click OK You can also select multiple controls by Ctrl Cmd clicking on them or pick a range of controls by Shift clicking At this point a new tab called User appears in the Group properties panel The control you selected has been added to this tab In our example we selected the size control of the Text node MyGizmo Group The control has also been added to the Manage User Knobs dialog ready for you to edit 3 To edit the control you added open the Manage User Knobs dialog and select the control from the list Click Edit 421 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE In most cases you can edit the following e Name Give the new control a unique name here You need to use this name whenever you want to reference the control from scripts or via expressions The name can only contain letters and digits Spaces or punctuation are not allowed This field cannot be left empty e Label
422. ing in between frames e Normal uses bilinear interpolation which gives good results and is a lot quicker than extreme e Extreme uses a sinc interpolation filter to give a sharper picture but takes a lot longer to render Sets how to control the new timing of the clip e Simple this is the quickest option but may produce poor results around mov ing objects and image edges e Normal this is the default option with better treatment of moving objects and image edges e Occlusions this is the advanced option which attempts to reduce the level of background dragging that occurs between foreground and background objects Local motion estimation is highly dependent upon the idea that the brightness of objects don t vary through a sequence Where brightness varies rapidly for exam ple a highlight moving across the bodywork of a car the motion calculation will perform poorly The luminance of a shot can come from other sources too such as an overall flicker problem In these cases where there is a global luminance shift toggling this control on will allow the local motion estimation algorithm to take account of overall brightness changes between frames Calculates the shutter time throughout the sequence automatically Sets the equivalent Shutter Time of the retimed sequence A shutter time of 1 is equivalent to averaging over plus and minus half an input frame which is equivalent to a shutter angle of 360 degrees A shutter ti
423. ing the way views are selected in the Viewer If you are likely to need the same views in several projects you may want to save the views you created in a template nk script file For more information on how to do this see emp ate Scripts on page 431 Loading Multi View Images Once you have set up the views you are ready to read your images into Nuke To make things easier the images you read in should have the view name or the first letter of the view name in the filename for example filename left 000 1 exr filename exr or lefteye filename QQO 1 cin If you are using exr files your files can contain both the input for the left eye and the input for the right eye as exr files support multiple views in a single file With any other file types you need to have separate files for the left and right inputs To read images in 1 Select Image gt Read 2 Navigate to the files containing the images intended for either the left or right eye or in the case of exr images both eyes and select Open 331 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE 3 Do one of the following e Ifthe images you want to read in contain a view name or the initial letter of one for example left right or r in their filenames replace this with the variable V or v in the file field of the Read node s controls Use V to replace an entire view name for example left or right and v to replace an initial letter for example or r
424. int there is little likelihood of banding actually being present In the half float and float hardware paths we apply the gain gamma and LUTs in the GPU but we are currently unable to apply decent error diffusion here This means that when the graphics card converts to the lower bit depth at output to the monitor the appearance of banding can occur When banding is visible in the image artists are advised to switch the Viewer to 8 bit software mode and or sample pixel values This way they can confirm that the image is not actually banding and that it s merely an artifact of the limited bit depth of current display hardware before attempting to mitigate the banding Script Editor Tab Setting Function Input clear input window on suc When this is checked any successfully executed Python statements disappear from cessful script execution the input pane of the Script Editor and appear in the output pane When this is NOT checked all statements stay in the input pane of the Script Editor even if they were successfully executed echo python commands to Check this to have all Python commands executed by yourself or Nuke appear in the output window output pane of the Script Editor This way you can for example select a node from the Toolbar and have the corresponding Python command displayed in the output pane 379 SETTING INTERFACE PREFERENCES NUKE Setting Function Syntax Highlighting keywords Change the colour t
425. into the point O end This means colours in the point O end are spread wider than colours in the point 1 end e smooth the ramp colour eases into the point 1 end This means colours in the point 1 end are spread wider than colours in the point O end e smooth the ramp colour gradually eases into both ends This means colours in the point O and point 1 ends are spread wider than colours in the centre of the ramp Linear ramp Smooth ramp SmoothO ramp Smooth ramp 4 Use the color parameter to choose a colour for the ramp at the point 1 end by default the top end Then use color O to choose the colour for the ramp at the point O end by default the bottom end 5 To adjust the spread and angle of the ramp drag the on screen point O and point 1 controls to a new location You may need to press O twice on the Viewer to make these controls appear 271 CREATING EFFECTS NUKE Alternatively you can enter new x and y values for the point 1 and point O parameters in the Text node properties 272 12 Analysing Frame Sequences This chapter concentrates on the CurveTool node The node analyses an aspect of a frame sequence and creates an animation curve based on the analysis You can then use the curve data to drive effects elsewhere For instance you can add matching flicker to a CG render Analysing and Matching Frame Sequences You can use the CurveTool node to analyse four different aspects of your frame sequ
426. ion left crop position bottom crop position right crop position top crop position and pixel aspect ratio and where the final text string designates the format s name 3 Save and close the menu py file The next time you launch Nuke the format will be available for selection from the Project settings dialog Reformat node properties panel and elsewhere To edit a format 1 4 Ie 2 T l Select the format you wish to edit from the output format pulldown list then let the list close From the same list select edit The Ed t format dialog appears Edit the name file size image area and pixel aspect fields as necessary Click OK to save the changes to the format o delete a format Select the format you wish to delete from the output format pulldown list then let the list close From the same list select delete The format is removed from the list o apply a format If necessary click Transform gt Reformat to insert a Reformat node at appropriate place in your script generally before a Write node Connect a Viewer to the output of the Reformat node so you can see the effect of your changes From the type pulldown menu select to format Select the format you wish to apply from the output format pulldown list 110 REFORMATTING ELEMENTS NUKE From the resize type field to choose the method by which you preserve or override the Original aspect ratio Select e width to scale the
427. ions 233 TimeBlend nodes 236 TimeBlur nodes 243 timeline controls 69 TimeOffset nodes 244 tonal range defining 138 defining with a histogram 139 tracing channels 122 Tracker nodes 175 176 471 tracking 471 per vertex 183 tracks editing 179 generating 178 offsetting 179 pattern area for 177 positioning anchors for 177 search area for 177 Smoothing 180 Transform nodes 165 166 167 168 Transform2D nodes 166 Transform3D nodes 169 171 transformation handles 170 transformations 159 choosing order of operations for 299 in 2 5D 169 in 2D 159 moving pivot for objects 300 skewing objects 299 TransformGeo nodes 298 translating a Cube object s sides 286 cameras 281 elements in 2 5D 171 elements in 2D 165 Trilinear nodes 309 two point tracking 472 U undoing actions 66 UVProject nodes 294 NUKE V value adjusting 143 vertex tracking 183 viewer lookup tables 80 viewer LUTs 80 viewer playback synchronising 71 viewers 66 456 adding 66 changing colourspace 157 comparison wipes 81 configuring display of 3D objects in 296 connecting 67 display composite models 81 displaying views 333 panning 68 pausing 71 using the controls 69 zooming 68 views setting up for project 329 W warping 247 warping clips 241 white points sampling 139 window layouts 86 443 wipe control in viewers 81 Write nodes 352 wxPython 396 X XPM format 558 Y YUV format 558 Z zooming in the node graph 46 in viewers 68 58
428. ith the menu open you can type a letter to jump to the first operator that starts with that letter To move to the second operation that starts with the same letter press the letter again For example to select the screen operation open the menu and press S twice The following table describes each operation and its associated compositing algorithm You may want to spend some time familiarising yourself with each algorithm in order to be able to determine which operation to use in each situation 127 MERGING IMAGES Operation atop average color burn color dodge conjoint over Algorithm Ab B 1 a A B 2 darken B towards A brighten B towards A A B 1 a b A if a gt b Description Shows the shape of image B with A cover ing B where the images overlap The average of the two images The result is darker than the original images Image B gets darker based on the luminance of A Image B gets brighter based on the luminance of A Similar to the over operation except that if a pixel is partially covered by both a and b conjoint over assumes a completely hides b For instance two polygons where a and b share some edges but a completely over laps b Normal over will produce a slightly transparent seam here Illustration ave rage color burn color dodge re conjoint over NUKE Example Uses 128 MERGING IMAGES Operation copy difference
429. ither boundary to select it 2 Drag to reposition the boundary Or if you re repositioning the pattern boundary increment or decrement the track s X and y fields To adjust the size of the search or pattern boundaries 1 Click on any point on either boundary 2 Drag to reposition the associated side Calculating the Track Once you ve properly placed the track anchors and sized the search and pattern areas you re ready to calculate the track s You calculate tracks by using the buttons under Tracker con trols in the Tracker properties panel You can track the sequence in either direction Tracking backwards often allows you to get accurate tracks when a feature exhibits a lot of scaling when the distance between the feature and the camera changes To toggle the tracking overlay e f necessary turn on the Tracker overlay in the Viewer Click the right mouse button and choose Overlay on off or just press O over the Viewer Pressing O three times toggles between the three overlay states overlay off overlay on and overlay on no animation path To calculate tracks In the Tracker properties panel check the enable box for each track you wish to calculate 2 Inthe Tracker properties panel click either the frame forward or backward buttons to move to the previous or next frame Move through a few frames in ci D gt this manner to ensure that all enabled track anchors are sticking to their patterns If a part
430. kat input e delete to remove the named attribute from the object For example if you remove the N attribute the object has no normals Working with Cameras Nuke lets you add multiple cameras to a scene with each providing a unique perspective You can also setup cameras that project 2D images onto geometry in your scene nuke aX E Viewert rgba rgba alpha RGB ScanlineRenderl 2 a0 R Camere pirs ba foe mo p EE ToS ef I PC _Video 640x460 bbox 0 0 640 430 channels rgba alpha depth forward uforward y ie 10 Global Figure 13 27 Cameras in the scene To add a camera 1 Click 3D gt Camera to insert a Camera node 315 3D COMPOSITING NUKE 2 To setup the rendering camera drag a connector from the new Camera node to the ScanlineRender node Or To setup an additional scene camera for viewing drag a connector from the new Camera node to the Scene node To see the scene through a particular camera you need to select the camera and press H Make sure you re in the 3D perspective view press V before H before trying this it doesn t work when you re looking at your scene through an orthographic view To edit a camera s lens characteristics 1 If necessary double click on the Camera node to display its parameters 2 Click the Projection tab 3 Drag the focal length slider to adjust the camera s level of magnification 4 Drag the near slide to e
431. ke in the Viewer or the stroke list In the Viewer select any one of the points that make up the paint stroke Ctrl Cmd Alt click on the spot where you want to add a new point To move a point 1 With the Select tool active select the paint stroke in the Viewer or the stroke list In the Viewer select the point that you want to move Drag the point to a new location To constrain the point s movement to the x or y axis only hold down Ctrl Cmd Shift when dragging the point To adjust the curve slope around the point drag the point s tangents to a new location To move several points together 1 With the Select tool active select the paint stroke in the Viewer or the stroke list 2 Inthe Viewer drag a marquee around the points or an entire paint stroke that you want to move A transform overlay appears 3 Adjust the transform overlay as necessary see Using the 2D Transformation Overlay on page 159 To close and open vectors 1 With the Select tool active select the paint stroke in the Viewer or the stroke list 2 In the Viewer right click on any one of the points that make up the paint stroke 3 Select open close curve If the curve is open Nuke connects the first point in the vector to the last point If the curve is closed the first and the last points in the vector become disconnected To delete a point 1 With the Select tool active select the paint stroke in the Viewer or the stroke list 228
432. keying 1 In the Keying Video node tree select the fgman 0001 dpx node When Nuke reads images into the workspace it converts them to a linear colourspace So here the first step is to convert the video image back to video YCbCr colourspace Right click over the node tree and choose Color gt Colourspace from the pop up menu In the Colourspacel control panel change the out parameter to YCbCr Colorspacel Node channels rgb Mred Moreen blue mo mear D5 out Yober D s Bradford matrix color matrix output No you re not having an 80 s flashback What you re experiencing is the result of the red reen and blue channels remapped to the native video channels for luma Y chroma blue cb and chroma red Cr respectively 504 NUKE 4 Press r over the Viewer to look at the Y channel Press g to view Cb and b to view Cr Above you see the Y channel image on the left The Cb channel image is shown on the right Notice the blocky compression artifacts in the Cb channel These make it difficult to get a clean edge for your matte but since most of your detail is in the Y channel you can apply a small blur operation to the Cb and Cr channels to improve the situation without losing much detail Press r g or b again to toggle back to all colour channels Right click on the Colourspace1 node and choose Filter gt Blur In the Blur1 control panel set the blur size to 4 Bluri Blur Hode chann
433. ks good it is a good idea to go back and take a final look at the alpha channel view Sometimes in the Primatte operation a 100 foreground area all white will become slightly transparent gray You can clean those transparent areas up by using the Matte Sponge tool After selecting the Matte Sponge tool just click on the transparent pixels and they will become 100 foreground All of the spill suppression information will remain intact Alternatively you can go to the alpha channel view and then using the Fine Tuning Sliders option select those transparent areas and move the Transparency slider slightly to the left This will move that colour region from 0 99 foreground with spill suppression to 100 foreground with spill suppression and should solve the problem The Matte tool will also work to solve this problem Repeatable Sampling Tools Most of the Primatte operations are done using a mouse or pen sampling operation The only exceptions are the Fine Tuning Sliders Actions mode and its sliders The Fine Tuning Sliders action mode gives a continuous valuator for fine tuning but some of the sliders are not often used because results are often unpredictable or not subtle enough 194 PRIMATTE NUKE Another weak point in previous versions of Primatte is the lack of functionality to attenuate and thicken the existing matte density This version of Primatte offers a more intuitive easy to use and powerful user interface called Repeata
434. l operational mode This slider bulges the Pri matte large polyhedron near the registered colour region Transparency or M poly Slider Adjust Transparency When in the Fine Tuning Actions mode this Transparency slider can be used to make the matte more translucent in the registered colour region After choosing the Fine Tuning Actions mode and selected a colour region moving this slider to the right makes the registered colour region more transparent Moving the slider to the left makes the matte more opaque If mov ing the slider all the way to the right does not make the colour region translucent enough re Sample the colour region and again move the slider to the right These slider operations are additive This result achieved by moving the slider to the right can also be achieved by clicking on the colour region using the Matte operational mode This slider bulges the Primatte medium polyhedron near the registered colour region Detail or S poly Slider Add Restore Lost Detail When in the Fine Tuning Actions mode this Detail slider can be used to restore lost detail After choosing the Fine Tuning Actions mode and selected a colour region moving this slider to the left makes the registered colour region more visible Moving the slider to the left makes the colour region less visible If moving the slider all the way to the left does not make the col our region visible enough re sample the colour region and again move the slider to
435. l values same as lerp a b x creates a 3D Perlin x optional y noise value This pro optional z duces a signed range centred on zero The absolute maximum range is from 1 0 to 1 0 This produces zero at all integers so you should rotate the coordinates somewhat add a fraction of y and z to x etc if you want to use this for random number generation Returns the value for pi 3 141592654 Returns the value of x x y raised to the power of y Related Functions See also exponent See also min clamp See also max clamp See also step smoothstep lerp See also random fBm turbulence See also log exp pow NUKE 363 EXPRESSIONS NUKE Function Purpose Operator Usage Related Functions pow2 x Returns the value of x x y See also pow raised to the power of 2 radians x convert the anglex x See also degrees from degrees into radians random x y creates a pseudo ran optional x optional See also noise fBm turbulence z dom value between O y optional z and 1 It will always generate the same value for the same x y and z Calling ran dom with no argu ments will create a different value on every invocation rint x Round x to the near x See also ceil floor int trunc est integer sin x Returns the sine of x x in radians See also asin cos tan sinh sinh x Returns the hyper x See also sin asin cosh tanh bolic sine of x w
436. lace ToolbarName and NewMenu will appear in the new toolbar E ToolbaName Meni eri e Replace PythonCode with relevant Python code usually nuke createNode and if necessary use the name of the gizmo generic Python script or plug in file you want the menu option to invoke For ease of use place all such referenced files inside the plug in path directory e Replace Shortcut with a keyboard shortcut for example Alt A Ctri Cmd A or Shift A The letter a alone represents lower case a F1 represents function key 1 You can combine the Shift Ctri Cmd and Alt keys as necessary If you like you can also use A to represent AIt A A to represent Ctri Cmd A and A to represent Shift A e Replace IconName with the name of the png or xpm image you wish to use as the menu icon This image must be stored in your Nuke plug in path directory It should be 24 x 24 pixels in size 3 In the above entry you can also add the following optional arguments in the parenthesis after ToolbarName e True This is the default When True nuke toolbar calls the toolbar with the given name or creates it if it does not exist For example t nuke toolbar Extras True would either call an existing toolbar called Extras or create one if it did not already exist e False When False the toolbar is not created if it does not already exist and nuke toolbar returns None You can use this to find out if a toolbar with a given name already exists
437. layback range field Figure 2 23 Timeline controls By default Nuke automatically adjusts the timeline of every Viewer window to show the frame range defined in your Project Settings If no frame range is defined the frame range of the first image you read in is used as the global frame range Viewer timeline controls also have a frame range source pulldown menu that you can use to define where the timeline gets its frame range from You can set this menu to Global Input or Custom Global is the default setting described above To have the Viewer adjust the timeline to show the in and out frames of the current input clip select Input from the frame range source menu The number of the first frame in the clip is shown in the left end of the timeline and the number of the last frame in the right end If you change the input of the Viewer the frame range on the timeline is adjusted accordingly 69 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE To manually adjust the frame range for the current Viewer window pan and zoom on the time line until you see the desired frame range and Custom becomes selected in the frame range source menu Alt drag to pan and MMB drag to zoom in You can also zoom in on or out of the timeline using the mouse wheel To reset the zoom press the middle mouse button over the timeline To adjust the playback range for the current Viewer window Ctrl drag Mac users Cmd drag the red playback range marker on the timelin
438. ldown menu where you can select it a3 MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE 4 To activate the proxy mode and use the low res format for calculations and display check proxy mode ramerange 100 lock range ips 24 full size format PAL 720x576 1 067 a proxy mode format proxy format PAL proxy Sa0he7S Alternatively you can use the proxy toggle in the Viewer controls or press Ctrl P Cmd P on a Mac For more information see 7oggling In and Out of Proxy Mode on page 95 To setup a proxy scale 1 If it s not already open select Edit gt Project settings or press S to display the Project settings properties panel Select scale from the pulldown menu in the Project settings dialog Using the proxy scale input field or slider specify the factor by which you want to scale the width and height of your images For example if you want to scale them down by 50 use the value of 0 5 4 To activate the proxy mode and use the low res format for calculations and display check proxy mode framerange 7 100 lock range fps 24 full size format PAL 720x578 1 067 Myer oxymode scale oh proxyecale 05 Alternatively you can use the proxy toggle in the Viewer controls or press Ctrl P Cmd P on a Mac For more information see Toggling In and Out of Proxy Mode on page 95 Read Nodes and Proxy Files As an alternative to letting Nuke generate proxies on the fly proxy files can be specified using a second filename
439. lect Super or Windows logo You should now be able to zoom in and out of the Node Graph with Alt middle drag Fitting Selected Nodes in the Node Graph To fit selected nodes in the Node Graph press F Fitting the Node Tree in the Node Graph To fit the entire the node tree in the Node Graph click on the Node Graph to make sure no nodes are selected and press F Properties panels When you insert a node its properties panel appears in the Properties Bin with options to define the node s output You can also open the properties panel later by doing any of the fol lowing e Double click on the node in the Node Graph e Ctrl click on the node in the Node Graph Mac users Cmds click e Select the node in the Node Graph and press Return 46 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Tip To open a properties panel in a floating window Ctrl Alt click Mac users Cmd Alt click on the node Readl Read Sequence Hode tile B Nuke Tutonalsy Readi format POC_Video bd xd i proxy proxy format root proxy format 640x480 frame range hold i frame missing frames error x reload colarspace default premultiplied raw data Figure 2 15 The Read node and its properties panel Managing the Properties Bin You can limit the number of properties panels that can be open in the Properties Bin To do so enter the maximum number of properties panels in the field on the Properties Bin a Froperties K To lock t
440. lied to the source image The GridWarp node also includes controls for animating the warp adding motion blur to warps that occur quickly and selecting the level of antialiasing used to remove any artifacts the warp may have caused To warp an image using the GridWarp node 1 Select Transform gt GridWarp to insert a GridWarp node after the image you want to warp 2 Connect both the src and the dst input and a Viewer to the image WARPING AND MORPHING IMAGES NUKE 3 When the GridWarp properties panel is open you can see the source and destination grids appear as Small overlays in the Viewer The source grid is pink and the destination grid blue In the following steps you use the pink source grid to define which areas you want to warp and the blue destination grid to define where to warp these areas to 4 To make the grids the same size as the input image click the image size buttons under both Source Grid presets and Destination Grid preset iGridvtarp Render Node Source Grid key paste 56 delete delete all grid curve add remove presets image size h Destination Grid key paste 56 delete delete all grid curve adi remove presets image size h Settings 5 For now check hide under Destination Grid to hide the blue destination grid in the Viewer This way you can t accidentally distort the image yet 6 Modify the grid around the area you want to warp Usually you want the grid to conform to the
441. ll be removed from the sampled pixel colour and all colours like it in the amount of one Primatte increment If spill colour remains another click using this operational mode tool will remove more of the colour spill Continue using this tool until all colour spill has been removed from the sampled colour region This tool expands the Primatte large polyhedron in the colour region sampled Matte When this operational mode is selected the matte will be made more opaque for the sampled pixel colour and all colours like it in the amount of one Primatte increment If the matte is still too translucent or thin another click using this operational mode tool will make the sam pled colour region even more opaque This can be used to thicken smoke or make a shadow darker to match shadows in the background imagery It can only make these adjustments to the density of the colour region on the original foreground image It can be used to nullify a Matte step This tool dents the Primatte medium polyhedron in the colour region sampled Matte When this operational mode is selected the matte will be made more translucent for the sam pled pixel colour and all colours like it in the amount of one Primatte increment If the matte 207 PRIMATTE NUKE is still too opaque another click using this operational mode tool will make the sampled colour region even more translucent This can be used to thin out smoke or make a shadow thinner to
442. ll path to Nuke s executable e nuke env ple This returns True if you are running the Personal Learning Edition of Nuke and False if you are running the commercial version e nuke env WIN32 This returns True if you are running Nuke on Windows and False if you are not e nuke env MACOS This returns True if you are running Nuke on a Mac and False if you are not 393 THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE e nuke env 64bit This returns True if you are running a 64 bit Nuke To find out what s in the Nuke global environment you can also use the following statement print nuke env Some of the items are read only for example 64 bit and ple and others can be set for example threads Clearing Out the Current Nuke nk Script To clear out the current Nuke script without opening a new Nuke window use the following statement nuke scriptClear Creating Views for a Stereoscopic Project To create a new view for a stereoscopic or multi view project use the following statement nuke Root addView name where name is the name of the new view For example to add a view called left you should use the following nuke Root addView left Adjusting Parameter Values in Stereoscopic Projects When you have created multiple views in your project you can adjust node parameters sepa rately for each view To do so you need to use the setValue statement which takes a view ar
443. llustrated in the following images Before Autoplace After Autoplace Figure 19 6 Using Autoplace to tidy up the Node Graph The following entry adds the Autoplace option It also defines Alt A as the keyboard shortcut for this option def _autoplace n nuke selectedNodes 416 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE for iin n nuke autoplace i t nuke toolbar Extras t addCommand Auto amp place _autoplace Altta Extras Create VectorBiur Autoplace Figure 19 7 The result of example 2 To define a menu or toolbar option 1 If you haven t already done so create a file called menu py in your plug in path directory For more information on plug in path directories see Loading Gizmos Plug ins and TCL scripts on page 410 2 Open the menu py file in a text editor and add an entry in the following format menubar nuke menu MenuType menubar addMenu amp NewMenu m addCommand amp NewItem PythonCode Shortcut icon IconName index e Replace MenuType with the type of menu or toolbar you want to add an item to Nuke adds an item to the application main menu bar NewMenu Newltem GTR K Animation adds an item to the pop up menu on the Animation button of all i panels and to the right click pop up menu of the Curve editor Properties adds an item to the right click menus of properties panels Node Graph adds an item to the right click menu of the Node Graph Nodes add
444. lly opaque background 374 SETTING INTERFACE PREFERENCES Setting label font tile size WxH Snap to node grid size WxH Snap to grid show grid Snap threshold Colors Node Graph Overlay Elbow Arrows Left arrow button Right arrow button Up arrow button Down arrow button expression arrows enable clone arrows NUKE Function Change the type weight angle and size of the font used on labels in the Node Graph Change the width and height in pixels of the nodes in the Node Graph When this is checked and you move a node in the Node Graph the node snaps to a position that aligns it horizontally and vertically with its input and output nodes Define the width and height in pixels of the cells in the background grid that you can display on the Node Graph To see the grid check show grid below When this is checked and you move a node in the Node Graph the node snaps to a position that lines it up with the background grid lines To see the grid check show grid below Show a background grid on the Node Graph Define the maximum number of pixels to jump by when snapping nodes to other nodes or grid lines Change the background colour of the Node Graph To set the colour back to default dark grey right click on the button and select Set color to default Change the colour of the grid that you can have appear on the Node Graph if you check show grid below To set
445. loaded from our web site www thefoundry co uk licensing 21 INSTALLATION AND LICENSING NUKE Installing Nuke Nuke 5 1 will install separately to any previous versions installed Nuke 5 1 is available to download from our web site at www thefoundry co uk The downloads are in compressed tar format tgz for Linux exe for Windows and dmg format for Mac OS X The installation proce dure is the same for both the Nuke Personal Learning Edition and the commercial version of Nuke Installation on Windows To install Nuke on Windows do the following 1 Download the correct installation file from our web site Which installation file you down load depends on whether you are using a 32 or a 64 bit machine Double click on the file to install Nuke Follow the on screen instructions By default Nuke is installed to drive etter Program Files Nuke 5 1v5 unless you re installing 32 bit Nuke on 64 bit Windows in which case the default location is drive etter Program Files x86 Nuke 5 1v5 4 Proceed to Launching Nuke on page 25 On Windows if you install Nuke to a network drive to run from multiple computers please ensure that the correct Microsoft run time libraries are installed on each machine that will run Nuke To do this run vcredist_x86 exe 32 bit or vcredist_x64 exe 64 bit on each machine The appropriate one of these files can be found in the VCRedist subdirectory in the folder where Nuke is installed for
446. locked into place and you can only change the connections by moving the arrow tails allow picking of arrow When this is checked you can press Ctrl Cmd on a Mac on the Node Graph to dis elbows to create Dots play yellow elbows on the Node Graph arrows and click on these to insert Dot nodes If you Ctrl Cmd Shift click on an elbow the new Dot node is branched off to a new arrow rather than inserted in the existing arrow When this setting is NOT checked adding Dot nodes in this manner is not possible drag to insert only works When this is NOT checked you can insert nodes in between other nodes by dragging near middle of arrows them over any point of the connecting arrow When this is checked you can only insert nodes in between other nodes in the above manner by dragging them over the middle point of the connecting arrow size of dots Adjust the size of Dot nodes By default the value is set to 1 377 SETTING INTERFACE PREFERENCES NUKE Viewers Tab Setting Function 2D bg Change the background colour of the 2D Viewer To set the colour back to default black right click on the button and select Set color to default 2D fg Change the colour of borders and text in the 2D Viewer To set the colour back to default light grey right click on the button and select Set color to default 3D bg Change the background colour of the 3D Viewer To set the colour back to default black right click on the button
447. lour space images Linear Data in 16 Bit Files Some facilities use linear data in 16 bit files If this is the case in your facility do the follow ing 1 Select Edit gt Project settings and go to the LUT tab 2 Under Default LUT settings change the 16 bit files value to linear Cineon Displays Some facilities have adjusted their monitor electronics to correctly display Cineon data If this is the case in your facility do the following 1 Select Edit gt Project settings and go to the LUT tab 2 Under Default LUT settings change the monitor and viewer values to Cineon Colour Management Although true colour management requires using the Truelight or other nodes as VIEWER INPUT nodes it may be useful to approximate it with a LUT that is used for the mon itor setting This way texture maps and postage stamps resemble the final display more accu rately If your colour management is creating a monitor corrected image you ll want to set viewer to linear so that it has no change and monitor to sRGB so you get reasonably monitor correct output on non Viewer images 437 TUTORIALS elcome to the Tutorials If you ve reviewed the Reference chapters which we W highly recommend you already know something about Nuke These tutorials show how to pull everything together through a series of practical examples We will add further tutorials as time goes on They will appear on our web site between releases of Nuke
448. lower pane enter nuke tcl import_boujou Click the Run the current script button onthe top of the im Editor or press Ctri Return Cmd Return on a Mac 4 In the File Browser that opens navigate to the txt file you saved in step 1 A Camera a ScanlineRender and a Group node are loaded into Nuke The Group node contains cylinders to represent points from Boujou Tip You can also open Nuke s Boujou Text File Browser by doing the following 1 Press x on the Node Graph to open the Nuke script command dialog 2 In the dialog check TCL if it s not already checked 3 In the command field enter import_boujou 4 Click OK These steps can be used to replace the first three steps in the above instructions Rendering a 3D Scene The 3D Viewer displays the scene using an OpenGL hardware render When you build a scene Nuke renders high quality output from the perspective of the camera connected to the Scanli neRender node The rendered 2D image is then passed along to the next node in the compos iting tree and you can use the result as an input to other nodes in the script To render out a scene 1 Make sure the rendering camera is connected to the ScanlineRender node Toggle the Viewer back to 2D Connect the output of the ScanlineRender node to the appropriate 2D nodes in your script 327 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Adjusting the Render Parameters You can affect the rendered output by adjusting the variou
449. lowing way you can set some of the vertex y values of a sphere to O to squash its bottom half 3 gt cE defouk 6 E HU G ON Rey 2H CrosstalbGeol CrosstalkiGao Node display unchanged K selectable render unchanged Figure 13 18 Modifying the CrosstalkGeo node s LUT With the CrosstalkGeo node you can also use one of the vertex x y and z values to evaluate the lookup curve and then add the result to another vertex value For example you could mod ify the x gt y curve using the vertex x value to find the new value on the curve and then add that to the vertex y value This way you can modulate the y values by another channel By default these curves are horizontal lines at y 0 They produce no change because the value added to the vertex the new value on the y axis is O To modify objects using lookup curves 1 Select 3D gt Modify gt CrosstalkGeo or LookupGeo to insert a CrosstalkGeo or Lookup Geo node anywhere after the 3D object you want to modify Attach a Viewer to the node to see your changes In the node s controls use the display pulldown menu to select how you want to view your object in the Viewer while making changes to it 4 From the list on the left select the curve you want to modify For example you d select z to only modify the vertex z values 303 3D COMPOSITING NUKE In the case of the CrosstalkGeo node you can also select y gt x for example to use the vertex y valu
450. ls select the OpenEXR file format and then execute the render Currently the OpenEXR format exr is the only file format that supports unlimited channels 469 NUKE Epilogue In this tutorial you setup a new project and created a simple composite You learned how to use or at least locate practically every Nuke window and tool and you rendered out the result of your composite You re finished Go home Well there might be a few more things you want to know After this tutorial you should feel comfortable with the Nuke user interface so put on your explorer hat and review the other tutorials There s no specific order from here so look through the following pages until you find what interests you End of Tutorial 470 Tutorial 2 Tracking Stabilising and Matchmoving Every filmmaker knows the challenges of putting together a vision You may not have the money to build post apocalyptic Montreal but you might have enough to create it in post You may have brilliant performances by your actors but not together in the same shot Fortunately you can composite the best takes Your battle sequence with 5 A list actors 100 000 extras and 57 elephants comes back from the lab with scratches on the negative You can fix it You can A savvy production team knows how to leverage digital technology to make it possible and Nuke s tracking tools are indis pensable for these situations As you may know tracking
451. lue for r and O as the value for b g and a This changes the colour of the rectangle from white to red 5 Copy the Rectangle node and paste it into the same script Create the following connections 6 Double click on the Rectangle2 node and change the colour of the rectangle from red to green r O g 1 b 0 a 0 7 Select Merge gt Switch to add a Switch node Create the following connections 424 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE 9 Select the Text1 Rectangle1 Rectangle2 and Switch nodes and press Ctrl Cmd G to group them This group will be the gizmo we will add controls to in the following examples Delete the original four nodes from the Node Graph tab 10 Select the Group node and append a Viewer to it Example 1 In this example we add a control called Version to the Group node controls This control is an input field Whatever is entered in the field is called by the Text1 node and displayed in the Viewer when you view the output of the group 1 Open the Group properties panel and right click on the dark grey background Select Man age User Knobs In the dialog that opens select Add gt Text input Knob to add a text input field control to your Group properties panel Enter version as the Name for the control Version as the Label and Enter the version number here as the Tooltip Click OK and Done to close the dialogs Text Knob Name version Label Wersion Hide Sf Start new line Tool
452. ly works if you have selected the first point on the curve 20 1 25934 _ s 9 0 005 x20 y1 25934 oe gt 2 0 005 w e After gt Constant or Linear to only interpolate the parts of the curve that are on the right side of the last point This option only works if you have selected the last point on the curve To repeat a portion of the curve throughout the curve 1 Right click on the editor and select Predefined gt Loop The Loop dialogue opens 2 In the First frame of loop field enter first frame of the portion you want to repeat throughout the curve In the Last frame of loop field enter the last frame of the portion you want to repeat 4 Click OK First frame of loop 20 Last frame of loop 50 K Cancel 64 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE The shape of the curve between these frames is repeated throughout the rest of the curve The solid line represents the actual curve and the dotted line the original curve with the key frames To reverse a curve Right click on the editor and select Predefined gt Reverse This makes the curve go backward in time Both the new curve and the original curve are dis played The solid line represents the actual curve and the dotted line contains the key frames that you can modify To negate a curve Right click on the editor and select Predefined gt Negate The curve becomes the negative of the key frames
453. mage from the next example 491 NUKE Image based Keying Many keying tools like Primatte use a colour pick as the baseline for the matte extraction process and then require the artist to tweak the matte from that baseline Nuke s image based keyer IBK uses the pixel values of the compositing images instead of a colour pick to generate the best matte for the image you want to extract It works by generating a processed screen image that preserves the colour variations of the blue or greenscreen and using this rather than a single colour to pull the key This generally gives good results and speeds up the keying process when working with uneven blue or greenscreens Image based keying requires two nodes in Nuke First you insert an IBKColour node to proc ess the screen image which is preset to work with either greenscreen or bluescreen This node generates the processed screen image that preserves the colour variations in your blue or greenscreen Then you insert an IBKGizmo node to generate the matte using the processed screen image the original image and also the background image for the composite To pull a key with IBK 1 Inthe keying tutor nk project file locate the node tree labelled Image based Keying 2 Right click over the Reformat3 node and choose Keyer gt IBKColour from the pop up menu Drag the IBKColourV3_1 node to the right 492 NUKE water_bg jpg 3 Click an empty spot in the
454. mat node so you can see the effect of your changes From the type pulldown menu select to box In the width and height fields type the output dimensions The units are pixels Use the resize type pulldown menu to choose the method by which you preserve or override the original pixel aspect ratio Select e width to scale the original until its width matches the value in the width field Height is then scaled in such a manner as to preserve the original aspect ratio this means that the output you specified in height may not match the result e height to scale the original until its height matches the value in the height field Width is then scaled in such a manner as to preserve the original aspect ratio this means that the output you specified in width may not match the result e fitto scale the original until its smallest side matches the corresponding value in width height The longer side is then scaled in such a manner as to preserve original aspect ratio e fill to scale the original until its longest side matches the corresponding value in width height The smallest side is then scaled in such a manner as to preserve original aspect ratio REFORMATTING ELEMENTS NUKE e distort to scale the original until its sides match the values in the width height fields This option does not preserve the original aspect ratio so distortions may occur Choose the appropriate filtering algorithm from the filter pulldown list see Choos
455. me of 0 5 is equivalent to a shutter angle of 180 degrees Imagine a grey rectangle moving left to right horizontally across the screen The figures below show how Shutter Time affects the retimed rectangle Shutter Time 1 Shutter Time 0 5 239 TEMPORAL OPERATIONS OFlow Parameter Shutter Samples Vector Detail Smoothness Block Size Tolerances Weight Red Weight Green Weight Blue NUKE Function Sets the number of in between images used to create an output image during the shutter time Increase this value for smoother motion blur but note that it takes much longer to render Shutter Samples 2 Shutter Samples 20 Adjust this to vary the resolution of the vector field Large vector fields take longer to process but contain more detail and may help to isolate smaller motion in the scene A value of 1 will generate a vector for every pixel A value of 0 5 will gener ate a vector at every other pixel For some sequences a high vector detail near 1 0 generates too much unwanted local motion detail and often a low value will give a better result Vector fields usually have two important qualities they should accurately match similar pixels in one image to another and they should be smooth rather than noisy Often it is necessary to trade one of these qualities off against the other A high smoothness will miss lots of local detail but is less likely to provide you with the odd spurious vector A low smo
456. mo name without the extension as a TCL command in the dialog that opens e opening the Script Editor and entering nuke load gizmo name where gizmo name stands for the name of the gizmo without the extension e selecting Other gt All plugins gt Update and once this is done pressing Tab on the Node Graph and entering the gizmo name Custom Plug ins The Nuke developer s kit NDK allows developers to create and compile their own binary plug ins To source a custom plug in 1 Place the plug in file in the plug in path directory Its name should include a d11 on Windows so on Linux or dylib on Mac extension For more information on plug in path directories see Loading Gizmos Plug ins and TCL scripts on page 410 2 Create a menu option referencing the plug in file see Defining Custom Menus and Toolbars on page 414 Or instruct artists to invoke the plug in by opening the Script Editor and entering nuke load plug in name where plug in name stands for the name of the plug in without the extension Sourcing TCL Procedure A Nuke script or gizmo is in fact a TCL procedure script Thus Nuke also allows you to hand code generic TCL procedure to automate Nuke in various ways To source a generic TCL procedure 1 Place the TCL procedure file in the plug in path directory Its name should include a tcl extension For more information on plug in path directories see Loading Gizmos Plug ins and TCL
457. n alt key and the left mouse button drag the mouse pointer across the node graph As you drag the mouse you pan your view of the node graph Zooming or Magnifying Your View e Windows Linux While pressing Alt and the middle mouse button drag the mouse pointer across the node graph e Mac OS X While pressing Option alt and the middle mouse button drag the mouse pointer across the node graph Drag to the right and you ll zoom in Drag to the left and you ll zoom out e Keyboard zoom in out Tap the plus key to zoom in Tap the minus key to zoom out Using the Node Graph Overview e When the node tree extends beyond the borders of the window a navigation box appears in the lower right corner of the node graph Drag the shaded rectangle inside the box and you ll quickly pan to another view of the node tree Drag this box to pan the view of the node tree Framing the View in the Window e Press the letter F on your keyboard to fit the entire contents of the node tree within the borders of the node graph The navigation controls for the node graph also work inside the next window on our agenda the Viewer 455 NUKE a m e i age BA a 2 ip a te ZS tafa l Ys ea Preaals A BP ga Working witn Viewers The postage stamps on the nodes those little pictures often called thumbnails show what each node passes onto the next node in the tree Although quite lovely they won t do for real compositing work You
458. n also add a negative value to a channel in which case the channel gets darker Figure 4 18 Offsetting channel values For this effect you use Nuke s Add node To offset channel values 1 Click Color gt Math gt Add to insert a Add node at the appropriate point in your script 2 Connect a Viewer to the output of the Add node so you can see the effect of your changes 3 Inthe Add properties panel use the channels field to select the channel you wish to offset 4 Use the value slider to input the value you wish to add to the channel s values If you are using premultiplied input images you may want to check un premult by and select rgba alpha from the pulldown menu This will simulate doing the addition before the premultiplication was done inverting Channel Values To nvert a channel is to subtract its values from one which causes its blacks to become white and its whites to become black In the course of building a script you ll have frequent need to invert mattes in particular l ake Si e Figure 4 19 Inverting channel values To invert channels you use Nuke s Invert node To invert channel values 1 Click Color gt Invert to insert an Invert node at the appropriate point in your script 154 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE 2 Connect a Viewer to the output of the Invert node so you can see the effect of your changes 3 Inthe Invert properties panel use the channels fiel
459. n each node you want to select OR Drag on the workspace to draw a marquee Nuke selects all nodes inscribed by the marquee Figure 2 10 Selecting multiple nodes with a marquee To select all upstream nodes Press Ctrl Mac users press Cmd while dragging on a node Nuke selects all nodes that feed data to the selected node Or press Ctrl Cmd click to highlight these upsteam nodes Or press Ctrl Cmd Shift click to select these upsteam nodes To select all nodes in a script Select Edit gt Select all or press Ctrl Cmd A To select nodes by name 1 Choose Edit gt Search or press the forward slash A dialog appears 2 Type an alphanumeric string that is included in the names of the nodes you wish to select Click OK Tip When typing the above alphanumeric search string you can use asterisks and question marks as wild cards An asterisk stands for multiple alphanumeric characters A question mark represents just one character 36 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Renaming Nodes To rename a node 1 Double click on the node to open its properties panel 2 In the title field on top of the properties panel you should see the current name of the node Delete that name and enter a new name in its place Biur Blur Node channels OR 1 Click on the node in the Node Graph to select it 2 Press N 3 Enter a new name for the node in the rename field that appears on top of the node
460. n image or its Reformat node if one exists You should now see the destination image and the blue destination grid 11 Adjust the destination grid to conform to the subject of the destination image This way you warp the source image into the shape of the destination image 12 Attach the Viewer to the GridWarp node and scrub to the frame where you want the morph to begin 13 In the GridWarp controls bring the distortion slider down to O the source image Click on the animation button and select Set key Then scrub to the frame where you want the morph to end and set distortion to 1 the destination image 14 Animate the blend control in the same way Scrub to the frame where the morph starts and set blend to O the source image Click the animation button and select Set key Scrub to the frame where the morph ends and enter 1 the destination image as the blend value If you now play the sequence in the Viewer you ll notice that the source image is morphed into the destination image To morph one image into another using the SplineWarp node 1 Select Image gt Read to import the two images you want to morph together 2 If the images do not have the same resolution insert Reformat nodes after them For more information see Reformatting Image Sequences on page 99 3 Select Transform gt SplineWarp to insert a SplineWarp node into your script 4 Connect the source image the image you want to turn into another image
461. n page 557 for a complete list of recognized extensions When a prefix is used it takes precedence over the format represented by an extension In fact the prefix makes the extension unnecessary You could for example enter exr lt path gt 03d as the file name and this would create an OpenEXR image sequence with frame numbers only padded to three digits Tip You can also use instead of 04d instead of 03d instead of 02d and so on 355 PREVIEWS AND RENDERING NUKE Render Farms Nuke supports virtually all third party and proprietary render queuing software By integrat ing Nuke with such a system the render load can be distributed across all the Nuke licensed machines on your network whether Windows Mac or Linux based Your installation of Nuke may be configured to send jobs to a network render farm which is usually made available under the Render menu i e Render gt Render However because this option must be customized for each studio you should check with your system administrator for instructions on how to send a Nuke script for network rendering 356 16 Expressions This chapter is intended as a primer on how to apply expressions programmatic com mands to Nuke parameters It explains how to perform some common tasks with expressions for example how to link the values of one parameter to another and concludes with a table all the functions that you may include as part of an
462. nable security measures as part of the use of the Software and Documentation Licensee acknowledges that monetary damages may not be a sufficient remedy for unauthorized disclosure of Confidential Informa tion and that The Foundry shall be entitled without waiving any other rights or remedies to such injunctive or equitable relief as may be deemed proper by a court of competent jurisdic tion SECTION 14 INSPECTION Licensee shall advise The Foundry on demand of all locations where the Software or Documen tation is used or stored Licensee shall permit The Foundry or its authorized agents to inspect all such locations during normal business hours and on reasonable advance notice APPENDIX E END USER LICENSING AGREEMENT NUKE SECTION 15 NONSOLICITATION Licensee agrees not to solicit for employment or retention and not to employ or retain any of The Foundry s current or future employees who were or are involved in the development and or creation of the Software SECTION 16 U S GOVERNMENT LICENSE RIGHTS The Software Documentation and or data delivered hereunder are subject to the terms of this Agreement and in no event shall the U S Government acquire greater than RESTRICTED LIM ITED RIGHTS At a minimum use duplication or disclosure by the U S Government is subject to the applicable restrictions of i FAR 52 227 14 ALTS Il and III June 1987 ii FAR 52 227 19 June 1987 iii FAR 12 211 and 12 212 and or iv
463. nal or shell as described for your operating system at the beginning of this chapter Using the prompt go to the nuke directory under your home directory Enter pwd to display and verify the path You should see something similar to e users ogin name nuke on Linux e Users ogin name nuke on Mac or e drive etter Documents and Settings ogin name nuke on Windows XP or drive letter Users ogin name nuke on Windows Vista This is not always the case however because on Windows the nuke folder can be found under the directory pointed to by the HOME environment variable or if HOME is not set the USERPROFILE environment variable 432 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE To find out if the HOME and USERPROFILE environment variables are set and where they are pointing at enter S HOME or USERPROFILE into the address bar in Win dows Explorer If the environment variable is set the folder it s pointing at is opened If it s not set you will get an error 4 Enter rm preferences5 nk to delete the preference file 5 Close the terminal or shell The next time you launch Nuke it will rebuild the file with the default preferences Altering a Script s Lookup Tables LUTs Overview A script s lookup tables are curves that control the conversion between file or device colour Spaces and Nuke s internal colour space In the curve editor the x axis represents the input pixel values and the y axis the output pixel valu
464. nd 5 For the next layer select the Reformat3 node attached to smoke right Then hold down the Shift key and select the Ramp1 node 6 Press M to insert a Merge node and composite one image over the other This composites the smoke _ right image over the background bke_rightO028 Background 7 The default compositing algorithm Over isn t exactly what we need here In the Merge2 control panel click on the operation list and select screen 8 In the Merge2 control panel drag the mix slider and change its value to 0 30 to reduce the amount of the image supplied by the A input 462 NUKE Merge2 Merge Node operation screen Video colorspace set bbox to union A channels rgba W red green blue rgba alpha B channels rgba 8 red BB green blue amp rgba alpha output raba W red S green amp blue amp rgba alpha also merge none 7 none mask rgba alpha inject invert fringe mix 0 3 9 An additional Merge node is required Select Reformat2 for smoke _left Hold down the Shift key and select the Over node the first Merge node you inserted Background oke_letL0078 rq 10 Press M to composite the two nodes In the Merge3 control panel change the mix slider to 0 75 463 NUKE The result of your composite should look similar to the example shown below Figure 1 10 Result of the composite Colour correcting Images Colour correction and filter
465. nd Changing Convergence The ReConverge node lets you shift convergence the inward rotation of the eyes or cameras so that any selected point in the image appears at screen depth when viewed with 3D glasses This point is called the convergence point t is the point where the lines of sight from the two Cameras meet convergence point convergence point w ZY Figure 14 3 Changing convergence moves the point where the lines of sight from the two cameras meet 343 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE At the convergence point the different views in the image are aligned and appear at screen depth when viewed with 3D glasses Anything behind the convergence point appears behind the screen while anything in front of it seems to pop out of the screen This is illustrated in Figure 14 4 Elements at the convergence point Elements behind the convergence appear at screen depth point appear behind the screen 5 E aX tL t i ir ele e O M biii tnd ee m n _ eet cee Elements in front of the convergence point pop out of the screen Figure 14 4 Convergence controls where elements in the image appear in relation to the screen when viewed with 3D glasses Changing convergence changes the perceived depth of the images It moves all the elements in the image backwards or forwards a fixed distance while keeping the distance between them the same This is illustrated in Figure 14 5 wher
466. nd all fast moving features the window frame and the pages on the desk for example This may look odd when viewed as part of a still frame but will contribute to smoother motion during actual playback You can enable frame blending by manipulating the shutter value of a retiming node Higher shutter values generate more frame blending Or you can insert a Frame Blend node before the temporal effect you want to influence The below figure shows an example of Frame Blend with the Retime node To insert a FrameBlend node 1 Choose Time gt FrameBlend from the menu Remember to place it upstream from the temporal effect you want to influence 2 Enter the number of frames to blend in the Number of frames field Or 236 TEMPORAL OPERATIONS NUKE Check the box for Use Range and enter the starting and ending frames that you want to blend FrameBlendi FrameBlend Node channels all Number of frames 60 Frame Range f s Range Foreground matte none output Image count to none mask input x inject M invert M fringe mix 1 3 If necessary check Foreground matte and select the channel to limit the blending effect The option beneath Foreground matte output Image count to saves a floating point alpha image to a channel you specify the result indicates the number of images that contributed to each pixel of the matte To normalize the alpha divide the number 1 by the number of frames averaged and then multiply the
467. nd it does not support the Complement Colour spill suppression method Reset Resets all of the Primatte key control data back to a blue or greenscreen Auto Compute The Auto Compute button can be used as the first step in the Primatte operation It s purpose is to try and do the first three steps of the Primatte operation for you It will try to automati cally detect the backing screen colour remove it and do some clean up on the foreground and background noise If the clip was shot with an evenly lit well saturated backing screen the Auto Compute button will leave you with an image that may only need some spill removal to complete your keying operation auto FG Factor The auto FG Factor slider can be used to modify how the Auto Compute algorithm deals with foreground noise Change the position of this slider and you can see the results of the Auto Compute operation change auto BG Factor The auto BG Factor slider can be used to modify how the Auto Compute algorithm deals with background noise Change the position of this slider and you can see the results of the Auto Compute operation change 3D Viewer This selector opens a window in the Viewer that displays a graphical representation of the Primatte algorithms and allows the user to see what is happening as the various Primatte tools are used It is a passive feature that has no adjustment capabilities it may prove useful in evaluating an image as you operate on it 200
468. nd not in the 3D OpenGL Viewer 311 3D COMPOSITING NUKE e Drag the cone falloff slider to control how concentrated the light is that is how much the light diminishes from the centre of the circular region out to the edge The higher the value the more focused the light becomes The falloff is independent of the falloff type e To control how much light the object gets from the light source based on the distance between the object and the light source use the falloff type menu A Linear type diminishes the light at a fixed rate as it travels from the object whereas Quadratic and Cubic types diminish the light at an exponential rate If you select No Falloff the distance between the light source and the object does not affect the lighting e To control the direction of the light enter values in the rotate fields e To control the position of the light in the 3D space enter values in the translate fields Spotlight1 Spotlight Node color intensity cone angle cone penumbra angle O cone falloff falloff type Wo Falloff display wireframe 7 W selectable import chan file export chan file transform order SRT rotation order ZY translate x rotate x scale x uniform scale Figure 13 25 Spot light controls Environment Light An environment light is a light that illuminates the objects using an image of light from a real world environment This image based lighting is generated using High Dynamic Rang
469. ned on the display resolution will be 100 of the proxy resolution Compositing Images The Merge nodes create a composite with two or more images using various compositing algorithms In this example we ll do a very simple A over B composite to layer the fore ground image over the background You can insert a compositing node from the Toolbar or menus but we ll show you a shortcut that bypasses both of these The trick is the select both nodes you want to composite and then press a hot key to assign a compositing node To composite two nodes 1 Select the Reformat node attached to engine vO1 This provides the foreground image for the first compositing operation 2 Press the Shift key and select the Ramp1 node Both engine v01 and Ramp1 nodes should be selected 3 Press the letter M to insert a Merge node The first node you selected is attached to the A input on the Merge node as the foreground input The second node you selected is attached to B the background input If necessary you can swap the A and B inputs of a merge node by pressing Shift X Background In the Merge node control panel the operation parameter determines the compositing algorithm used to generate the result of the two inputs the selected operation becomes the name of the node in the Node Graph 461 NUKE 4 Rearrange the nodes so that the node tree looks similar to this bke_right 0028 I Se Toma Backgrou
470. need to define project settings for length or frame range the number of frames per second for playback and the output format These options appear on the Project Settings dialog box To setup your project 1 Click the right mouse button over the Node Graph and then choose Edit gt Project Set tings from the pop up menu toot LUT Views name lock all connections frame range 1 30 X lock range tps 24 full size format PC_Video 640x480 proxy mode format proxy format PC_Video 640x480 2 In the frame range fields enter a range of 1 to 28 This will be the length of the shot we create for the project Enter 24 as the frames per second fps Click the full size format list and choose PC_Video 640 x 480 Close the Settings control panel Root LUT Wiews x do lew Close these controls om name 446 NUKE Until now everything you ve done is standard procedure for a new project You used the menu On the project Settings control panel the LUT tab includes options that ensure colour integrity for your display and output devices You don t need to change the LUT for these tutorials but we recommend that you research and set these options for your own projects bar to access several features during the setup process and now you ll use the Nuke toolbar to insert nodes and create a compositing tree Working with Nodes A node is simply one of the building blocks for the list of operations you want to com
471. need to load in an entire script file You recognise Nuke s script files from the extension nk for example firstscript nk To load a script 1 Select File gt Open or press Ctrl Cmd 0 The Script to open dialog appears Browse to the script you want to open For instructions on using the file browser see Using the File Browser on page 83 Click Open Closing Nuke Scripts To close a script 1 2 Select File gt Close or press Ctrl Cmd W If you have made any unsaved changes to the script Nuke prompts you to select whether to save them Click Yes to save your changes or No to ignore them Nuke is quit and relaunched as though you ran it again It does everything it does at start up apart from displaying the splash screen Therefore you can use Ctrl Cmd W as a quick way to clear memory reread plug in paths and reload the init py and menu py files The init py and menu py files are files that Nuke runs at start up and can be used for configuring Nuke You may want to reload these files if you have made any changes to them Defining Frame Ranges Several dialogs in Nuke such as the Frames to render and Frames to flipbook dialogs prompt you for a frame range To define one you need to enter a starting frame and an ending frame 100 MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE separated by a comma For example to restrict an action to frames 1 2 3 4 and 5 you would use 1 5 as the frame range The following tabl
472. need to open a Viewer window to See the full picture Viewaerl ragba rgba alpha RGB 2 7 20 BR defaut fe bd ki ee A current displayed channels zoom setting downrez setting alpha channel other channels proxy toggle timeline Fi Pil Video 640x480 bbox 0 0 1 1 channels none 1 I ceba s Figure 1 7 A Viewer window You can open several Viewers at once In addition you have up to 10 pages or buffers for each Viewer window these allow you to toggle between different views along the node tree When you start Nuke you will see a default Viewer node in the Node Graph You can easily drag the connection arrow from a node onto the Viewer to display the node s output You can open additional Viewers by choosing Viewer gt Create New Viewer from the menu bar or by pressing Ctrl l To display the images in a Viewer window 1 Drag the connector from the Viewer node onto the Read node for the engine vO1 clip oke_right 0028 rg Background 456 P 3 NUKE Here s an alternate method Select the engine v01 clip node and then press 1 to connect to the Viewer node Nuke displays the node s output in the Viewer window rgba rgba alpha RGB A engine vo 20 BR defaut fe ki ki O Re P i 144021152 bbox 0 0 1440 1152 channels r LT 10 Press the Alt key Mac users press Option and the left mouse button and drag the
473. nel click the Transform tab Choose and operation from the transform list match move or stabilize U A W N gt Click the Tracker tab and check the enable box for each of the tracks you want to activate one for each feature you want to track in the image For example suppose you want to track the four corners of a billboard so you can matchmove a new image to it a cornerpin track you ll need four tracks activated 6 Drag the anchors over the features in the image you want to track Press the track forward button in the Tracker properties panel to generate the animation data for all enabled tracks Activating Track Anchors You can select up to four track anchors The number you choose depends on which transfor mational components you wish to track and the degree of accuracy you require To activate the tracks 1 Click the Tracker tab in the properties panel 2 Check each of the boxes for the tracks you want to enable 176 TRACKING AND STABILISING NUKE Tracker Settings Transform Node reset grab clear offset Animation Controls Clear all dear bkwd clear fwd center viewer predict track Tracker 1 X enable Use to calculate T R z tracki x 238 y 320 Tracker 2 manabii Use to calculate track x 546 y 188 Tracker 3 enable Use to calculate Tracker 4 enable Use to calculate After you calculate a track you can uncheck its enable box to lock it This protects the tracked points from being recalculat
474. ng both the sample and focus diameter values in the ScanlineRender node s controls you can also use the multisampling to simulate depth of field 319 3D COMPOSITING NUKE To add motion blur for a static scene with approximately linear camera movement during the shutter period 1 Select the ScanlineRender node 2 Choose Filter gt Motion Blur 3D to insert this node and connect it to the scanline renderer Connect the rendering camera to the MotionBlur3D node 4 Choose Filter gt Vector Blur to insert and connect this node to the MotionBlur3D node 5 In the VectorBlur settings select the motion layer from the uv channels list YectorBlurl VectorBlur Node channels uy channels motion add ul multiply offset 0 5 grow bbox 0 method backward alpha none mask mask W rgba alpha 7 inject E invert fringe mix A 6 For the add settings enter 1 for both u and v For anamorphic footage the add u value should be 2 and the add v value should be 1 7 To adjust the length of the blur adjust the Shutter setting in the MotionBlur3D properties panel 320 3D COMPOSITING NUKE MotionBlursO1 MotionBlurso Node Output UV motion zZ input none distance 1 Increase or decrease the shutter value shutter shutterottset Importing Channel Files Cameras Lights Transforms and Meshes from Other Applications Sometimes you may need to import files or objects created in 3D applications
475. ng command nuke help Here s that list of command line flags in a table Switch Flag Action b Background mode This launches Nuke and returns control to the terminal so you get your prompt back This is equivalent to appending a command with an amp to run in the back ground c size k M orG Limit the cache memory usage where size equals a number in bytes You can specify a dif ferent unit by appending k kilobytes M megabytes or G gigabytes after size d lt x server name gt This allows Nuke to be viewed on one machine while run on another Linux only and requires some setting up to allow remote access to the X Server on the target machine f Open Nuke script at full resolution Scripts that have been saved displaying proxy images can be opened to show the full resolution image using this flag See also p h Display command line help help Display command line help i Use an interactive nuke_i FLEXIm license key This flag is used in conjunction with back ground rendering scripts using x By default x will use a nuke_r license key but ix will background render using a nuke i license key 1 New read or write nodes will have the colourspace set to linear rather than default m Set the number of threads to the value specified by n Open script without postage stamps on nodes 403 CONFIGURING NUKE Switch Flag P q S V version X X node General Syn
476. nge the lights g value to 0 75 This corrects the artifacts of the screen image 15 Now change the patch black setting to 1 5 to restore the edge detail of the hairline Parameters IBEColourv3 screen type green 16 Connect the Viewer to the IBKGizmoV3_1 node Press A and you ll see the current alpha channel produced by the IBK system 497 NUKE The displayed alpha image shown is correct for the IBK If the intensity of the noise in your alpha channel is greater than the example show above you may need to adjust in very Small increments the dark and light values for the colour channels in the IBKColour node 17 Press A again over the Viewer to toggle back to display all colour channels and scrub through the timeline to check the matte at various points in the clip E 18 If you haven t already done so save your project under a new file name to save the changes you ve made to project Rotoscoping In this example we ll return to our first keying example to apply a garbage matte and clean up the aquarium image To draw a garbage matte 1 Go back to the node tree from the first example and connect the Viewer to the Primattel node Drag the time slider to frame 50 2 Click an empty spot on the node graph to deselect all nodes and choose Draw gt Bezier from the pop up menu 498 NUKE water_bg jpg 3 At this point you don t need to connect the Bezier node to anything but its contr
477. nnected the node uses the alpha channel from it as a matte roba alpha inject invert fringe 2 If you don t want to use the alpha channel as the matte select the channel you want to use from the mask pulldown menu 3 If you want the mask from the mask input copied into the predefined mask a channel check inject This way you can use the last mask input again downstream You can also set a stream of nodes to use mask a as the mask and then change the masking of all of them by simply connecting a new mask into the mask input connector of the first node 4 If necessary check the invert box to reverse the mask 121 CHANNELS NUKE 5 If the overall effect of the node is too harsh you can blend back in some of the input image by adjusting the mix slider To select a channel for use as a matte from the main input 1 Make sure nothing is connected to the node s mask input connector If you disconnect a mask input the mask input connector disappears as it is no longer being used 2 Select the channel you want to use from the mask pulldown menu 3 If necessary check the invert box to reverse the mask 4 Ifthe overall effect of the node is too harsh you can blend back in some of the input image by adjusting the mix slider Tracing Channels You may have noticed that nodes visually indicate the channels which they are processing that is treating in some way and passing that is conveying without any treatment
478. node graph to deselect all nodes Then choose Keyer gt IBKGizmo from the pop up menu 4 From IBKGizmoV3_ 01 node connect fg foreground to the Reformat3 node Connect c colour screen to the IBKColourV3_1 node 5 Connect bg from IBKGizmoV3_1 to the Reformat4 node which supplies the background for the comp 6 Connect the Viewer to the IBKGizmoV3_1 node and your node tree should look similar to this water_bg jpg 7 Open the control panel for IBKColourV3_1 and change the screen type to green IBKColour 3_1 Parameters IBEColourv3 screentype green size 10 darks rio lights ra erode 0 patch black U 8 Open the control panel for IBKGizmoV3_1 and change its screen type to C green 493 NUKE IBEGizmoV 3_1 IBK IBK Gizmov3 sereen type C green 7 k colour ro g red weight 0 5 blue green weight 0 5 You should see an acceptable matte shown in the screen capture below on frame 50 This is a very good start for this image 9 Connect the Viewer to the IBKColourV3_1 node You ll see the processed screen image which is essentially a Gaussian filtered high contrast key 10 Choose Merge gt Merge or press M over the node graph to insert an over node 494 NUKE water_bg jpg 11 Connect IBKGizmoV3_1 to the A input of the over node Then connect the B input to the Reformat4 node The colour of this greenscreen is completely out of the region of the acce
479. nodes 139 grain matching 149 practical 150 synthetic 149 Grain nodes 149 GridWarp nodes 247 256 258 H HDRI format 557 help online 16 histograms 139 Host ID number 20 hot keys 546 NUKE HSV adjusting 144 HSVTool nodes 144 hue adjusting 143 HueCorrect nodes 146 IBK 492 IFF format 557 litter removing from tracks 180 image formats 109 applying 110 defining common 419 deleting 110 displaying in a viewer 74 editing 110 supported 557 Image Based Keyer 492 Impulse filtering algorithm 161 indicators on nodes 41 input channels selecting 122 input fields 50 interface preferences 89 367 Invert nodes 154 inverting channel values 154 J JoinViews nodes 337 JPEG format 557 K keyboard shortcuts 546 Keyer nodes 504 keyframes deleting 66 setting 56 keying 187 485 keying video 504 Keys filtering algorithm 162 L launching Nuke 25 440 layering images 126 layers 117 creating 117 deleting 122 license keys 20 licenses floating 20 node locked 20 obtaining 20 licensing 25 Light nodes 314 lighting 540 LightWrap nodes 261 linking expressions 357 lin to log conversions 156 Imhostid number 20 Log2Lin nodes 157 585 LogGeo nodes 304 Lookup nodes 142 lookup tables altering for a script 433 default settings 436 LookupGeo nodes 302 LUTs altering for a script 433 default settings 436 M macros See gizmos masking colour corrections 148 masking effects 465 masks selecting 120 matchmoving
480. now appear on top of the Group properties panel above the version controls Groupi Version and status Group Version controls in Version O3 a8 Hide version number Status Finished Finally we ll add a divider line between the version controls and the Status control 1 In the Group properties panel right click on the dark grey background and select Manage User Knobs again 2 Inthe dialog that opens select Add gt Divider Line to add a line to divide the controls in your Group properties panel Select the line from the Manage User Knobs dialog where it is shown as unnamed Click the Up button once to move the line between the Hide version number and Status controls Click Done If you now open the Group controls you ll notice that a there s a line between these controls Groupi Version and status Group Version controls z Version w03 a5 Hide version number Status Finished x Hopefully the above examples have given you an idea of how to create user controls for your gizmos Once you have all the controls you need remember to save your gizmo for instruc tions see step 5 under Creating Gizmos on page 420 Sourcing Gizmos To source a gizmo Create a menu option referencing the gizmo see Defining Custom Menus and Toolbars on page 414 429 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE OR Instruct artists to invoke the gizmo by e typing x on the Node Graph or Properties Bin and entering the giz
481. nsity spot falloff type No Falloff 3 Adjust the controls as necessary For information on the functions of the controls refer to the following e f you selected point as the light type see Point Light on page 310 e If you selected directional as the light type see Direct Light on page 310 e lf you selected spot as the light type see Spot Light on page 311 314 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Manipulating Object Normals Object normals are vectors that are perpendicular to the surface They are used in lighting cal culations to determine how the light should bounce off a surface at any particular point By manipulating them you can control the diffuse and specular light contributions To manipulate object normals 1 Select 3D gt Modify gt Normals to insert a Normals node anywhere after the 3D object whose lighting you want to adjust Connect a Camera Axis or light node to the Normals node s lookat input In the Normals controls open the action pulldown menu and select e unchanged to make no changes e set to assign the normals value to the normal x y and z fields e build to rebuild each normal based on the surrounding vertices Adjust the threshold angle slider to determine the break angle where two faces no longer constitute a smooth surface An angle of O means all faces are flat whereas 180 means all faces are smooth A good average setting is 60 e lookat to point all normals towards the Normals node s loo
482. nstead of a solid palette colour or just the complement colour This mode can result in good colour tone on the foreground object even with a high contrast background As in the example below spill can even be removed from frosted glass using this feature and still retain the translucency On the negative side the Defocus Replacement mode sometimes results in the fine edge detail of the foreground objects getting lost Another problem could occur if the user wanted to later change the size of the foreground image against the background Since the background fore ground alignment would change the applied colour tone from the defocused image might not match the new alignment a Original FG Object b Original BG oc Spill Image d Cemplemental Medel 8 Yellow replacement f Defecus Replacement Figure 7 15 Blue suppression of a frosted glass object 198 PRIMATTE Primatte Tools and Buttons Primattel Primatte Node foreground background crop x mask Initialize algorithrn auto BG factor auto FG factor Degrain type tolerance Actions operation current color Primatte Reset Auto Compute 0 none Ore Select BG Color viewer NUKE Fine Tuning Spill Process replace with complement Output output mode composite output rgba W red N green blue X rgba alpha Figure 7 16 Primatte node controls Initialize Section Initialize algorithm Frimatte Reset Auto Compute
483. nt to paste the vectors on the clipboard 2 Select the paint stroke s from the list in the Paint node controls Under curve keys click paste Nuke pastes the vectors but not any attributes on the clipboard to the selected paint strokes and sets the current frame as a key frame The vectors of the selected paint strokes on other frames are not affected 231 USING PAINT NUKE Cutting Vectors The cut button under curve keys lets you delete any keys set at the current frame to animate the vectors of selected strokes however it does not delete the vectors themselves Cut also copies the vectors at the current frame to the clipboard The paint stroke attributes or any keys set to animate the attributes are not affected To cut vectors 1 In the Viewer scrub to the frame that contains the paint stroke s whose vectors you want to cut Select the paint stroke s from the list in the Paint node controls Under curve keys click cut Nuke deletes any keys set to animate the vectors of the selected paint strokes and copies the vectors to the clipboard Paint and Stereoscopic Projects When you are using the Paint node in a stereoscopic or multi view project you can use the view control to select the view to paint on For more information see Se ecting the View to Process When Using the Paint Node on page 336 Using the correlate controls on the Paint node you can create a paint stroke on one view and have it automatically
484. nted to create a Blur node using this statement you would enter nuke createNode Blur You may encounter problems if you attempt to use the nuke nodes nodename or nuke createNode statements to call a file that does exist in your Nuke directory plugins folder but is NOT nor mally used to create a node or called directly For example entering nuke nodes drop Q or nuke crea teNode drop causes Nuke to try and call the drop tcl file but because no node called Drop exists this may result in a crash In general any files in the plugins directory whose name does not start with a capital letter do not create nodes and should not be used with the nuke nodes nodename or nuke createNode statements When using the nuke nodes nodename statement to create nodes you can also add optional named arguments inside the parenthesis separated by commas You can use these arguments to set parameter values for the node rename the node set the nodes inputs and in the case of Read nodes specify where to load an image from Setting parameter values renaming nodes and creating Read nodes are described below whereas setting a node s inputs is discussed later in this chapter under Connecting Nodes and Setting Their Inputs on page 388 To create a node and set a parameter value enter nuke nodes nodename parameter value where e nodename is the name of the node you want to add e parameter is the name of the control whose value
485. nts the breadth of the stroke Apply strokes as necessary Using the Eraser Tool The Eraser tool lets you remove pixels from existing paint strokes Figure 8 3 Painting with the Eraser tool To use the Eraser tool Is Set opacity brush size and brush hardness as described below see Editing Stroke Attributes on page 223 Set the timing of the stroke as described below see Editing Stroke Timing on page 241 Click the Eraser tool Apply strokes as necessary 222 USING PAINT NUKE Using the Clone Tool The Clone tool lets you remove unwanted features from the plate by painting over them with pixels offset from the pointer gcel stroke source stroke destination Figure 8 4 Painting with the Clone tool To use the Clone tool 1 Set opacity brush size brush hardness and comp mode as described below see Editing Stroke Attributes on page 223 Set the timing of the stroke as described below see Editing Stroke Timing on page 241 Click the Clone tool To set the offset hold down Ctrl Cmd and left click at the source location drag to where you want to paint and release Alternatively you can enter the offset numerically using the offset parameter If you d like the offset amount to be rounded to an integer check round 5 Start painting The pointer overlay depicts the source of the offset as a crosshair within a circle and the destination as a circle the diameter of which repres
486. nu next to the shape control select Correlate view from view using disparity for example Correlate left from right using disparity This adds a corresponding Bezier shape to the other view extra blur O falloff 1 blurtype linear hi shape of i J lingar interpolate Split off left Ocula settings Correlate right from left with Ocula blocksize Correlate left from right with Ocula searcnsize Correlate right from left using disparity correlate left from right using disparity If you have The Foundry s Ocula plug ins installed you can also select Correlate view from view with Ocula This way extra refinements are made when creating the corresponding paint stroke and the results may be more accurate With Ocula installed you can also use the Ocula settings controls blocksize and searchsize on the Bezier node 5 If you want to adjust the Bezier shape further you need to adjust both views independently Adjustments you make to one view are not automatically generated for the other Reproducing X and Y Values Whenever there are values in any x or y control in Nuke for one view you can automatically generate the corresponding values for the other view This is true for both nodes and gizmos For example you can use a Tracker node to track something in one view and then have the track s x and y position generated for the other view automatically To produce x and y values for one view and have them automatically generated
487. nvironment Variables on page 409 6 In the Variable value field enter the value for the variable The value can be a directory path for example 7 Click OK When editing existing system variables or adding or deleting either user or system variables on Win dows Vista you need to log off and on again before your changes to environment variables take effect On Mac On Mac OS X there is a special environment file a plist or property list file which is read every time a user logs in You may need to create the plist file if it doesn t already exist in MacOSX environment plist where indicates the user s home directory and a hidden directory Environment variables set using the plist file are read both when Nuke is launched from the Nuke icon and when it s launched from the Terminal 1 Open a Terminal window By default you should be in your home directory your own directory in the Users folder Enter pwd present working directory to verify this 2 Enter 1s al to see a list of files in that directory If MacOSX is not in the list enter mkdir MacOSx to create the directory To create your plist file launch TextEdit Copy the following into the document and edit the key and string entries lt xml version 1 0 encoding UTF 8 gt lt DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC Apple Computer DTD PLIST 1 0 EN http www apple com DTDs PropertyList 1 0 dtd gt lt plist version 1 0 gt
488. ny axis see 7rans ating Elements on page 165 Press Shift while dragging to constrain the translation to y Press Ctrl Cmd while dragging to rotate the frame on any axis see Rotating Elements on page 166 Press Ctri Cmd Shift while dragging to constrain the rotation to y B Drag to translate the frame on any axis Press Shift while dragging to constrain the translation to z Press Ctrl Cmd while dragging to rotate the frame on any axis Press Ctrl Cmd Shift while dragging to constrain the rotation to z C Drag to translate the frame on any axis Press Shift while dragging to constrain the translation to x Press Ctrl Cmd while dragging to rotate the frame on any axis Press Ctrl Cmd Shift while dragging to constrain the rotation to x 170 TRANSFORMING ELEMENTS NUKE Translating Elements When using the Card3D node you can translate elements on z in addition to the other axes To translate an element using the Card3D node In the Card3D properties panel increment or decrement the translate x y and z fields to slide the element along any axis Alternatively you can drag or press Shift while dragging on any axis on transformation over lay 171 TRANSFORMING ELEMENTS NUKE Rotating Elements When using the Card3D node you can rotate elements around the x and y axes in addition to the z This is useful for cheating the perspective To rotate elements using the Card3D node 1 Position the pivot poin
489. o Chapter 3 Managing Scripts on page 90 1 Installation and Licensing We know the installation and licensing of a new application can be a boring task that you just want to be done with as soon as possible To help you with that this chapter guides you to the point where you have an open workspace of Nuke in front of you and are ready to start compositing to your heart s content whether it be with the commer cial version of Nuke or the Nuke Personal Learning Edition PLE System Requirements Before you do anything else check the system requirements to make sure your computer can run Nuke Windows and Linux e 550 MHZ Pentium IIl or newer processor e Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or later or CentOS 4 5 e 5 GB disk space available for caching and temporary files e 512 MB RAM minimum requirement e Workstation class graphics card such as NVIDIA Quadro series ATI FireGL series or newer Driver support for OpenGL 1 4 To enable optional GPU acceleration of certain effects you need OpenGL 1 4 with support for floating point textures and GLSL e Display with at least 1280 x 1024 pixel resolution and 24 bit colour e Three button mouse To avoid graphical problems such as text disappearing in the Viewer and Node Graph it is important to keep your graphics card drivers up to date Driver updates can be obtained from the web sites of the graphics card manufacturers for example www nvidia com and www ati com Mac
490. o parts You use the lower part input pane to type in and execute your Python statement and when you have done so statements and their outputs appear in the upper part of the editor output pane Successfully executed statements are followed by a hash mark 382 THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE Script Editor b nuke createNode Blur Result k b knob size Result The output of your statements appears in the output pane k setValue 10 You enter your statements in the input pane Figure 18 2 The two parts of the Script Editor To hide the output or input pane click the Show input only or Show output only button on top of the Script Editor To show both panes again click the Show both input and output button To enter a statement 1 Click on the input pane of the editor to insert the cursor there 2 Type in your statement To use the usual editing functions such as copy and paste right click on the editor and select the desired function 383 THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE When entering the statement you ll notice that any words that are Python s keywords such as print and import turn green while strings basically anything in quotation marks become either red or cyan Comments are shown in yellow benuke crealeNode i range b getNumHnobs b knob i named If you like you can change these colours and the font on the Script Editor tab of the Preferences dialo
491. o you 466 NUKE The Flipbook feature provides better realtime preview because it is prerendered for the FrameCycler viewer included with Nuke Keep in mind that the Flipbook feature will render a preview that matches the active resolution if you re in proxy mode for example that s the resolution you ll get in the flipbook The Flipbook feature renders temporary files in the directory you specified for disk cache under Nuke gt Preferences You ll also find an option there that allows you to limit the amount of disk space that the flipbook feature may use To generate a flipbook 1 Select the Over node at the bottom of your node tree 2 From the menu bar choose Render gt Flipbook selected 3 Enter 1 28 as the number of frames to preview and click OK 4 When the flipbook is ready to view a copy of the Framecycler window will appear Click the Play button to view the results 5 Close the Framecycler window to return to your project Rendering Final Output When you re ready to render the results of your composite you insert a Write at the bottom of the node tree and specify the pathname for the rendered images Although we ll use just one here you can place several Write nodes in your script anywhere you like to render output from different places in the tree When the render order is important use the render order option in the Write nodes to specify the order in which multiple renders should be execute
492. ocumentation for any purpose provided that existing copy right notices are retained in all copies and that this notice is included verbatim in any distributions No written agreement license or royalty fee is required for any of the authorized uses Modifications to this software may be copyrighted by their authors and need not follow the licensing terms described here provided that the new terms are clearly indicated on the first page of each file where they apply IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR DISTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR DIRECT INDIRECT SPECIAL INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE ITS DOCUMENTATION OR ANY DERIVATIVES THEREOF EVEN IF THE AUTHORS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POS SIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE THE AUTHORS AND DISTRIBUTORS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTIES INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABIL ITY FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON INFRINGEMENT THIS SOFT WARE IS PROVIDED ON AN AS IS BASIS AND THE AUTHORS AND DISTRIBUTORS HAVE NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE SUPPORT UPDATES ENHANCEMENTS OR MODIFICATIONS GOVERNMENT USE If you are acquiring this software on behalf of the U S govern ment the Government shall have only Restricted Rights in the software and related documentation as defined in the Federal Acquisition Regulations FARs in Clause 52 227 19 2 If you are acquiring the software on behalf of th
493. ode foreground background crop x mask Initialize Primatte Reset viewer lgonthimn Auto Compute auto BG factor auto FG factor Degrain type tolerance Actions operation current color ee Spill Process replace with Output output mode output 0 Hone Or Select BG Color 7 S complement composite rgba Bred Bgreen amp blue amp rgba alpha Figure 7 2 Primatte properties panel 187 PRIMATTE NUKE Primatte Basic Operation Tutorial This describes the operation of the Primatte node in Nuke A more detailed explanation of how the Primatte algorithm actually works can be found under he Primatte Algorithm on page 210 Auto Compute This version of Primatte has a new feature that may eliminate the first three steps of using earlier versions of Primatte It is called the Auto Compute button and may make your keying Operation much easier You can click on this button as a first step and it may automatically sense the backing screen colour eliminate it and even get rid of some of the foreground and background noise that would normally be cleaned up in Step 2 Clean BG Noise and Step 3 Clean FG Noise of the Primatte operation If you get good results then jump ahead to the spill removal tools The Auto Compute button has two sliders that modify its behaviour the auto BG factor and the auto FG factor sliders These may be moved to get better results with the Auto Compute button This
494. ode s Snaps selected node to the grid See also under Node Graph Connect the selected node to Viewer as reference input Duplicate selected arrow Insert AddMix node Set colour for selected nodes Extract selected nodes Splay selected nodes to last selected node 549 APPENDIX A HOT KEYS Keystroke s Shift X Tab Editing Keystroke s Alt Ctrl V Backspace Ctrl B Ctrl C Ctrl E Ctrl F Ctrl K Ctrl N Ctrl P Ctrl V Ctrl X Shift Ctrl V Viewers Keystroke s semicolon forward single quote o Action Swap A B inputs on selected node NUKE Open a text field where you can enter the first letters of a node name to bring up a list of matches Press Return to insert a node from the list Splay selected nodes to first selected node Connect selected node to second selected node Action Paste knob values Erase or Delete Left Left justify selected text Copy Move cursor to end of selected text Right justify selected text Delete text from the cursor to the next space Bottom justify selected text Top justify selected text Paste Cut Paste see Ctrl V Action Zoom out Zoom in also zooms in Gain display increase Switch to the previous view in a multiview project Switch to the next view in a multiview project Turn on Viewer blend split screen display See also W under Viewers for toggle on off 550 APPENDIX A
495. ode so you can see the effect of your changes 3 Inthe Grade properties panel use the channels pulldown list to select the channels you wish to process 4 Click the blackpoint parameter s colour swatch The eye dropper icon appears 5 In the Viewer press Ctrl Cmd Shift while clicking on the pixel you want to define as the blackpoint typically the darkest pixel 6 Click the whitepoint parameter s colour swatch The eye dropper icon appears 139 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE 7 In the Viewer press Ctri Cmd Shift while clicking on the pixel you want to define as the white point typically the lightest pixel Making Basic Corrections Adjustments to contrast gamma gain and offset often comprise the bulk of the work in col Our correction Some artists prefer to makes these adjustments via sliders others prefer curves which represent the range of colour values in an image Nuke s ColorCorrect and ColorLookup nodes offer tools to suit either preference Figure 4 3 Contrast boost Figure 4 4 Gain boost Figure 4 5 Gamma boost 140 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE Using Sliders The ColorCorrect node is particularly convenient for making quick adjustments to contrast gamma gain and offset A single window houses sliders for all these basic corrections and allows you to apply these to a clip s master entire tonal range shadows midtones or high lights To adjus
496. odes to the script connecting them to the node you selected in step 1 To paste nodes from files 1 Select the node that you want the pasted node to follow 2 Choose File gt Import script 3 Navigate to the directory that stores the node file 4 Select the node file and click Import Nuke adds the nodes described by the file to the node you selected in step 1 Cloning Nodes You can clone nodes in preparation for pasting them elsewhere in a script Cloned nodes inherit the values of their parent but unlike copied nodes they also maintain an active link with their parents values If you alter the values of one the other automatically inherits these changes Clones are helpful for maintaining consistent setups across multiple elements For example you might use clones to apply an identical film grain setup to a series of elements shot on the same stock Should you need later to make changes to the setup these changes would auto matically ripple throughout the script You cannot clone gizmos This applies to both gizmos created in your facility and the nodes in the Nuke default Toolbar that are in fact gizmos such as the LightWrap node the Grain node and the IBK nodes For more information on gizmos see Gizmos Custom Plug ins and Generic TCL Scripts on page 419 To clone nodes 1 Select the node or nodes you want to clone 2 Choose Edit gt Clone or press Alt K Nuke clones the node s whilst maintaining
497. oe oe LO Correcting Saturation 44440 4549 5446654255044 6504 b4ee eee ed ene eus oo 47 Masking Colour Corrections 0 cece ce ee ee eee ee eee oe LAB Applying Grain Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld e eo e e e e e e e e e Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld Ld 149 Using Synthetic Grain ssssssessss seses ee eee eee ee eee ee eee e149 Using Practical Glaiths ac o 6b aac oon eee oe ee eee eee ee ESS 150 Applying Mathematical Operations to Channels 2 2 2 153 Clamping Channel Values lt 4 4 4 0 4640 o eb lt 0 esse ee oo eae do be we ede eee Sel OD Offsetting Channel Values lt lt h60w lt 0 4 lt 4 e045 ae 2d bends e enw dd suws na we SLO Inverting Channel Values 0 ce eee cece eee eee eee eee cece eee s cee LDA Multiplying Channel ValW6S 2 4255 cc08444446654460045445440058544056 650100 Applying Expressions to Channel Values 0 cece eee eee eee eee eee en eee LOO Transforming the Colour Space 156 Overriding the Default Cineon Conversion 156 elo Changing the Viewer Colour Space oo o 5 7i e e e e e e o e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Making Other Colour
498. of the object x refers to the left side y the bottom side n the back side r the right side t the top side and f the front side Or drag on any side order to translate it relative to the current angle of view 286 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Working with Spheres A sphere is the familiar globe shaped polyhedron You can control its geometric resolution or face count and of course texture it with clips ae ke as Figure 13 11 A sphere object To add a sphere 1 Click 3D gt Geometry gt Sphere to insert a Sphere node 2 Drag the Sphere node s img pipe to Read node containing the clip you want to use as a texture 3 Drag one of the Scene node s numbered pipes to the Sphere node to place the bicubic object in the scene 4 Use the sphere object s transform controls to manipulate the position scale and rotation of the sphere in 3D space For more information see ransforming from the Node Properties Panel on page 299 Adjusting Geometric Resolution By default a sphere has 30 rows and 30 columns You can however increase or decrease either number as appropriate For example the figure below shows a sphere whose geometric resolution has been decreased to 2 rows and 4 columns making it in effect an octahedron Figure 13 12 An octahedron generated with a low resolution sphere 287 3D COMPOSITING NUKE To adjust a sphere s geometric resolution 1 If necessary double click on the Sph
499. of this node Tip Old time Nuke users may remember nodes called OpticalFlow and OptiFlow OFlow replaces these nodes It can be used for retiming and adding motion blur but it does not have the capability to out put motion vectors To output motion vectors you could use F VectorGenerator included in The Foundry s Furnace plug ins Warping Clips Warping refers to slowing down speeding up or even reversing select frames in a clip without necessarily altering its overall length Otherwise stated warps add subtract or reverse the temporal detail in a range of frames within a clip For example Figure 9 3 depicts a snowmo bile clip downsampled to just ten frames for easy representation that we might want to warp o Min j o M 15 a 20 Ee Add frames for slow motion aa s a Subtract frames for fast 40 pee motion ol a Figure 9 3 Planning the time warp One way in fact kind of the classic way to warp this clip would be to play the frames just prior to the collision at their original rate the frames involving the collision in slow motion and the frames after the collision in fast motion You could achieve such a warp by sculpting the curve in Nuke s TimeWarp curve which is a part of the Retime node s parameters to look something like the one depicted below 241 TEMPORAL OPERATIONS NUKE speed up slowdown frame displayed y first frame x time Figure 9 4
500. oints This section explains the basic procedure for applying tracking data to any node via linking expressions then discusses how to apply such data to the CornerPin2D and Stabilize2D nodes in particular Creating Linking Expressions The Tracker node s Tracker panel displays data related to the position of each track anchor over time tracks x and y fields These are the data which you most typically apply to other nodes To drag and drop tracking data 1 Display both the tracker parameters the source parameters in this case and the parame ters to which you wish to apply the tracking data the destination parameters for exam ple a Bezier node s translate parameter 2 Ctrl drag Cmd drag on a Mac from the source parameters animation button to the destination parameters animation button When you release the destination parameters will turn blue indicating an expression has been applied In this case the drag and drop action has created a linking expression resembling the following example Trackerl trackerl x Tip You can also apply tracking or other transform data to individual Bezier SplineWarp or GridWarp points this is sometimes called per vertex tracking To do so Ctril Cmd drag and drop the track s animation button on a Bezier SplineWarp or GridWarp point in the Viewer You can add other components to this linking expression as necessary For example you might add a Spatial offset to the linking ex
501. ol panel must be open and the first tab Bezier should be active Bezierl ely Tracking output X red N green X blue W rgba alpha premult z none clip to format replace invert 4 Inside the Viewer you ll see the goldfish image While pressing both Ctrl and Alt Mac users press Option and Command click four points around the goldfish to create a rotoshape Tip As long as the Bezier 1 control panel is open you can view and edit the rotoshape You can press O over the Viewer to toggle the display overlay if necessary Click the right mouse button over any point to select options for the rotoshape Because this will be a garbage mask we want to edit the shape to remove elements from the glass aquarium 499 NUKE 5 Drag the points and adjust the tangents the handles on each of the points to refine the rotoshape Now we need to animate the garbage matte to follow the motion of the fish 6 In the Bezier1 control panel the autokey option should be active If not click the box for this option blurtype linear ha shapa ooa A autokey K lin ar interpolate The shape 1 of 1 control shows the number of key frames or distinct shapes that are defined for the current bezier node along the timeline Nuke will interpolate between these Shapes as the clip plays 7 Move the time slider to frame 1 and drag a marquee around the entire bezier shape transform jack 8 Drag the centr
502. ollowing e 6 to go to the first frame e 5 to go to the previous key frame e 4 to step back by increment e 3 to go back to the previous key frame or increment whichever is closer e 2 to step back one frame e 1 to play the sequence backward e 0 to stop playback e 1 to play the sequence forward e 2 to step forward one frame e 3 to go to the next key frame or increment whichever is closer e 4 to step forward by increment e 5 to go to the next key frame e 6 to go to the last frame 391 THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE You can also assign these buttons to a hot key For example to assign the play button to the Up arrow key do the following 1 Create a file called menu py in your plug in path directory if one doesn t already exist For more information on plug in path directories see Loading Gizmos Plug ins and TCL scripts on page 410 2 Add the following entry in your menu py def play Q v nuke activeViewer if v v play 1 menubar nuke menu Nuke m menubar addMenu amp File m addCommand Play play0 Up This assigns the hot key to an invisible menu item before the name of the menu item makes the item invisible Overriding the Creation of a Particular Node Sometimes you may want to override the creation of a particular node For example Nuke includes two versions of the Merge node Merge and Merge2 By default Merge2 is inserted when you
503. olour pickers 51 NUKE colour sliders 52 colour space conversions 156 colour wheel 52 configuring Nuke 401 connecting nodes 39 viewers 67 contrast adjusting 140 control panels 52 displaying 49 convergence changing 343 CopyBBox nodes 115 copying a bounding box from an image 115 a rectangle from an image 135 nodes 37 CopyRectangle nodes 135 CornerPin2D nodes 184 applying tracking data to 185 corner pinning clips 184 creating bg reflections on fg elements 261 channels 117 effects 261 formats with the Reformat node 109 layers 117 star filter effects 263 Crop nodes 113 cropping elements 113 CrosstalkGeo nodes 302 Cube nodes 286 adding to 3D scenes 286 Cubic filtering algorithm 161 curve editor 57 curves editing tracks with 180 CurveTool nodes 273 custom plug ins 419 430 customer support 17 customising nodes 40 Nuke 401 cutting a clip s frames 244 nodes 37 D defining common image formats 419 common menu options 414 common preferences 431 tonal range 138 Degrain tools Primatte 203 delete preferences 432 deleting channels 122 image formats 110 keyframes 66 layers 122 584 nodes 39 DirectLight nodes 310 disabling nodes 39 DisplaceGeo nodes 306 display gain 80 display gamma 80 displaying node parameters 49 displaying script information 102 dissolving between clips 245 distorting time 233 Dither nodes 149 Dot nodes 40 DPX format 557 dual monitors 86 E editing camera lens characteristics 316
504. ombine different views into a single output when the views are not indicated in the filenames Select Image gt Read to read in your image sequences containing the different views To insert a JoinViews node select Views gt JoinViews Connect the inputs of the JoinViews node into the appropriate Read nodes There should be an input for each view you have created in the project settings The inputs are labeled with the name of the view 332 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE If you have assigned colours to the views and checked Use colours in UI on the Views tab of your project settings the connecting arrows will reflect the view colours If this does not happen and the arrows are black you may have connected the inputs the wrong way around Check that you have connected each Read node to the correct input of the JoinViews node Nuke combines the inputs into a single output Displaying Views in the Viewer You can only display the views that exist in your project settings To see a list of these views or add or delete views select Edit gt Project settings and go to the Views tab For more information see Setting Up Views for the Script on page 329 To display a particular view 1 Add a Viewer into your script if you haven t already done so 2 On top of the Viewer controls do one of the following e If you have checked View selection uses buttons in the project settings click the button of the view you want to
505. on of Nuke do one of the following 25 INSTALLATION AND LICENSING NUKE On Windows e Double click the Nuke icon on the Desktop e Select Nuke5 1v5 32 64 bit from Start gt All Programs gt The Foundry gt Nuke5 1v5 32 64 bit AliPrograms D gt fai The Foundry fr Nuke 5 0v1 Windows Media Player Internet Explorer tierra 1 tg Start m CS Outlook Express e Using a command prompt navigate to the Nuke application directory by default Program Files Nuke5 1v5 or Program Files x86 Nuke 5 1v5 and enter nuke5 1 The Nuke graphical interface appears On Mac OS X e Click the Nuke dock icon e Open the Nuke application directory by default Applications Nuke5 1v5 and double click the Nuke icon or list item eos we Appiani a Se C NukeS 0vibI i c Bogen a eCo C E Network St Date Modified Eh Network amp igloo Tiger Li Nukes zwin 3 September em B igloo Tiger l E l a WI e C Nukes 7v5 1 Novermb i E Backup ie 7 Documentation Nukes 0v1 Snowball i Huke4 v5b1 6 November 2 T igloo Leopard Lo Nukes 1b5 19 Novemb 2 Nukes Ovlal amp October 200 L Nuke S Ovlad 1 October 2C o Nuke Ovla6 23 October 2C Nuke SOvla 70 October Zz LI NukeS 0vla 7 Movember 2 Do Nukes 0v1a9 L2 Novemb Ci NukeS 0vlal0 21 Novemb i a Huke5 Ov1 26 Novem F Backup E Snowball E igioo Leopard gt A
506. onge resulted in artifacts or false colouring a fine tuning operation Spill tool should be used instead for a more subtle and sophisticated removal of the spilled background colour This is discussed in Spi on page 207 Spill Removal Method 2 1 Select the Fine Tuning Sliders Actions operation This will activate these tools Fine Tuning 2 Using the zoom and pan capabilities of the Nuke application zoom into an area that has some blue edges or spill 3 Using the cursor sample a colour region that has some spill in it When you let up on the pen or mouse button Primatte will register the colour selected or an average of multiple pixels in the current colour area For most images the L poly spill slider is all that is required to remove any remaining blue spill The more to the right the slider moves the more spill colour will be removed from the sampled pixels The more to the left the slider moves the more the selected pixels will move toward the colour in the original foreground image Note When using the L poly spill slider spill colour replacement will be replaced based on the setting of the Spill Process replacement with settings For more information on 193 PRIMATTE NUKE these tools see the section of this manual on Spill Replacement in Chapter 6 Primatte Tools and Buttons Tip It is better to make several small adjustments to the blue spill areas than a single major one Yo
507. ontrols or apply smoothing filters to a track s curves in order to remove such jitter To smooth tracks 1 In the Tracker controls go to the Transform tab 2 Inthe smooth fields enter the number of frames you want to average together to smooth the transformation You can smooth the translate T rotate R and scale S separately OR 1 In the Tracker properties panel click the animation button next to the track you m wish to edit then select Curve Editor The Animation editor displays the x and y curves for the track these plot the position of each track point over time 180 TRACKING AND STABILISING NUKE 2 Select the points on these curves which require smoothing Click to select individual points drag to select multiple points with the marquee or press Crtl A to select all points 3 Right click on the editor and select Edit gt Filter to apply the smoothing filter This sets new values on each point based on the average values of their neighbouring points 4 Enter the number of times to apply the smoothing filter in the dialog that appears Click OK 5 Reapply the smoothing filter as many times as is necessary Before smoothing After smoothing Figure 6 2 A track curve before and after smoothing Tracking and Multiview Projects If you need to use tracking data in a multiview or stereoscopic project you may want to apply your edits to one view only for example the left view but not the right
508. ontrols to move to the next control point smooth tangent mirror tangent Oo x 0 5 y 0 375 z0 x 0 16666669 y 0 z0 x 0 y 0 12500001 z 0 3 To translate the control points and their tangents e Increment or decrement the numbered x y and z fields For each control point the controls for translating the point itself are shown on top of the controls for translating the tangents e Or drag on any control point or tangent to translate it relative to the current angle of view 285 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Working with Cubes A cube is the familiar six sided polyhedron You can transform any of its sides and of course texture it with clips Figure 13 10 A cube object To add a cube 1 2 Click 3D gt Geometry gt Cube to insert a Cube node Drag the Cube node s img pipe to the Read node containing the clip you want to use as a texture Drag one of the Scene node s numbered pipes to the Cube node to place the cube in the scene Use the cube object s transform controls to manipulate the position scale and rotation of the cube in 3D space For more information see ransforming from the Node Properties Panel on page 299 Translate any of the cube s sides to alter its shape To translate a cube s sides 1 If necessary double click on the Cube node to display its parameters and thereby select the object in the scene Increment or decrement the cube fields Assuming a positive z view
509. opy Links to copy a curve and keep its values linked to the original Curve so that if you change the original your changes also affect the copied curve To move selected points on the curve by a fixed value 1 Select all the points you want to move 2 Right click on the editor and select Edit gt Move The Move Animation Keys dialog opens 3 In the x and y fields define how you want to move the points along the x and y axes For example to shift the selected points to the right by a value of 10 enter x 10 in the x field Move Animation keys slope left slope Cancel 4 In the slope and left slope fields define how you want to move the points tangent handles To smooth the curve with filtering 1 Select the portion of the curve that needs smoothing 2 Right click on the editor and select Edit gt Filter The F ter Multiple dialog opens 61 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Filter Multiple ax No of times to filter 2 K 3 In the No of times to filter field specify how many times you want to filter the curve Filtering sets new values on each point based on the average values of their neighbouring points The more filtering the smoother the curve To interpolate parts of a curve 1 Select the point s between or around which you want to interpolate the curve 2 Right click on the Editor Select Interpolation and the type of interpolation you want to use Select e Cons
510. othness will concentrate on detail matching even if the resulting field is jagged The default value of 0 5 should work well for most sequences The vector generation algorithm subdivides the image into small blocks and sepa rately tracks them blockSize defines the width and height of these subdivisions Smaller values will produce noisy data whereas larger values may produce data that is lacking in detail This value should rarely need editing some sequences may benefit from using large block sizes to help the algorithm track regions better where the algorithm isn t locking on to the overall motion in the sequence For efficiency much of the local motion estimation is done on luminance only i e using monochrome images The tolerances parameters allow you to tune the weight of each colour channel when calculating the image luminance These parameters rarely need tuning However you may for example wish to increase the red weighting Weight Red to allow the algorithm to concentrate on getting the motion of a primarily red object correct at the cost of the rest of the items in a shot The red weighting used when calculating the vector field The green weighting used when calculating the vector field The blue weighting used when calculating the vector field 240 TEMPORAL OPERATIONS NUKE OFlow Parameter Function Show Vectors Switch this on to draw the motion vectors over the image About Shows the version number
511. ou re done well nearly done We need a free floating goldfish but the reflections in the aquarium glass clearly indicate captivity 487 NUKE A garbage matte will easily remove the reflections and you ll learn how to do that later in the section on rotoscoping For now let s keep working with Primatte As you ve seen Primatte s auto compute option can quickly pull keys on certain images However you should also know how to pull and tweak keys manually You might for example need more control over the transparency of the fins on the goldfish To pull a key with Primatte method 2 1 Continuing from the previous example open the Primattel control panel 2 Click the undo button at the top of the control panel to step back to the previous state of the Primattel node Or you can also delete the current Primattel node and insert a new one Primattel Primatte Node foreground background 3 Scroll down through the Primatte options and set the keying operation to Select BG Colour Actions operation 3 Select BG Color current color Clean BG Noise as Fine Tuning Clean FG Noise Matte Sponge Make FG Trans 4 The current colour chip should display the eyedropper icon If it doesn t click on the colour chip to toggle the eyedropper Actions operation Select BG Color current color 4 Fine Tuning R 5 Hold down the Ctrl Shift keys Mac users hold down Command Shift and
512. ou want to import from the fbx file 6 In the frame rate field define a frame rate frames per second to Sample the animation curves To use this rate rather than the one defined in the fbx file check use frame rate 323 3D COMPOSITING NUKE 7 To have the camera rotation values calculated using the look up vector and look at position check compute rotation If you don t check this Nuke uses the rotation channel from the fbx file instead of computing a new one The rotation values are always computed when there is a look at target 8 If you want to modify the camera properties imported from the fbx file uncheck read from file on the Camera tab and make the necessary modifications As long as read from file is unchecked your changes are kept 9 To reload the camera properties from the fbx file make sure read from file is checked and click the reload button on the File tab Importing Lights from an fbx File You can use the Light node to read in directional point and spot lights from fbx scene files for more information on these three light types refer to Lighting on page 309 One Light node only reads in one light Therefore if your fbx file contains three lights and you want to import all of them into Nuke you need to use three Light nodes To import a light from an fbx file 1 Select 3D gt Lights gt Light to insert a Light node in the place where you want to add the light in your script 2 In the L
513. ou work on stereoscopic material just like you would on any other images However there are also a few stereo specific settings and nodes that you need to be aware of when compositing stereoscopic material This following teaches you how to set up your stereo project read in and view your images use the stereo nodes and render the final output Setting Up Views for the Script Before you start working on stereoscopic images you need to set different views for the right and the left eye in the project settings This allows you to process the individual views sepa rately or both views together and see the effect of your changes on each view To set up views for your project 1 Select Edit gt Project settings 2 Go to the Views tab The available views are listed in the views field Colour up down Set up views for stereo 2S View selection uses buttons Use colours in UI 3 If you want to remove the view called main and add views called left and right click the Set up views for stereo button The two views are assigned colours To change the colours double click on the colour field and choose another colour from the colour picker that opens WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE Root LUT Views View oe aed right Get color new RGB HSY TMI delete up down Set up views for stereo B View selection uses buttons Cancel If you check Use colours in UI these colours are used
514. out Press Shift F 1 to restore You can save up to 6 lay outs Ctrl Cmd F 1 Ctrl Cmd F2 Ctrl Cmd F3 To restore a layout just press Shift and the function key you used to save the lay out Layer Merge The process of compositing one image with another You know it as layering in Shake In Nuke it s called Merge Macro Gizmo These are the user defined nodes where a Nuke User Manual series of operations are saved tweaked and page 419 presented as group or object that may be used again in other scripts When defining a gizmo you decide which knobs controls are dis played from the original group of nodes Node View Node Graph or DAG The main workspace where you construct your Nuke User Manual node tree In Nuke this is sometimes referred to page 29 as The DAG which is old school lingo for The Directed Acyclic Graph Noodle Connector or pipe The lines that connect the items in the node Nuke User Manual tree Shaking a node does not disconnect it page 39 from its tree in Nuke but pressing Ctrl Cmd Shift X will disconnect or extract the node Parameters Properties panel or These are the controls that determine what a Nuke User Manual control panel node passes to the next node in the tree In page 46 Nuke you can open an unlimited number of properties panels to edit the nodes in your tree much better than Shake s limit of two parameter tabs Thumbnail Postage Stamp The pre
515. p You can also add a dot to an existing connection by pressing Ctrl Cmd on a Mac and clicking on the yellow dot that appears on the connecting arrow Lad akeBuddhalw Indicators on Nodes There are several indicators that can appear on the nodes in the Node Graph depending on what you are doing The following table describes what each indicator means Indicator Where it appears What it means The wide rectangles indicate the channels the node processes The thin rectangles indicate the channels that are passed through the node untouched The node s effect is limited by a mask from the either the node s primary input or output gt lt a The node has been disabled by pressing D or clicking the Disable button 41 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Indicator Where it appears What it means The node has been disabled using an expression The node has been cloned The indicator appears on both the parent and the child node One or more of the node parameters are animated over time One or more of the node parameters are being driven by an expression You are working with a multiview project and have split off one or more views in the node s controls The full effect of the node is not in use because you have adjusted the mix slider in the node s controls Searching for Nodes Nuke s Search feature allows you to search for nodes in your script and select any matches found
516. parameter to create an expression linking the two To analyse the exposure differences in a frame sequence 1 Select Image gt CurveTool to add a CurveTool node after the image sequence you want to analyse Add a Viewer after the CurveTool Under Curve Type select Exposure Difference 4 From the channels pulldown menu and checkboxes choose the channels you want to analyse 5 If you want to analyse an area in the frame rather than the entire frame define a region of interest either by dragging the edges of the frame box to a new position in the Viewer or by defining the area using parameters labeled ROI 6 To analyse the sequence click Go The frames to Execute dialog opens 7 Specify the frame range you want to analyse Enter the first frame followed by a comma and the last frame Click OK Nuke now performs the analysis 8 You can find the results of the analysis on the IntensityData tab where the parameter input fields have turned cyan to indicate they are animated To see the animation curve right click on one of the input fields and select Curve editor Curve Tool AutoCropData IntensityData MaxLumaData Node i j Bm ae at a a RARR mtensitydata 0 04580088 0 004198668 O os190088 0104010294 Once Nuke has created the animation curve you can copy the animation or any of its values into a colour correction node for example to match the analysed exposure there Ctrl Cmd click on the animation button and
517. pe scrub to the frame where you set it and click delete under Source Grid If you want to delete the entire animation and make the current grid the source grid for all frames click delete all Click copy under Source Grid and paste under Destination Grid to copy the source grid into the destination grid Hide the pink source grid and display the blue destination grid Source Grid W hide W lock key Ci paste Se delete all gid curve add remove presets image size Destination Grid hide lack While viewing the output of the GridWarp node adjust the destination grid until you are happy with the warp Click the set button under Destination Grid The current grid is Saved as a key shape Move to a new frame and adjust the destination grid again The modified grid is automatically set as a key shape Repeat the previous step until you are happy with the animated warp To animate a warp using the SplineWarp node 1 If you want the key shapes created automatically when you create the curves make sure autokey is checked in the SplineWarp controls Settings Show sfc 7 show both curves autokey first bezer masks deformaton curve resoluton T Create the source curves as instructed under 70 warp an image using the Spline Warp node on page 252 If autokey is checked the current curves are saved as key shapes If autokey is not checked you need to click the set button under Source Curves to set the Curves as key shapes
518. pear in the output pane of the Script Editor open the Preferences dialog press Shift S go to the Script Editor tab and check echo all commands to output window This applies to both commands executed by yourself and by Nuke For example if you select a node from the Toolbar the corresponding Python command is displayed in the output pane This does not apply to all actions you take in the 384 THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE graphical user interface however but only those that are performed by executing Python script commands To only execute part of a script enter the script in the input pane and select the part you want to execute Press Ctril Return Cmd Return on a Mac Nuke runs the selected part of the script leaving the script in the input pane To repeat a statement click the Previous Script button on top of the Editor to move back to the previous statement You can do this several times until you reach the state ment you want to repeat To execute the statement again press Ctrl Enter Cmd Enter on a Mac To decrease or increase the indentation of text in the input window select the text and press Ctrl Cmd Shift or Ctrl Cmd Shift To move through or clear the script history In addition to stepping backwards through the history of your script you can also step gt forwards Click the Next script button to move forward through your statements To clear the history click the Clear history button X
519. pendently Adjustments you make to one view are not automatically generated for the other Swapping Views You can rearrange the views in your script using the ShuffleViews node For example you can swap the left and right views around in the pipeline so that Nuke uses the left input for the right eye and vice versa To rearrange views 1 Select Views gt ShuffleViews to insert a ShuffleViews node in an appropriate place in your script In the ShuffleViews controls click add as necessary Use the buttons or pulldown menus to select which view to replace with which For example to swap the left and right views around you need to make the following selections e On one row select left under get and right under from get left from right The left view is now replaced with the right view e On another row select right under get and left under from get right from left The right view is replaced with the left view 341 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE Shufflleviews1 ShuffleViews Node from delete delete If there aren t enough rows of buttons or pulldown menus on the ShuffleViews node s proper ties panel click the add button to add a row To remove unnecessary rows in the ShuffleViews node s controls click the delete button next to the row you want to remove Converting Images into Anaglyph You can use the Anaglyph node to convert your inputs into anaglyph images which produc
520. perties Bin is closed when the last control panel in the empty Bin is closed When this is NOT checked the Properties Bin remains open when the last control panel in the Bin is closed expand collapse panels in When this is checked only the control panels of the nodes that are selected in the bin to match selection Node Graph are opened All unselected nodes will have their control panels col lapsed This only applies to the control panels in the Properties Bin When this is NOT checked control panels are not opened or closed based on the selection in the Node Graph input button does Select what happens when you click the input button on top of a control panel and select one of the node s inputs in e select input node only an input of the node is selected in the Node graph e scroll node into view an input of the node is selected in the Node Graph and if the input is outside the currently displayed area of the Node Graph the dis played area is adjusted to include the input node e center node an input of the node is selected and positioned in the centre of the Node Graph 372 SETTING INTERFACE PREFERENCES Setting show dialogs under the cur sor show menu with previous item under the cursor Appearance Tab Setting Colors Background Base Highlight Label Button Animated Keyframe Fonts label font NUKE Function When this is checked pop up dialogs appear in the
521. ph To set the colour back to default light grey right click on the colour button on the right and select Set color to default All Others Change the colour of any nodes that do not belong to the node groups above To set the colour back to default light grey right click on the button and select Set color to default Text Change the colour of the labels and text in the Node Graph for example the labels on nodes and the notes you create using StickyNote nodes To set the colour back to default black right click on the button and select Set color to default Selected Change the colour that is used to indicate that nodes are selected To set the colour back to default yellow right click on the button and select Set color to default GL Color Change the colour of the Viewer overlays To set the colour back to default right click on the button and select Set color to default Node Graph Tab Setting Function autolabel Check this to automatically label nodes with channel mask information If you don t check this nodes will only show the file name or the node name highlight running operators Check this to highlight any nodes whose output is currently being calculated node name background When a node is selected and the node s name is too long to fit inside the node a background is drawn behind the name to improve legibility You can use this control to set the intensity of the background from O no background to 1 fu
522. plete A node tree is a diagram that shows the order in which the operations will be performed Do the following to add a few nodes and start your node tree The result will create the background for the project To insert nodes 1 On the Toolbar click the first icon to display a menu for nodes that are in the Images cat egory Read Write onstant CheckerBoard ColorBars Color vyheel aTi CurveToo Viewer 2 Select Constant from the menu to insert this node into the Node Graph pane When you insert a new node its control panel also appears with parameters that let you define what the node will produce In this case the Constant node creates a solid colour 447 NUKE backdrop B Properties 2D 0 B default Go K ADO OM RE A Constant channels rgb W red W green blue color 0 format root format 640 480 frame range 1 1 Constant control panel Constanti Constant Node channels rgb Bred W green X blue color r 0 37383449 g 0 19677457 b O 77999997 4 O format root format 640x460 frame range 1 1 Constant L color Drag the colour sliders and the cursor inside the wheel to choose a light colour something appropriate for the horizon of the composite background Then close the colour wheel window At this point you should probably rename Constant to something more descriptive Inside the control panel click on the Constant name You can now edit the name so type Back
523. pling Curve and Output Impulse Remapped pixels carry original values Cubic Remapped pixels receive some smoothing default 161 TRANSFORMING ELEMENTS NUKE Filter Description Sampling Curve and Output Keys Remapped pixels receive some smoothing plus minor sharpening as shown by the negative y portions of the curve Simon Remapped pixels receive some smoothing plus medium sharpening as shown by the negative y portions of the curve 162 TRANSFORMING ELEMENTS NUKE Filter Description Sampling Curve and Output Rifmen Remapped pixels receive some smoothing plus significant sharpening as shown by the negative y portions of the curve Mitchell Remapped pixels receive some smoothing plus blurring to hide pixelation 163 TRANSFORMING ELEMENTS NUKE Filter Description Sampling Curve and Output Parzen Remapped pixels receive the greatest smoothing of all filters Notch Remapped pixels receive flat smoothing which tends to hide moire patterns 164 TRANSFORMING ELEMENTS NUKE Translating Elements To trans ate an element is to slide it on x or y You can use the Transform TransformMasked or Position nodes to translate elements Using the Transform Node The Transform and TransformMasked nodes let you not only translate elements but also rotate scale and skew them from a single properties panel TransformMasked is identical to Transfrom except that it off
524. positing script you insert and connect nodes to form a network of the operations you want to perform to layer and manipulate your images Adding Nodes You add nodes using the toolbar When you add a node Nuke automatically connects it to the last selected node To add a node 1 To select the existing node that you want the new node to follow click on the node once 2 Click an icon on the toolbar and select a node from the menu that appears For example if you want to add a Blur node click the Filter icon and select Blur Tip You can also add nodes by pressing the Tab key on the Node Graph and starting to type the name of the node This opens a prompt displaying a list of matches Select the node you want to add from the list either by clicking on it or scrolling to it with the Up and Down arrows and pressing Enter To add the last node you created using this method simply press Tab and then Enter Alternatively you can add nodes using the right click menu on the Node Graph or keyboard short cuts most menus in the toolbar include a note of the relevant hot key next to the item in question Selecting Nodes Nuke offers a number of options for selecting nodes Selected nodes display in a highlight col our defined in your preferences The default highlight colour is light yellow 35 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE To select a single node Click once on the node To select multiple nodes Press Shift while clicking o
525. position only a single feature 1 Select the node that outputs the image you want to track 2 Choose Transform gt Tracker to connect a new Tracker node 3 4 Inside the Tracker s properties panel click the Transform tab From the transform list choose an operation To match another element to the current image choose match move 175 TRACKING AND STABILISING NUKE To eliminate movement i e camera shake from the current image choose stabilize 5 Click the Tracker tab In the Viewer you will see the anchor for the first track Tracker1 Tracker Settings Transform Node reset grab Jear offse Animation Controls clear all clear bkwd clear fwd X update viewer center viewer predict track Tracker 1 X enable Use to calculate X T tracki x 325 y 446 Tracker 2 enable Use to calculate T Tracker 3 enable Use to calculate T Tracker 4 enable Use to calculate T 6 Drag the anchor over the feature in the image you want to track When you move the anchor in the Viewer the track1 x and y values change to reflect the centre of the anchor 7 In the properties panel under Tracker Controls press the track forward button to generate the tracking data from the current frame forward To track position rotation and scaling multiple features Select the node that outputs the image you want to track Choose Transform gt Tracker to connect a new Tracker node Inside the Tracker s properties pa
526. pplications Documents is Movies Music Pictures all A Visionmongers x 2 items 6 25 OB available C Visionmongers I of 4 selected 6 25 GE available e Open a terminal navigate to Applications Nuke5 1v5 Nuke5 1v5 app Contents MacOS and enter Nuke5 1 The Nuke graphical interface appears On Linux e Double click the Nuke icon on the Desktop e Open the Nuke application directory by default usr local Nuke5 1v5 and double click the Nuke icon or list item 26 INSTALLATION AND LICENSING NUKE Computer all Raed m T ie x i i local B I Nuke5 0vibl 5 File Edt View Places Help File Edt View Places File Edit View Places File Edit View Places Eile Edit View Places Hi Name I C Nuke4 8v1b8 g Floppy Dove a NukeS oviall CD RW DVD ROM Dive libsvml so A libtel8 4 s0 cere 2 naes mas E selinux E libtiff so 3 libuff s0 3 8 2 GR Network Osn 5 Nuke5 0vla7 i EO Nuke5 0vla8 3 El sys S lots 6 ukes wlat gt License tf ae tmp fad NukeS 0v1 IE License txt bi E var okis Computer Filesystem selec lt Y usr selected cont local Nuke5 0v1bl sel A Nuke5 0v1bl NukeS 0 L Nuke e Open a terminal navigate to the Nuke application directory by default usrNocal Nuke and enter Nuke5 1 The Nuke graphical interface appears Launching the Nuke Personal Learning Edition PL
527. ppropriate to its function You can edit these colours as necessary on the Node Colors tab of the Preferences dialog Check hide input to conceal the node s incoming pipe This can enhance the readability of large scripts Check postage stamp to display a thumbnail render of the node s output on its Surface Navigating Inside the Node Graph Panning As scripts grow in complexity you need to be able to pan to a particular cluster of nodes quickly The Node Graph offers a couple of methods for doing so 44 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Panning with the Mouse To pan with the mouse press Alt and drag the mouse pointer over the workspace The script moves with your pointer On Linux Alt drag may not work as expected This is due to the default window functionality on Gnome To get around it you can use the Windows key instead of Alt when panning Alternatively you can change your window preferences on Gnome to fix the problem 1 Select Applications gt Preferences gt Windows to open the Window Preferences dialog 2 Under Movement Key select Super or Windows logo You should now be able to pan with Alt drag Panning with the Map If your script spills over the edges of the workspace a navigator map automatically appears in the bottom right corner Figure 2 14 Panning with the map The map shows you a miniature view of the entire script and the pink rectangle shows the portion of the script that you see wit
528. pression To view or edit the expression right click on the parameter and select Edit expression If you want to link several parameters at the same time Ctrl Cmd drag the animation button next to the source parameters on top of the animation button next to the destination parameters To view or edit the expressions used to link the parameters click the animation button and select Edit expression To link a parameter driven by an expression 1 Create the linking expression according to the process described above method 1 Type the word expression in front of the actual expression Enclose all of the above in square brackets for example expression Transform1 translate x Adding Mathematical Functions to Expressions You can incorporate mathematical functions into parameters For example you might negate an expression in order to invert a tracking curve which you wish to use to stabilise an element such an expression might resemble the following Transform1 translate x 359 EXPRESSIONS NUKE You can also rely on a function to add more complex mathematical operation to your expres sions The table below list all the functions which you may incorporate into Nuke expressions Function Purpose Operator Usage Related Functions abs x Returns the absolute x See also fabs value of the floating point number x acos x Calculates the arc If x is less than 1 See also cos cosh asin atan sine of x
529. pression by subtracting out the initial frame s tracking values in which case the final expression would resemble the following Trackerl trackerl x Trackerl trackerl x 1 See Chapter 16 Expressions on page 357 for more information Once you enter the linking expression the destination parameter turns blue 183 TRACKING AND STABILISING NUKE Using the CornerPin Node The CornerPin2D node is designed to map the four corners of an image sequence to positions derived from tracking data In practice this node lets you replace any four cornered feature with another image sequence For example suppose you needed to replace the monitor image in the fast panning shot shown below Figure 6 3 Fast panning shot requires four corner tracking You would first use the Tracker to calculate four separate tracks one for each corner of the feature Figure 6 4 Generating the four tracks Next you would attach a CornerPin2D node to the image sequence you want to use as the replacement for the feature and apply to it the tracking data This would remap the image sequence s corners to the correct positions over time Figure 6 5 Applying the tracked corner data to the replacement image 184 TRACKING AND STABILISING NUKE The final step would be to layer this result over the original element Figure 6 6 The composited image The steps below summarize the use of the CornerPin2D node To use the CornerPin2D node
530. proxy format root proxy format 360x240 frame range 1 hold i hold frame missing frames error T reload colorspace default premultiplied raw data Figure 2 33 Reading in proxy versions of images Lowering the Display Resolution of Individual Viewers Viewers also have a pulldown menu that allows you to easily switch to lower display resolu tions regardless of whether you have activated proxy mode or not Using this multiplier set ting you can for example change the display resolution of an individual Viewer to 50 of the current be it full size or proxy resolution This is useful if you want to have Nuke display your images more quickly without having to touch the project settings It also comes in handy if you have just a few very large plates in your script as you can choose to use lower resolu tions when viewing just these plates To lower the display resolution of individual Viewers From the Viewer s down rez menu choose the factor by which you want to lower the display resolution Select e 1 to display 1 1 of the currently active resolution 77 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE e 2to display 1 2 of the currently active resolution e 4to display 1 4 of the currently active resolution e 8 to display 1 8 of the currently active resolution e 16 to display 1 16 of the currently active resolution e 32 to display 1 32 of the currently active resolution 2 v 20 default O amp wo For example
531. ptable industry standard but IBK does a good job anyway by smoothing the screen and using the result to essentially create a difference matte with the foreground Tip IBK has presets for green and blue screens but you can also do a colour pick for any screen colour inside the IBKGizmo node If you zoom in on the image you ll see small areas near the subject s hair where the matte is compromised 495 NUKE compromised matte edges 12 Connect the Viewer to IBKColourV3_1 and you ll see colour artifacts around the edges of the matte When you look at the smoothed screen produced by IBKColour you should see only values of your screen colour and black 13 In the IBKColourV3_1 control panel lower the darks g green setting to 0 08 If you were keying a bluescreen image you would lower the b value for darks Parameters IBEColourv3 screen type green size 10 darks r q 0 08 lights ri This fixes most of the problems at the hairline but destroys the good key for the lower portion of the image Tip The artifacts in the IBKColour image appear as specific colour shades light green dark green light red dark red light blue and dark blue To remove these simply adjust the appropriate controls for the artifacts you want to remove lights g darks g lights r darks r lights b and darks b 496 NUKE 14 In IBKColourV3_1 raise the darks g value to 0 03 Then cha
532. py of the same LondonEye Read node that we ve been using for the other examples Click on it to select it 3 Choose Transform gt Tracker and then attach a Viewer to the new Tracker3 node In the control panel for Tracker3 check the boxes to enable Tracker1 and Tracker2 5 For each track check the boxes for T translate R rotate and S scale Tracker Settings Transform Node grab clear offset Animation Controls clear all dlear bkwd clear fwd update viewer canter viewer predict track Tracker 1 X enable Use to calculate BT BRR ES tracki x 324 y 250 Tracker 2 amp enable Use to calculate BT RR MS 6 In the Viewer scrub to the end of the timeline and adjust the size and position of each tracking marker for the features shown below 7 Tracker Settings Transform Node grab clear offset Animation Controls Track to the first frame clear all clear bkwd clear fwd update viewer center viewer predict track Tracker 1 enable Use to calculate BT BR BS tracki x 107 y 291 Tracker 2 M9 enable Useto calculate BT BR BS Now you have the position data for two tracks and you can use this information to remove the unwanted movement in the image 479 NUKE i m i Global 8 Inthe Tracker3 control panel click the Settings tab and choose Translate Rotate Scale from the warp type list Trackers Tracker Settings Transform Node channels rgb I Hired Moreen blua warp type W Translate max it
533. quickly display the results without page 95 recalculating the parts of the script that have not changed Command Palette Toolbar The palette that contains all possible nodes for Nuke User Manual creating your node tree Shake s command pal page 33 ette lets you browse through the nodes accord ing to category In Nuke you can do the same by rolling over the buttons on the Toolbar Console see description To display commands as they are executed in Nuke you must launch Nuke from a shell using the V option For example Windows users would open a command line window navigate to Nuke application directory and enter nuke5 1 exe V Control Knob or control A control that appears in the parameters of a Nuke User Manual node such as a check box that toggles an page 46 option or a slider to change a numeric value You can create custom knobs to add new con trols to the Nuke properties panels Globals Settings The place where you define the global settings Nuke User Manual for the current script such as resolution frame page 90 range frames per second and other project settings 559 APPENDIX C CONVERTING FROM SHAKE TO NUKE NUKE Shake Term Nuke Equivalent Description More Info Interface Setting Window Layout Nuke s interface is highly customizable When Nuke User Manual you find an arrangement of panes and panels page 86 that you like your can save the window layout Press Ctrl Cmd F1 to save the lay
534. r translate Lar o6F lt 0 rotate x Scale x uniform scale Ika x Wot X Figure 13 21 Using the ProcGeo node to create a terrain from a card object You can select the type of noise and control its look in the ProcGeo node s parameters 307 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Select 3D gt Modify gt ProceduralNoise to insert a ProcGeo node anywhere after the 3D object you want to modify Attach a Viewer to the node to see your changes In the node s controls use the display pulldown menu to select how you want to view your object in the Viewer while making changes to it From the ProceduralNoise Method pulldown menu select the type of noise you want to use Turbulence or fBm Fractal Brownian Motion To select whether to modify the x y or z values or all of them use the Orientation pulldown menu To change the look of the noise adjust the rest of the parameters For example to control the amount of detail of the noise adjust Octaves The RadialDistort node is a non linear transformation of the vertices along directions from the object centre giving either a barrel or pin cushion distortion In the following image two cylinders have been distorted using the RadialDistort node Ss FE ca LT T r dk gt z Hi G ON shes RadialDictort adial Distort Hodi display wareirame selectable render unchanged distortion 0 56 power bias AAS rotation canter x0 Ta scale xi ri BM pre
535. r divide Set operator multiply Set operator in Set operator minus Set operator difference Set operator max Set operator min Set operator out Set operator over Set operator screen 566 APPENDIX C CONVERTING FROM SHAKE TO NUKE NUKE Shake Node Nuke Equivalent Description More Info Under Merge gt Merge Set operator under Xor Merge gt Merge Set operator xor ZCompose Merge gt ZMerge Transform Nodes Shake Node Nuke Equivalent Description More Info 567 APPENDIX C CONVERTING FROM SHAKE TO NUKE NUKE Warp Nodes Shake Node Nuke Equivalent Description More Info 568 APPENDIX C CONVERTING FROM SHAKE TO NUKE NUKE Other Nodes Shake Node Nuke Equivalent Description More Info AddBorders AddShadow Bytes Cache Delnterlace DropShadow Field Histogram PixelAnalyzer Image gt CurveTool Nuke User Manual page 273 PlotScanline Select SwapFields Tile TimeX TLCalibrate Transition 569 Appendix D Third Party Licenses This appendix lists third party libraries used in Nuke along with their licenses Library Description Boost Source code function template library License Boost Software License Version 1 0 August 17th 2003 Permission is hereby granted free of charge to any person or organization obtain ing a copy of the software and accompanying documentation covered by this license the Software to use reproduce displa
536. r changes 3 Inthe Transform properties panel choose the appropriate filtering algorithm from the filter pulldown list see Choosing a Filtering Algorithm on page 160 4 Position the pivot point as necessary e Increment or decrement the center x and y fields to move the axis in either direction e Or press Ctrl Cmd on a Mac while dragging on the centre of the transformation overlay 5 To scale the frame uniformly on both x and y e Increment or decrement the Transform node s scale field e Or drag the circle portion of the of the transformation overlay 6 To scale the frame asymmetrically on x or y 167 TRANSFORMING ELEMENTS NUKE e Click scale parameter s channel chooser to reveal the x and y fields then al increment or decrement each individually e Or drag any of the four points on the circle portion of the transformation overlay The top and bottom points scale on y the left and right points on x Skewing Elements To skew an element is to rotate its pixel columns around the pivot point ee _ Sano ee ce Se lt lt a EZA a P gS a ry Use the Transform node to skew elements To skew an element using the Transform node 1 Click Transform gt Transform to insert a Transform node at appropriate place in your script Connect a Viewer to the output of the Transform node so you can See the effect of your changes In the Transform properties panel choose the app
537. r the Toolbar any user created toolbars and the menu you are adding the new menu item to This means you can add a shortcut into the Node Graph for example without resetting the same shortcut in the Viewer However you cannot add a shortcut into the Node Graph without resetting the same shortcut in the main menu bar or the Toolbar e Replace IconName with the name of the png or xpm image you wish to use as the menu icon This image must be stored in your Nuke plug in path directory It should be 24 x 24 pixels in size e Replace with a number that represents the position of the item in the menu or toolbar If you do not use an index keyword the item will be added in the end of the menu or toolbar Tip You can also put the menu name in the addCommand call like this nuke menu MenuType addCommand NewMenu NewItem PythonCode name Example 1 The following entry creates a new menu and option called Custom gt Cue Render in the menu bar It inserts a gizmo called cue render The entry also defines Ctril R as the keyboard shortcut for the gizmo menubar nuke menu Nuke m menubar addMenu amp Custom m addCommand amp Cue Render nuke createNode cue_render Ctr1 R 418 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE Example 2 For information on how to create a new menu in the default Toolbar with a menu item that triggers a gizmo see the example on page 414 Defining Common Image Formats You
538. r usr local Nuke5 1v5 5 Copy the installer file from the machine that you downloaded it on to your render machine with a command like scp root download machine tmp Nuke5 1v5 linux x86 release 32 installer root render machine usr local Nuke5 1v5 on a 32 bit machine scp root download machine tmp Nuke5 1v5 linux x86 release 64 installer root render machine usr local Nuke5 1v5 on a 64 bit machine Replace download machine with the name of the machine you downloaded the installer file to and render machine with the name of your render node 6 Unzip the installer file to unpack its contents into your Nuke directory cd i ial Iv5unzip Nuke5 1v5 linux x86 release 32 installer on a 32 bit machine unzip Nuke5 1v5 linux x86 release 64 installer on a 64 bit machine 7 Repeat steps 3 6 for each render machine Installation on Mac OS X To install Nuke on Mac OS X do the following 1 Download the dmg installation file from our web site at www thefoundry co uk 24 INSTALLATION AND LICENSING NUKE Double click on the dmg archive to extract the pkg installer A pkg file is created Double click on the pkg file Follow the on screen instructions to install Nuke By default Nuke is installed to Applications Nuke5 1v5 5 Proceed to Launching Nuke on page 25 Installing Nuke Silently from the Command Line 1 Download the dmg installation file from our web site at www thefoundry co uk Launch a Terminal window
539. r to change the light colour e Drag the intensity slider to change the brightness of the light e From the filter pulldown menu select a filtering algorithm for the map image For more information see Choosing a Filtering Algorithm on page 160 e To change the blur size of the map image adjust the blur size slider 313 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Environment Environment Node color 1 intensity 1 filter Cubic blur size 1 display wireframe R selectable import chan file export chan file transform order SRT rotation order Zst translate x rotate xO scale x uniform scale 1 Figure 13 26 Environment light controls The Light Node You can use the Light node to add a direct light point light or spot light into your script The node can also be used to import lights from fbx files This is described later under Importing Channel Files Cameras Lights Transforms and Meshes from Other Applications on page 321 To add a direct point or spot light 1 Select 3D gt Lights gt Light to insert a Light node into your script 2 In the Light controls select the light type you want to use point directional or spot The controls are enabled and disabled according to the light type you choose For example if you chose directional light you get the same controls that appear on the DirectLight node Lighti Light File Node read fram file light type fx 7 pointe i il color direchonal inte
540. r whose curve you wish to view 2 Select Curve editor The Curve Editor panel appears with a focus on the selected parameter s curve The vertical or y axis denotes the value of the parameter 57 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE The horizontal or x axis denotes time in frame units Curve Editor ColorCorrectl saturation Figure 2 20 Nuke s Curve Editor panel To display curves in the Editor 1 In the parameter tree on the left click the and signs to expand and collapse the hierar chy as necessary 2 Click a parameter s name to make its curve the focus of the editor To focus on multiple Curves at the same time Shift click on the names in the parameter tree 3 To display separate curves for each channel separate the channels for the relevant control in the node s properties panel The parameter tree on the left lets you focus on any curve in the script To remove a curve from the Editor 1 In the parameter tree on the left click the and signs to expand and collapse the hierar chy as necessary 2 Select a curve in the parameter tree and press Delete To zoom in or out in the Editor 1 Click on the area you want to zoom in on or out of 2 Press the button to zoom in or the button to zoom out OR Scroll up with the mouse wheel to zoom in or down to zoom out Tip To zoom to a custom area in the Curve Editor middle click on the Editor and drag to select an area with
541. ra tion Used when layering a foreground element over a back ground plate Useful for composit ing white smoke or fire shot against a dark background 132 MERGING IMAGES NUKE Operation Algorithm Description Illustration Example Uses under A 1 b B This is the reverse of the over operation Lay ers image B over A according to the matte of image B xor A 1 b B 1 a Shows both image A and B where the images do not overlap Tip If you have used older versions of Nuke you may have seen Merge operations called diagonal nl over and n under Diagonal has been renamed and is now called hypot To get the results of nl_over and nl_under you can check Video colorspace and use over and under Generating Contact Sheets In order to demonstrate document or manage what you are doing for a project it can be use ful to generate a contact sheet that shows your frame sequence s lined up next to each other in a matrix For this you can use the ContactSheet node It generates a contact sheet from all its inputs or from the frames of one input Figure 3 1 A contact sheet generated from the frames of one image sequence To generate a contact sheet 1 Select Merge gt ContactSheet to insert a ContactSheet node in your script 133 MERGING IMAGES NUKE 2 Connect the image s you want to include in your contact sheet to the numbered input s of the ContactSheet node If you want to include sev
542. racker1 tracker1 y Repeat the above for the track2 x and y fields As you apply the tracking data the current frame displayed in the Viewer is likely to move out of view This is because the node applies the inverted tracking data to the bottom left corner of the image sequence Enter values in the offset XY x and y fields to restore the image to the centre of frame You may have to animate these values over time to keep the image centred If necessary choose a different filtering algorithm from the filter pulldown See Choosing a Filtering Algorithm on page 160 When filtering with Key Simon or Rifmen filters you may see a haloing effect caused by pixel sharpening these filters employ If necessary check clamp to correct this problem In most cases you will keep black outside checked This renders as black pixels outside the image boundary If you uncheck this parameter the outside area is filled with the outermost pixels of the image area 186 7 Primatte This section explains how to use the blue green screen keyer Primatte in Nuke Accessing Primatte from Nuke Start up Nuke create a Primatte node and connect a foreground and a background image to it Add a Nuke Viewer node so you can see the result ALEX FG TIF backim TIF Figure 7 1 Nuke flowgraph When you select the Primatte node you should be presented with the Primatte properties panel as shown below Primattel Primatte N
543. rag the bottom of the cube to align it with the x axis NUKE 10 It looks like you don t need 4 divisions on the sides of the cube so change the number of rows to 2 in the Cube control panel Cubei Cube Node display textured EEE render textured rows columns 2 X separate faces cube x 0 5 i n 0 5 r05 Now let s add a few more primitives a cylinder and a sphere 11 Right click on the node graph and choose 3D gt Geometry gt Cylinder Connect the Cylinder node to the Scene2 node img Cylinder1 C cube J 12 Change the view to 3D V and zoom out a little to see the whole cylinder 536 NUKE 13 In the Cylinder1 control panel set the rows to 1 the columns to 20 Cylinderl Cylinder Node display textured X selectable render textured rows columns 1 radius 0 35 height 1 5 uextent 360 mM close top close bottom 14 Set the radius to 0 35 and the height to 1 5 Also check the box for close top 537 NUKE So now you have a cylinder in the scene 15 Choose front from the view list and move the cylinder up to rest on top of the cube 16 Now add a sphere Choose 3D gt Geometry gt Sphere In the Sphere control panel set both the rows and columns to 15 and change the radius to 0 35 538 NUKE Spherel Sphere Node display textured amp selectable render textured rows columns 15 radius u extent 360 y extent 180 X clo
544. ram_name FilmGrain frame range 1 50 min width F21 X resize tlip offset 10 5 Amount of grain amount r 0 30000001 9 040000001 b 0 5 saturation 1 master red green blue reset low_clip seed T mask Input z inject invert fringe un premult by invert mix amp Click the folder icon of the grain field and navigate to the appropriate film stock sequence Select Open If necessary check the resize box to scale the grain sequence up or down to match your working resolution In the min width field define a minimum width in pixels that images have to have in order to receive grain Enter values into the red green and blue amount fields to increase or decrease on a per channel basis the density of granules This is accomplished crudely speaking by boosting or reducing the gain of the grain sequence Now you re ready to fine tune the blending between the grain and backplate To mix the grain and backplate 1 Drag on the saturation slider to increase or decrease the intensity of the grain s hue across all channels If necessary you can also use the supplied curve editor to edit the grain sequence s colour curves In this manner you can alter gain gamma contrast etc on a per channel basis These curves function in the same manner as those describe in Using Co our Curves on page 141 152 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE 3 To set a low threshold based on the input image below w
545. rame stabilize y this frame jitter period remove jitte add jitter smooth T 50 translate 14 Click the play forward button in the Viewer or render a flipbook and you should see the Mardi Gras mask transform to match the movement of the performer If you see jitter in the movement you can edit the track data in the Curve Editor to smooth out the data You can also add a small value to the de jitter parameter or add values to the smooth T R and S parameters on the Transform tab to filter the tracks 483 NUKE Epilogue In this tutorial you worked with several examples for the Tracking node You learned how to record the locations for multiple features and you applied the tracking data for other tasks in the composite such as stabilisation and matchmoving End of Tutorial 484 Tutorial 3 Keying and Mattes Keying is one of those fundamental compositing skills You can t composite anything until you have mattes pulled for the elements you want to layer together It s nice to say you could just push a button to complete this task but as you probably know one keying operation seldom produces an acceptable matte Image quality lighting condi tions subject motion colours even camera moves affect the steps required to get a clean matte for your composite Figure 3 1 Keying Footage in Nuke So how do you get a clean matte in Nuke The best approach is to understand the strengths of
546. rames are compared onwards from each frame analysed Thus a value of 1 would compare each frame to the frame following it whereas a value of 5 would compare each frame to the following 5 frames The higher frame range you use the more accurate and time consuming the calculation becomes However a high frame range is not always needed For analysing and matching fire flicker you d probably want to go frame by frame whereas removing flicker would require a wider frame range to ensure a good average is obtained as the result To analyse the sequence click Go This opens the Frames to execute dialog 8 In the dialog specify the frame range you want to analyse and match Enter the first frame followed by a comma and the last frame Click OK Nuke now analyses the frame sequence 274 ANALYSING FRAME SEQUENCES NUKE 9 Move to the IntensityData tab where you ll find the results of the analysis You ll notice that the parameter input fields have turned cyan This indicates that they are animated To see the animation curve right click on the values and select Curve editor Curve Tool AutoCropData IntensityData MaxLumaData Node TREA z _ EE intensitydata r 004662263 1 COMS gt 00a ea Once Nuke has created the animation curve you can copy the animation or any of its values into a colour correction node for example to match the analysed intensity there Ctrl Cmd click on the animation button and drag and drop it to another
547. ras Cameraz Cameral RendercCaM This selection does not change the camera used for rendering This changes only the camera to look through for the current 3D Viewer Cameras in the current data stream automatically appear in the list of cameras you can select To select a camera that doesn t appear in list double click the camera node to open its panel and it will be added to the list 3D Scene Geometry Nuke includes several options for inserting 3D geometry into your scenes You can create primitive shapes such as cards cubes and spheres as well as import models created in other 3D applications These are the types of objects you can include in a Nuke 3D scene and each objects is repre sented by a 3D node in the script e Cards e Cubes e Cylinders e Spheres e OB Wavefront objects e Axes e Cameras e Lights 282 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Working with Cards A card is the simplest type of object you can add to a scene and probably the type you will use most often It s merely a plane onto which you can map a texture typically a clip you are using as part of a pan and tile setup w A U FIR 6S Oo Figure 13 8 A card object A card object may be deformed as a bilinear or bicubic object with controls contained in the card s parameters You can also insert other 3D nodes such as ProceduralNoise or RadialDis tort to change the card geometry Card nodes have extended bicubics bicubics
548. rch area as shown Un n panel next to Tracker1 check the boxes for T translate R rotate and S Scale 6 Click the enable box for Track 2 to activate the controls for an additional track Check the boxes for T translate R rotate and S scale on this track also 7 Press the minus key over the Viewer to zoom out and you ll see a second tracking marker appears Animation Controls clear all clear bkwd clear fwd center predict Tracker 1 X enable Use to calculate BT AR BS tracki x 303 6000061 y 262 799968779 Tracker 2 X enable Use to calculate BT BR M5 track2 x 352 y 211 Tracker 3 enable Use to calculate T R Tracker 4 enable Use to calculate T R 8 Adjust the size and position of the second tracking marker as shown below 9 In the control panel for Tracker4 click the track forward button to generate the tracks After you get a solid track on the performer you need to make a copy of the Tracker4 node to create the matchmove 10 Select the Tracker4 node and press Ctrl C to copy it 11 Select the Transform1 node and press Ctrl V to paste the Tracker node copy Tracker5 12 Connect the Viewer to the Over node Your node tree should now look similar to this 482 NUKE rpaint 0001 e 13 In the Tracker5 control panel click the Transform tab and choose match move Then close the Tracker5 control panel Tracker Settings Transform Node transform none reference f
549. re when selected displays the small Primatte polyhedron in the Viewer window Opaque This feature when selected makes the selected polyhedrons opaque De selecting it makes them semi transparent Samples This feature when selected allows the user to sample colour regions on the image window using the 3D Sample Actions mode and see where those regions are in relation to the polyhe dron and the algorithm The colours will be displayed as a spray of pixels in the colour selected This button only allows the user to see or hide the sampled colours The 3D Sample Actions mode must be selected in the Actions area for this feature to operate 202 PRIMATTE NUKE Clear BG This feature changes the background colour of the 3D Viewer window from black when unse lected to transparent when selected Sliced This feature when selected slices open the large and medium polyhedrons so that the inner polygons can be seen When unselected the largest polyhedron selected becomes a com pletely closed polyhedron and you might not be able see the inner polyhedrons unless the Opaque feature is deselected Wireframe This feature when selected changes the polyhedrons from shaded surface objects to wire frame objects Degrain Section Degrain Tools The Degrain tools are used when a foreground image is highly compromised by film grain As a result of the grain when backing screen noise is completely removed the edges of th
550. res on 29 September 2009 for a computer running Nuke with a System ID of 000a95 7bfde5 Node locked licenses allow you to run Nuke on one machine only INCREMENT nuke_i foundry 2008 0329 29 sep 2009 uncounted HOSTID 000a957bfde5 ISSUED 29 sep 2008 SIGN 00DA 99A9 E744 217E 8AD3 E7AF E289 COC6 6B23 2891 ACO1l OF50 E64D 8847 8B22 3A40 2BE9 A268 B C2 4BCO 36AF INCREMENT nuke_r foundry 2008 0329 29 sep 2009 uncounted HOSTID 000a957bfde5 ISSUED 29 sep 2008 STGN 03C9 1D0D 5503 EC34 2CAF 37C0 8731 5E57 20 INSTALLATION AND LICENSING NUKE OGES CeCe Ello SIEA S7 Ce SBES 24228 SOAC 35EE 6753 B3AB 3AC4 1559 And here s an example of a permanent floating license for a server whose machine name is red with System ID 000ea641d7al communicating on port number 30001 that will enable any version of Nuke built before 31 July 2009 to run on up to 5 machines simultaneously SERVER red 000ea641ld7val 30001 VENDOR foundry INCREMENT nuke_i foundry 2009 0731 permanent 5 ISSUED 15 jul 2009 SIGN 00DA 99A9 E744 217E 8AD3 E7 AF E289 COC6 6B23 2891 ACOl OF50 E64D 8847 SB2z2 3A40 2BE9 A268 B7C2 4BCO 36AF INCREMENT nuke_r foundry 2009 0731 permanent 5 ISSUED 15 jul 2009 START 31 7ul 2009 SIGN 03C9 IDOD 5503 EC34 Z2CAP 37C0 8731 SES7 Q6ES COCB E113 51EA S7CO SBEO 242B S0AC 35EE 7593 BSAB SAC4 1559 For information on what to do with the foundry lic file see nsta ling Licenses below Installing Licenses Once a l
551. ression As a result of the suppression the spill is removed from that cheek colour and all other shades of that colour on the foreground The user would then con tinue to sample areas of the image where spill exists and each sample would remove spill from another colour region When all spill has been removed the user should have a final composite As a last step he should go back to the Matte View and make sure that gray transparent areas have not appeared in the foreground area If there are any the Matte Sponge Operation Mode should be selected and those gray pixels are sampled until they have all turned white again The Matte Sponge and Spill Sponge tools bulge or dent the polyhedrons a pre selected amount If the desired results are not achieved or the results are too extreme for the image a manual method can be applied The user should choose the Fine Tuning sliders select a colour region of interest and then move the appropriate slider to get the desired results For example to remove spill select a region of the composite image with spill on it Move the spill or large poly slider to the right a little bit the large poly will bulge and the spill should disappear Move it a little more if necessary Moving this slider to the right removes spill moves the colours from outside the large poly to between the medium and large polyhedrons and moving it to the left dents the large poly and moves that colour region to outside the large pol
552. rface You may be used to a certain way of working or simply disagree with some of Nuke s default settings If this is the case youll be happy to know that you can customize Nuke s interface to find just the layouts and settings that work for you You can then save your preferred set tings layouts and template scripts for future use Interface Layouts When your scripts grow you may not be able to fit all the different elements on your display at the same time Luckily you can customize the windows and panes so that accessing the elements you often need becomes as quick and easy as possible Customizing Panes You can resize and split panes to make more room for different elements on the screen To resize a pane Drag the divider line of the pane into a new location B cuveEdtor untitied Figure 2 42 Resizing a pane To split a pane 1 Click on the content menu button in the top left corner of the pane La 2 Select Split Vertical or Split Horizontal from the menu that opens Moving the Toolbar You can move the toolbar into a new position by adding a new panel for it hiding the panel name and controls and resizing the panel For more information on how to do this see Adding Tabbed Panels and Hiding Tab Names and Controls below 86 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Adding Tabbed Panels When you can t fit more elements to your display you can use tabs to save space You can also use tabs to move the toolbar into a n
553. rkstations or otherwise in a user interactive capacity Licensee shall be authorized to use an interactive version of the Software for both interactive and non interactive rendering purposes 579 APPENDIX E END USER LICENSING AGREEMENT NUKE Finally if the Software is a Personal Learning Edition Licensee may use it only for the pur pose of training and instruction and for no other purpose PLE versions of the Software may not be used for commercial professional or for profit purposes SECTION 3 BACK UP COPY Notwithstanding Section 2 Licensee may store one copy of the Software and Documentation off line and off site in a secured location owned or leased by Licensee in order to provide a back up in the event of destruction by fire flood acts of war acts of nature vandalism or other incident In no event may Licensee use the back up copy of the Software or Documenta tion to circumvent the usage or other limitations set forth in this Agreement SECTION 4 OWNERSHIP Licensee acknowledges that the Software and Documentation and all intellectual property rights relating thereto are and shall remain the sole property of The Foundry and the Third Party Licensors Licensee shall not remove or allow the removal of any copyright or other proprietary rights notice included in and on the Software or Documentation or take any other action that could adversely affect the property rights of The Foundry or any Third Party Licen sor To th
554. ropriate filtering algorithm from the filter pulldown list see Choosing a Filtering Algorithm on page 160 Position the pivot point as necessary e Increment or decrement the center x and y fields to move the axis in either direction e Or Ctrl drag Cmd drag on a Mac on the centre of the transformation overlay Increment or decrement the skew field to rotate the pixel columns around the pivot point Or drag the vertical bar of the transformation overlay 168 TRANSFORMING ELEMENTS NUKE Applying Core Transformations in 2 5D Nuke s Card3D node lets you apply the same geometric transformations possible with the Transform node but gives you an additional axis of operation z Just to be clear the Card3D node s transformations are not truly 3D but rather what is some times called 2 5D meaning that you can move an element back on the z axis but doing so does not convey the sense that it is behind or in front of another element 2 5D transforma tions are useful for tasks like cheating the perspective of an element or faking a camera zoom Remember however that Nuke doesn t limit you to 2 5 dimensions If you need true 3D capa bilities you can construct a 3D scene See Chapter 13 3D Compositing on page 277 Adding a Card3D Node To add a Card3D node 1 Click Transform gt Card3D to insert a Card3D node at appropriate place in your script 2 Connect a Viewer to the output of the Card3D node
555. roxy format root proxy_format 640x460 Figure 9 5 Adjusting the global frame range Choose Edit gt Project settings or press S over the Nuke window and then enter the new frame range and fps in the Project settings properties panel Applying the TimeBlur Filter When a fast moving subject is recorded on film or video its edges appear to smear as a result of the object s movement while the shutter is open The longer the shutter remains open at each frame interval the more obvious this effect Time Blur simulates this phenomenon by Sampling its input at divisions times over shutter frames starting at the current frame plus offset Time blur is commonly applied to garbage masks that are tracked to a fast moving feature The time blur averages the incoming mask image over the shutter period better match the motion blur in the original image and creating a more convincing integration To apply motion blur to a clip 1 Click Time gt TimeBlur to insert a TimeBlur node into your script Place it downstream from the element to which you want to apply motion blur 2 Inthe TimeBlur properties panel set divisions to the number of times you want to sample the input over the shutter time For images with fast moving content higher values will be necessary to eliminate steppiness or banding in the output 3 Set shutter to equal the span of time in frames over which the input should be sampled A shutter time of 5 is typic
556. rs with a line connecting the new feature to the original feature 6 Inthe Tracker2 control panel press the track forward button and Nuke continues the track off the screen Why is this cool Because you can now use the track data to matchmove an element a trail of chimney smoke for example that will lock to the feature even after it moves off the screen 7 The track is now complete so you can click the clear offset button in the Tracker2 control panel 8 Uncheck the enable box for track1 to prevent it from being recalculated 9 Before you continue close all Tracker control panels that are currently open The offset doesn t change the track location Instead it allows Nuke to continue the track with the assumption that the offset feature remains at the same relative distance to the original feature Later in this chapter you ll see how to use this tracking data to composite another element to match the background plate Stabilising Elements Stabilisation is the process of removing motion camera shake for example and locking down the element for your composite A one point track provides enough information to sta 478 NUKE bilise horizontal and vertical motion along the image plane A two point track lets you stabi lise horizontal and vertical motion and remove rotation in the image as well To track and stabilise 1 Locate the node tree labelled Stabilizing Elements n 2 You ll see a co
557. ry usage Set the amount of RAM that Nuke uses for processing images Generally the default setting of 50 gives a good trade off between performance and interactivity disk cache Nuke to saves all recent images displayed in the Viewer for fast playback Using this control you can specify where you want Nuke to save these images Pick a local disk for example c temp preferably with the fastest access time available It s also important to leave enough space for the maximum disk cache size defined below The environment variable NUKE _DISK_CACHE can be used to override this setting disk cache size Select the maximum size the disk cache can reach Ensure there is enough space on the disk for this to be reached The environment variable NUKE_DISK_ CACHE GB can be used to override this set ting Node defaults new Merge nodes connect A When this is checked any Merge nodes you add are connected to the currently input selected node via the A input of the Merge node When this is NOT checked the B input of the Merge node is used instead autokey on Bezier When this is checked the autokey control in the Bezier node properties is enabled by default and Bezier shapes are automatically saved as key shapes When this is NOT checked the autokey control is disabled by default and Bezier shapes are not automatically saved as key shapes Script command Script command dialog Select which scripting language the script command dialog
558. s 2 Navigate to the Python module that contains the script you want to open and click Open Nuke opens the script in the input pane of the Script Editor but does not execute it To import and execute a Python script 1 On top of the Script Editor click the Source a script button The Script to open dia Fe log opens 2 Navigate to the Python module that contains the script you want to import and click Open OR In the input pane enter import module where module represents the name of your Python module without the file extension for example import firstmodule Nuke imports the Python module and performs the procedure defined in the module Importing the module is done according to Python s default rules During the import the module is searched in the following locations and order 1 In the current directory 2 In the directories contained in the PYTHONPATH environment variable if this has been defined To view these directories enter echo PYTHONPATH in a command shell 3 In an installation dependent default directory During the search the variable sys path is initialized from these directories Modules are then searched in the directories listed by the sys path variable To see these directories execute the statement print sys path in the Script Editor Getting Help In the scope of this user guide it s not possible to go into detail with Python and all the scripts available However there are se
559. s with a temporal offset If you want to read in a Static value for a given frame you just type that frame number inside a set of parenthesis for example 10 If you want to read in dynamic values but with an offset in time type t the variable for time followed by a for a forward offset or for a backward offset followed by a number rep resenting the number of frames worth of offset For example typing t 2 would capture val ues that are two frames back from the current frame Thus to create a linking expression that pulls the value from a Transform node s x translation field at the tenth frame you would type on a parameter to open the expression dialog and then enter Transform1 translate x 10 in the dialog s Expression field 357 EXPRESSIONS Expression Transform translate 10 Result NUKE The steps below recap the process for creating a linking expression To reference values from another parameter method 1 1 Click on the destination parameter the one which will receive values from another param eter 2 To display the expression dialog right click on the parameter and select Add expression Transform translate x rotate scale skew center x filter motonblur shutter shuttenotfset Node 0 a set key No animation 320 Cubie 0 0 5 start O Transforme Transform Node translate x0 Expression Result shutterottset start
560. s Cmd click on the slider Separating Channels By default many parameters in Nuke automatically gang channels for you For example if you drag on the Gain slider in the ColorCorrect node you simultaneously affect the R G and B channels assuming you re processing the RGB channel set You can however use the a parameter s channel chooser button to reveal and edit the values assigned to individual chan nels To edit an individual channel s value 1 Click the parameter s channel chooser button The number on its surface lets you know how many channels are available for editing A series of input fields one for each individ ual channel appears saturation 0 28 contrast ri 2 Edit the values in any of the revealed input fields as necessary You can also use a colour slider for editing individual channels See Using Colour Sliders and Colour Whee on page 52 Using the Colour Picker and Colour Controls Nuke offers a colour picker for inputting values Colour pickers are especially useful for set ting white or black points or for colour matching tasks such as sampling values in a back ground plate to colour correct a foreground image To use the colour picker and colour controls e Click the colour picker button to display and make colour selections The colour picker 2 window opens 5 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE e To activate the eye dropper and sample colours from the Viewer see below click the
561. s an item to the default Toolbar Viewer adds an item to the right click menu of the Viewer e Replace NewMenu with the menu name Using an existing menu name appends any new options to the existing menu You can also add options to the default Menu bar and Toolbar e Replace NewItem with the underlying item you want to add to the menu You may precede any character with an amp in order to flag it as hot key trigger e Replace PythonCode with relevant Python code usually nuke createNode and if necessary use the name of the gizmo generic Python script or plug in file you want 417 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE the menu option to invoke For ease of use place all such referenced files inside the plug in path directory For more information on plug in path directories see Loading Gizmos Plug ins and ICL scripts on page 410 e Replace Shortcut with a keyboard shortcut for example Alt A Ctri Cmd A or Shift A The letter a alone represents lower case a F1 represents function key 1 You can combine the Shift Ctri Cmd and Alt keys as necessary If you like you can also use A to represent AIt A A to represent Ctri Cmd A and A to represent Shift A By assigning a keyboard shortcut you can overwrite existing shortcuts For example if you assign the shortcut Ctri Cmd O to a new menu item it will no longer be used for it s default purpose which is opening a file However shortcuts are only overwritten in the main menu ba
562. s can help you integrate the elements for a better composite In our example you want to limit the correction to the foreground element only so you ll insert a colour correction node before the Merge nodes 1 Select the Reformat1 node Then right click over the Node Graph and choose Colour gt Exposure This inserts the EXPTooll node EAF foal 2 Suppose you want to adjust the value of the red colour channel Move the mouse pointer over the Viewer window and press R to display the red channel 3 Inthe EXPTooll control panel uncheck the box for gang sliders This will allow you to adjust individual colour channels 464 NUKE EXPTooll EXPToo Node channels Bred HB oreen amp blue colorspace Linear blackpoint 0 Adjustin Densities gang red 0 07563035 green blue mack rgba alpha Y inject invert fringe unjpremult by none BEAL mix 4 Drag the red slider to adjust the colour values When you are finished press R over the Viewer to display all channels The Exposure node worked as expected but the result is less than spectacular The colour change is too uniform If only there were a way to limit or in fact mask the colour correction perhaps we d see a better composite Hmm Masking Effects You can indeed apply masks to limit how each of these nodes affects the images The follow ing shows how to create a bezier mask to limit the colour correction To create and apply a bezier mask 1
563. s controls of the ScanlineRender node You can for example select the projection mode to do have different renderings of the scene or change the global ambient colour The global ambient colour is the overall colour added to the areas that are not illuminated Without this colour these areas appear black To select the projection mode From the projection mode pulldown menu select e render camera to use the projection type of the render camera This option is selected by default e perspective to have the camera s focal length and aperture define the illusion of depth for the objects in front of the camera e orthographic to use orthographic projection projection onto the projection plane using parallel rays e uv to have every object render its UV space into the output format You can use this option to cook out texture maps e spherical to have the entire 360 degree world rendered as a spherical map To change the global ambient colour Drag the ambient slider or enter a value between O black and 1 white in the input field 328 14 Working with Stereoscopic Projects The title of this chapter is slightly misleading as Nuke isn t actually limited to stereo scopic views but rather provides multi view support for as many views as you need The views do not have to be stereo pairs but since that is the most obvious applica tion this chapter mainly deals with stereoscopic projects In many ways Nuke lets y
564. s in the scenes the two image planes and the camera The result is an axis object which globally controls the scene Rotating it for example rotates all objects in the scene as the figure below shows t 2 846 1 3 bee a r 17 20 5403A 00 e Figure 13 14 Rotating an entire scene with an axis object Tip To move several objects together you can also merge them using a MergeGeo node see Merging Objects on page 290 and then control them using a TransformGeo node see Using the Transform Geo Node on page 300 To add an axis object 1 Click 3D gt Axis to insert an Axis node 2 To create the parent relationships connect the Axis node all object nodes you wish to control with the Axis transformation controls 289 3D COMPOSITING NUKE To create a nested transformational hierarchy chain additional Axis nodes to the first one you inserted For example you could create a hierarchy of three Axis nodes to control rotation scale and transform Figure 13 15 Creating a nested transformational hierarchy In the above example Ax s3 rotation is connected to Ax s2 scale Axis2 is connected to Axis 7 transform and Axis 7 is connected to the TransformGeo node s that you want to affect With the Axis nodes connected in this manner their transformation data ripples down the chain and is added to the settings of the TransformGeo node Merging Objects With the MergeGeo node you can merge your 3D objects
565. s pulldown menu choose one of the film stock you want to match Adjust the Size sliders for the red green and blue channels to shrink or enlarge the granules Adjust the Irregularity sliders to increase or decrease the random quality of the grain according to the different channels Adjust the Intensity sliders to increase or decrease the contrast of the grain against the Original image Using Practical Grain Although Nuke s ScannedGrain node offers controls for creating synthetic grain ones compa rable to those just discussed it s main use is for reading in and applying scanned grain that is grain derived from actual film stock If your facility has such sequences available you can read them in and apply them using the ScannedGrain node You can also download grain files from our website for this purpose Both creating and downloading grain files are described below as well as using the resulting grain files with the ScannedGrain node To create film stock sequences 1 2 3 4 Film a gray card Only about 50 frames are needed Scan the film in Select Image gt Read to load the scanned image into Nuke Add a Blur node Filter gt Blur after the image to blur the image until you cannot see any grain Then blur the image a bit more Select Merge gt Merge to insert a Merge node in your script Connect the A input of the Merge node into the original image and the B input into the Blur node Then open the Merg
566. s with more flexibility and precision than is possible with sliders Contrast boost Gain boost Gamma boost Offset boost Figure 4 7 Corrections through the ColorLookup node s colour curves To make basic corrections with the ColorLookup node P Click Color gt ColorLookup to insert a ColorLookup node at the appropriate place in your script Connect a Viewer to the output of the ColorLookup node so you can see the effect of your changes In the ColorLookup properties panel click red green blue or alpha if you want to limit the subsequent operations to a particular channel You can select multiple curves in order to edit one curve with reference to another Otherwise select the master curve which represents all channels In the Viewer drag the cursor over the pixels you want to sample for the correction 142 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE 5 In the ColorLookup properties panel press Ctrl Alt Cmd Alt on a Mac while clicking on the curve to set points at the places where the red green and blue lines intersect with the colour curve Figure 4 8 Viewing values from a sampled colour 6 Edit the position of the points and adjust the tangent handles to adjust the curve shape for the colour correction Making Hue Saturation and Value Adjustments For certain colour correction tasks like spill suppression you ideally want to influence only a very narrow range of colour values For such tasks
567. se top M close bottom 17 Make sure the Sphere control panel is open and move the sphere object to cap the top of the cylinder a ee AT fea he TTS in ag n a Ea NT a T i ee wy M Ma aT Se ee le 4 i A aT a N 18 Select the 3D from the view list and rotate the view around the objects in your scene At this point they have no surface properties so you ll need to connect a 2D image from the node graph to each object 19 In the node graph connect the concrete jpg to each of the objects 539 NUKE concrete jpa _ Cylinderl Nuke includes lighting tools to enhance the existing lighting in the plates and images you include in a 3D scene Also included are fundamental surfacing tools to control the attributes of the objects in the 3D workspace These tools are not designed to replace the use of true 3D lighting and surfacing but they can definitely help you punch up the scene and quickly tweak the settings without sending ele ments back to the 3D application 540 NUKE Nuke s lighting objects introduce lighting and surface attributes into your scene When the scene has no lighting objects then all surfaces are illuminated with the same properties and level of brightness In the following steps you ll first add nodes that define surface properties for the objects and then you ll add the light objects to illuminate them Click on an empty place in the node graph to des
568. sed Figure 7 12 Complemental Replacement mode maintains fine detail The Complemental Replacement mode is sensitive to foreground spill If the spill intensity on the foreground image is rather significant this mode may often introduce serious noise in the resultant composite Figure 7 13 Serious noise in the composite Solid Colour Replacement Mode solid colour In the Solid Colour Replacement mode the spill component will be replaced by a user defined palette colour While the Complemental Replacement mode uses only the backing colour com plement to remove small amounts of spill in the original foreground the Solid Colour Replace ment mode tries to assuage the noise using the user defined palette colour Changing the palette colour for the solid replacement the user can apply good spill replacement that matches the composite background Its strength is that it works fine with even serious blue Spill conditions Figure 7 14 Smooth spill processing with solid colour replacement On the negative side when using the Solid Colour Replacement mode fine detail on the fore ground edge tends to be lost The single palette colour sometimes cannot make a good colour tone if the background image has some high contrast colour areas 197 PRIMATTE NUKE Defocus Spill Replacement defocused background The Defocus Replacement mode uses a defocused copy of the background image to determine the spill replacement colours i
569. serve center RadialDistortl AadialDistort Node display wareirama selectable render unchanged distortion O power bias rotation center x0 0 scale xd a a oo W preserve center Gylindara r EET cadialbiate FR adialDirtort2 Viewerh Figure 13 22 Barrel and pin cushion distortions Is Select 3D gt Modify gt Radial Distort to insert a RadialDistort node anywhere after the 3D object you want to modify 308 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Attach a Viewer to the node to see your changes In the node s controls use the display pulldown menu to select how you want to view your object in the Viewer while making changes to it 4 To select whether the distortion is a barrel or pin cushion adjust the distortion slider Values below O produce a barrel distortion whereas values above O produce a pin cushion distortion If you set the value to O the 3D object is not distorted 5 To control the magnitude of the distortion adjust the power bias slider The higher the value the more distorted the object becomes 6 To move the centre point of the distortion enter new coordinates in the rotation center fields 7 To control the amount of distortion in each of the x y or z directions adjust the values in the scale fields 8 To keep the object s centre in its original place in the 3D space check preserve center Modifying Objects Using a Trilinear Interpolation With the Trilinear node you can warp the o
570. set 432 preview flipbook 349 region of interest ROI 349 previewing outputs 349 Primatte 187 algorithm 199 210 Auto Compute 188 Degrain tools 203 RT 218 RT Algorithm 200 RT 217 RT Algorithm 199 Select BG Color 188 Primatte nodes 486 ProcGeo nodes 307 Project3D nodes 295 proxy files 94 proxy formats 92 proxy mode 75 92 460 proxy scale 92 PyQt 398 NUKE Python 381 Python statements 385 Q QuickTime format 557 RadialDistort nodes 308 Ramp nodes 449 RAW format 557 ReadGeo nodes 288 redoing actions 66 Reformat nodes 109 460 reformatting elements 109 region of interest 79 349 removing jitter from tracks 180 spill 193 194 renaming channels 122 renaming nodes 37 render farms 356 format 351 resolution 351 rendering 467 3D scenes 279 a sequence to flipbook 350 from single Write nodes 353 scripts 349 351 repeatable sampling Primatte 194 resizing the bounding box 114 resolution 109 define custom 352 Retime nodes 233 retiming clips 233 with OFlow 237 Rifmen filtering algorithm 163 RLA format 558 ROI region of interest 79 349 rolling cameras 281 rotating Cameras 281 elements in 2 5D 172 elements in 2D 166 rotoscoping 498 S sampling black points 139 white points 139 Saturation nodes 147 saturation adjusting 143 scaling elements in 2 5D 172 in 2D 167 ScanlineRender nodes 279 515 Scene nodes 278 523 scenes 586 adding Axis objects to 289 adding Cube objects to 286
571. shop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and or other countries Maya is a registered trademark of Autodesk Inc in the USA and other countries Houdini is a registered trademark of Side Effects Software Inc Boujou is a trademark of 2d3 Ltd 3D Equalizer is a trademark of Science D Visions Framecycler is a registered trademark of Iridas Inc OpenGL is a trademark or registered trademark of Silicon Graphics Inc in the United States and or other countries worldwide Cineon is a trademark of Eastman Kodak Company Stereoscopic images courtesy of Mr Henry Chung HKSC http www stereoscopy com henry Images illustrating warping and morphing courtesy of Ron Brinkmann http www digitalcompositing com Images from The Day After Tomorrow 2004 courtesy of and copyright by 20th Century Fox Images from Stealth courtesy of and copyright by Sony Pictures Inc Images from xXx 2002 courtesy of and copyright by Columbia Pictures Industries All rights reserved by their respective owners in the United States and or other countries The Foundry 1 Wardour Street London WID 6PA Rev 16 April 2009 NUKE CONTENTS REI ACE o o o o oo oo o ool 16 About this MAMMAL 4 4 66 466 4 40 o baton onde oree oi
572. sible 192 PRIMATTE NUKE Spill Removal Method 1 There are three ways in Primatte to remove the spill colour The quickest method is to select the Spill Sponge button from the Actions operation area and then sample the spill areas away By just positioning the cursor over a bluish pixel and sampling it the blue will disappear from the selected colour region and be replaced by a more natural colour Additional spill removal should be done using the Fine Tuning tools or by using the Spill feature Both are explained further on in this manual All spill removal replacement operations in Primatte can be modified using the Spill Process replace ment with tools Spill can be replaced with either the complement of the background colour a solid colour selected by the user or by colours brought from a defocused background Depending on the spill conditions one of these options should provide the results you are looking for See the informa tion in Spill Replacement Options on page 196 for more details Primattes spill removal tools work on colour regions In the image above samples should be made on the light flesh tones the dark flesh tones the light blonde hair the dark blonde hair and the red blouse colour regions One sample in each colour region will remove spill from all similar colours in the foreground image If the spilled colour was not been totally removed using the Spill Sponge or the result of the Spill Sp
573. sing a linear colour space If necessary you can change the Colourspace option in the Read node s control panel or insert a Colour gt Colourspace node to select the colour scheme you want to output or calculate 7 Drag a marquee hold down the left mouse button while dragging around the Background and Ramp nodes to select them Then drag them to the right to make room for additional nodes E E gine v01 0001 6 8 Choose Image gt Read from the right click menu to import another image sequence Use the file browser to select the image sequence stored in Nuke_Tutorials CompBasics smoke _left wh smoke left 04d rgba 9 Add one more Read node and retrieve the image sequence stored in Nuke _Tutorials CompBasics smoke_right wh smoke right 04d rgba 10 Arrange the nodes as shown above to allow some room to create the connections for the node tree 454 NUKE Navigating Inside the Windows The node graph panel can seem very small especially when your node tree grows True you already know how to resize and tear off the windows but sooner or later you will run out of display real estate It s time to learn some navigation controls that will help you work in the node graph and other windows in Nuke Try the following navigation controls Panning Your View e Windows Linux While pressing the Alt key and the left mouse button drag the mouse pointer across the node graph e Mac OS X While pressing the Optio
574. sion of the image sequence click the proxy field s folder icon and navigate to the proxy version Select Open If you don t have a proxy version MANAGING SCRIPTS NUKE don t worry Nuke will create one on the fly according to the proxy scale or proxy format settings you specified in the Project settings The proxy file does not need to match the proxy resolution in use The closest larger image full size or proxy file will be scaled down to the required size However if your proxy images match your typical proxy scale you will save this time QuickTime mov files may appear different in Nuke relative to Apple s Final Cut Pro because Final Cut Pro introduces a gamma compensation based on assumptions about the content of the files and the viewing environment If you are using 64 bit Windows you cannot read QuickTime files into Nuke This is because Apple has not released QuickTime for 64 bit Windows Naming Conventions The file names of image sequences generally end in a number before the extension for exam ple image000 1 rgb image0002 rgb image0003 rgb and so on When browsing for files like this you may notice that the sequence appears as image 04d rgb Here 04d is Nuke s way of indicating that the number is in a 4 digit incremental format For a 3 digit format such as image00 1 rgb the frame number variable would be 03d Nuke s File Browser also understands unpadded file names such as image1 rgb image2 rgb
575. sityData MaxLumaData Curve Type Avg Intensities T Gol AutoCrop color D Intensity Range Intensity frames for base average 2 All channels rgb red M green amp blue ROL x T60 y 120 r 460 t 360 Figure 12 1 The CurveTool node properties panel Tip If you are familiar with Shake you may have used the PixelAnalyzer node The CurveTool node is the Nuke equivalent of PixelAnalyzer To crop black edges to eliminate unnecessary computation 1 Choose Image gt CurveTool to insert a CurveTool node after the image sequence you want to analyse 2 Make sure a Viewer is connected to the CurveTool node 273 ANALYSING FRAME SEQUENCES NUKE In the CurveTool controls select AutoCrop from the Curve Type menu Using the color parameters select the colour you want to track To control how far the colour can deviate from the selected colour and still be cropped off use the Intensity Range slider 6 From the channels menu and checkboxes select the channels you want to analyse If you want to analyse an area in the frames rather than entire frames define a region of interest either by dragging the edges of the frames to a new position in the Viewer or by defining the area using parameters labeled ROI Click Go to analyse the frames This opens the Frames to Execute dialog In the dialog define the frames to analyse Enter the first frame followed by a comma and the last frame Click OK Nuke starts analysing t
576. so you can see the effect of your changes Specifying the Order of Operations The order by which Nuke executes operations can affect the outcome The Card3D node lets you choose the order by which Nuke executes scales rotations and translations as well as the order by which it executes rotation on individual axes To choose the operation order for scales rotations and translations In the Card3D properties panel select an option from the transform order pulldown list which displays all possible combinations S signifies scale R rotation and T translation To choose the operation order for rotations Select an option from the rotation order pulldown list which displays all possible axial combi nations Choosing a Filtering Algorithm Filtering algorithms let you specify the degree of smoothing and sharpening that remapped pixels receive during transformation The Card3D node offers the same filter algorithms as the Transform node See Choosing a Filtering Algorithm on page 160 for more information To choose a filter algorithm Select the desired algorithm from the filter pulldown list 169 TRANSFORMING ELEMENTS NUKE Using the 3D Transformation Handles You ll note when viewing the output of a Card3D node that it displays an overlay for executing Spatial transformations This overlay is often a faster alternative to the properties panel The figure below shows you how to use it A Drag to translate the frame on a
577. sr local Nuke5 1v5 nukescripts 4 In order to communicate with Nuke s event loop make sure any Nuke Python calls go through either nukescripts utils runInMainThread or nukescripts utils runInMainThreadWithResult For example to create a Blur node you could use e nukescripts utils runInMainThread nuke nodes Blur or if the result of the call is needed for example in this case to get the node object e b nukescripts utils runinMainThreadWithResult nuke nodes Blur You should only use these calls when interacting with Nuke from a separate thread Otherwise Nuke may hang Using PyQt4 in Nuke to Write Custom GUIs PyQt is a collection of Python bindings for Qt Software s graphical user interface GUI toolkit Qt PyQt is developed by Riverbank Computing and combines the advantages of Python and Qt Currently Nuke works with PyQt4 on Windows and Linux but not on Mac OS X With PyQt you can write custom Qt applications or GUIs in Python and use them within Nuke Because many other applications such as Maya and Houdini also support PyQt you can share the same UI across these applications without having to replicate or build it separately for each of them Both PyQt and Qt need to be installed separately to Nuke You can get a copy of PyQt from www riverbankcomputing co uk and a copy of Qt from http www qtsoftware com THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE Installation To install the following tools follow the instruc
578. ssions Interpolation 2 Click the items in the Curve Editor outline and you ll see values recorded for each of the parameters during the tracking process 475 NUKE a Curve Editor Trackerl E a s iL H nslate x Y center x y Hold down the Shift key and click the X and Y curves under track1 to select both curves at once and press the F key to frame the curves e To adjust a value select a point and drag it up or down e To change the frame for a particular point select it hold down the Ctrl key and drag the point left or right Let s assume you want to smooth a curve by applying a filter to the values Draw a marquee drag while pressing the left mouse button around a section of the curve to select multiple points Trackerl tracki l Ues ooo Y _ translate X Y center x Y 476 NUKE 5 Click the right mouse button to display a pop up menu of Curve Editor options Choose Edit gt Filter and enter 2 as the number of times to filter the key frames File Edit Cut Ctrl x Interpolation Erase Backspace View Copy Predefined Paste Ctrl V Select All Ctri A Edit expression Generate Move Filter Nuke averages the location of each point based on the values of the surrounding points and this helps to smooth the curve 6 Close the Curve Editor window and then play the result in the Viewer Those are the basics for tracking and editing the r
579. stem can have multiple Cameras connected to the Scene node to create different views on a 3D scene Tip Only one camera can be connected to the ScanlineRender node to generate the output but you can insert multiple ScanlineRender Camera node pairs to generate output from various perspectives 514 NUKE The ScanlineRender Node The last node ScanlineRender sends the results of your 3D scene back into your composite as a 2D image It s always 2D in 3D manipulation and then 2D back out which is why this is often called 2 and a half D The optional bg pipe defines the output reso lution of the 3D system Figure 4 4 The scanline render node converts the image back to 2D The image created by the ScanlineRender node will be the same resolution as your project set tings When you need to render a specific resolution use the optional bg pipe Connect a Constant node with the resolution you want and that will define the output of the Scanline Render node So now you know the basic 3D setup for your compositing script Let s take a test drive Open the Tutorial Project File The 3Dinteg tutor nk project file includes the node trees for the first part of this chapter To open the project file 1 Launch the Nuke application and choose File gt Open from the menu bar 2 In the file browser navigate to your Nuke_Tutorials 3DInteg folder select the 3dinteg tutor nk project file and click Open
580. step lerp See also atan cos sin tanh atan2 See also tan atan sinh cosh See also form_sRGB to rec O9f from_rec709f See also form_sRGB from_rec O09f See also form_sRGB to rec O9f from_rec O09f See also ceil floor int rint 365 EXPRESSIONS Function Purpose Operator Usage turbulence This is the same as X y Zz octaves x y z fBm except the lucanarity gain octaves absolute value of the lucanarity noise function is gain used value frame Evaluates the y value optional frame for an animation at defaults to current the given frame frame x 0 Return the current frame number y frame Evaluates the y value optional frame for an animation at defaults to current the given frame frame NUKE Related Functions See also fBm noise random See also y curve See also frame See also value curve 366 17 Setting Interface Preferences Nuke offers a highly customisable interface This chapter teaches you how you can use the preferences dialog to define the colour font and spatial arrangement of all main interface elements Displaying the Preferences Dialog Choose Edit gt Preferences or press Shift S The preferences dialog appears Presets Choose 4 P Files amp Paths save filename firstof value rootname geteny NUKE _TEMP_DIR sutosave for 5 seconds mor memory usaga 5 Bl flipbook cache geteny NUKE _TEMP_DIR flipbook cache siz
581. t HSVTool to insert an HSVTool node at the appropriate place in your script 144 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE 2 Connect a Viewer to the output of the HSVTool node so you can see the effect of your changes 3 Limit as appropriate the range of colours you want subsequent corrections to influence e In the HSVTool properties panel click the srccolour colour swatch Ctrl Cmd click on the Viewer to sample a single colour displayed or Ctri Cmd Shift drag to sample a range of colours To sample a single colour from the node s input while viewing its output Ctrl Cmd Alt click on the Viewer To sample a region from the input Ctrl Cmd Alt Shift drag on the Viewer e The Range sliders on Hue Saturation and Brightness clamp to the sampled range e For any colour component drag on the Range sliders to expand the colour range as necessary e For any colour component drag on the Range Rolloff slider to fine tune the colour range Doing so adjusts the amount of falloff allowed past the limits defined by the Range sliders 4 Make the necessary HSV corrections e For hue corrections drag on the Rotation slider to input colour wheel value between 0 and 360 e For saturation corrections drag on the Saturation Adjustment slider to input values between 1 completely desaturated to some shade of gray and 1 completely saturated e For value corrections drag on the Brightness Adjustment slider to input values between
582. t Open from the menu bar 2 In the file browser navigate to your Nuke_Tutorials Tracking folder select the tracking tutor nk project file and click Open 3 It will show some nodes in error Don t worry It can t find the tutorial files So before doing anything else you have to tell this script where to find these tutorial images assuming you can remember where you put them Double click on the NoOp node in the top left corner of your node graph It s called Tutorial Path Double clicking will bring up a property panel on the right Enter the path to the tutorial files in the Tutorial Project 472 NUKE Directory Use the file browser as that s often easier than typing it in You should then see tutorial images appear 4 Move the mouse pointer over the node graph and press F to frame the entire contents of the project file The examples in this project file are grouped with coloured boxes called backdrops and each contains a node tree for the tutorial examples that follow Tip Backdrops let you organize groups of nodes like those shown in this project file Choose Other gt Backdrop from the Toolbar Drag the backdrop title bar to move it Drag the backdrop corner to resize it Any nodes surrounded by the borders of the backdrop will move with the backdrop when you drag its title bar Tracking a Single Feature In this first example you ll learn how to track a single feature which is the most basic 2D tracking
583. t Producer Left Producer Front Producer Back and any other cameras Using one Camera node you can only import one camera from an fbx file If you need to import several cameras you need to use one Camera node per camera To import a camera from an fbx file 1 Select 3D gt Camera to insert a Camera node in the place where you want to add the cam era in your script 2 In the Camera controls check read from file When this is checked the controls on the File tab are enabled and you can use them to read in a camera from an fbx file Any controls whose values are read in from the fbx file are disabled You can still view these values and use them in expressions but as long as read from file is checked you cannot modify them Modifying the values in the fbx file however will affect the disabled values in the Camera controls because these are reloaded from the fbx file every time the node is instantiated 3 To read in a camera from an fbx file click the folder icon on the File tab Navigate to the fbx file and select Open Cameral Camera Projection File Wode file X reload take mame node name frame rate 24 RE rr rye compute rotation 4 From the take name pulldown menu choose the take you want to use from the fbx file Fbx files support multiple takes in one file Usually one of the takes is a default take with no animation 5 From the node name pulldown menu select the camera node y
584. t already done so 2 If necessary combine your views into a single output using the JoinViews node For more information on how to do this see page 332 3 Select Views gt Stereo gt MixViews to insert a MixViews node into your script This node displays a blend between two views in the Viewer allowing you to check how elements in these views are aligned Note that the MixViews node does not have an effect on the final output It simply changes the way the images are displayed in the Viewer 4 Inthe MixViews controls use the views buttons or pulldown menus to select the two views to blend between 5 To control the blend between the views adjust the mix slider Setting the slider to O or 1 displays only one of the views Values between O and 1 produce different blends between the views Mix Views1 Mix Views Node 334 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE Selecting which Views to Apply Changes to By default Nuke applies any changes you make to all views of the processed node To apply changes to a particular view only for example the left view but not the right you must first do one of the following e Inthe case of most nodes split the view off in the node s controls e In the case of Paint nodes select the view you want to process from the view pulldown menu in the node s controls These methods are useful for example when you want to perform the same operation on both views but use different values
585. t as necessary by incrementing or decrementing the pivot x y and z fields to move the axis in any direction Alternatively you can position the pivot point by pressing Ctrl Cmd Alt while dragging 2 Increment or decrement the rotate x y and z fields to spin the element around the pivot point Alternatively you can press Ctrl Cmd while dragging or Ctril Cmd Shift while dragging on any axis on the transformation overlay Scaling Elements To scale an element using the Card3D node 1 Position the pivot point as necessary by incrementing or decrementing the pivot x y and z fields to move the axis in any direction Alternatively you can position the pivot point by pressing Ctrl Cmd Alt while dragging 2 To scale the frame simultaneously on x y and z increment or decrement the uniform scale field 3 To scale the frame asymmetrically increment or decrement the scale x y and z fields Skewing Elements Whereas the Transform node lets you rotate pixel columns only around the z axis Card3D permits you to so around all three axes 172 TRANSFORMING ELEMENTS NUKE To skew an element using the Card3D node 1 Position the pivot point as necessary by incrementing or decrementing the pivot x y and z fields to move the axis in any direction Alternatively you can position the pivot point by pressing Ctrl Cmd Alt while dragging 2 Increment or decrement the skew x y and z fields to rotate the pixel columns around
586. t contrast gain gamma or offset with the ColorCorrect node 1 Click Color gt ColorCorrect or press C to insert a ColorCorrect node at the appropriate place in your script 2 Connect a Viewer to the output of the ColorCorrect node so you can see the effect of your changes 3 In the ColorCorrect properties panel use the channels pull down list to select the channels you wish to process 4 Drag the slider appropriate to the region you want to affect an operation you want to apply For example to brighten the images highlights you would drag on the highlights gain Slider highlights saturation contrast gamma gain 2 offset 5 Remember too that you can use the colour sliders to apply any of the corrections on a per channel basis Using Colour Curves If you prefer to work with colour curves you can use the ColorLookup node to make contrast gamma gain and offset adjustments and in fact many others Co our curves refer to line graphs of a given colour channel s brightness The horizontal axis represents the channel s Original or input values and the vertical axis represents the channel s new or output values new brightness values Original brightness 141 COLOUR CORRECTION AND COLOUR SPACE NUKE As Figure 4 7 shows you can edit the ColorLookup node s colour curves to make all of the types of corrections that are possible through the ColorCorrect node and you can generally make these correction
587. t handles reset tangents shape copy paste set key delete key delete anim xy points 3 3 new shape x subdivide y subdivide u 0 25 v 2s uv subdivide a uniform subdivide smooth tangent mirror tangent D x 0S Y 0 3805555 2 x 0 16666669 y 0 00000003 z x D y 0 12685109 z 3 By default the card has three control points on the x axis and three on the y axis To add more control points do any of the following Enter new values in the x y points fields and click the new shape button For example to create a shape with 4 points on the x axis and 6 on the y axis change the x points value to 4 and the y points value to 6 and click new shape To evenly subdivide the current shape in the x or y directions click the x subdivide or y subdivide buttons This adds one control point between every existing control point in the chosen direction The x y points fields are also updated to reflect the current number of control points To add one row or column of control points adjust the u or v slider The u slider specifies the position of new columns and the v slider the position of rows In the Viewer a yellow cross marker indicates the position of the new row or column You can also move the cross marker by dragging it to a new position in the Viewer The u and v sliders values are updated as you move the marker When you are happy with the 284 3D COMPOSITING NUKE position click the uv subdivide button A row or column is
588. t list which lets you select the channels you want to process and an output list to choose the channel s where the results should be stored Keyer Node input rgb X red N green X blue output W rgba alpha replace invert operation luminance key Figure 2 1 Channel input and output Some nodes also contain mask controls and a mask input connector which let you select a channel for use as a matte to limit operations such as colour corrections Using these mecha nisms you can point the output of almost any node in the script to any available channel 118 CHANNELS NUKE The script below attempts to clarify these concepts Note the script generates six channels though it could just as well generate 1023 The steps below describe how each channel was created Premulti SKY_Tile rab Figure 2 2 A six channel script A The script reads in the foreground creating three channels red green and blue which are by default assigned to the rgba set Channel count 3 B A low contrast key soft is pulled and assigned to a new channel set called mattes Channel count 4 C A high contrast key hard is pulled and also assigned to the mattes set Channel count 5 D The mattes hard and mattes soft channels are mixed to form the final matte alpha which is assigned to the rgba set Channel count 6 Suppose now that you wanted to perform a colour correction using the output of the Soft Matte node as a m
589. t node between the input image s and the ContactSheet node Copying a Rectangle from One Image to Another With the CopyRectangle node you can copy a rectangle from one input on top of another Input A Input B The output of CopyRectangle Figure 3 2 Using CopyRectangle to copy a rectangular region from input A onto input B 135 MERGING IMAGES NUKE The CopyRectangle node can also be used to limit effects such as colour corrections to a Small region of an image To do so you need to use the same image in both input A and B and only perform the colour correction on one input The original image Defining a rectangle with Copy The colour corrected rectangle on Rectangle top of the original image Figure 3 4 Using the CopyRectangle node to limit a colour correction to a rectangular region To copy a rectangle from one image to another 1 Select Merge gt CopyRectangle to insert a CopyRectangle node after the image that has a region you want to copy input A and the image you want to copy the region to input B Create the following setup 136 MERGING IMAGES NUKE 2 In the CopyRectangle controls use the channels pulldown menu to select the channels you want to copy from input A 3 To define the rectangle you want to copy resize and reposition the CopyRectangle overlay in the Viewer Drag the centre of the overlay to reposition and the edges to resize If you Cannot see the overlay in the Viewer open t
590. t processed until menu py GUI start up then nodes created from the command line Nuke Python prompt that is starting as nuke t will not have the defaults applied 389 THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE The init py file is a file that is run before menu py usually to set things that are GUI independ ent It should be located in your plug in path directory for more information on plug in path directories see Environment Variables on page 406 If the init py file does not yet exist sim ply create a text file and name it init py Rendering with the Write Node Let s imagine you ve added a Write1 node into your script Now you want to render every other frame of the frames from 1 to 35 To render a single Write node enter nuke execute name start end inch where e name represents the name of the write node for example Write 1 e start represents the first frame you want to render e endrepresents the last frame you want to render e jncrrepresents the increment you want to use when rendering For example if you used 3 here Nuke would render every third frame In our example you would enter nuke execute Write1 1 35 2 or nuke execute Write 1 start 1 end 35 incr 2 Tip Instead of nuke execute name start end incr you can also use nuke render name start end incr Both statements perform the same action To render multiple Write nodes or ranges enter nuke executeMultiple variab e Ls
591. t the destination image At 0 5 the distortion is halfway between the source and the destination images To see the effect you need to set show to blend blend Dissolve between the source image at 0 and the destination image at 1 To see the effect you need to set show to blend Animating Warps Unless you are warping a still image you probably want to animate the warp In the GridWarp and SplineWarp node s properties panels there are controls for animating both the source and the destination grids or curves Here we first look at the GridWarp node and then the Spline Warp node The instructions assume you know how to warp a still image using these nodes if not refer to Warping Images Using the GridWarp Node on page 247 and Warping an Image Using the SplineWarp Node on page 252 255 WARPING AND MORPHING IMAGES NUKE To animate a warp using the GridWarp node 1 While viewing the source image adjust the pink source grid as necessary see To warp an image using the GridWarp node on page 247 for information on how to do this When you are happy with the grid click the set button under Source Grid This saves the current grid as a key shape GridVWarp Render Node Source Grid Mo hide E key copy delet all grid curve add peseb image size Move to a new frame and adjust the source grid accordingly A new key shape is set automatically Repeat the previous step as necessary If you need to delete a key sha
592. tained using this sample Primatte should be reset and another sample taken using a slightly darker or lighter shade of green The first sample of Primatte often determines the final result as the centre point of all three poly hedrons is created based on this first sample A single pixel may be selected or a range of pixels snail trail or rectangular sample If a range of pixels is taken the sample will be averaged to get a single colour sample This single pixel or averaged colour sample then becomes the centre of the small polyhedron A few other Shades around that colour are included in the original small polyhedron It is recommended that a single pixel be selected as the first sample as you then have some idea where the centre point of the polyhedrons is located If a box sample or a long snail trail sample is made You can only guess at the average colour that ends up being the centre point You can get an idea how this sample affects the algorithm by resetting the Primatte plug in going to the Matte View and clicking around on the green or blue screen area while in the Select Background Colour Operation Mode You can immediately see the results of the initial settings of the polyhedrons in this way After making a sample of the backing screen colour in the first step the result is a small golf ball shaped poly as shown in the following image 213 PRIMATTE NUKE The second step in using Primatte is to clean up the backing
593. tant to force a constant value after each selected point e Linear to use linear interpolation This produces sharp changes at key frames and straight lines between them e Smooth to set the tangents slopes equal to the slope between the key frame to the left and the key frame to the right if the selected point is between these two key frames along the y axis If the selected point is not between these key frames and has a larger or smaller value than both key frames the tangents slopes are made horizontal This ensures the resulting curve never exceeds the key frame values 62 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE between the previous and next key frame on y 40 y1 14566 x40 1 14666 not between the previous and next key frame_on_y ein e Catmull Rom to set the tangents slope equal to the slope between the key frame to the left and the key frame to the right regardless of where the selected point is located The resulting curve can exceed the key frame values e Cubic to set the slope so that the second derivative is continuous This smoothens the curve e Horizontal to make the tangents horizontal setting the slope around the selected points to zero e Break to adjust the two tangents of a selected point independent of each other 63 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE e Before gt Constant or Linear to interpolate the parts of the curve that are on the left side of the first point This option on
594. tart end incr where e variable represents the variables of the write nodes e start represents the first frames you want to render e endrepresents the last frames you want to render e jncrrepresents the increments you want to use when rendering For example if you used 3 here Nuke would render every third frame Listing a Node s Controls Let s try something a little more complicated and list all the controls in a node s properties panel To list a node s controls enter for i in range getNumKnobs print knob i name 390 THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE Make sure you enter this compound statement on two separate lines and indent the second line For example to list the controls of the Blur node you added earlier and assigned to variable b you would enter for i in range b getNumKnobs print b knob i name Q As a result of this Nuke lists the Blur node s controls displaying them in the output pane of the Script Editor Undoing and Redoing Actions Oops Made a mistake Let s undo it To undo actions enter nuke undo If you undo an action by accident redoing it is just as easy To redo actions enter nuke redo Frame Navigation To use the frame navigation buttons of the currently active Viewer enter the following state ment nuke activeViewer frameControl i where i is an integer that indicates the frame navigation button you want to execute You can replace i with the f
595. tatic text or divider line to the Group gizmo controls click Add on the Manage User Knobs dialog and select the option you want to add This opens a dialog where you can edit the control tab or static text you added In most cases you can edit the following e Name Give the new control a unique name here You need to use this name whenever you want to reference the control from scripts or via expressions The name can only contain letters and digits Spaces or punctuation are not allowed This field cannot be left empty e Label Whatever you enter here appears to the left of the control in the gizmo properties panel If you leave this empty whatever is in the Name field is also used as the label e Tooltip Enter a short help text here It will appear along with the Name in a pop up tool tip when the user points the mouse at the control If you do not provide a tool tip whatever is in the Name field will be used as the tool tip e Hide Check this to hide the control from the users This can be useful if you want to make a new control to contain a complex expression that you can then refer to repeatedly by other controls e Start new line Uncheck this if you want the control to appear on the same line as the previous control in the Group properties panel Use an expression to link the control you just created to a node and its control inside the Group node This is important because for the new control to do anything you nee
596. tax NUKE Action Open Nuke script at proxy resolution Scripts that have been saved displaying full resolu tion images can be opened to show the proxy resolution image using this flag See also f Quiet mode This stops all printing to the shell Sets the minimum stack size for each thread in bytes This defaults to 16777216 16 MB The smallest allowed value is 1048576 1 MB Terminal mode This allows you to enter Python commands without launching the GUI A gt gt gt command prompt is displayed during this mode Enter quit to exit this mode and return to the shell prompt This mode uses a nuke _r license key by default but you can get it to use a nuke ji key by using the ti flag combo Verbose mode In the terminal you ll see explicit commands as each action is performed in Nuke This command displays an image file inside a Nuke Viewer Here s an example nuke v image tif Display the version information in the shell eXecute mode Takes a Nuke script and renders all active Write nodes Note that this mode uses a FLEXIm nuke r license key To use a nuke i license key use xi This is the syntax nuke x myscript nk On Windows you can press Ctrl Break to cancel a render without exiting if a render is active or exit if not Ctrl Cmd C exits immediately On Mac and Linux Ctrl Cmd C always exits Render only the Write node specified by node End switches allowing script to start with a dash or be just to re
597. te For example you could enter b nuke nodes Blur Here you are adding a Blur node and deciding to call it b in your subsequent statements Of course you could call it anything you like If you were adding several Blur nodes to your script you might want to call them b1 b2 and b3 for example Now say you created a Blur node and then decided to set its size parameter to 10 If you have assigned the node to a variable for example b you can do this by entering b size set Value 10 Adding Parameters to Node Controls We ve now looked at setting parameter values for the existing parameters of a node But what should you do if you want to add a completely new parameter to a node You need to use for example the following statements b nuke nodes nodename k nuke Array Knob name abe b addKnob k where e nodename represents the name of the node you want to add the new parameter to e name represents a unique name you give the parameter to reference it using scripts and expressions e abe represents the label shown next to the control in the node s properties panel Let s say you enter the following lines b nuke nodes Blur k nuke Array_Knob myctrl My Control b addKnob k Using these statements you add a Blur node and assign it to the variable b You then create an input field parameter decide to call it myctrl in references and My Control on the user 3
598. tep either Spill Sponge Fine Tuning or Spill can now be used to eliminate this spill colour Let s take a look at what is happening in the Primatte algorithm while this next step is per formed Here is what the various tools in Primatte do to the Polyhedrons when they are used 215 PRIMATTE NUKE All colors in this area are complete Foreground Primatte Polyhedrons Part 2 Clean FG Nose used to convert slightly transparent areas imio 100 FG i wh ie keeping spi suppression Matte used t select 100 FG colors 3 oe S rs q Clean BG Noise used to select 100 BG colors Spill sponge tu sed to Suppress BG spill All colors in this area are replaced by 100 Background used to make FG objects cJ fused fo spill more transparent fused to restore suppress the FG lost F G detail As you can see above the Spill Sponge bulges the large polyhedron in the colour region spec ified A colour region is specified by clicking on the image in a particular area with spill present For example if the user clicks on some spill on the cheek of a foreground person Pri matte goes to the section of the large polyhedron closest to that particular flesh tone and bulges the polyhedron there As a result the flesh tones move from outside the large poly to in between the medium and large polys This is Region 3 and if you remember is 100 fore ground with spill supp
599. text displayed on the node m color hide input Check this to hide the node s incoming pipe This control does not appear on all nodes cached Check this to keep the data upstream from the node in memory so that it can be read quickly postage stamp Check this to display a thumbnail render of the node s output on its surface disable Check this to disable the node Uncheck to re enable You can also disable or re enable a node by selecting it in the Node Graph and pressing D Displaying Parameters To display a node s parameters Double click the node It s properties panel appears Figure 2 27 shows the controls available for editing parameters Note that the presence of each control will vary according to the parameter s function 49 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Slider input field master saturation 0 28 contrast rd gamma r I gain 1 sample colour from Viewer colour picker animation button switch between slider and channel values Figure 2 17 Parameter controls Using Input Fields You can key values directly into a field or use the arrow keys to increment and decrement val ues To key in field values 1 Click in the field to select the value you wish to replace e Double click to the left of the value to select only the whole number digits e Double click the right of the value to select only decimal digits e Press Return or double click on the decimal itself to select all digits 2 T
600. th the value you want to give it for example setenv NUKE_PATH SharedDisk Nuke e f your shell is a bash or ksh shell add the following command to the bashrc or kshrc file in your home directory export VARIABLE value Replace VARIABLE with the name of the environment variable and value with the value you want to give it for example export NUKE_PATH SharedDisk Nuke For a list of the environment variables that Nuke understands see Nuke Environment Variables on page 409 To check if an environment variable exists On Windows 1 Select Start gt All Programs gt Accessories gt Command Prompt 2 In the command window that opens enter echo VARIABLES Replace VARIABLE with the name of the environment variable For example to check if NUKE DISK CACHE is set enter echo SNUKE_DISK_CACHES If the variable is set its value is displayed in the command window On Mac or Linux 1 Launch Terminal or a shell 2 Enter echo SVARIABLE Replace VARIABLE with the name of the environment variable For example to check if NUKE DISK CACHE is set enter echo SNUKE_DISK_CACHE If the variable is set its value is displayed in the Terminal or shell window To display a list of set environment variables On Windows 1 Select Start gt All Programs gt Accessories gt Command Prompt 2 In the command window that opens enter set A list of all the environment variables that are set is displayed in the command window 408
601. than a project produced by Licensee an Authorized Project e allow or permit anyone other than Licensee and Licensee s authorized employees to the extent they are working on an Authorized Project to use or have access to the Software or Documentation f copy or install the Software or Documentation other than as expressly provided for herein or g take any action or fail to take action that could adversely affect the trademarks service marks patents trade secrets copyrights or other intellectual property rights of The Foundry or any third party with intellectual property rights in the Soft ware each a Third Party Licensor Furthermore for purposes of this Section 2 the term Software shall include any derivatives of the Software Licensee shall install and use only a single copy of the Software on one computer unless the Software is installed in a floating license environment in which case Licensee may install the Software on more than one computer provided however Licensee shall not at any one time use more copies of the Software than the total number of valid Software licenses purchased by Licensee Furthermore the Software can be licensed on an interactive or non interactive basis Licen see Shall be authorized to use a non interactive version of the Software for rendering purposes only i e on a CPU without a user in a non interactive capacity and shall not use such Soft ware on wo
602. that will never happen to you but in the unlikely event that it does you won t lose your work when you have autoSave enabled To define file saving options 1 Click the right mouse button over the Node Graph pane and choose Edit gt Preferences Notice the autosave filename directory is set to value root name autosave You don t need to make a change this simply tells Nuke to store automatic backup files in the same directories as your project files Now how often would you like Nuke to generate an automatic backup while you re working Every five minutes 2 Change the force autosave after option to 300 seconds to generate an automatic backup every five minutes 444 NUKE ope 4rande dode Colors i Wiewers Senpt Editor Presets Choose Preset Files amp Paths autesave filename firstof value rootname geteny NUKE _TEMP_DIR sutosave autosave after idle for seconds forte sutocave after 3 Seconds Hemory memory usage Te 5 flipbook cache geteny NUKE_TEMP_DIR flipbook cache size SOB Be Node defaults E new Merge nodes connect 4 input BM sutokey on Bertier Script command E Script command defaults to TEL Revert to Saved Save Prefs Close 3 Click Save Prefs to keep the changes and then Close to return to the main window If you close this dialog box without clicking the Save button then the changes will affect only the current session of Nuke Recovering Backup Files You may ask
603. the Primatte RT algorithm Primatte RT might not work well with less saturated backing screen colours and it too does not support the Complement Colour spill suppression method which is the spill suppression method that delivers the best detail For a well lit and photo graphed image or clip this algorithm will produce good results and render very quickly Here is what a visual representation of the Primatte RT algorithm looks like after an image has been processed Contact Details Main office IMAGICA Corp of America 1840 Century Park East 750 Los Angeles CA USA 90067 Primatte office IMAGICA Corp of America 3113 Woodleigh Lane Cameron Park CA 95682 Phone 1 530 677 9980 FAX 1 530 677 9981 Cell 1 530 613 3212 Email sgross imagica la com Web Site http primatte com 218 PRIMATTE NUKE Proprietary Notices Primatte is distributed and licensed by IMAGICA Corp of America Los Angeles CA USA Pri matte was developed by IMAGICA Corp Tokyo Japan Primatte is a trademark of IMAGICA Corp Tokyo Japan 219 8 Using Paint Nuke features a vector based Paint node for help with tasks like rig removal and dustbusting This chapter gives full instructions on its usage Connecting the Paint Node The Paint node accepts a single foreground input and up to three background inputs It requires only the foreground input and uses the optional background inputs with the Reveal tool see Using the Reveal Too
604. the bounding box By default 25 pixels are added to the edges of the bounding box Nuke expands or crops the edges of the bounding box If the bounding box is cropped whatever is outside the bounding box area gets replicated towards the edges of the image 114 REFORMATTING ELEMENTS NUKE Copying a Bounding Box from One Input to Another Some Nuke operations such as a merge can cause an expansion of the bounding box area because Nuke does not know that the extra area is going to be black or another constant col our Often you can fix this by copying the bounding box from one of the inputs to the result ing image thus cutting off this extra area For this you can use the CopyBBox node Figure 1 2 A bounding box from one input copied on top of another To copy a bounding box 1 Select Merge gt CopyBBox to insert a CopyBBox node after the node whose bounding box you want to use 2 Connect the image whose bounding box you want to copy to the CopyBBox node s input A and the image onto which you want to copy the bounding box to input B Nuke copies the bounding box from input A to input B Whatever is outside the copied bounding box area in image B gets replicated towards the edges of the image 115 REFORMATTING ELEMENTS NUKE Adding a Black Outside Edge to the Bounding Box If you adjust a bounding box with the AdjBBox or CopyBBox node you may notice that what ever is outside the bounding box area gets r
605. the convergence shift However if you like you can use the Mode pulldown menu in the ReConverge controls to left view instead select shift left or move both views equally select shift both 345 WORKING WITH STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTS NUKE 8 If necessary adjust the offset for convergence in pixels in the ReConverge controls To bring all elements of your image forward from the screen level enter a positive value in the Convergence offset field To move all elements further away enter a negative value It is also possible to use the same element as the convergence point throughout the image sequence You can for example have the same actor always appear at screen depth To con verge on the same element throughout the sequence link the ReConverge node with a Tracker node To use the same element as the convergence point throughout the image sequence 1 Insert a Tracker node after the image sequence whose convergence you want to adjust Anaglyphi ViewerlL 2 Track the point that you want to appear at screen level throughout the sequence For more information on how to use the Tracker node refer to Chapter 6 Tracking and Stabilising on page 175 3 When you have the track animation data apply it to the O ReConverge node s Converge upon control via a linking expression The easiest way to do this is to Ctril Cmd drag the animation button next to the track controls on top of the animation button next to the Conv
606. the current colour selected or registered by the Fine Tuning operational mode Fine Tuning Section Fine Tuning Sliders When this operational mode is selected the colour of the sampled pixel within the Viewer win dow is registered as a reference colour for fine tuning It is displayed in the Current Colour Chip in the Actions section To perform the tuning operation sample a colour region on the image select a Fine Tuning slider and move the slider to achieve the desired effect See the Fine Tuning Sliders tool descriptions further on in this section for more details on slider selec tion Spill or L poly Slider Spill Removal When in the Fine Tuning Actions mode this Spill slider can be used to remove spill from the registered colour region After choosing the Fine Tuning Actions mode and registering a colour region this slider can be moved to remove spill from the registered colour region The more to the right the slider moves the more spill will be removed The more to the left the slider moves the closer the colour component of the selected region will be to the colour in the orig inal foreground image If moving the slider all the way to the right does not remove all the spill re sample the colour region and again move the slider to the right These slider opera tions are additive This result achieved by moving the slider to the right can also be achieved 208 PRIMATTE NUKE by clicking on the colour region using the Spil
607. the files Click Open Nuke imports the image sequence and displays it as a thumbnail on the Read node Generally the Read node does not reformat or resize the sequence in any way and the node s properties panel is updated to display the native resolution and the frame range for the sequence Note that the format and proxy format fields in the controls indicate the format of the images they do not cause the images read from files to be resized to this format Nuke reads images from their native format but the Read node outputs the result using a linear col ourspace If necessary you can change the Colourspace option in the Read node s properties panel or insert a Color gt Colorspace node to select the colour scheme you want to output or calculate The maximum image size the Nuke Viewer can display is 2 28 268 435 456 pixels This is the same as 16k x 16k 32k x 8k 64k x 4k or 128k x 2k If your image is larger than this it will be resized and you will get the following warning Viewer image is clipped to lt size gt x lt size gt For example if your image resolution is 60 000 x 4473 Nuke is able to display the image because the number of pixels is less than 2428 However if the resolution is 60 000 x 4474 more than 2 28 pixels the image will be resized to 59998 x 4474 In addition to the Viewer this limit is also applied to the bounding box of the images being passed between each node 2 If you have a proxy ver
608. the filtering applied to the image before the displacement adjust the filter size slider e To select the filtering algorithm applied to the image before the displacement select an algorithm from the filter pulldown menu For more information see Choosing a Filtering Algorithm on page 160 e To change the name of the attribute that s used as the vertex s UV coordinates to find the image pixel enter a name in the attrib name field e Usually the normals aren t correct after the vertices have been moved To recalculate them after the displacement check recalculate normals Modifying Objects Using a Perlin Noise Function The ProcGeo node lets you modify your 3D objects using a Perlin noise function that creates seemingly random noise For example you could use the ProcGeo node to generate animated noise for rippling waves or clouds or to create a terrain from a flat card like in the following image Fe 3D F N BB odefauk Go K sR a Solem aa ProcGeol Prociseo k i Node 7 W celectable display wireframe Veawerl render Preceduralhiaie Method Oreantaton x Size Oset Y Suze T Offset Octaves Lacunarity Gain Speed dizolay render onentahon ZM bens in fogal lens in haperture unchanged Turbulante y T 7 5 2 5 0 5 1 1 textured H selectable textured E mage aspect 50 19 import chan file export chan file der SRT rotation orde
609. the highlights on the material seem e shininess to control how shiny the material appears e min shininess and max shininess to set the minimum and maximum shininess values If you haven t connected an image to the mapSh input of the node the average of these values is used as the shininess value for the material e shininess channel to control how the input channels are used to map the black and white values to the minShininess and maxShininess parameters when a mapSh input is connected Choose red to use the red channel for the mapping green to use the green channel blue to use the blue channel luminance to use the luminance or average rgb to use the average of the red green and blue channels e Choose 3D gt Shader gt Basic Material to insert a BasicMaterial node This node is a com bination of the Diffuse Specular and Emission nodes allowing you to control all three aspects of the material with a single node Like the Phong node the BasicMaterial node has several map inputs you can use to mask the effect of the node You can use e mapD to modulate the diffuse component e mapS to modulate the specular component e mapE to modulate the emission component and e mapSh to modulate the shininess value In the node s controls you can adjust the following parameters e emission to change the colour of the light the material emits Note that when you have an image connected to the unlabeled input of the BasicMaterial node and
610. the values of the pivot x y and z fields to move the local axis in any direction Sphere Sphere Mode display wirehtram e render textured pivot point location pivot point coordinates The object s graphical overlay points to the location of the pivot point with a line All subse quent local transformations occur relative to this pivot point Once you ve defined the location of an object s pivot point you can use the object s transform parameters to translate rotate scale and skew the object relative to the pivot point Using the TransformGeo Node The TransformGeo node allows you to move rotate scale and perform other transformations on several objects merged together with a MergeGeo node It also lets you connect geometry objects to an Axis node By doing so you can move all the connected objects together by using the Axis transformation controls All you need to do is insert a TransformGeo after each geometry object connect the Axis node to the TransformGeo nodes axis input and adjust the transform controls of the Axis node For more information see Parenting to Axis Objects on page 288 300 3D COMPOSITING NUKE Another use of the TransformGeo node is to have the rotation of one object depend on the position of another so that the first object is always rotated to face or look at the second one For example you can have a sphere object always facing a cylinder object regardless of the cylinder s
611. three quarter perspective V To navigate in the 3D Viewer e Dolly Press Alt and middle mouse button drag e Pan Press Alt and left mouse button drag e Tilt Press Ctrl Cmd and left mouse button drag e Spin Press Ctrl Cmd and left mouse button drag e Roll Press Ctri Cmd Shift and left mouse button drag e Look through camera Select a camera object press H e Fit the scene Press F to fit the entire 3D scene within the Viewer To change the 3D Viewer display properties 1 Open the Preferences window Shift S and select the Viewers tab con Mays object interachon speed Howdina camera interaction speed Lightwave E delete Viewer node when Voewer window is clasee Viewer butter bit depth byte Make the desired changes to the 3D bg and fg colours From the 3D control type list select the navigation control scheme you want to use Nuke Maya Houdini or Lightwave 4 Click Save Prefs The 3D control type also affects the mouse button assignments for panning and zooming in the node graph and 2D Viewers To look through a camera 1 Press V to make sure you are looking through the 3D perspective view and not one of the orthographic views 2 Select the camera in the Viewer or select the camera s node in the workspace Then press H home Or From the 3D Viewer window select the camera from the list in the top right corner 281 3D COMPOSITING NUKE ney eD BR default m y Petes Came
612. ting a Text Overlay 6 0 4 o4444 444 9405 446 644944060506 445 oeondes eo o 20D e e e e e e e e e e e e e Repositioning and Transforming Text ccc cee cece eee cece es ees o n 268 Fonts cc cece cece cee eee eceeeceececceveeecececeeccesececvcececseceece ee e268 Changing the Text COlUrs 6 44 s 0 00604 00464044 dese4 beads ct vende seada 27L Analysing Frame Sequences 0 cece eee cee cette ee ee LIB Analysing and Matching Frame Sequences 273 e e e e e e e e e O positi i eew re eet ee eee ETETETT eee eee ee ee ee ee ee saudi 77 Overview cf cf 2 7 Setting Up a Scene cf cf cf cf cf cf cf cf cf cf cf cf e e cf cf 2 8 The Scene Node 2 j 8 The S lineRender Nod 278 e can ne en er O e oe La The Camera Node oe oe cd cf cf cf ff oe ff e cf cf cf ff eo 21 9 Using the 3D Viewer Ld e e Ld Ad e e e e Ad Ad Ld d e Ld Ad Ad Ld e e e Ad Ld e e Ld d e e e e Ld e Ad d
613. tions including translations rotations scales and skews to elements and how to add motion blur using the nodes in the Transform menu Note that this chapter discusses how to manually apply transformations Chapter 6 Tracking and Stabilising discusses how to use Nuke s tracker to automatically generate and apply transformations Transforming in 2D This section describes how to apply 2D transformations including translations rotations scales and skews to elements using a number of Nuke nodes Using the 2D Transformation Overlay Several of the nodes discussed in this section display a Viewer overlay for executing spatial transformations This overlay is often a faster alternative to the properties panel The figure below shows you how to use Nuke 2D transformation overlay all an Figure 5 1 2D Transformation Overlay A Drag to skew the frame see Skewing Elements on page 168 B Drag to scale the frame uniformly simultaneously on x and y see Sca ing Elements on page 172 C Drag to translate the frame see Translating Elements on page 171 Shift drag to constrain the translation to x or y Ctrl Cmd drag to reposition the pivot point the point that acts as the centre to transformation operations D Drag to scale the frame on x E Drag to rotate the frame around the pivot point see Rotating Elements on page 172 The transform overlay snaps to typical values To prevent the snapping press Shift while drag
614. tions given by Qt Software and Riverbank Com puting 1 Obtain a copy of Qt from http www qtsoftware com and install it on your machine Qt is a C GUI library 2 Download and install SIP from www riverbankcomputing co uk SIP is a tool for creating Python bindings for C libraries Make sure you compile it against Python 2 5 1 3 Download and install a copy of PyQt4 from www riverbankcomputing co uk PyQt is a collection of Python bindings for Qt Where you install these applications does not matter as long as the sys path variable points to where the Python modules are installed To see the directories contained in the sys path var iable enter print sys path in the Script Editor To add a directory to the sys path variable enter sys path append directory where directory represents the directory you want to add General Workflow This is the general workflow for using PyQt in Nuke 1 Initialise PyQt from a separate thread in Nuke An example of how to do this can be found in a file called pyQtAppUtils py in the nukescripts folder See PyQtAppUtils py Launching PyQt from a Separate Thread in Nuke on page 400 2 Start a separate GUI application that is any application that you have written to control Nuke features and have it run concurrently with Nuke An example of how to do this can be found in a file called pyQtRender py in the nukescripts folder For more information see PyQtRender py Using a GUI built in QtDes
615. tions in one composite but you need to conform these images to match the project resolution This will allow the elements to be properly aligned in the com posite Reformatting Images Elements created within the Nuke script such as Background and Ramp automatically inherit the global format and that s how you want it for this project The imported images however do not conform to the project settings and must be reformatted To conform images to the project format 1 Click the Read node for the engine vQ1 clip to select it 459 NUKE Click the right mouse button and choose Transform gt Reformat from the pop up menu Repeat steps 1 and 2 for all the Read nodes in the node graph 4 Move the mouse pointer over the Viewer and press the keyboard numbers 1 2 and 3 to switch between the connected images Each image should now conform to the project format If you change the delivery format in the project settings then all elements set to root format will also change to the new project settings If you neglect to reformat images when you read them into the project the images will retain their original format independent of the project settings Using Proxies and Down res Proxies are low resolution versions of the final image you intend to create For many compos iting tasks the low res version can help you work faster Then when you re ready to create the final output switch proxy mode off and return to t
616. to a terminal window and type echo HOME The terminal will return the pathname to your home directory On Windows you can find the nuke directory under the directory pointed to by the HOME environ ment variable If this variable is not set which is common the nuke directory will be under the folder specified by the USERPROFILE environment variable To find out if the HOME and USERPRO FILE environment variables are set and where they are pointing at enter HOME or USERPRO FILE into the address bar in Windows Explorer If the environment variable is set the folder it s pointing at is opened If it s not set you will get an error Here are examples of what the pathname may be on different platforms Linux users ogin name Mac Users ogin name Windows drive etter Documents and Settings ogin name XP or drive etter Users ogin name Vista 4 Move the resulting preferences5 nk file into your Nuke plug in path directory For more information on plug in path directories see Loading Gizmos Plug ins and TCL scripts on page 410 If you haven t already done so create a file called menu py in your plug in path directory Add the following entry in the menu py file nuke load preferences5 nk Your preferences will now act as the defaults for your artists However should they make changes via Preferences dialog these changes will override your defaults To delete and reset the preferences 1 Open a termi
617. to disk full float ver sions of every frame it displays When you play through sequences in the Viewer it reads where possible from this cache of prerendered images making real time play back possible depending of course on image resolution and your hardware configuration To enable automatic disk caching of rendered frames 1 Click Edit gt Preferences to display the Preferences dialog 2 Inthe disk cache field enter the pathname of the directory in which you want to store the flipbook images for example c temp 3 Using the disk cache size control select the number of gigabytes you want to allow the image cache to consume 4 Click the Save Prefs button to update preferences and then restart Nuke The Viewer will now cache each frame it displays in the directory specified When you click the playback buttons on the Viewer or drag on the scrub bar Nuke will read in images from this cache Note that the cached images have unique names reflecting their point of output location in the script This means that you can cache images from multiple nodes in the script without over writing previously cached images PREVIEWS AND RENDERING NUKE Flipbooking within FrameCycler To flipbook an image sequence inside FrameCycler 1 Select the node whose output you wish to see flipbooked If you select a Write node in the step above you must first click its Render button in order to manu ally render its output to the d
618. to make it easier for you to find what you are looking for Throughout this user guide we assume you have a basic knowledge of computer graphics and digital compositing theory as well as proficiency with the operating system for which Nuke is installed For the most up to date information please see the Nuke product page and the latest Nuke user guide on our web site at www thefoundry co uk Getting Help Viewing Online Help Nuke features several forms of online help 16 NUKE e Most controls offer concise instructions in the form of tool tips To display the tool tips move your mouse pointer over an interface control or a node parameter IBEGizmoV3_1 IBK IBKGizmov sereen type C blue colour ro colour Pere e this colour instead of the input when pick is blue green weight 0 5 sane a a Se enabled above e Many properties panels include contextual descriptions of the node s parameters To dis play these descriptions click the icon IBKGizmoV3_1 IBE IBEGiIzmov3 sereen type C blu colour ro e Finally you can click the Help menu to access the following e Key Assignments a list of hot keys e Documentation this user guide the Nuke Developer Kit NKD and documentation for using FrameCycler Python TCL and expressions in Nuke e Training FX PHD s Compositor s Guide to Nuke training videos and a list of other training resources e Tutorials grain samples and th
619. to match any movement in the destination image 250 WARPING AND MORPHING IMAGES NUKE 14 If necessary adjust the controls described in the following table Control reverse submesh resolution distortion blend background background blend filter on the Render tab antialiasing on the Render tab samples on the Render tab shutter on the Render tab What it does Check this to invert the distortion Set the number of subdivisions that are created between bezier curves in the grid The higher the value the more accurate the distortion between the grid lines The overall distortion is multiplied by this amount The lower the value the less the image is distorted At 0 you get the source image while at 1 you get the destination image At 0 5 the distortion is halfway between the source and the destination images Dissolve between the source image at 0 and the destination image at 1 The warped image is rendered on top of an unwarped background This control sets what to use as that background e on black Render the warped image on top of a constant black image e on src Render the warped image on top of the image connected to the src input of the GridWarp node e on dst Render the warped image on top of the image connected to the dst input of the GridWarp node e on bg Render the warped image on top of a background image con nected to the bg input of the GridWarp node
620. to the nodes mentioned above there is a Light node which lets you read in lights from fbx files for more information see mporting Channel Files Cameras Lights Trans forms and Meshes from Other Applications on page 321 The Light node also includes the DirectLight Point and Spotlight nodes so you can set it to act as any of these three nodes Simply insert a Light node select 3D gt Lights gt Light and 309 3D COMPOSITING NUKE choose the light type you want to use The advantage of using a Light node in this way is that if you want to change the light type later you can do so without setting up a new node For example you might insert a direct light but then realise that what you actually need is a spot light If you inserted the direct light using a DirectLight node you need to delete this node and insert a SpotLight node instead However if you inserted the direct light using a Light node you can simply change the light type from directional to spot in the Light controls Direct Light A direct light is a light that emits parallel light in one direction It appears to illuminate all objects with equal intensity as if it was coming from a far away source Being at an infinite distance from the objects direct light has orientation but no position A real world example of a direct light is the sun You can use direct light to simulate sunlight and moonlight for exam ple To add a direct light 1 Select 3D
621. together to process all of them at the same time For example after merging your objects you can use a Transform node to move the objects together or add an ApplyMaterial node to apply a global material to them To merge your 3D objects 1 Select 3D gt Modify gt MergeGeo to insert a MergeGeo after the 3D objects in your script 2 Connect the objects you want to merge to the MergeGeo node s inputs You can now process all the objects you connected to the MergeGeo node together Object Material Properties The nodes under the Shader menu let you define the material attributes of geometric objects in a scene including the quality of light reflected back to the camera from an object s surface Using these nodes you can control what material your objects seem to be made of You can also add several Shader nodes one after the other to produce more complex effects For this you should use the unlabeled inputs on the Shader nodes The material property settings you apply affect the render output of the scene You can insert 3D shader nodes in the following places in your scripts e between the 2D image you re using for the surface texture and the 3D object node that creates the surface 290 3D COMPOSITING NUKE e after the 3D object nodes using the ApplyMaterial node Connect the geometry for exam ple a Sphere node to the ApplyMaterial node and the materials for example a BasicMa terial node to the ApplyMaterial no
622. tory create a directory called nuke if it doesn t exist already For more information on this directory see Loading Gizmos Plug ins and TCL scripts on page 410 In the nuke directory create a file called menu py if one does not already exist In a text editor modify the file menu py adding the lines toolbar nuke toolbar Nodes toolbar addCommand Test MyGizmo nuke createNode MyGizmo This adds a menu labeled Test to the default Nodes Toolbar with an item labeled MyGizmo that creates an instance of the node MyGizmo It s also possible to add items to other menus in Nuke and even create your own toolbars The following sections cover these possibilities in detail To add a toolbar 1 Create a file called menu py in your plug in path directory if one doesn t already exist 414 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE For more information on plug in path directories see Loading Gizmos Plug ins and TCL scripts on page 410 2 Open the menu py file in a text editor and add an entry in the following format t nuke toolbar ToolbarName t addCommand NewMenu PythonCode Shortcut i1con IconName e Replace ToolbarName with the name you want to give to the toolbar This name will appear in the content menus under Toolbars and above the toolbar on the title tab e Replace NewMenu with the name of the menu you want to add to the toolbar The following image illustrates where whatever you use to rep
623. tp Enter the version number here This step created a tab called User in the Group node controls All the controls you add or pick are added on this tab by default As you can see the Version control is now there On the Group Node Graph tab double click the Text1 node to open its controls In the message field enter the following expression value version This expression calls the control named vers on that you created in the previous step Therefore whatever is entered in the Version field of the Group node for example v03 will appear as a result of the Text node 425 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE Texti Color Node output rgba premult clip to format opacity M mask input value version Groupi User Group Version vO Example 2 This example teaches you to create a checkbox control that the users can use to specify whether they want to display or hide the version number added in the previous example 1 In the Group properties panel right click on the dark grey background and select Manage User Knobs 2 Inthe dialog that opens select Add gt Check Box to add a checkbox control to your Group properties panel 3 Enter Aideversion as the Name for the control Hide version number as the Label and Check this to hide the version number as the Tooltip 4 To have the new control appear next to the Version control created in the previous example rather than below it on its own line unc
624. troke s transparency to pen pressure Just check the opacity box If you also check edit pressure you can move the handles that 224 USING PAINT NUKE appear in the Viewer to alter whatever is tied to the pen pressure opacity size and or brush hardness Original paint stroke Adjusting opacity Figure 8 7 Altering the opacity of the paint stroke with the Viewer handles instead of pen pressure To do this you need to check opacity and edit pressure Editing Brush Size You can set the size of the stroke using the brush size slider A low brush size value A high brush size value Figure 8 8 Editing the brush size attribute If you are using a tablet you can also tie a stroke s size to pen pressure by checking the size box If you also check edit pressure you can move the handles that appear in the Viewer to alter whatever is tied to the pen pressure opacity size and or brush hardness Original paint stroke Adjusting size Figure 8 9 Altering the size of the paint stroke with the Viewer handles instead of pen pressure To do this you need to check size and edit pressure 225 USING PAINT NUKE Editing Brush Hardness You can set the hardness of the stroke using the brush hardness slider A low brush hardness value A high brush hardness value Figure 8 10 Editing the brush hardness attribute If you are using a tablet you can also tie a stroke s hardness to pen pressure by checking the
625. ts Plot control point Feather selected control points Remove selected points Remove feather outline from selected points Unblur Feather outline off selected points Blur Break tangent handles for selected points Make tangent handles horizontal on selected points Smooth Curve Editor Keystroke s Alt LMB drag Alt Shift LMB drag Alt MMB drag C Ctrl A Ctrl Alt LMB Ctrl Alt Shift LMB drag Ctrl C Ctrl E Ctrl L Action Pan inside the Curve Editor Move a single point leaving any other selected points where they are Variable zoom zoom in or out on the x or y axis only Change interpolation of selected control points to Cubic Select all curves Add a point to the current curve Sketch points freely on the current curve Copy selected keys Copy expressions Copy links 554 APPENDIX A HOT KEYS Keystroke s Ctrl LMB drag hold down Ctrl Shift Ctrl V Ctrl X H K LMB LMB drag on blank space LMB drag on a point LMB drag on a selec tion box LMB drag on a trans from jack MMB or F MMB drag R Shift Ctrl C Shift LMB Shift LMB drag X Z NUKE Action Remove horizontal vertical constraint on moving points Hide points to make it easier to click on the selection box or transform jack Paste curve Cut selected keys Change interpolation of selected control points to Horizontal Change interpolation of selected control points to Constant C
626. ts you want to morph are the easier it is to morph them together If the position and the movement of the subjects do not match however you can try to reposition and retime the clips before morphing them together To do so use the nodes described in Chapter 5 ransforming Ele ments on page 159 and Chapter 9 Temporal Operations on page 233 You can also use the Tracker node see Chapter 6 Tracking and Stabilising on page 175 to track the features you want to morph over time or to stabilize your clips before morphing them together Tip You can copy animation data from the Tracker node to the points on the GridWarp SplineWarp grid curves Do the following 1 Make sure both the Tracker and the GridWarp SplineWarp properties panels are open 2 Ctri Cmd drag the animation button from the Tracker node properties on top of the individual grid curve point in the Viewer When you release the mouse the point follows the animation from the Tracker node 257 WARPING AND MORPHING IMAGES NUKE Below we first discuss morphing images using the GridWarp node and then using the Spline Warp node To morph one image into another using the GridWarp node Select Image gt Read to import the two images you want to morph together 2 If the images do not have the same resolution insert Reformat nodes after them For more information see Reformatting Image Sequences on page 99 Select Transform gt GridWarp to insert a GridWarp nod
627. tton and select Set key a Then scrub to the frame where you want the morph to end and set distortion to 1 the destination image 13 Animate the blend control in the same way Scrub to the frame where the morph starts and set blend to O the source image Click the animation button and select Set key Scrub to the frame where the morph ends and enter 1 the destination image as the blend value If you now play the sequence in the Viewer you ll notice that the source image is morphed into the destination image 260 11 Creating Effects Several nodes in Nuke let you create various effects on your input images In this chap ter we describe three of these nodes LightWrap Glint and Text The LightWrap node lets you create background reflections on foreground elements The Glint node can be used to create Star filter effects on image highlights The Text node is useful for adding text overlays on images for example when creating slates or scrolling credits Background Reflections on Foreground Elements You can use the LightWrap node to create background reflections on foreground elements The node creates a reflection of light around the edges of your foreground element by blending in whatever is in the background The composite without the LightWrap effect The composite with the LightWrap effect Figure 11 1 Using the LightWrap node to create background reflections on the edges of the foreground element You may
628. u can use the other two sliders in the same way for different key adjustments The S poly detail slider controls the matte softness for the colour which is closest to the background colour For example you can recover lost rarefied smoke in the foreground by selecting the Fine Tuning Sliders action sampling the area of the image where the smoke just starts to disappear and moving the S poly detail slider to the left The M poly trans Slider controls the matte softness for the colour which is closest to the foreground colour For example if you have thick and opaque smoke in the foreground you can make it semi transparent by moving the Transparency slider to the right after selecting the pixels in the Fine Tuning Sliders mode Tip If the foreground image changed colour dramatically during the fine tuning process you can recover the original colour by selecting an area of the off colour foreground image and moving the L poly spill slider slightly to the left This may introduce spill back into that colour region Again use the Fine Tuning Sliders option to suppress the spill but make smaller adjustments this time Spill Removal Method 3 1 This method uses a more recent Primatte tool that is covered in detail in Repeatable Sam pling Tools below If these final spill suppression operations have changed the final compositing results you may have to return to earlier operations to clean up the matte If the composite view loo
629. ulldown menu select the LUT you want to use To use the default LUT defined in Nuke s settings for the image type in question see Defau t LUT settings below select default To select the LUT to use for a Viewer Select the LUT from the Viewer s controls OR 1 Right click on the Viewer and select Viewer Settings to open the Viewer s settings 435 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE In the display_lut pulldown menu select the LUT you want to use Default LUT settings By default Nuke uses the following LUTs in the following cases File Type Device Default LUT monitor This is used for postage stamps OpenGL textures the colour chooser display sRGB and all other non Viewer image displays Also used by Truelight nodes when conversion to or from monitor colour space is required viewer This is used for Viewers If you are using a Viewer Input process that converts all sRGB the way to monitor correct space you can set this to linear to effectively disable the additional change but leave monitor to sRGB to get reasonably monitor correct output on non Viewer images 8 bit files This is used when reading or writing image files that contain 8 bit data Also sRGB used by the Merge node s sRGB switch and to convert Primatte and Truelight nodes inputs into sRGB and their outputs from sRGB The Cineon LUT is also used to control the input to Truelight 16 bit files This is used when reading or writing image files that cont
630. ur spill from the backing screen Region 3 between the medium and large polyhedrons This region contains all the fore ground image colours that are 100 foreground but have spill suppression applied to them to remove colour spill from the backing screen Otherwise they are 100 solid foreground col ours Primatte Polyhedrons Part 1 Region 4 Key is 100 No spill suppression Region 3 Key is 100 in value Spill is suppressed All colors in this region are 100 Foreground Region 2 Key is 1 99 in value Spill is suppressed S D S gt Q Region 1 Key is 0 in value No spill suppression All FG colors in this region are replaced by Background 212 PRIMATTE NUKE Region 4 outside the large polyhedron This region contains all the 100 foreground image colours that are not modified from the original foreground image There is no spill suppression applied to these colours In the first step in using Primatte Select Background Colour the user is asked to indicate the backing colour on the original foreground image The sample should usually be taken from a medium shaded area near the foreground object By medium shaded area it is meant that if green is the backing colour and the green area of the foreground image has many shades of green ranging from very pale green to almost black a shade of green in between these extreme ranges should be chosen If good results are not ob
631. usting the Bounding Box The bounding box defines the area of the frame that Nuke sees as having valid image data The larger the bounding box is the longer it takes Nuke to process and render the images To minimize processing and rendering times you can crop the bounding box Occasionally the bounding box may also be too small in which case you need to expand it To adjust the bounding box you can use the AdjBBox and CopyBBox nodes The AdjBBox node lets you both crop and expand the bounding box edges whereas with the CopyBBox node you can copy a bounding box from one input to another If needed you can also add a black out side edge to the bounding box using the BlackOutside node Resizing the Bounding Box The AdjBBox node lets you expand or crop the edges of the bounding box by a specified number of pixels An expanded bounding box A cropped bounding box Figure 1 1 Resizing the bounding box with the AdjBBox node For example if you have an image with lots of black 0 0 0 0 you can adjust the bounding box to contain just the useful area so that Nuke won t waste time computing results where there is no change To resize the bounding box 1 Select Transform gt AdjustBBox to insert an AdjBBox node after the image whose bounding box you want to resize Connect a Viewer to the AdjBBox node so you can see the effect of your changes In the AdjBBox controls adjust the Add Pixels slider to increase or decrease the size of
632. ve 4s Draw Save new version Time Recent files Channel Import script Color Filter Export nodes 45 script Script command Keyer TCL file Merge Goto frame Transtorm aD pa Views Script info Close Exit Keylight Tinder T T T T T T r F TF T T Other Figure 2 8 A right click menu in the Node Graph Using the Toolbar Nuke s toolbar includes the following icons Icon Functions E Image Image read and write nodes built in Nuke elements and Viewer nodes wy Draw Roto shapes paint tools film grain fills lens flares sparkles other vector based image tools cy Time Retiming image sequences Channel Channel management co Color Applying colour correction effects Filter Applying convolve filters such as blur sharpen edge detect and erode A Keyer Extracting procedural mattes Merge Layering background and foreground elements B Transform Translating scaling tracking and stabilizing elements O 33 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Functions 3D compositing nodes and tools Views Nodes for working with views and stereoscopic or multi view material Any installed plug ins and custom menus that do not have their own icon al a A O i ww UJ oO koe a Other Additional operators for script and Viewer management To display a tool tip that explains the icon s function move your mouse pointer over the icon To make selections from the toolbar
633. veral sources of more information that you may find useful if you need help using Python More Documentation To view documentation on Nuke s Python bindings launch Nuke and select Help gt Documen tation gt Python Scripting 395 THE SCRIPT EDITOR AND PYTHON NUKE Viewing More Examples We only described a few examples of Python scripts in this chapter but there are more You can find them in the following location e On Windows drive etter Program Files Nuke5 1v5 nukescripts or drive letter Program Files x86 Nuke5 1v5 nukescripts e On Mac OS X Applications Nuke5 1v5 Nuke5 1v5 app Contents MacOS nukescripts e On Linux usr local Nuke5 1v5 nukescripts To view an example select one of the py files and open it in any text editor Using the Help Statement Possibly the quickest way of getting help on the available scripts is to enter the following in the Script Editor help nuke This statement lists many of the available Python commands in an alphabetical order together with their descriptions You can also get help on more specific things For example the statement help nuke Knob setValue would give you a description of what the setValue method does Python on the Web To read more about Python check out its documentation or interact with other Python users visit the Python programming language official web site at http www python org Using wxPython in Nuke to Write Custom GUIs Wx
634. view image on a node In Nuke you can show or hide a thumbnail for any node They are refreshed automatically as changes are made to your script 560 APPENDIX C CONVERTING FROM SHAKE TO NUKE NUKE Node Reference These tables list the nodes as organized in the Shake user interface Where applicable the Nuke equivalent is listed with notes that describe any differences and conditions that may be useful to the compositing artist Image Nodes Shake Node Nuke Equivalent Description More Info Checker Image gt Checkerboard Color Image gt Constant ColorWheel Fileln Image gt Read Nuke User Manual page 97 FileOut Image gt Write Nuke User Manual page 352 Grad QuickPaint Draw gt Paint QuickShape Draw gt Bezier Ramp Draw gt Ramp Rand RGrad Draw gt Radial RotoShape Draw gt Bezier Text Draw gt Text 561 APPENDIX C CONVERTING FROM SHAKE TO NUKE Color Nodes Shake Node Add AdjustHSV Brightness Clamp ColorCorrect ColorMatch ColorReplace ColorSpace ColorX Compress ContrastLum ContrastRGB Expand Fade Gamma HueCurves Invert LogLin Lookup LookupFile Nuke Equivalent Description Color gt Math gt Add Color gt HSVTool Color gt Multiply Color gt Math gt Clamp Color gt ColorCorrect Color gt Colorspace Color gt Math gt Expres sion Color gt RolloffContrast Color gt Multiply Color gt Math gt Gamma
635. w node or dou ble click on an existing node in the Node Graph e own window Each new control panel appears in its own floating window e top of control panel bin Each new control panel appears on top of the Proper ties Bin e bottom of control panel bin Each new control panel appears in the bottom of the Properties Bin max panels in bin Define the maximum number of control panels that can appear in the Properties Bin at the same time When you re working you can override this setting using the field on top of the Properties Bin However the number saved in the preferences is used as the default whenever you launch Nuke reopen acts like new panel When this is checked and you reopen a floating control panel Nuke opens the panel in the same place as a new panel even if you moved the panel to a new location earlier When this is NOT checked and you reopen a floating control panel Nuke remembers where the panel was located when it was last closed and opens it in that position double click moves panel When this is checked you can double click on a node whose control panel is already open to move the control panel to the place where the new panels go When this is NOT checked double clicking on a node whose control panel is already open does change the panel s position but selects the panel and in the case of floating panels moves in on top of other panels close Control Panel Bin when When this is checked the Pro
636. want to zoom 2 Press the plus button repeatedly until the frame attains the desired scale OR Select zoom in from the zoom pulldown menu in the top right corner 2 Y To zoom out from the frame 1 Move your pointer over the area of the display from which you want to zoom 2 Press the minus button repeatedly until the frame displays at the desired scale OR Select zoom out from the zoom pulldown menu in the top right corner ar To restore the zoom to 100 Press Ctrl 1 Mac users press Cmd 1 Hiding Floating Viewers To hide a floating Viewer Press the accent key To show a hidden floating Viewer Press the accent key again 68 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Using the Viewer Controls A Viewer s onscreen controls let you navigate the timeline display channels zoom choose cameras 3D mode and create display wipes and composites rgba rgba alpha RGB A 2 2 B default fe pb 1 3 sRGB AA Pi PS Video 402480 bbox 00 11 channels none 12 10 Global 10 z0 Figure 2 22 Viewer controls Timeline Controls Drag the orange marker along the timeline to quickly cue to a specific frame The number of the current frame appears in the Current field above the timeline You can also cue to a frame by typing its number directly into this field Current frame frame increment playback buttons fps field IFC Video 6402460 bbox 001 1 chanhels none 24 frame range source time marker p
637. we HEEL LO Editing Comp Mode 2 oe u4 6 ae dou boc esed doe eeu nee bones en ess 64200 Editing Stroke MMMNIG lt 5 2 0 56 0 2a 6 te abe 8 ead Sees ot a ae eoetae Se 42622 Editing Stroke Stack Order 2 lt ias0i0a0 seecewetde ewes sede siacevcun ene 227 Editing Stroke VECLOMS 44 05 0 4 4564 6 40e6h40dou eos teus oad nesciweta etlZo Animating Paint StrokeS 40444944404 4944099 446 90405 eeensoeueeens 464229 Copying Pasting and Cutting Stroke Attributes 230 Copying Attributes so acs a 4 0 0 54 ase Seo eee 64D RS SOE EDS ee se Ia Pasting AtiribUteS 4 lt 444 4 446 4908 3460456556 ono oe errea oc oU Cutting ATtADULES s a 4 cau geo e eae one eee reese eneseeage eaeenseeoe gees Copying Pasting and Cutting Stroke Vectors 0 cee ee ee ee ee 2S Copying VECIOIS c 6 60 d wore 04 64m oo a4 SG Sd dere OS Odin ee ws oo SoS Sd eS oe BERL OT NUKE Pasting Vectors e e o e cf e cf cf o cf eo 23 1 Cutti V 232 utting ectors e cf eo cf oe ff oe cf cf cd cf cf oe cd cf cf Paint and Stereoscopic Projects cc eee cee ee ee eee ee ee D2 Temporal Operations 0 0 ccc cc ccc cc cece eee e eee ee 233 Di ing Tim 233 Istorting l e Ld Ad Ld Ld e e Ld Ld e Ld e e Ad e e Ld e e Ad Ld e Ld e e e e Ad Ld e e Ad Ad e Ad Ld Ad Ad Ld e
638. wer Nodes Once you add a Viewer node to the script you can quickly pipe any process node s output to it simply by selecting the process node then pressing any number key Doing so pipes the out put to one of the ten input ports available on every Viewer node the O key represents the tenth slot 2 Pemut Figure 2 21 A Viewer node with multiple inputs Toggling Views If a Viewer node has multiple inputs like the one depicted above you can press the up or down arrow keys to quickly cycle through the views your cursor needs to be in the Viewer window To view a particular node press the number key 1 2 3 0 corresponding to the pipe number whose contents you wish to view 67 USING THE INTERFACE NUKE Panning and Zooming the Viewer Window To pan the frame Hold the Alt key and drag on the display The frame follows the mouse pointer On Linux Alt drag may not work as expected This is due to the default window functionality on Gnome To get around it you can use the Windows key instead of Alt when panning Alternatively you can change your window preferences on Gnome to fix the problem 1 Select Applications gt Preferences gt Windows to open the Window Preferences dialog 2 Under Movement Key select Super or Windows logo You should now be able to pan with Alt drag To recentre the frame Press F To zoom in on the frame 1 Move your pointer over the area of the display on which you
639. wer inputs in reverse order If wipe is active cycles through inputs on the left hand side Move to midpoint between current frame and next key frame last frame Move to midpoint between current frame and previous key frame first frame Zoom in by a specific percentage The represents a number between 0 and 9 with 0 1000 1 100 2 200 3 300 4 400 5 500 6 600 7 700 8 800 and 9 900 551 APPENDIX A HOT KEYS Keystroke s Ctrl Alt LMB Ctrl Alt Shift LMB Ctrl LMB Ctrl P Ctrl R Ctrl Shift LMB End Esc F R RMB or press and hold the spacebar S Shift left arrow Shift right arrow NUKE Action Sample a single pixel s colour value from the node s input while viewing its output See also Ctrl LMB under Viewers Sample range of pixels from the node s input while viewing its output See also Ctrl Shift LMB under Viewers Sample a single pixel s colour value from the Viewer See also Ctrl AIt LMB under View ers With the mouse pointer over the Viewer this keystroke toggles pixel aspect ratio between Square and non square according to the setting of the default format under the Settings properties panel This is not the same as toggling proxy resolution see also Ctrl P under Node Graph Resize Viewer window to image see Alt R under Viewers Sample range of pixels from the Viewer See also Ctrl Alt Shift LMB under Viewers Go to last frame Close Viewer Fit
640. with the matte operation you should use unpremultiplied images To layer images with the Merge node 1 Select Merge gt Merge or press M on the node graph to insert a Merge node after the images you want to layer together 2 Connect your images to the Merge node s A and B inputs If necessary you can connect multiple A images to the Merge node Once you have got the A and B inputs connected as instructed in step 2 drag more connectors from the left side of the Merge node to the images you want to use as additional A inputs Each input is merged in the order connected for example A1 A2 A3 B 4 Connect a Viewer to the output of the Merge node so you can see the effect of your merge operation 5 In the Merge node s controls select how you want to layer the images together from the operation pulldown menu The default and the most common operation is over which layers input A over input B according to the alpha of input A For descriptions of all the available operations see Merge Operations below 6 Using the Achannels and B channels menus select which channels to use from the A and B inputs and which channels to use as the A and B alpha If you want to merge more channels than these and output them into the same channels select them from the also merge pulldown menus and checkboxes 7 From the output menu select the channels you want to write the merge of the A and B channels to Channels named in the also merge list ar
641. xes Chapter 2 Channels shows you how to manage image data using Nuke s unique 1023 chan nel workflow Chapter 3 Merging mages teaches you how to layer background and foreground elements together create contact sheets and copy rectangles from one image to another Chapter 4 Colour Correction and Colour Space explains a broad sampling of Nuke s many colour correction tools Chapter 5 7ransforming Elements covers the tools for changing the size location and ori entation of an image including how to translate scale rotate and skew elements in 2D and 3D space This chapter also describes adding motion blur Chapter 6 racking and Stabilising shows how to generate and edit 2D tracking data for purposes of removing unwanted motion or applying it to other elements Chapter 7 Primatte teaches you to use the blue greenscreen keyer Primatte in Nuke Chapter 8 Using Paint describes how to use Nuke s Paint node Chapter 9 Temporal Operations explains how to apply time based effects like clip retiming and motion blur This chapter also explains how to perform editorial tasks such as trimming and slipping Chapter 10 Warping and Morphing Images teaches you to use the GridWarp and Spline Warp nodes to warp and morph images Chapter 11 Creating Effects describes how you can create effects such as star filter effects on your images Chapter 12 Analysing Frame Sequences explains how to use the CurveTool node to
642. y If the user samples a foreground object shadow and then moves the Matte or medium poly Slider to the right the shadow will become more transparent This is useful for matching com 216 PRIMATTE NUKE posited shadows to shadows on the plate photography It can also be used to make clouds or smoke more transparent If some foreground detail disappears during the composite the user can select where the detail should be and then move the detail or small poly slider to the left This dents the small poly in that colour region and releases the detail pixels from the small poly into the visible region between the small and medium polyhedrons The Spill Sponge and Matte Sponge tools are shortcut tools that automatically move the slid ers a pre selected amount as a timesaving step for the user Other shortcut tools include the Make Foreground Trans tool and the Restore Detail tool Primatte Polyhedrons Part 3 All colors are complete Foreground Make FG Trans used to make an FG color region or shadow more transparent used to recower lost FG detail Restore Detail All colors are complete Background These shortcut tools are one step operations where the user clicks on a colour region of interest and Primatte performs a pre calculated operation Hopefully most operations using Primatte would only require these tools but the manual operation of the sliders is always an option The Spill tool bulg
643. y To check the results simply insert a new Read node point to the new image sequence and then gener ate a flipbook with the Read node selected Using the Nuke Frame Number Variable What s that weird 04d bit in the filename you say That s the variable that tells Nuke where to place the sequential numbers or frame numbers You only type one name to repre sent the image sequence but Nuke will create one image file for each frame in your shot 468 NUKE So in this case you entered first comp 04d exr but Nuke will render these files for frames 1 through 5 first_comp 0001 exr first comp 0002 exr first_comp 0003 exr first_ comp 0004 exr and first comp 0005 exr You can change the variable 03d 02d 05d to change the number of padded digits for the frame numbers Nn Image Formats If you don t specify a file format inside the Write node control panel Nuke uses the format specified by the filename extension you typed For example in this tutorial you used the exr extension to tell Nuke to save the images as OpenEXR files Rendering with the Active Resolution When you execute a render or a flipbook Nuke assumes you want to render the active resolu tion When your re in full res mode for example Nuke renders full resolution images to disk When you re in proxy mode Nuke assumes you want to render the proxy resolution defined in the Project Settings window to th
644. y distribute execute and transmit the Software and to prepare derivative works of the Software and to permit third par ties to whom the Software is furnished to do so all subject to the following The copyright notices in the Software and this entire statement including the above license grant this restriction and the following disclaimer must be included in all copies of the Software in whole or in part and all derivative works of the Software unless such copies or derivative works are solely in the form of machine executable object code generated by a source language processor THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MER CHANTABILITY FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE TITLE AND NON INFRINGE MENT IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS OR ANYONE DISTRIBUTING THE SOFTWARE BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY WHETHER IN CONTRACT TORT OR OTHERWISE ARISING FROM OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE 570 APPENDIX D THIRD PARTY LICENSES NUKE Library Expat Description XML parser Autodesk FBX File format FreeType support Font support License Copyright 1998 1999 2000 Thai Open Source Software Center Ltd and Clark Cooper Copyright 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Expat maintainers Permission is hereby granted free of charge to any person
645. y gt TransformGeo Your node tree should now look like the following 526 NUKE On the TransformGeo nodes you see multiple connectors The connector without a label should be attached to a geometry object or a MergeGeo node The other connectors act as constraints on the connected object s position You can connect look to the object or camera that the current object should face You can connect axis to an Axis node This links the position of the current object to the position of the Axis node When a camera or object is connected to the optional look connector the TransformGeo node adjusts the rotation so that the object s z axis always points to the camera or object The axis connector can be used to link the current object to the position rotation and scale of a special 3D object called the Axis node If you ve worked with other 3D applications you know the Axis node as a null or locator object You are still working with the Setting Up a 3D System node tree The following steps show how you can move the merged nodes and also how to make objects look at the camera and other objects To move the merged objects together 1 Click on the TransformGeo1 node to select it Its control panel should also be open and you ll see its transform handles in the Viewer Drag the handles to move all the cards merged with the MergeGeo node Press the Ctrl or Command key and
646. ya or Boujou and then exported as channel files 321 3D COMPOSITING NUKE To apply a channel file to an object 1 Double click on an object or camera node to display its parameters 2 Click import chan file The file navigation dialog appears 3 Navigate to the channel file then click OK 4 Nuke reads in the channel data and displays a status message about the number of data frames imported You ll also notice the object s translation parameters turn green to indicate these parameters are now controlled by animation data Scrub the Viewer and you ll notice the object or camera now moves according to the transformation data imported from the channel file You can use the export chan file button to export as a chan file any animated translation parameters which you ve applied to given object This is a useful method of sharing setups between artists Working with fbx Files Fbx is a standard 3D file format that gives you access to 3D scenes created in other applica tions supporting the same format What you generally have in an fbx file is an entire 3D scene containing cameras lights meshes non uniform rational B spline NURBS curves transfor mation materials and so on From this scene you can extract cameras lights transforms and meshes into Nuke This way you can for example create a camera in Maya export it in an fbx file and use the same camera again in Nuke To extract cameras lights transforms an
647. you wish to use as the icon for the favourite directory This image must be stored in your Nuke plug in path directory It should be 24 x 24 pixels in size e tooltip My tooltip Replace My tooltip with the string you wish to display as pop up help Example 1 The following entry would create a favourite called DisasterFlickStore which appears on all File Browsers invoked from Read nodes and which points to the job DisasterFlick img directory 412 CONFIGURING NUKE NUKE nuke addFavoriteDir DisasterFlickStore job DisasterFlick img nuke IMAGE 7 _ a al m _ edit fpbiDisasterFickim gi E Sequences Filter Figure 19 2 The result of example 1 Example 2 The following entry would create a favourite called Test It appears on all File Browsers invoked from Read nodes or by selecting File gt Open and points to the job Test directory The entry also defines 7est mages and Scripts as the tool tip for the favourite directory nuke addFavoriteDir Test job Test nuke IMAGE nuke SCRIPT tooltip Test images and Scripts Bm Home Root t Current fm Nuke ay K Sp Test images and Scripts Maii Root Curent me Hike ek a Test images and Scripts Es a py ee Be J Pi TI edt fpb Testi fpb Test a sequences Filler Sequences Filler Figure 19 3 The result of example 2 Handling File Paths Cross Platform If your facility uses Nuk
648. ype the value you want to replace the selection Tip You can also enter expressions programmatic instructions for generating values into fields You always start an expression by typing See Chapter 16 Expressions on page 357 for information about how to format expressions Tip Nuke also allows you to enter formulas into fields making it easy to do quick calculations For exam ple if you wanted to halve a value of 378 you could simply type 378 2 into a field and press Enter to get 189 You can increment or decrement field values by hundreds tens tenths hundreths and so on The magnitude of change depends on the initial position of your cursor For example if you wanted to increment the initial value of 20 51 by ones you would insert your cursor before the O To increment and decrement a field value 1 Click to insert the cursor just prior to the digit you want to increment or decrement USING THE INTERFACE NUKE 2 Press the up arrow to increment by unit or the down arrow to decrement by one unit Tip You can also increment and decrement values using the mouse wheel if available or by pressing Alt while dragging on the value The latter method is particularly useful for tablet users Using Sliders To set a value with a slider Drag the knob to the desired value OR Click the desired value on the graduated scale beneath the slider To reset a slider to its default value Ctrl click Mac user

Nuke 5.1v5 User Guide

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