NUKE 101

PROFESSIONAL COMPOSITING AND VISUAL EFFECTS

Second Edition

Ron Ganbar
NUKE 101
PROFESSIONAL COMPOSITING AND VISUAL EFFECTS
Second Edition

Ron Ganbar Peachpit Press

Nuke 101
Professional Compositing and Visual Effects, Second Edition
Ron Ganbar
Peachpit Press
Find us on the Web at www.peachpit.com
To report errors, please send a note to [email protected]
Peachpit Press is a division of Pearson Education
Copyright © 2014 by Ron Ganbar
Senior Editor: Karyn Johnson
Senior Production Editor: Lisa Brazieal
Technical Editor: Jonathan Mcfall
Copyeditor: Rebecca Rider
Proofreader: Emily K. Wolman
Indexer: Valerie Haynes Perry
Interior Design: Kim Scott, Bumpy Design
Composition: Danielle Foster
Cover Design: Aren Straiger
Cover images: Goose (2012) by Dor Shamir, Shai Halfon, and Oryan Medina

Notice of Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts,
contact [email protected].
Footage from This Is Christmas and Grade Zero directed by Alex Norris, www.alexnorris.co.uk.
Goose footage (Chapter 3) by Dor Shamir, Shai Halfon, and Oryan Medina.
Keying footage (Chapter 7) from Aya by Divine Productions and Cassis Films. All rights reserved.
Chapter 9 footage by Or Kantor.
Pan and Tile panorama footage (Chapter 10) by Assaf Evron, www.assafevron.com.
Camera and geometry for Chapter 11 was solved by Michal Boico.

Notice of Liability
The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis without warranty. While every precau-
tion has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall have any
liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused
directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hard-
ware products described in it.

Trademarks
Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed
as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of a trade-
mark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product
names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the
benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use
of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.
ISBN-13: 978-0-321-98412-8
ISBN-10: 0-321-98412-9
987654321
Printed and bound in the United States of America
To The Foundry, who updates its products so often,
it makes me wish I hadn’t started down this road.
iv  nuke 101

Contents

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

chapter 1: Getting Started with Nuke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Components of the Graphic User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Viewer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

chapter 2: Touring the Interface with a Basic Composite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Working with Process Trees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Creating a Simple Process Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Merging Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Inserting and Manipulating Nodes in the Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Changing Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Rendering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Delving Deeper into the Merge Node. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Creating Animation with Keyframes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

chapter 3: Compositing CGI with Bigger Node Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Working with Channels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Working with Contact Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Using the Bounding Box to Speed Up Processing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Linking Properties with Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Slapping Things Together: Foreground over Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Building the Beauty Pass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Using the ShuffleCopy Node. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Placing CGI over Live Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Manipulating Passes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Using the Mask Input. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Using Auxiliary Passes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
 Contents   v

chapter 4: Color Correction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Understanding Nuke’s Approach to Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Color Manipulation Building Blocks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Using an I/O Graph to Visualize Color Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Creating Curves with ColorLookup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Color Matching with the Grade Node. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Achieving a “Look” with the ColorCorrect Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

chapter 5: 2D Tracking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Tracker Node Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Stabilizing a Shot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Tracking Four Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

chapter 6: RotoPaint. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Introducing RotoPaint’s Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
The Curve Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
RotoPaint in Practice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Combining RotoPaint and Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Using the Dope Sheet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

chapter 7: Keying. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Introducing Nuke’s Keying Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
HueKeyer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
The Image Based Keyer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Keylight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Combining Keyer Nodes Using the Tree. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

chapter 8: Compositing Hi-Res Stereo Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Using the Project Settings Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Setting Up a High-Res Stereo Script. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Compositing a Stereo Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Rendering and Viewing Stereo Trees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

chapter 9: The Nuke 3D Engine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

3D Scene Setups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Viewing a 2D Image as a 3D Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Manipulating 3D Node Trees in 3D Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Turning 3D Objects into 2D Pixels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Applying Materials to Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
vi  nuke 101

chapter 10: Camera Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Calculating Reflection Movement Using Camera Tracking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
3D Tracking in Nuke. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Loading a Pre-generated CameraTracker Node. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Aligning the Scene. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Creating the Reflection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

chapter 11: Camera Projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Building a Camera Projection Scene. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Animating the Camera. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Tweaking the Texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Using a SphericalTransform to Replace Sky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Compositing Outside the ScanlineRender Node. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
2D Compositing Inside 3D Scenes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Rendering the Scene. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

chapter 12: Customizing Nuke with Gizmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

About Shape Creation Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Building the Gizmo’s Tree. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Creating User Knobs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Using Text to Create a Radial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Using a Switch Node to Choose Branches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Wrapping in Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Manipulating the Nuke Script in a Text Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Turning a Group into a Gizmo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
More about Gizmos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Appendix: Customizing Nuke with Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Python Scripting Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Creating a Button with Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Adding a Hot Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Making Customization Stick with the menu.py File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
 Introduction   vii

Introduction

The Foundry’s Nuke is fast becoming the industry leader in compositing software for
film and TV. Virtually all the leading visual effects studios—ILM, Digital Domain, Weta
Digital, MPC, Framestore, The Mill, and Sony Pictures Imageworks—now use Nuke
as their main compositing tool. This is not surprising, as Nuke offers a flexible node-
based approach to compositing, has a native multichannel workflow, and boasts a
powerful integrated 3D compositing environment that delivers on the artist’s needs.

Nuke was first developed as the in-house compositing tool at Digital Domain, the visual
effects studio behind the Terminator series, The Fifth Element, Tron: Legacy, The Curi-
ous Case of Benjamin Button, and other major films. The software has been developed
by artists for artists to meet the immediate needs of actual top-level productions. Nuke
is now developed by The Foundry (www.thefoundry.co.uk), which remains committed
to making Nuke the best tool for compositing artists working in the trenches.

About This Book

Learning Nuke is a must for visual effects artists who want to master high-end com-
positing techniques and artistry. My goal with this book is to get you up and running
with the program and give you the skills you need for doing your own compositing
projects in Nuke.

Whom this book is for

This book is for anyone interested in learning Nuke. Whether you’re an artist experi-
enced in using Adobe After Effects, Autodesk Flame, Apple Shake, or eyeon Fusion,
or you have only a basic understanding of compositing and image manipulation con-
cepts, this book will guide you through the necessary theory and practice you need
to use Nuke—from a basic level to Nuke’s more advanced toolset.

How this book is organized

This book was written as a series of lessons, each focusing on a part of the interface,
a tool, or a technique. Chapters 1 through 3 discuss Nuke basics, which are important
for understanding where things are and how to create simple composites. Chapters 4
through 7 cover important tools and techniques. In Chapter 8 and onward, advanced
tools and techniques are explained.
viii  nuke 101

What this book covers

This book teaches how to use Nuke from its very basic interface to its very advanced
toolsets, including the 3D engine, Camera Projection, and Camera Tracking. Although
the book teaches a fair amount of compositing theory, there is not enough space
here to cover that topic in depth. Some of the theory discussed in this book may be
new to you, but my intention is to cover just enough so you understand how to use
Nuke. If you want to dive further into the theory, two of my favorite books are Ron
Brinkmann’s The Art and Science of Digital Compositing and Steve Wright’s Digital
Compositing for Film and Video.

How to use this book

As you advance through the chapters in this book, the later lessons rely on knowl-
edge you learned in the previous lessons. Chapter 2 relies on what you learned in
Chapter 1, and so on. Because of this, I recommend completing the exercises in the
chapters in order.

In the book you will find explanatory text and numbered steps. Ideally, you should
complete each numbered step exactly as it is written—without doing anything else
(such as adding your own steps). Following the steps exactly as written will give you a
smooth experience. Not going through the steps as they are written might result in the
next step not working properly, and could well lead to a frustrating experience. Each
series of steps is also designed to introduce you to new concepts and techniques. As
you perform the steps, pay attention to why you are clicking where you are clicking and
doing what you are doing, as that will truly make your experience a worthwhile one.

You can use this book on your own through self-study or in a classroom.

■■ Using the book for self-study: If you’re reading this book at your own pace, fol-
low the instructions in the previous paragraph for your first read-through of the
chapters. However, as you are not limited by any time frame, I recommend going
through chapters a second time, and trying to do as much of the work as possible
without reading the steps. Doing so can help you better understand the concepts
and tools being taught. Also, the book leaves a lot of room for further experimen-
tation. Feel free to use the tools you’re learning to take your compositions further
the second time you run through a chapter.

■■ Using the book in a classroom setting: You can use this book to teach Nuke in
a classroom. As a course, the material is designed to run for roughly 40 hours,
or five eight-hour days. I suggest that the trainer run through a chapter with the
students listening and writing down notes; the trainer should explain the steps
to the class as they are shown on screen while taking questions and expanding
on the text where necessary. Once a chapter has been presented from start to
finish, the instructor should give students time to run through the same chapter
on their own in the classroom in front of a computer, using the book to read the
 Introduction   ix

instructions and follow the steps. This second pass will reiterate everything the
trainer has explained and, through actual experience, show the students how to
use the software while the trainer is still there to answer questions and help when
things go wrong.

Installing Nuke
While this book was originally written for Nuke version 8.0v1, The Foundry updates
Nuke on a regular basis and the lessons can be followed using more recent updates.
Small interface and behavior updates might slightly alter the Nuke interface from ver-
sion to version, especially for so-called “point” updates (for example, if Nuke version
8.1 was released). I recommend using this book with Nuke version 8.0v1 if you haven’t
already downloaded the most current version and you want the exact results that are
shown in the book.

You can download Nuke in a variety of versions from The Foundry’s web site,
www.thefoundry.co.uk, as discussed in the next sections.

Different flavors of Nuke

Nuke comes in three different flavors with different features at different prices. There
is only a single installation file for Nuke, but the license you purchase determines
which type of Nuke you will be running. The Foundry offers a 15-day trial license, so
you can try it before you purchase it (see “Getting a trial license,” later in this section).

Here are the three flavors of Nuke.

1. Nuke PLE (Personal Learning Edition): This license (or lack of) is free—as in, you
pay nothing. You can install Nuke on your computer and not purchase a license.
With the PLE you can use Nuke as much as you want, although certain limitations
apply. These include the placement of a watermark on the Viewer and on ren-
ders, and the disabling of WriteGeo, Primatte, FrameCycler, and Monitor Output.
Keep in mind that Nuke project files saved with the PLE version can be opened
only with the PLE version.

2. Nuke: This is regular Nuke—the flavor this book covers. Nuke requires a trial
license or regular paid license, which should cost about $4,200.

3. NukeX: This license includes all the regular Nuke features with a few additional
high-end tools. These tools include, among other things, the Camera Tracker,
Particles System, PointCloudGenerator, LensDistortion, DepthGenerator, Fur-
naceCore plug-ins, and PRman­Render (allowing for RenderMan integration).
NukeX costs around $8,150. Chapter 10 covers the Camera Tracker and shows
how to use it under the NukeX license; however, the exercises in the chapter can
also be done without a NukeX license.
x  nuke 101

Downloading Nuke
To download Nuke, follow these steps.

1. Go to http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/nuke-product-family/nuke.

2. In the bar on the right, click Product Downloads.

3. Register with your email address and a password.

4. Select the latest copy of Nuke for your operating system (Mac, Windows, or
Linux). You can also download older versions of Nuke if necessary.

5. Follow the instructions for installation on your specific operating system.

Getting a trial license

After successfully installing Nuke, when you double-click the Nuke icon it explains
that because you don’t have a license yet, you can use Nuke under the PLE license.
If you would like to use a fully licensed Nuke or NukeX, you will have to buy Nuke,
rent Nuke (both available on The Foundry’s web site shown below), or get a free
15-day trial license.

As there is no functional difference between getting a Nuke trial license or a NukeX

trial license, I recommend getting a NukeX trial license. To get your free 15-day trial
NukeX license, do the following:

1. Go to http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/nuke-product-family/nuke/trial.

2. In the Free Trial page, fill in the form and click Continue.

The System ID, which is the first entry to fill in on this next page, is the unique
code of your computer—the free license will be locked to that computer. The sec-
tion below the entry field called Finding The System ID explains where to find this
number on your computer.

3. After you complete the form and click Continue, follow the rest of the instructions
on The Foundry’s web site for how to install the license on your operating system.

Additional Technical Requirements

Nuke is a very powerful piece of software, even though its system requirements are
pretty low. If you bought your computer in the last couple of years, you are probably
OK. The requirements are listed on The Foundry web site, but here are three things
you should really check to make sure you have:

■■ Workstation-class graphics card, such as NVIDIA Quadro series, ATI FireGL

series, R3D Rocket, or newer. Driver support for OpenGL 2.0.

■■ Display with at least 1280×1024 pixel resolution and 24-bit color.

    xi

■■ Three-button mouse. This kind of mouse is really a must as Nuke uses the middle
mouse button extensively. A scroll wheel, by the way, can serve as the middle
mouse button.

For a full list of Nuke’s system requirements, visit http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/

products/nuke-product-family/nuke/sys-reqs.

About the Media Files

You can follow along with the exercises throughout this book by using the files that are
available online. The files are a mix of real productions that my colleagues or I created
in recent years and some shot elements I intended for use with this specific book.

To access the download and install the files on your computer, follow these steps:

1. Register your book at www.peachpit.com/nuke1012E. If you don’t already have

a Peachpit account, you will be prompted to create one.

2. Once you are registered at the Peachpit web site, click the Account link, select
the Registered Products tab, and click the Access Bonus Content link that
appears next to the Nuke 101 book image.

A new page opens with the download files listed as individual zip files ordered by
chapter number.

3. Download each zip file and copy them to your hard drive.

4. Unzip the lesson files for each chapter. Each chapter has its own directory. Some
chapters use files from other chapters, so you need to unzip all the files.

5. Create a directory on your hard drive and name it NukeChapters.

6. Drag the chapter folders you unzipped into the NukeChapter directory (after you
have done so, you can delete the zip files from your system).

Acknowledgments
I’ve been teaching compositing since 2001. When Nuke started becoming the tool
of choice for a lot of the studios around me, I decided to write a course that focused
on it. I started writing the course in the spring of 2009 with help from The Foundry,
whose staff was very kind and forthcoming. I would specifically like to thank Vikki
Hamilton, Ben Minall, Lucy Cooper, John Wadelton, and Matt Plec.

I finished writing the original course in the autumn of 2009. I taught it several times
at Soho Editors Training in London; they were kind enough to let me try out the new
course at their training facility. The course was well received, so between sessions I
updated, corrected, and expanded on the original course.
xii  nuke 101

About a year after that, I approached Peachpit Press with the idea of turning the
course into a book. Karyn Johnson, the book’s senior editor, took on the project and
after a long digestion period I sat down and started adapting the course into a book.
Karyn made sure I had the best support I could possibly have, and with the help of
the wonderful team at Peachpit, including Corbin Collins and Kelly Kordes Anton, I
managed to complete the book to the high standard that Peachpit expects of their
writers. Thanks also go out to the kind friends and colleagues who gave me materi-
als to use for the book: Alex Orrelle, Alex Norris, Hector Berrebi, Dror Revach, Assaf
Evron, Menashe Morobuse, and Michal Boico.

For the second edition, started at the end of 2013, Karyn again stepped up and
pushed me to make the book even more than it was before—striving for perfection.
Rebecca Rider taught me a lot about how badly I write, fixing my English as much as
I would let her. I also got help from a lot of friends and colleagues again (to add to the
previous list): Oded Binnun, Dor Shamir, Or Kantor, Jonathan Carmona, Itay Green-
berg, Paul Wolf, and Shani Hermoni. Wow. I owe a lot to a lot of people.

The book uses the following footage:

Alex Norris gave permission to use footage from two of his short film productions:
This Is Christmas and Grade Zero. This is used in Chapters 1, 6, and 8.

The footage in Chapter 3 is taken from a personal short film called Goose by Dor
Shamir (dorshamir.blogspot.com), Shai Halfon, and Oryan Medina (oryanmedina.com).
Special thanks to Geronimo Post&Design. Jonathan Carmona did the 3D rendering
specifically for this book.

The footage in Chapter 7 is taken from a short film called Aya directed by Mihal Brezis
and Oded Binnun (who was also DP), starring Sarah Adler and Ulrich Thomsen, with
thanks to production companies Divine Productions and Cassis Films.

The bullet in Chapter 8 was rendered especially for this book by Dror Revach.

The footage in Chapter 9 is taken from a yet unnamed short film by Or Kantor who wrote,
designed, modeled, animated, and composited the whole thing. Thanks again to Jona-
than Carmona, who helped take Or’s files and render usable elements just for this book.

The footage for the panorama in Chapter 10 is by Assaf Evron.

The camera and geometry for Chapter 11 was solved by Michal Boico.

And finally: The second edition was a breeze to write compared to the first one.
Maybe that was because I knew what I was getting into—but more important, my fam-
ily knew what I was getting them into, and so things were a lot more relaxed. So thank
you to my wife, Maya, and my two sons, Jonathan and Lenny, who had to bear with
my long days and long nights of writing, gave me the quiet and solitude I needed, and
believed (and prayed) that I would finish this second edition quickly so life could get
back to normal. And so I have.
 4
Color Correction
Wow. This is a bit naive, calling a lesson “Color Correction.” It should
be a whole course on its own. But this book is about more than that,
and limited space reduces color correction to a single chapter. So let
me start by explaining what it means.

Color correction refers to any change to the perceived color of an

image. Making an image lighter, more saturated, changing the con-
trast, making it bluer—all of this is color correction. You can make an
image look different as the result of a stylistic decision. But you can
also color correct to combine two images so they feel like part of the
same scene. This task is performed often in compositing when the
foreground and the background need to have colors that work well
together. However, there are plenty more reasons you may change
the color of an image. An image might be a mask or an alpha channel
that needs to have a different color—to lose softness and give it more
contrast, for example.
100  nuke 101

Whatever reason you have for color correcting an image, the process will work accord-
ing to the way Nuke handles color. Nuke is a very advanced system that uses cutting-
edge technology and theory to work with color. Therefore, it is important to understand
Nuke’s approach to color so you understand color correcting within Nuke.

Understanding Nuke’s Approach to Color

Nuke is a 32-bit float linear color compositing application. This is a bit of a fancy
description, with potentially new words. I explain this bit by bit.

■■ 32 bit: That’s the number of bits used to hold colors. Most compositing and
image-manipulation programs are 8-bit, allowing for 256 variations of color per
channel (resulting in what’s referred to as “millions of colors” when the three color
channels are combined). 8-bit is normally fine for displaying color but is not good
enough for some calculations of operations and may produce unwanted results
such as banding—an inaccurate display of gradients where changes in color
happen abruptly instead of smoothly. 32-bit allows for a whopping 4,294,967,296
variations of color per channel. That’s a staggering number that results in much
more accurate display of images and calculations of operations. 8- or 16-bit
images brought into Nuke will be bumped up to 32-bit, although that doesn’t add
any detail, it just enables better calculations from that point onward.

■■ Float: Normally the color of an image is represented between black and white.
In 8-bit images, for example, the 256 color variations are split evenly between
black and white—so the value 1 is black, the value 256 is white, and the value 128
is a middle gray. But what about colors that are brighter than white? Surely the
whiteness in the middle of a lit lightbulb is brighter than a white piece of paper?
For that reason, colors that are brighter than white are called super-whites. Also,
colors that are darker than black are called sub-blacks (but I can’t think of a real-
world analogy that I can use here short of black holes). Using 8 bits to describe
an image simply doesn’t allow enough room to describe colors beyond black and
white. These colors get clipped and are simply represented as black or white.
However, in 32-bit color, there is plenty of room and these colors become repre-
sentable. As mentioned before, 8-bit color is normally enough to display images
on screen. Furthermore, the computer monitor can still display only white—and
nothing brighter. However, it is still very important to have access to those colors
beyond white, especially when you’re color correcting. When you’re darkening
an image that has both a piece of white paper and a lightbulb in it, you can leave
the lightbulb white, while darkening the paper to a darker gray color, resulting in
an image that mimics real-world behavior and looks good and believable. Doing
the same with a nonfloating image results in the white paper and the lightbulb
appearing the same gray color—which is unconvincing.
 Color Correction   101

■■ Linear: Linear can mean lots of things, but here, in terms of color, I mean linear
color space. A computer monitor doesn’t show an image as the image appears in
reality, because the monitor is not a linear display device. It has a mathematical
curve called gamma that it uses to display images. Different monitors can have
different curves, but most often, they have a gamma curve called sRGB. Because
the monitor is not showing the image as it appears in reality, images need to be
“corrected” for this. This is usually done automatically because most image cap-
ture devices are applying an sRGB curve too, in the opposite direction. Displaying
a middle gray pixel on a monitor shows you only middle gray as it’s being affected
by the gamma curve. Because your scanner, camera, and image processing appli-
cations all know this, they color correct by applying the reverse gamma curve on
this gray pixel that negates the monitor’s effect. This process represents basic
color management. However, if your image’s middle gray value isn’t middle gray
because a gamma curve has been applied to it, it will react differently to color
correction and might produce odd results. Most applications work in this way, and
most people dealing with color have become accustomed to this. This is primarily
because computer graphics is a relatively new industry that relies on computers
that, until recently, were very slow. The correct way to manipulate imagery—in
whatever way—is before the gamma curve has been applied to an image. The
correct way is to take a linear image, color correct it, composite it, transform it,
and then apply a reverse gamma curve to the image to view it correctly (as the
monitor is applying gamma correction as well and negating the correction you
just applied). Luckily, this is how Nuke works by default.

Still confused? Here’s a recap: Nuke creates very accurate representations of color NOTE  Nuke color values
and can store colors that are brighter than white and darker than black. It also calcu- are displayed and cal-
culated in what’s called
lates all the compositing operations in linear color space, resulting in more realistic
normalized values. This
and more mathematically correct results. means that instead of
defining black at a value
Nuke has many color correction nodes, but they are all built out of basic mathematical
of 0 and white at a value
building blocks, which are the same in every software application. The next section of 255, black is still 0, but
looks at those building blocks. white is 1. It’s a very easy
thing to remember that
makes understanding the

Color Manipulation Building Blocks math easier.

Color correction is a somewhat intuitive process. Often compositors just try some-
thing until they get it right. Understanding the math behind color correction can help
you pick the right tool for the job when you’re attempting to reach a specific result—
which is better than trial and error. Table 4.1 explains most of these building blocks.
102  nuke 101

Table 4.1  Basic Color Correction Functions

Math Function Node Explanation Names in Nuke Other Known Names

Add Add, Grade, ColorCorrect Adds a constant value to a Add, Offset
channel.

Multiply Multiply, Grade, Multiplies the channel by a Gain, Multiply Brightness, Contrast,
ColorCorrect constant value. Exposure, Input/
Output White

Gamma Gamma, Grade, Applies a gamma curve to a Gamma

ColorCorrect channel.

Contrast RolloffContrast, Applies a contrast curve to a Contrast,

ColorCorrect channel. This is also a form RolloffContrast
of multiplication.

Lift Grade This function is similar to Lift Pedestal, Input/Output

Multiply and Contrast. It’s a Black
contrast curve with a center
at white. More later in this
chapter.

Lookup ColorLookup Applies a user-defined ColorLookup Curves

curve to a channel.

Saturation Adjusts the color intensity Saturation

by reducing the differences
between the RGB channels.

Dynamic range
When dealing with color correction, I usually talk about dynamic range and its parts.
Dynamic range means all the colors that exist in your image, from the darkest to the
brightest color. The dynamic range changes from image to image, but usually you are
working with an image that has black and white and everything in between. The parts
of the dynamic range, as mentioned, are split according to their brightness value
as follows:

■■ The shadows or lowlights, meaning the darkest colors in the image

■■ The midtones, meaning the colors in the image that are neither dark nor bright

■■ The highlights, meaning the brightest colors

In Nuke, and in other applications that support colors beyond white and black (float),
there are two more potential parts to the dynamic range: the super-whites and the
sub-blacks.

Let’s look at these building blocks in several scenarios to really understand what they
do and why you might choose one over another.

1. Launch Nuke.
 Color Correction   103

2. Bring in a clip called car.png by pressing R and navigating to the chapter04 directory.

3. Click Read1, then press 1 on the keyboard to view it.

It’s an image of a car. Did that catch you by surprise?

4. With Read1 selected, go to the Color toolbox and click Add in the Math folder.

You have now inserted a basic color-correcting node after the car image. Let’s
use it to change the color of the image and see its effect.

5. In Add1’s Properties panel, click the Color Picker button to display the In-panel
Color Picker. Play with the R, G, and B colors to see the changes (Figure 4.1).

Figure 4.1  Using the In-panel

Color Picker

You can see that everything changes when you’re playing with an Add node—the
highlights, midtones, and even blacks (Figure 4.2). An Add operation adds color
to everything uniformly—the whole dynamic range. Every part of the image gets
brighter or darker.
Figure 4.2  The whole
image is becoming
brighter.
104  nuke 101

6. When you’re finished, close the In-panel Color Picker.

7. Select Read1 again and branch out by holding the Shift key and clicking a Multiply
node from the Math folder in the Color toolbox.

8. While Multiply1 is selected, press 1 on the keyboard to view it.

9. In Multiply1’s Properties panel, click the Color Picker button to display the In-
panel Color Picker and experiment with the colors (Figure 4.3).

You can see very different results here. The highlights get a strong boost very
quickly whereas the blacks are virtually untouched.

10. Repeat the previous process for the Gamma node. Remember to branch from
Read1 (Figure 4.4).

You can see that gamma deals mainly with midtones. The bright areas remain
untouched and so do the dark areas.

Figure 4.3  The changes affect the highlights more than the Figure 4.4  The midtones change the most when you’re
rest of the image. changing gamma.

You should now have three different, basic, math-based color correctors in your
Node Graph that produce three very different results, as shown in Figure 4.5.

Figure 4.5  The results from changing Add, Multiply, and Gamma
 Color Correction   105

Your DAG should look a little like Figure 4.6.

Figure 4.6 
Branching three color
correctors from a node

NOTE  I find it really

annoying that they chose
Let’s try some more color correction nodes. to call the Contrast node
RolloffContrast, especially
11. Select Read1 and then Shift-click RolloffContrast in the Color toolbox to create since it makes opening it
another branch. via the Tab key so much
harder because typing
12. While viewing RolloffContrast1, open its Properties panel and play with the “contrast” won’t display
Contrast value (Figure 4.7). this node.

Figure 4.7  A high

contrast value produces
a high contrast image.

You can see how, when you increase the contrast above 1, the lowlights get
pushed down and the highlights are pushed up.
106  nuke 101

13. Keep the Contrast property above 1 and bring the Center value down to 0.

The Center property changes what is considered to be the highlight or lowlight.

Colors above the Center value are considered bright and are pushed up, and
colors below the Center value are considered dark and are pushed down.

Now you can see that the result of the RolloffContrast operation is very similar
to that of the Multiply node. In fact, they are virtually identical. When setting the
center value at 0, you lock that value in place. The value 0 is locked in place when
you’re multiplying as well.

14. Bring the Center value up to 1.

You haven’t gone through an operation called Lift yet, but the RolloffContrast opera-
tion is virtually the same as that operation. With Lift, the value 1 is locked in place, and
the further the values are away from 1, the bigger the effect. You will go through Lift
when you learn about the Grade node later in this chapter.

To wrap up this part of the color introduction, here’s an overall explanation:

■■ When dealing with color, usually you need to control the lowlights, midtones,
and highlights separately.

■■ The Add operation adds the same amount of color to every part of the
dynamic range.

■■ The Multiply operation multiplies the dynamic range by a value. This means
that a perfect black doesn’t change, lowlights are barely touched, midtones are
affected by some degree, and highlights are affected the most. It is good to men-
tion that a Multiply operation is virtually the same as changing the exposure in a
camera or increasing light. It is the most commonly used color operation.

■■ The Gamma control is a specific curve designed to manipulate the part of the
dynamic range between 0 and 1 (black and white, remember?), without touching
0 or 1.

■■ Contrast is actually very similar to a Multiply, but has a center control. If you place
the center point at 0, you get a Multiply node.

Using an I/O Graph to Visualize

Color Operations
Studying an I/O graph (input versus output graph) is a great way to understand color
operations. The X axis represents the color coming in, and the Y axis represents the
color going out. Therefore a perfectly diagonal line represents no color correction. The
graph shows what the color operation is doing and the changes to the dynamic range.
 Color Correction   107

To view an I/O graph like this, you can bring in a premade script I made.

1. Choose File > Import Script to load another script from the disk and merge it with
the script you have been building.

2. In the File Browser that opens, navigate to chapter04 and click IO_graph.nk to
import it into your current script.

Notice that when you imported the script (which is only four nodes), all of its
nodes were selected. This is very convenient as you can immediately move the
newly imported tree to a suitable place in your Node Graph.

3. Make sure the imported tree is not sitting on top of your existing tree. Move it
aside to somewhere suitable, as in Figure 4.8.

Figure 4.8  You now have two trees in your DAG.

4. Make sure you are viewing the output of Expression1.

Here is a quick explanation of the script you imported, node by node:

•• The first node is a Reformat node, which defines the resolution of your
image—in this case, 256×256 pixels. Notice that its input isn’t connected to
anything. This is a good way to set a resolution for your tree.

•• The second node is a Ramp. This can be created from the Draw toolbox. This
node generates ramps—in this case, a black to white horizontal ramp from
edge to edge.

•• The third node is a Backdrop node used to highlight areas in the tree. You can
find it in the toolbox called Other. It indicates where to add your color correc-
tion nodes in the next step.
108  nuke 101

•• The fourth and last node is an Expression node, a very powerful node. It can
be found in the Color > Math toolbox. It lets the user write an expression with
which to draw or manipulate an image. You can do a lot of things with this
node. From simple color operations (such as adding or multiplying, though
this is wasteful) to complex warps or redrawing of different kinds of images
all together. In this case, you use this node to draw on screen values of a
horizontal black to white ramp (you have the ramp from above) as white pixels
in the corresponding height in the image. A gray value of 0.5 in the ramp will
generate a white pixel halfway up the Y resolution in the output of the Expres-
sion node. The leftmost pixel is black in the ramp and shows as a white pixel
at the bottom of your screen. The middle pixel is a value of 0.5 and so it shows
as a white pixel in the middle of the screen. The rightmost pixel has a value of
1 and so it draws a white pixel at the top of the screen. All these white pixels
together form a diagonal line (Figure 4.9). Changing the color of the ramp will
change the line. This happens on each of the three color channels individually.

Figure 4.9  The I/O graph in

its default state

Let’s start using this I/O Graph tree. You will insert a Color node in between
Ramp1 and Expression1 and look at the resulting I/O graph.

5. Insert an Add node from the Color > Math toolbox after Ramp1, as shown in
Figure 4.10.

Figure 4.10  Add2 has been inserted after

Ramp1 and will change your I/O graph.
 Color Correction   109

6. Bring the value of Add2’s value property to around 0.1.

You can see, as in Figure 4.11, that the Add operation changes the whole dynamic
range of your graph and, therefore, for any image.

Figure 4.11  The whole graph is

raised or lowered as a unit.

Let’s replace your Add node with a Multiply node. You’ve never done this before,
so pay attention.

7. With Add2 selected, Ctrl/Cmd-click the Multiply node in the Color > Math toolbox
to replace the selected node with the newly created one.

8. Increase and decrease Multiply2’s value.

9. You can also open the In-panel Color Picker and change the RGB channels indi-
vidually (Figure 4.12).

Figure 4.12  The graph changes more

the further away it is from 0.

The Multiply operation has more effect on the highlights than the lowlights. When
you are moving the slider, you can see that the 0 point stays put, and the further
away you go from 0, the stronger the effect becomes.
110  nuke 101

Let’s try gamma. Maybe you don’t know what a gamma curve looks like. Well,
here’s your chance to learn.

10. Replace Multiply2 with a Gamma node from the Color or Math toolbox by holding
down Ctrl/Cmd and clicking Gamma from the Color > Math toolbox.

11. Load Gamma2’s In-panel Color Picker and play with the sliders for R, G, and B.

You should now get a similar result to Figure 4.13.

Figure 4.13  Notice that only the middle

part of the graph moves.

The Gamma operation changes the midtones without changing the blacks or
whites. You can tell that the points at the furthest left and at the furthest right are
not moving.

Contrast is next.

12. Replace Gamma2 with a RolloffContrast node in the Color toolbox.

13. Bring RolloffContrast2’s contrast value to 1.5.

The contrast operation pushes the two parts of the dynamic range away from one
another (Figure 4.14).

Figure 4.14  A basic contrast curve. Though

it’s not curvy, it’s still called a curve.
 Color Correction   111

14. Play around with RolloffContrast2’s center property. When you are finished, set
the value to 0.

Here you can see what actually happens when you play with the center slider.
It moves the point that defines where the lowlights and highlights are. When
leaving the center at 0, you can see that the curve is identical to a Multiply curve
(Figure 4.15).

Figure 4.15  A center value of 0 makes

Contrast behave like Multiply.

15. Move the Center slider up to 1 (Figure 4.16).

Figure 4.16  Moving the slider up to 1

is actually a Lift operation.

This is a Lift operation, which is covered later in this chapter. Your white point is
locked, while everything else changes—the opposite of Multiply.

RolloffContrast has one other property you can see in the I/O graph. This prop-
erty, called Soft Clip, is the property that gives this node its name. This property
smooths out the edges of the curve so that colors don’t all of a sudden turn to
black or white and result in a harsh transition.
112  nuke 101

16. Move the center slider to 0.5 and start to increase the Soft Clip slider. I stopped
at 0.55.

Figure 4.17 shows what happens when you increase the soft clip. This creates a
much more appealing result, which is unique to this node.

Figure 4.17  This smooth edge to the curve is

what gives RolloffContrast its name.

If you have a fair amount of experience, you must have noticed that the I/O graph
looks a lot like a tool you may have used in the past—something applications such as
Adobe After Effects call Curves. In Nuke, this is called ColorLookup, and it is dis-
cussed in the next section.

Creating Curves with ColorLookup

The ColorLookup node mentioned at the beginning of this lesson is actually an I/O
graph you can control directly. This makes it the operation with the most amount of
control. However, it’s actually the hardest to control and keyframe due to its more
complicated user interface. After all, it’s easier to set a slider and keyframe it than to
move points on a graph.

Let’s try this node on both the image and the I/O graph itself.

1. Replace RolloffContrast2 with a ColorLookup node in the Color toolbox

(Figure 4.18).

The interface for this node has the narrow curves list on the left and the curve
area on the right. Choosing a curve at left displays that curve at right, which
enables you to manipulate it. There are five curves. The first controls all the chan-
nels, and the next four control the R, G, B, and alpha separately. You can have
more than one curve appear in the graph window on the right by Shift-clicking or
Ctrl/Cmd-clicking them in the list.
 Color Correction   113

Figure 4.18  The ColorLookup interface

2. Click the Master curve in the list at left.

In the graph (Figure 4.18) you can now see a curve (a linear one at the moment).
It has two points that define it, one at the bottom left and one at the top right.
Moving them will change the color. For example, moving the top one will create a
Multiply operation.

The ColorLookup’s strength lies in making curves that you can’t create using
regular math functions. However, to do this, you need to create more points.

3. To create more points on the curve, Ctrl/Cmd-Alt/Option-click the curve in the

graph window. It doesn’t matter where on the curve you click.

You’ve just created another point. You can move it around and play with its
handles. If you look at the I/O graph on the Viewer, you can see that it mimics
what you did in the ColorLookup node. They are exactly the same (Figure 4.19).

Figure 4.19  Changing the curve is just

like working with an I/O graph.
114  nuke 101

Now let’s use ColorLookup on the car image.

4. Select Read1 and Shift-click the ColorLookup node in the Color toolbox to branch
another output.

5. Click ColorLookup2 and press the 1 key to view it in the Viewer.

6. Play around with ColorLookup2’s curves. You can play with the separate RGB
curves as well.

I ended up with Figure 4.20 —pretty drastic. But that’s the level of control you have
with ColorLookup. The Reset button at bottom left allows me to reset this mess.
Figure 4.20  Extreme
color correction courtesy
of ColorLookup

Color Matching with the Grade Node

The Grade node is built specifically to make some color correction operations easier.
One of these operations is matching colors from one image to another.

When matching colors, the normal operation is to match black and white points
between the foreground and background (only changing the foreground), then match
the level of the gray midtones, and finally match the midtone hue and saturation.
 Color Correction   115

Using the Grade Node

The Grade node is made out of a few of the building blocks mentioned earlier.
Table 4.2 shows a list of its seven properties.

Table 4.2  Grade Node Properties

Property Definition
Blackpoint This is the reverse operation of Lift. It works in the same way, but a higher
number will result in stronger blacks instead of lighter blacks. Basically, the color
chosen here becomes black.

Whitepoint This is the reverse operation of Multiply. It works in the same way, but higher
numbers will result in lower highlights instead of stronger highlights. Basically,
the color chosen here becomes white.

Lift A Lift operation.

Gain A Multiply operation.

Multiply Another Multiply operation.

Offset An Add operation.

Gamma A Gamma operation.

By using Blackpoint and Whitepoint to set a perfect black and a perfect white, you
can stretch the image to a full dynamic range. When you have a full dynamic range,
then you can easily set the black point and white point to match those of the back-
ground using Lift and Gain. You then have Multiply, Offset, and Gamma to match
midtones and for final tweaking.

Let’s practice color matching, starting with a fresh script.

1. If you want, you can save your script. When you are finished, press Ctrl/Cmd-W to NOTE  If Nuke quits
close the script and leave Nuke open with an empty script. altogether, just start it
again.
2. From your chapter04 folder, bring in two images: CarAlpha.png and IcyRoad.png.

3. Make sure that CarAlpha.png is called Read1 and IcyRoad.png is Read2. You can
change the name of a node in the topmost property.

You will quickly composite these images together and then take your time in color
matching the foreground image to the background.

4. Select Read1 and press the M key to insert a Merge node after it.
116  nuke 101

5. Connect Merge1’s B input to Read2 and view Merge1 in the Viewer (Figure 4.21).

Figure 4.21  The car is

over the dashboard—this is
wrong.

The composite is almost ready. You just need to punch a hole in the foreground
car so it appears to be behind the snow that’s piling up on the windshield. For
that, you’ll bring in another image (you will learn how to creates mattes yourself
in Chapter 6).

6. From your chapter04 folder, bring in Windshield.png and display it in the Viewer.

Here you can see this is a matte of the snow. It is a four-channel image with the
same image in the R, G, B, and alpha. You need to use this image to punch a hole
in your foreground branch. To do this, you need another Merge node.

7. Select Read3 and insert a Merge node after it.

8. Drag Merge2 on the pipe between Read1 and Merge1 until the pipe high-
lights. When it does, release the mouse button to insert Merge2 on that pipe
(Figure 4.22).
Figure 4.22  Inserting a
node on an existing pipe
 Color Correction   117

9. View Merge1 (Figure 4.23).

You can see here that this is not the desired result. You still need to change the
Merge2 operation to something that will cut the B image with the A image. This
operation is called Stencil. Stencil is used often to combine mattes in the same
way we’re using it now. The reverse of this operation, which is just as important, is
called Mask, which masks the B image inside the A image’s alpha channel. Mask
holds image B inside the alpha channel of image A, and Stencil holds image B
outside image A.

10. In Merge2’s Properties panel, choose Stencil from the Operation drop-down
menu (you can see the result in Figure 4.24).

Looking at your comp, you can see that it now works—short of a color difference
between the foreground and background. Let’s use a Grade node to fix this shift.

Figure 4.23  All that white on the dashboard shouldn’t Figure 4.24  The car is now correctly located behind the
be there. dashboard.

11. Select Read1 and press the G key to insert a Grade node after it.

As you know from Chapter 2, you are not allowed to color correct premultiplied
images. It is often hard to tell if an image is premultiplied or not, but in this case it
is. You can also look at the RGB versus the alpha channels and see that the areas
that are black in the alpha are also black in the RGB.

Since you can’t color correct premultiplied images, you have to unpremult them.
You can do this in one of two ways: using an Unpremult node before the color
correction (in this case, Grade1) and then a Premult node after it, or using the
(Un)premult By Switch in your Color nodes. Let’s practice both.
118  nuke 101

12. Bring the Grade1’s Offset property up to around 0.4 (Figure 4.25).

You can see that the whole image, except the dashboard area, turned brighter,
even though you are correcting only the car image. This is due to the lack of
proper premultiplication. Let’s do the two-node method first.

13. Click Read1 and, from the Merge toolbox, add an Unpremult node.

14. Click Grade1 and, from the Merge toolbox, add a Premult node and look at the
Viewer (Figure 4.26).

The problem has been fixed. This is one way to use proper premultiplication. Let’s
look at another.

Figure 4.25  The whole image turned brighter. Figure 4.26  The proper premultiplication fixed the problem.

15. Select Unpremult1 and Premult1, and press the Delete key.

16. In Grade1’s Properties panel, choose rgba.alph from the (Un)premult By menu;
this automatically selects the associated check box (Figure 4.27).
Figure 4.27  Using the
(Un)premult By property
does the same thing as
the Unpremult and Pre-
mult nodes workflow.

The resulting image looks exactly as it did before (in Figure 4.26). This technique
does exactly the same thing as the first method, just without using other nodes.
I usually prefer the first method, as it shows clearly in the DAG that the premulti-
plication issues are handled. However, if you look at Grade1 in the DAG now, you
will see that, although the change is not as noticeable, Grade1 is showing that it is
dividing the RGB channels with the alpha channel. The label now says “rgb/alpha”
(Figure 4.28).
 Color Correction   119

Figure 4.28  The node’s label changes to

show the Unpremult and Premult operations
are happening inside the node.

Let’s use the second method you have set up already. You will now be color cor-
recting an unpremultiplied image but outputting a premultiplied image.

After a little rearranging, the tree should look like the one in Figure 4.29.

Figure 4.29  Your tree should

look like this at this point.

17. Bring the Offset property back to 0.

Using CurveTool and Pixel Analyzer to

match black and white points
Think back to the introduction of this section; how are you going to find the darkest
and lightest points in these two images so you can match them together?

One way, which is valid and happens often, is by using your eyes to gauge which are
the darkest and brightest pixels. However, the computer is so much better at these
kinds of things, and it doesn’t have to contend with light reflections on the screen and
other such distractions.
120  nuke 101

The node to use for this is the CurveTool node, which you used in Chapter 3 to find
the edges of the pilot element. You can also use this node to find out other color-
related stuff about your image. Let’s bring in a CurveTool node to gauge the darkest
and brightest point in the foreground and use that data to stretch the foreground
image to a full dynamic range.

1. Select Read1 and branch out by Shift-clicking a CurveTool node in the Image toolbox.

This time you are going to use the Max Luma Pixel Curve Type. This finds the
brightest and darkest pixels in the image.

2. In CurveTool1’s Properties panel, switch the Curve Type drop-down menu to Max
Luma Pixel.

3. While viewing CurveTool1 in the Viewer, click the Go! button.

4. In the dialog box that opens, click OK since you want to process only one frame.

5. Switch to the MaxLumaData tab and view CurveTool1 in the Viewer (Figure 4.30).
Figure 4.30 
The MaxLumaData tab’s
two sections

The purpose of this operation is to find the darkest and lightest pixels in the
image. When switching to this tab you see two sections, the one showing the
lightest pixel (Maximum) and the darkest pixel (Minimum). For each, the X and Y
location and the RGB values are displayed.

Looking closely, you can see that the value of the minimum pixel is 0 in every
property. This is because this image is a premultiplied image, and as far as Cur-
veTool is concerned, all that black in the image is as much a part of the image as
any other part of it. You need to find a way to disregard that black area. Let’s do
the following.

6. From the Image toolbox, create a Constant node.

A Constant node creates a solid color with a chosen resolution.

7. Change Constant1’s Color value to 0.5.

8. Select Read1 and branch a Merge node from it by pressing Shift-M.

 Color Correction   121

9. Connect Merge3’s B input to Constant1, and then view Merge3 in the Viewer
(Figure 4.31).

Figure 4.31  The car is

on a gray background.

What you did here was replace, momentarily, the black background with a middle
gray background. This way, you get rid of the black and replace it with a color that
is not the darkest nor the lightest in the image. This new image is the image you
want to gauge using the CurveTool. You’ll need to move the pipe coming in to
CurveTool1 (Figure 4.32).

Figure 4.32  Moving the pipe from Read1’s

output to Merge3’s output

10. Click the top half of the pipe going into CurveTool1, which will enable you to move
it to the output of Merge3.

11. Double-click CurveTool1 to display its Properties panel in the Properties Bin.
Switch to the CurveTool tab (the first one), click Go! again, and click OK.
122  nuke 101

12. Switch to the MaxLumaPixel tab again and have a look (Figure 4.33).
Figure 4.33 
The updated
CurveTool1’s
MaxLumaData tab

Now you can see that the minimum values are far from being all 0. You are getting
a true result that shows the lightest and darkest pixels. Let’s make use of them.

13. Close all Properties panels in the Properties Bin to clear some room.

14. Double-click CurveTool1 and then double-click Grade1.

15. View Merge1 in the Viewer.

16. Click the 4 icon next to Grade1’s Blackpoint, Whitepoint, Lift, and Gain to enable
the four fields.

17. Ctrl/Cmd-drag from CurveTool1’s Minimum Luminance Pixel value’s Animation

menu to Grade1’s Blackpoint Animation menu and release the mouse button to
create an Expression link between them.

18. Do the same from Maximum Luminance Pixel value to Whitepoint (Figure 4.34).

Figure 4.34  The green arrow shows the

Expression link between the two nodes.

The foreground image’s dynamic range now spans from a perfect black to a per-
fect white. This enables you to push those colors to new black and white points
to match these points to the background image. You can use another CurveTool
to find those points in the background image, but just for fun, let’s use the Pixel
Analyzer for that this time.

The Pixel Analyzer is a new panel in Nuke 8.0. It helps you analyze the pixel
values in your image.
 Color Correction   123

19. From the Properties Bin’s Content menu, choose “Split Vertical”.

20. From the newly created pane’s Content menu, choose Pixel Analyzer
(Figure 4.35).
Figure 4.35  The Pixel
Analyzer now lives at
the bottom right of the
interface.

This is the aforementioned Pixel Analyzer.

21. While holding Ctrl/Cmd, drag on the screen (Figure 4.36).

Notice this time around that a line of red dots appears on the screen? All those
points accumulate to fill the five color boxes in the Pixel Analyzer with values.

The five boxes represent:

•• Current: the last pixel dragged

•• Min: the lowest or darkest value dragged
•• Max: the highest or brightest value dragged
•• Average: the average pixel value of all pixels dragged
•• Median: out of all values dragged, the middle value Figure 4.36  Dragging
on the screen creates
Clicking any of the boxes shows the values of that color below—RGBA and HSVL this dotted line if the
Pixel Analyzer is open.
(Hue, Saturation, Value, Luminance).

Dragging on the screen is all well and good, but the whole frame is what you
need to know about. There’s a feature for that too.
124  nuke 101

22. View Read2 in the Viewer.

23. From the Mode menu, choose Full Frame.

This option checks every pixel of the frame that’s currently in the Viewer and
returns the corresponding values in the five boxes. This is a really quick way to
find your black point and white point in a given frame.

You now have two sets of data to match to: new black points and white points.
Let’s copy them to your Grade node.

24. Close all Properties panels in the Properties Bin to clear some room.

25. Double-click Grade1.

Because the Pixel Analyzer is a panel and not a node, you can’t link to it, but you
can very easily copy the values across from the Pixel Analyzer to the property
where the values are needed by dragging.

26. Drag from the Pixel Analyzer’s Min box to Grade1’s Lift Color swatch to copy the
values across (Figure 4.37).
Figure 4.37  Dragging
from the Pixel Analyzer
 Color Correction   125

27. Do the same from the Max box to the Gain Color swatch.

28. You don’t need the Pixel Analyzer anymore, so from its Content menu choose
Close Pane.

29. View Merge1 in the Viewer.

You have now matched the foreground’s shadows and highlights to those of the
background (Figure 4.38).

Figure 4.38  Shadows and

highlights now match.

As you can see from the image, the shadows and highlights are matched, but the
image is far from looking matched. The midtones, in this case, make a lot of difference.

Matching midtones by eye

You now need to match the midtones, which is a much more difficult task. You’ll start
by matching its luma level by eye. Because it is hard to tell what the midtones are,
though, you are going to view the luminance of the image in the Viewer.

1. Hover your mouse pointer in the Viewer and press the Y key to view the luminance.

To change the midtones now, use the Gamma property. You can see that the
whitish snow on the right is a darker gray than the whitish car. Let’s bring down
the whitish car to that level.

2. Start dragging the Gamma slider down. I stopped at around 0.6.

Notice that the midtones don’t match well with a higher Gamma value. Now,
however, the lower midtones aren’t matching well. You need to use the Multiply
property to produce a good match.
126  nuke 101

3. Bring the Gamma slider up to 0.85 and bring the Multiply slider down a bit to 0.9
(Figure 4.39).

4. Hover your mouse pointer in the Viewer and press the Y key to view the RGB
channels (Figure 4.40).

OK, so the midtones’ brightness is better now, but you need to change the color
of the car’s midtones. At the moment, the car is too warm for this winter’s day.
Matching color is a lot more difficult because you always have three options:
red, green, and blue. Matching gray is a lot easier because you need to decide
only whether to brighten or darken it. However, as each color image is made out
of three gray channels, you can use the individual channels to match color too.
Here’s how.

Figure 4.39  The midtones match better now. Figure 4.40  You still have work to do on the color of the
midtones.

5. Hover your mouse pointer in the Viewer and press the R key to view the red chan-
nel (Figure 4.41).

Figure 4.41  Viewing the

red channel
 Color Correction   127

Now you are looking only at levels of gray. If you change the red sliders, you will
get a better color match while still looking only at gray.

6. Display the In-panel Color Picker for the Gamma property by clicking the Color
Picker button.

You also want to change the Multiply and Offset values to achieve a perfect
result. This is because, even though you matched the black point and white point,
the distance of the car from the camera means the black point will be higher and
the white point lower. At the end of the day, it will look right only when it does
match, math aside.

Let’s display those extra color wheels.

7. Click the Color Picker button for the Multiply and Offset properties. Your screen
should look like Figure 4.42.

Figure 4.42  Opening three

color wheels to easily control
three properties

8. Since you are looking at the red channel in the Viewer, change the red sliders for
Gamma, Multiply, and Offset until you are happy with the result; little changes go
a long way. I left mine at Gamma: 0.8, Multiply: 0.82, and Offset: 0.02.

9. Display the green channel in the Viewer, and then move the green sliders to
change the level of green in your image. My settings are Gamma: 0.85, Multiply:
0.89, and Offset: 0.025.
128  nuke 101

10. Do the same for the blue channel. My settings are Gamma: 1.05, Multiply: 1, and
Offset: 0.065.

11. Switch back to viewing the RGB channels (Figure 4.43).

This is as far as I will take this comp. Of course, you can use your already somewhat-
developed skills to make this a better comp, but I’ll leave that to you.

Save your script if you wish, and we will move on.

Figure 4.43  Not a bad
result at the end of it all.

Achieving a “Look” with the

ColorCorrect Node
Giving an image a “look” is a very different practice than matching color. While
matching color has a very specific purpose and methodology, giving an image a look
refers to an artistic practice that gives an image a different feel to how it was shot.
For example, you might want it to look brighter, warmer, or colder, depending on the
feeling you want to create.

Using the ColorCorrect node

The ColorCorrect node is a very good tool to use for this, as it has a lot of control over
the different parts of the image—even more control than the Grade node. But as with
everything else, it is still made out of the basic mathematical building blocks covered
in the beginning of this chapter.
 Color Correction   129

Let’s bring in an image and give it a look.

1. Press Ctrl/Cmd-W to close the color matching script and start a new one.

2. Press the R key and bring in, from the chapter04 folder, the car.png image again.

3. While the newly imported Read1 node is selected, press the C key to create a
ColorCorrect node. You can also find the ColorCorrect node in the Color toolbox.

4. View ColorCorrect1 in the Viewer (Figure 4.44).

Figure 4.44 
The ColorCorrect node’s
Properties panel

As you can see in ColorCorrect1’s Properties panel, the ColorCorrect node

includes controls for Saturation, Contrast, Gamma, Gain (Multiply), and Offset
(Add). These properties are available over either the whole dynamic range—
called Master—or parts of the dynamic range called shadows, midtones, and
highlights. Having individual control over the different areas of the dynamic range
makes creating a look somewhat easier.

This idea of midtones, highlights, and shadows changes from image to image.
An image of a dark room will have no whites, but in that darkness, you can still
pick out the brighter areas that are the image’s highlights, the slightly lighter
blacks that are the midtones, and the darkest colors that are the shadows. You
can also define these in the ColorCorrect node’s Ranges tab.
130  nuke 101

5. Click the Ranges tab in ColorCorrect1’s Properties panel.

In this tab (it’s similar to ColorLookup, isn’t it?) you have three graphs, all selected.
One represents the shadows, another the midtones, and a third the highlights
(Figure 4.45).
Figure 4.45  ColorCor-
rect’s Ranges is a lookup
curve that defines the
brightness ranges.

6. Click the Test check box at the top of the graph (Figure 4.46).
Figure 4.46  The test
shows the parts of the
dynamic range in the
Viewer.
 Color Correction   131

This shows a representation in the Viewer of what parts of the image are shadow,
midtone, and highlight. Highlights are represented by white, midtones as gray,
and shadows as black. Green and magenta represent areas that are a mix of
two ranges.

7. Click the Test button at the top of the graph again to turn it off.

The ranges are fine for this image, so we won’t change anything and will
continue working.

8. Switch back to the ColorCorrect tab.

You will now give this image a dreamy, car commercial look—all soft pseudo
blues and bright highlights. If you don’t define the look you are after in the begin-
ning, you can lose yourself very quickly.

Before changing the color of this image, I’ll show you my preferred interface setup
for color correcting.

9. In ColorCorrect1’s Property panel, click the Float Controls button. This will float
the Properties panel instead of docking it in the Properties Bin (Figure 4.47).

Figure 4.47  Click the Float

Controls button to float the
Properties panel.

10. Hover your mouse pointer in the Viewer and press the spacebar to maximize the
Viewer to the size of the whole interface (Figure 4.48).

Figure 4.48  This is a good way to set the interface for color correction.
132  nuke 101

Since the Properties panel is floating, it is still there. This way, you can look at the
image at its maximum size without wasting space on things like the DAG, yet you
are still able to manipulate the ColorCorrect node.

What I am aiming for is something like that in Figure 4.49. You can try to reach
this look yourself, or you can follow my steps.
Figure 4.49  This is the
image look I am refer-
ring to.

11. Let’s start by desaturating the whole image a little, so in the Master set of proper-
ties, set the Saturation property to 0.5.

Now for the shadows. I would like to color the shadows a little bluer than normal.

Remember, in addition to the In-panel Color Picker, you can also use the Floating
Color Picker. To use this, Ctrl/Cmd-click the the Color Picker button. The benefit
of using the Floating Color Picker is that all sliders also have Input fields, so you
can type things up numerically.
Figure 4.50  The Float-
ing Color Picker 12. Ctrl/Cmd-click the Color Picker button for shadows.gamma (Figure 4.50).

13. From the Hue slider, choose a blue hue. I selected 0.6. Now change the Satura-
tion for the shadows.gamma color. I set it to 0.31. Finally, adjust the brightness, or
Value slider in the Floating Color Picker. I have it at 1.22 (Figure 4.51).

Figure 4.51  Setting the shadow’s Gamma

properties using the Floating Color Picker
 Color Correction   133

This results in RGB values of 0.8418, 0.993, and 1.22, respectively. It gives the
image a nice-looking blue shadow tint. Notice that there are actually no hue and
saturation sliders in the real Properties. The hue and saturation sliders in the
Floating Color Picker are there only so it will be easier to set the RGB sliders.

14. Close this Floating Color Picker.

15. You have a lot more work in the midtones. First, set the Saturation to 0 so that the
midtones are tinted black and white.

16. To create a flatter palette to work on, set the Contrast for midtones at 0.9.

17. To darken the midtones, set the Gamma to 0.69.

18. Use the Gain property to tint the midtones by Ctrl/Cmd-clicking the Color Picker
button for Midtones/Gain.

19. In the Floating Color Picker that opens, click the TMI button at the top to enable
the TMI sliders (Figure 4.52).

Figure 4.52  Turning on

the TMI sliders

If you need to make the Floating Color Picker bigger, drag the bottom-right corner
of the panel.

20. Now, for a cooler looking shot, drag the T (temperature) slider up toward the
blues. I stopped at 0.72.

21. To correct the hue of the blue, use the M (magenta) slider to make this blue either
have more magenta or more green. I went toward the green and left it at –0.11.

22. Close the Floating Color Picker (Figure 4.53).

Figure 4.53  The values are

always in RGB.
134  nuke 101

As always, only the RGB values affect the image. You just used TMI sliders to set
the RGB values in an easier way.

23. You now increase the highlights a little, so let’s start by setting the Contrast to 1.5.

24. To color correct the highlights, first click the 4 icon to enable the individual Gain
input fields.

25. Click in the right side of Gain’s first input field (for the red channel) and use the up
and down arrow keys on your keyboard to change the red value. I left it on 0.75
(Figure 4.54).

Figure 4.54  The arrow keys

make it is easy to nudge values
in input fields.

26. Leave the next field (green) where it is, but use the arrow keys in the blue field to
increase blue. Because I want everything to be a little bluer, I left mine at 1.5.

The first stage of the color correction is finished. Let’s bring back the rest of the
interface.

27. Close the ColorCorrect1 Property panel (Figure 4.55).

Figure 4.55  This is

how to close a float-
ing Properties panel.

28. Press the spacebar to bring back all your panes.

Using the mask input to color correct a portion of the image

Let’s say that a commercial’s director asks for the wheels to pop out of the image and
have high contrast. To do this secondary color correction, first you need to define an
area to apply the color correction to, then you need to use another color node and
use this area in its mask input.

You haven’t learned to create complex mattes yet, but in this case, you really need
only two radial mattes. You can create those easily using the Radial node in the
Draw toolbox.
 Color Correction   135

First, to brighten up the wheels, use the Grade node.

1. Select ColorCorrect1 and insert a Grade node after it.

If you use the Grade node as it is, the whole image gets brighter. You’ll need to
use Grade1’s mask input to define the area in which to work.

2. With nothing selected, create a Radial node from the Draw toolbox (Figure 4.56).

Figure 4.56  Creating an unattached

Radial node

3. View Radial1.

It creates a radial, see? I told you. By moving the edges of the radial box, you can
change its shape and location.

4. View Grade1.

5. Drag Radial1’s edges until it encompasses the back wheel (Figure 4.57).

Figure 4.57  Radial1 encompasses

the back wheel.

You’ll need another Radial node to define the second wheel. (You can add as
many Radial nodes as you need. Everything in Nuke is a node, remember?)

6. With Radial1 selected, insert another Radial node after it.

136  nuke 101

7. Adjust Radial2 to engulf the front wheel (Figure 4.58).

Figure 4.58  Using Radial

nodes to create masks for
color correction

8. To make use of the radials, take the mask input for Grade1 and attach it to the
output of Radial2, as in Figure 4.59.

Figure 4.59  Attaching the mask

input to the mask image

This means whatever you now do in Grade1 affects only where the radial’s branch
is white.

9. Increase the whites by bringing the Whitepoint property for Grade1 down to
around 0.51.

10. Some of the deep blacks have become a little too gray, so decrease the Black-
point property a bit. I left mine at 0.022.

At this point, the grading is finished. Mask inputs can be very important in color cor-
rection because a lot of times you want to color correct only an area of the image. But
remember not to confuse mask inputs with mattes or alpha channels. The use of the
mask input is solely to limit an effect—not to composite one image over another or to
copy an alpha channel across.
Index
Numbers beauty pass Camera Tracking, explained, 138
building, 73 CameraTracker node
2D images, viewing as 3D objects,
changing look of, 62 availability, 286
266–271
connecting Merge node, 73–77 features, 288–291
2D tracking, 139–144. See also
described, 65 loading pre-generated, 298
Tracker node
spitting tree, 77–83 Mask input, 290
3D engine, 264–266
transparent A input, 76 properties, 290
3D node trees, 271–276
working down pipe, 73–77 Settings tab, 288
3D objects. See also objects
Bézier hot keys, 167 using, 286–287
converting to 2D pixels,
black and white points, color Card node, creating, 307–308
277–280
matching, 119–125 CGI (Computer Generated Imagery)
creating, 266–268
bounding box, using, 67–68 explained, 61
moving in space, 274–276
buttons, creating with Python, over live background, 85
moving in time, 276
377–378 Channel buttons, identifying, 64
3D render, bringing in, 63. See
channel sets
also rendering
Col, 65, 81
3D scenes C depth, 65
2D compositing in, 334–341 Cache menu, described, 4 explained, 62
camera element, 260, 268–271 camera, animating, 324–327 GI, 65
geometry element, 260 camera element ID1-ID5, 65
importing Photoshop layers, described, 260 Lgt, 65, 81
335–339 using, 268–271 Mv, 65
ScanlineRender node, 260 camera projection Nrm, 65
scene element, 260 3D view, accessing, 324–327 Ref, 65
setting up, 261–262 Alembic import dialog, 317–318 RGBA, 62, 65
3D toolbox, described, 7 aligning clone brush, 328 Spc, 65
3D tracking, explained, 138. building scenes, 316–323 SSS, 65
See also Camera Tracker camera location, 320 viewing channels for, 64
3D view, accessing, 262 cloning nodes, 331–333 viewing with Viewer, 63–65
3D world, navigating, 263–264 connecting setup to Channel toolbox, described, 7
8-bit color, explained, 100 geometry, 321 channels, defined, 62
32-bit color, explained, 101 creating 720p format, 317 clips, playing, 15–16
720p format, creating, 317 output of Viewer Capture, 326 Clone brush
Project3D node in tree, 321 aligning, 328
A ReadGeo nodes, 318 using with RotoPaint, 180–182
rendering scene, 342 cloning nodes, 331–333
Add math function, explained, 102
SphericalTransform for sky, Cmd versus Ctrl key, 6
alpha channel, viewing, 25
329–331 Col channel set, 65
animating shapes, 169–170
texture for building, 322 Col pass, adding, 81
animation. See also keyframes;
transformed sphere, 330 color
rendering
tweaking texture, 327–329 8-bit, 100
combining RotoPaint node
working setup, 323 32-bit, 100
with, 184–190
Camera Tracker. See also 3D dynamic range, 102–106
comparing images, 58–60
tracking; reflection float, 100
Animation menu, using, 41–42
aligning scenes, 299–302 normalized values, 101
autosaves, timing, 28
connecting Viewer, 300–301 color correcting
auxiliary passes, motion vector
Create stage, 287, 297–298 images, 36
pass, 94–95. See also passes
creating scenes, 297–298 portions of images, 134–136
selecting points, 301 color correction
B Solve stage, 287, 292–297 explained, 99
background image example, 72. Track stage, 287 functions, 102
See also foreground image using, 287–291 setting interface for, 131
384  nuke 101

color matching Dope Sheet panel converting to groups, 373

black and white points, 119–125 described, 3 copying, 372
practicing, 115 using with RotoPaint node, creating Radial nodes, 353–355
color operations, studying I/O 190–195 defined, 344
graphs, 106–112 Dots NoOp node, 347
Color Picker, 39–41 using in splitting trees, 77–83 shape creation tools, 344–345
color render pass, 65 using to organize nodes, 79 Switch node for branches,
Color toolbox, described, 7 using to organize trees, 96 355–359
color wheels, opening, 127 downloading Nuke, x testing, 371–373
ColorCorrect node, using, 128–134 Draw toolbox, described, 7 turning groups into, 370–373
ColorLookup, crating curves with, dust removal, 182–184 User Knobs, 347–353
112–114 dynamic range, 102–106 wrapping in groups, 359–368
colors, sampling, 39, 87 global illumination render pass, 65
composites. See also process Grade node
trees; rendering E using, 115–119
starting, 18 Edit menu, described, 4 using for color correction, 36
viewing without rendering, 52 Environment light source, using, Group nodes, 360–367
compositing, defined, 23 308–312 Group Output panel, 359–368
compression, changing for Eraser tool, using with RotoPaint groups, using with Gizmos,
rendering, 45 node, 182 370–373
ContactSheet node, 65–66 Error Console panel, described, 4 GUI (graphic user interface), 2–6
Content menu, 3–6 expressions, linking properties
contextual menus, using, 6 with, 69–71
Contrast math function, EXR file format, 62 H
explained, 102 Help menu, described, 4
cross-platform, explained, 6 hi-res stereo script. See also
Ctrl versus Cmd key, 6
F scripts
Curve Editor File Browser nodes as text, 243–244
accessing, 171 selecting files in, 20–21 proxies, 238–242
loading curves onto, 41 using, 9–11 setting formats, 232–233
locating, 2–3 File menu, described, 4 setting up, 230–232
navigating, 173 file sequences, naming, 43–46 stereo views, 236–238
panel, 3 Filter toolbox, described, 7 using LUTs, 234–236
using, 171–174 Flare node, using, 142–144 hot keys
using with animations, 54–55 float color, explained, 101 adding with Python, 378–379
curve interpolation, 172 floating Properties panel, Bézier points, 167
Curve tool, using, 119–122 closing, 134 color sampling, 87
curves flows. See process trees keyframe selection, 171
creating points on, 173 foreground image, repositioning, 29 Merge node, 23
creating with ColorLookup, foreground over background, 71–73 for playing in Viewer, 16
112–114 fps field, displaying in Viewer, 16 saving scripts, 63
frames, advancing, 54 using, 6
Furnace Core toolbox, described, 7 Viewer navigation, 13
D HueCorrect, spill suppressing
DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph). See with, 219–224
G
Node Graph HueKeyer, 199–204
gamma, explained, 101
depth / z render pass, 65
Gamma math function,
depth channel set, 65
depth of field, adding, 95–98 explained, 102 I
Gamma property’s knob, IBK (Image Based Keyer), 199–
depth pass, using, 95–98
example, 39 200, 204–210
display resolution, scaling
garbage matte, creating, 216 icons, creating and adding,
down, 239
GI channel set, 65 380–382
Dope Sheet
Gizmos ID passes render pass, 65
locating, 2–3
All Plugins submenu, 371 ID1-ID5 channel set, 65
timing of elements, 251
building trees, 345–347
 index  385

Image toolbox, described, 7 Layout menu, described, 4 N

images layouts
New Viewer panel, described, 4
color correcting, 36 restoring, 6
Node Graph
comparing, 58–60 saving, 5
locating, 2–3
compositing, 23 Lgt channel set, 65
panel, 3
controlling premultiplication, 26 Lgt pass, adding, 81
snapping elements in, 79
displaying resolution for, 22 Lift math function, explained, 102
nodes
finding darkest pixels in, 120 light render pass, 65
arranging, 33
finding lightest pixels in, 120 light source, Environment,
branching, 30–31
merging, 23–29 308–312
cloning, 331–333
merging premultiplied, 25–26 linear color, explained, 101
connecting, 23, 32
previewing before importing, 10 Lookup math function,
connecting to Viewer inputs,
X and Y resolution, 62 explained, 102
14–15
installing Nuke, ix–x LUTs (lookup tables), using,
ContactSheet, 65
I/O graphs, studying, 106–112 234–236
creating, 7–8, 30–31
LZW compression, using, 45
deleting, 33–34
K deselecting, 32–33
keyboard shortcuts. See hot keys M disabling, 28, 33–34
Keyer nodes Mask input downstream, 18
creating garbage matte, 216 external image, 89–91 File Browser, 9–11
dilates, 217–219 using, 89 Flare, 142–144
Erode tools, 217–219 using for color correction, Grade, 115–119
explained, 200 134–136 indicators on, 55–56
spill suppressing, 219–224 masking down pipe, 91–94 input, 6
Keyer toolbox, described, 7 matte, reading as image, 46–50 inserting, 29–31
keyframe track, starting, 151 MaxLumaData tab, sections of, 120 inserting into pipes, 49
keyframes. See also animation menu bar, options, 4 Keymix, 186–187
creating, 41 menu.py file, using, 379–382 masking input, 6
identifying, 54 Merge node naming, 6, 8
markings in Timebar, 54 alpha channel, 25–26 organizing with Dots, 79
selecting, 171 connecting for beauty pass, output, 6
Set Key option, 53 73–77 pasting from text, 244
user-generated for tracking, creating, 23, 48 Read, 8–9
148–152 do’s and don’ts, 26 replacing, 30–31
using in animation, 52–60 foreground image, 25 representing, 6
keying nodes, 199–200 inserting node into pipe, 49 resetting properties for, 35
keying terminology matte image, 47 selecting, 32–33
chroma, 198 Operation drop-down menu, 49 Shuffle, 50–51
color difference, 198 RGB channel, 25–26 ShuffleCopy, 84–85
different, 198 using with RotoPaint node, 178 as text trick, 243–244
luma, 198 viewing red channel, 47 Tracker, 139–142
Keylight node Merge toolbox, described, 7 upstream, 18
described, 200 merging images, 23–29 Write, 42–43
explained, 200 Metadata toolbox, described, 7 Nodes Toolbar panel
using, 210–215 midtones, matching by eye, described, 3
Keymix node, compositing with, 125–128 identifying, 2
186–187 modifier keys. See hot keys toolboxes in, 7
knobs, using, 38–39 motion blur normals render pass, 65
Kronos node, availability of, 248 adding, 94–95 Nrm channel set, 65
enabling for RotoPaint node, 179 Nuke
motion vector render pass, 65 downloading, x
L Multiply math function, getting trial license, x
LayerContactSheet, using, 66 explained, 102 installing, ix–x
layers. See channel sets Mv channel set, 65 media files, xi
technical requirements, x–xi
386  nuke 101

.nuke directory, locating, 371 RGBA channel, 78 reflection. See also Camera
NukeX, features of, 286 splitting, 77–83 Tracker
unpicking through, 224 cutting to size, 312–314
unpremultiplying passes, 78 environment light, 308–312
O processing, speeding up, 67–68 loading script for, 303
objects. See also 3D objects Progress Bars panel, 4–6 ScanlineRender nodes,
applying materials to, 281–284 Project Settings panel 304–306
connecting to scenes, 281 Frame Range, 250 reflection movement, calculating,
OFlow node, using, 248–251 LUTs (lookup tables), 227–229 286–287
OpenEXR file format, 62 nonlinear images, 227–229 reflection render pass, 65
Other toolbox, described, 7 Root tab, 226 reflective surface, creating,
Views tab, 230 307–308
properties Render menu, described, 4
P adjusting, 38–39 render passes, 65
panel name, locating, 3 linking with expressions, 69–71 rendering. See also 3D render;
panels, identifying, 3–4 resetting for nodes, 35–36 animation; composites
panes, splitting interface into, 3 Properties Bin changing compression, 45
panes and panels, identifying, 2 clearing, 38 and comparing versions, 57
panorama image, 305, 310–311 displaying floating, 38 moving images, 43–46
particle system, importing, identifying, 2 naming file sequences, 43–46
271–274 locking, 38 process trees, 42–43
Particles toolbox, described, 7 Node Help button, 38 stereo trees, 255–258
passes, manipulating, 86–88. See panel, 3 using Write node, 42–43
also auxiliary passes panels and buttons, 37 resolution
perspective movement, undo/redo functionality, 38 defining, 232–233
tracking, 145 Properties panel displaying for images, 22
Photoshop layers, importing, loading, 34 scaling down, 239
335–339 loading into Properties Bin, 38 Retime node, using, 249
pipes removing from Properties RGB sliders, using, 40
defined, 11 Bin, 38 RGBA channel set, 62, 65
inserting nodes into, 49 proxies RolloffContrast, using, 105
Pixel Analyzer panel creating, 245–248 RotoPaint node
described, 3 using, 238–242 animating shapes, 169–170
using, 122–125 Python Bézier hot keys, 167
playing clips, 15–16 adding hot keys, 378–379 Clone brush, 180–182
PositionToPoints node, using, creating buttons with, 377–378 combining with animation,
281–282 creating toolboxes, 377–378 184–190
premultiplication customization setup, 375–376 creating moving matte, 177–179
controlling, 26–27 menu.py file, 379–382 deleting strokes, 166
restriction for color correction, retaining customizations, Dope Sheet panel, 190–195
26, 36 379–382 drawing shapes, 166–169
Primatte node, explained, 200 dust removal, 182–184
process trees. See also editing shapes, 166–169
composites; stereo trees R editing strokes, 164
controlling timing in, 190–195 Radial nodes enabling motion blur, 179
creating, 19–22 creating, 135, 353–355 Eraser tool, 182
Dots, 77 for masks and color erasing strokes, 166
end of beauty pass build, 83 correction, 136 hiding shapes, 178
example, 18–19 raytracing, defined, 308 inserting, 327
explained, 18 Read nodes Keymix node, 186–187
keeping organized, 33 changing Write node to, 46 Merge node, 178
node anatomy, 20 creating, 8–9 painting in vectors, 164–165
organizing, 53, 91 using, 20–22 painting strokes, 162–163
picking passes, 80 Ref channel set, 65 Reveal brush, 183
 index  387

sample script, 174–177 stereo project, 248–255 tracking points, listing in

Selection tool, 161 stereo trees, 255–258. See also Properties panel, 147
Source Time Offset field, 183 process trees tracks
stroke-drawing tools, 162 stereo-view proxies, creating, improving, 152
Stroke/Shape List window, 245–248 stopping, 148
187–190 strokes Transform node, 29–30
Tool Settings, 160–161 deleting, 166 Transform toolbox, described, 7
Toolbar, 160–161 editing, 164 transformation controls,
erasing, 166 explained, 35
painting, 162–163 trees. See process trees
S Switch node, using to choose
Saturation math function, branches, 355–359
explained, 102 U
ScanlineRender nodes UI (user interface), 2–6
cloning, 332–333 T Ultimatte node, explained, 200
Reformat node, 306 TCL scripting language, using, undo/redo functionality,
using for reflection, 304–306, 78, 80 availability, 38
309–310 text editors (Un)premult By property, using, 118
Scope panel, described, 3 manipulating scripts in, user interface, 2–6
Script Editor panel 368–370 User Knobs, creating for Gizmos,
buttons, 376 using with Radial nodes, 347–353
described, 4 353–355
scripts. See also hi-res stereo text fields, use of TCL, 78
script texture. See camera projection V
learning from, 224 Time toolbox vectors, painting in, 164–165
manipulating in text editors, described, 7 Viewer
368–370 using, 248–251 components, 12
saving, 28–29, 63 timing, controlling in trees, connecting nodes to, 11–12
settings. See Project Settings 190–195 fps field, 16
panel TMI sliders identifying, 2
shadows, setting Gamma locating, 40 inputs, 14–15
properties, 132 using, 133 menu, 4
shape creation tools, 344–345 toolboxes navigating, 13
shapes creating with Python, 377–378 playing clips, 15–16
animating, 169–170 in Nodes Toolbar, 7 process tree and pipes, 11
drawing, 166–169 tools, saving groups of, 264–266 RAM cached frames, 16
editing, 166–169 ToolSets toolbox, using, 7, 264–266 using, 13–14
hiding in RotoPaint node, 178 Tracker node, 138–141. See also Views toolbox, described, 7
Shuffle node, using, 50–51, 84–85 2D tracking
SideBySide node, using with trackers, selecting, 150 W
stereo trees, 258 tracking
world position pass, using with 3D
sky texture adding keyframe boxes, 150
objects, 266–268
adding, 329–331 adjusting source pins, 154–158
Write node, 42–43 46
color correcting, 333–334 clear buttons, 148
slap comp explained, 137
example, 73 four points, 145, 147
explained, 72 improving, 148–152
sliders, adjusting, 38–39 perspective movement, 145
source pins, adjusting, 154–158 pictures in frames, 146–148
Spc channel set, 65 replacing picture, 152–154
specular render pass, 65 rotational value, 145
sphere, transforming, 330 scaling, 145
SplitAndJoin node, using, 254 typing expressions, 155
SSS channel set, 65 using Traffic Lights button, 149