Week 1 – Intro to Nuke:

What was covered in the lecture:
The Basics:
3 ways to bring a node:
-Hit Tab while the curser is on the node graph.
-Right click
– From the menu on the left side
Colour Spacing:
Use DPX file because there’s more colour information in it rather than JPG – DPX was shot in LOG

Shortcuts:
– F to frame the viewer
– Assign numbers to nodes by choosing a node and then press choose a number. This is how you connect it to the viewer.

– T for transform (while choosing a node)
– D to disable a node
– S project settings
For every node there’s a properties on the left side

A over B:

How to save on nuke:
Press X, choose a location, make sure the file type it .nk
OR
file -> save comp as
How to Relink files:
Press S while the cursor is located on the properties – > project directory -> file icon -> choose your file -> click open

Useful Nodes:
– Merge – the most useful node
– Transform
– Grade
– Blur

The Workshop Activity:
Merge node – Shortcut is M:
The operation under the merge properties is like blending mode on Adobe

A pipe should be the foreground and the B pipe should be the background.
Whenever we want to add a new element into the composition we should connect it to the A pipe

The Fish Composite:
Final Comp:

Nodes:

Nodes:

Week 2 – Roto

What was covered in the lecture:
The history of Rotoscope:
Rotoscoping is an animation technique invented by Max Fleischer in 1915. In this process, animators trace over live-action footage to make characters move more realistically. Fleischer used it in his early cartoons, like Betty Boop. A well-known example of rotoscoping is in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), where animators traced live-action actors to create the lifelike movements of Snow White, making the animation look more realistic. This technique helped improve the quality of early animations.

Folder Structure:
In Nuke, everything we save is a script, so it’s important to version up the script instead of naming it “final.” For example, name it “balls_v001_01” to keep track of different versions.
e_mt_ – element matte

For movies, the standard frame rate is 24 fps, while UK TV content typically uses 25 fps.

Rotoscope in Nuke – The Basics:
To add a video into nuke:
Drag the Raw folder into nuke
or hit r (- read node) and navigate to the same folder

Hit s when the curser is on the properties section.
We will change the project directory to be able to move the project from machine to machine:
Under project settings navigate to the top folder of the project

Then under “Read” section under properties, delete the path up until the top folder

o – roto node
k – copy node – brings down all the colour information from the sequence
q – turn on and off the overlay node
B pipe is the main stream
CMD + left or right to jump between keyframes

Connect the nodes like so:

Double click Roto node to get more settings

Roto options:

Click a to see the alpha channel. Click m to see the shade of the roto. Right click on one of the points.

Add a Blur node like so and adjust the size of it.

Delete a keyframe of the Roto

The Workshop Activity:
Roto a building out
Premult node is cutting the roto out of the background.
Roto the first building:
To change the background colour:

To grade out the building:
Add a grade node. choose the multiply colour wheel and change the color.

Connect the nodes like so:

Create two different grades for the buildins:
Create one more Roto, create a different grade, blur node and copy node.
Then create a merge node and link everything like so:

Change the merge operation to Matte

Week 3 – Advanced Roto

What was covered in the lecture:
Roto Technique:

Different Merge Types:
Over Merge, Stencil Merge, etc….

The Workshop Activity:
Roto a hand:
Create a roto node (o), a copy node (k) and connect them like so:

Roto the Thumb and the index finger. Change the colour of the index finger to green

Create a roto to mask an object:
Create two different roto nodes. One for Tim and one for the object he walks behind it..

Change the second merge settings to “Stencil”. Add a Premult node.

To make the second roto invisible add Multiply node.

Add a keyframe after Tim passes the object and set the value to one. Create one more keyframe a frame after and change the value to 0. Whenever he’ll walk again in front of the object it won’t seem like he’s still behind it.

Rotoing Tim:

Week 4 – Basic Keying

What was covered in the lecture:
Premult:
The process of cutting out.
– Images often include a transparency layer (alpha channel).
– But importantly this transparency layer is not automatically applied
– To execute the transparency Nuke needs the ‘Premult’ node.
– The Premult node multiplies the RGB layers by the alpha layer. With the result that transparency becomes visible in the viewer.

Keying:
Keying is a term for selecting parts of an image to remove.
Removing the background in automated way.
Usually using sing green/blue screen

Luma Key:
– A luma (luminance ) key is a term for removing parts of an image using the brightness as a method of selection.

Chroma (colour) Key:
When brightness is fairly consistent colour can be used.
These are called chroma keys

purity or intensity of colour.
They can be any colour, but blue or green are usually used.
Human skin does not naturally have any green
The colour can be selected using the chroma node Keylight in Nuke

Different Keying Techniques in Nuke
1. Ultimatte:
Type: Colour difference keyer
Strengths: Smoke and shadows, clean plate input, built-in colour correction
Best Suited For: Scenarios where a clean plate is available, as it provides a high-quality composite
Advantages: Ideal for fine tuning backgrounds with shadows and transparent smoke effects. The only keyer with a direct clean plate input option and built in colour correction

2. IBK Keyer:
Type: Image based keyer
Strengths: Handles complex backdrops with varying colours and panels
Best Suited For: Situations with unevenly coloured backgrounds or multiple coloured elements
Advantages: Allows compositors to build a clean plate using the IBK Colour node. Very good at challenging keying situations with complex backgrounds

3. Keylight Keyer:
Type: Colour difference keyer
Strengths: Excellent detail in edges, especially fine hair detail
Best Suited For: Uniform green screen backgrounds
Advantages: Provides high-quality edge detail, essential for intricate edges like hair. However, it may require additional steps to correct the core matte

4. Primatte:
Type: Three-dimensional chroma keyer
Strengths: Can handle uneven or off color backgrounds, such as non standard colours
Best Suited For: Backgrounds with variable lighting or non traditional keying colours
Advantages: It is flexible to off-color backdrops because it does not require a specific background colour (red, green, or blue). Its adjustments don’t affect matte edges, ensuring a clean key

The Workshop Activity:
Luma Key Exercise:
Y = showing the luminance of the scene
Add Keyer node beacuse we wanted to catch the brighter colour of the scene (sky). Click A to make the alpha channel visable.
Adjust the keyer like so and invert:

Add a roto node and link it like so. It will help us whiten up the grey part of the land

To remove the white part on the sky on the top right corner we will create a garbage roto node.

To add the other sky picture to this compositing we need to use the Premult node.

To make the trees bit blend more with the new sky colour add a Lightwarp node:

Lightwarp disabled and enabled

To remove the sharp edge of our previous roto that now because of the lightwarp is visible, add a blur node under Roto1 and change the blur parameter.

Lightwarp disabled and enabled

Final Scene:

KeyLight:
Add a keylight node under the greenscreen shot.
To sample a colour click on the black box. then CTRL+Shift and choose the colour you want to sample.

View the alpha channel by pressing a

Adjust the Screen matte parameters.

Copy our keylight node. paste it and extend the clip black under the screen mate.

Add filter Erode node to bring back the hair detail.

Add a new merge node. Link the A pipe to copy and the B pipe to read 2.
Now it will seem like that:

To remove completely the green background add a premult node. We can use a “Despill” script to remove all the spill.

If we will turn on the alpha so it will be visible this is what we will see now:

Therefore we need to create a “grabage” roto node and use merge stencil operation.

Final Script and Scene:

The Weekly Activity:
Key out the dancing lady using the same technique from the workshop activity:
Create two keylight nodes like the same exercise:

Create FilterErode Node:

When merging the two keylight use mask operation.
Create “Garbage” roto node and use merge stencil operation.
Final Scene and Script:

More Practice:
Created two different key light and merged (mask) them. Added Filter Erode node.

Added rotto and set the merge node to matte to add it to the alpha of the key light.

Final Scene – Linked Premult node and Despill Filter node:

IBK keying + KeyLight + Roto Practice:
Created a IBK Colour and IBK Gizmo Nodes

Then Created a Keylight node to have a more solid matte. Used merge (matte) node. The viewer points to the keylight node.

Created a root node to get rid of the whites on the corner of the composite.
Final Comp:

Week 5 – Colour and Grading

What was covered in the lecture:
Colour Compositing Terms:
Contrast –
Contrast is the difference in luminance or colour that makes an object distinguishable. In visual perception of the real world, contrast is determined by the difference in the color and brightness of the object and other objects within the same field of view.
Saturation –
Colorfulness, chroma and saturation are attributes of perceived color relating to chromatic intensity.
Hue –
The attribute of a colour by virtue of which it is discernible as red green, etc., and which is dependent on its dominant wavelength and independent of intensity or lightness.
Lift / Crush –
“Lifting” the blacks means to brighten the DARKEST value of the image.
“Crushing” the blacks maens to darken, the darkest part of the image.

Grade Node:
Gain – for brightness
Multiply – for colour
Lift – Make the darkest areas less dark
Gamma –

Grading VS Correction:
Colour Correction –
Matching Elements to the plate. This is the first step to change correct the colours of the scene like compensating poor lighting.
Grading –
The second step after colour correction. Changing the colour pallets of the movie to create a better storytelling, semiotic effects etc.

The impact of colors – Ozark:

The Blue Tint is used to Indicate the Passage of Time
The Blue Tint is also used to Create a Feeling of Unease
The Blue tint is used to make the Characters seem more Cold and Distant

The Workshop Activity:
Colour Correction:
To understand better what the colours of the scene add a Blur node and change the size to 500.

To understand what we need to correct is to match the darkest colours of each scene (turn on y to see the Luma):

Bring in a Grade node. Change it’s name to Luma. Turn on Luma view (y). Adjust the grade node so the blacks of the lady will match the blacks of the background.

Before:

After:

To make the foreground image look colder to match the background:
Create one more grading node, change its name to Colour and adjust the Multiply parameters. To open the colour weel CMD+click the colour weel.

To desaturate the colours of the lady add a saturation node and adjust the saturation parameter.

We can create a roto for the area where the light comes from and adjust the colours so it would match the background source of light.

Before and After:

Second Exercise – Keyframe Grade node:
Create a Grade node. Create a keyframe (right click on the multiply box) for the multiply value and adjust through out the scene:

Third Exercise – Keyer node:
To grade the colours of specific areas of the scene we can use Keyer node (luminance).

Add a Grade node. Adjust the Multiply section. Then bring in a grade node and link the mask part of it to the keyer.

To Select a specific Window and grade it use a roto node. Animate the Roto node so it will match the window.

The Weekly Activity:
Statue composite.
Same proccess like the previous exersice. Added a grade node, change its name to Luma and adjust the darkest areas so it would match the background.

Add one more grade node. change its name to colour and adjust the multiply parameter to match the colour of the statue to the scene.

Add saturation node to match the blues.

Add a keyer node before the copy node to catch the highlights of the statue. Blur it and link it to a grade node. then adjust the highlights.
Add a colour lookup node (more advanced option). select master and sample the darkest area of the statue. adjust the graph.
What we have so far:

Final Composite and Nodes:

Week 6 – Tracking
What was covered in the lecture:
How does tracking work-
The bigger the square the more time it takes to process it

Two worlds of tracking:
Object Tracking (2D) and Camera Tracking (3D)
Track many features in the scene to solve the Camera’s motion and extract 3d data.
3d equalizer

Commonly used nodes for tracking:
Tracker
Mirror – Mirror the image
CornerPin – Skew the image
Reformat – (When there’s diff asset) it gives the option to change the settings of it to a specific size so it would match our main project settings
Roto – change to no clip
Crop – Cropping the image to the viewer so it won’t render things outside the bounding box.
Transform – Move the image/comp

The Workshop Activity:
One Point Track:
Bring in a tacker node and link it to the video.
Click on “Add Track”. choose what we want to track. Hit “track till end”.
To delete part of the track and hit clear fwrd and track again from that frame.

Go to transform and change transform to match move.
then hit set to current keyframe (1001).

To apply the tracker to our patch link it at the end of the patch like so:
Before we render we can link a crop node.

2 Point Track: Roto and apply tracking data
Bring in a tracker node and link it to the image.
Place the 2 point track near where we want to place the roto (on frame 1001).
Select both of them and hit “Track till end”

Create a roto node and grade node.

Under Tracker node – Tracker – Enable T and R of the second tracker.
Under Transform – Transform to “match-move” and hit “set to current frame”. Link everything like so:

Add one more tracking:

Planar Tracking:
Bring in a roto node and connect it directly to the image sequence.
Draw a roto shape on frame 1094.

Select the roto, right click and choose “planar-track this shape bkwd” (because we are on the last frame of the sequence). It will create a new folder inside the roto.
In this drop down menu, choose “CornerPin2D (absolute, baked)”. It will create a new node.

Put the roto node aside

Under the new node that it created (CornerPin2D), Hit “Copy_to” and then hit “No animation” for each line.

Bring in a grade and a roto node and roto the screen again (or copy it from our previous roto shape). Change the colour of the grade so we will be able to see it.
Then link the cornerpind2d node like so:

Now adjust (and create keyframes) the roto node the entire scene.

You can fix some and then jump to the final frame do “copy to” again under the corner pin and delete the animations again. then create a new roto which is more percise.
SHIFT+X to switch the a pipe and b pipe.

The Weekly Activity:
Fix the scene:
My version vs Final Version:

Week 7 – Cleanup and Patch repair
What was covered in the lecture:
Noise and Grain
What is Grain?
Grain (also known as) noise, is the random little spots of brightness or colour on an image. Grain often shows up in darker scenes.
Why Grain Matters in Film
When combining different types of footage, like 3D models and live action shots, it’s important to match the grain, noise, and colours. If they don’t match, they won’t blend well, and the scene will probably look fake.
How Grain Changes
The amount of grain changes based on the light. Brighter parts of an image have less grain, while darker areas show more. The blue channel usually has the most grain because blue light is less sensitive.

The Workshop Activity:
Clean up:
For cleanup we can use “Rotopaint” node.
Inside this node we have different operations such as brush, curves, clone, blur, dodge and burn

Reveal:
Allows us to choose what background to reveal.

Clone Tool:
CMD+click and drag to choose what to sample and what to paint.
SHFT+click and drag to change the size of the brush.

Track one of the tracking markers.
Under transform change to match-move and set our hero frame to the first frame (1201)

Copy tracking info from tracking node to the rotopaint transform tab. Hold CMD and drag the line of “Translate X” of the tracker to “Translate X” of the roto paint we chose. Do the same one with Center. Once linked, it will create green connections.
Set lifetime for the clone.

To track tracking markers that are not visible at the beginning of the sequence we can use another tracker. If there’s tracking markers that appear at some parts of the sequence we can create gaps withing the tracker manually.

Remove an old man to the scene:
Track the scene. Then add FrameHold node to freeze the seqence (where the old man is already gone). Choose the frame we want to freeze (1090).

Then add roto and copy node and create a roto shape like so. Add premult and apply the tracker we created before.

To turn our patch off when the ladies are walking past it, add Multiply node. Right before they interact with the patch create a keyframe and set it to 1. Go to the next keyframe and set it to 0.

Add denoise like so (and don’t change the settings). Now we will add our own noise.
We are doing it because we need animated grain to apply on our patch.

Add a grain node beneath the denoise node. Adjust the viewers so 2 will point to the grain node and A to the dot right after our original footage. Adjust the settings like so. To bring in the Wipe hit W.

Disable “Apply only through alpha”. Nowview each channel (rgb) and match the intensity of the noise node to the original footage.

Attach the Grain node to the patch like so.
Final Tree and video:

Week 8 – Complex Cleanup
The Workshop Activity:
First Exercise- Planar tracking + cleanup
Get rid of the people on the bottom let corner. Track the scene and track the movement so we could cleanup the people
Track using Planar
Add roto node and create a shape near the crowed we want to remove

Select the roto, right click and choose planar track fwd

On frame 1001, click this box and choose CornerPin 2D relative, baked. It will create a new node. Inside this node go to From, hit “Copy ‘to'” to and select “no animation” for each of them

Add Frame hold node on frame 1001, copy node and roto node. Create a shape around the crowed.

Add Rotopaint node like so and paint the people out. Change the lifetime of the roto paint to All Frames.

Our script so far:

For colour correction, add grade node and roto node. Create a rotoshape like so and feather it out. Adjust the multiply parameter.

Now
Second Exercise:
Same as the first exercise. roto shape, planar track corner pin 2d node
Select the roto, right click and choose planar track fwd

On frame 1001, click this box and choose CornerPin 2D relative, baked. It will create a new node. Inside this node go to From, hit “Copy ‘to'” to and select “no animation” for each of them

Detach the corner pin and roto and put it aside. Bring in Copy and Roto node and create our first patch. Premult it and add our corner pin track like so (create a copy of it).
Then add Transform node (CMD+Drag) and place it wherever.

Repeat this part for the entire boat.
For the rope part, we repeat the same process:

Add grade node:

Week 9 – Recap
What was covered in the lecture:
Recap of the last 9 weeks.

The Workshop Activity:
Add a logo on top of a box
Paint, track and put a new logo.
Planar tracking – same process as week 6.
Bring in a roto node, choose the area we want to track. Select the entire roto, right click and “planar track fwrd”. Select “CornerPin Baked Absolute”. Go to From tab and hit “Copy to”. Delete the animation for all of them.

Bring in a framehold node, copy and roto node. Create on top of the logo.

Bring in a rotopaint node and paint out the logo. Change the lifetime of it to “All Frames”.

Bring in premult and merge node. Link everything like so:
Bring in the logo and reformat node. Change the settings of the reformat. Bring in a merge node and then after bring in corner pin node and link everything like so:

Bring in transform node. Place the logo on top of the box. Then adjust the cornerpin settings.

Copy and paste the cornerpin tracker and link it to the logo tree.
Colour Correction:
Bring in grade node and adjust the luminance. Bring in one more grade node and adjust the colour (the entire scene is a bit blueish/pinkish so we will adjust the multiply accordingly). Bring in Saturation node. Bring in Defocus node.

Script + view:

Add shadows manually:

Check where and when there’s shadow in the original footage. Bring in grade node and adjust accordingly

Final Script and Video:

Keying:
Bring in denoise node. Then bring in key light node. Do a soft keylight and hard keylight.

Link to the soft keylight “Filter Erode” node. To get rid of the spill, add one more keylight node and change the green to 1 and link it like so (keylight 3) Add a tracker node and select 4 tracking markers. Turn on T and S.

Change to matchmove and set the hero frame.

For the cleanup, bring in roto node and select the woman. Link the tracker below it.

Final Script:

Week 10 – Advanced Keying
What was covered in the lecture:
We covered three more ways for keying:
– Keymix
– IBK keyer
– Additive key.

The Workshop Activity:
Additive Key
Brings in fine hair information
Bring in the additive key script from the word document.
Link the blur, merge and . nodes like so:

Keymix
For different background colours

Instead of adjusting inside inside the keying node, we can bring in a grade node and Gamma down + Gain up or Whitepoint + blackpoint. It gives us more control n different areas.

We don’t want to have our alpha channel more than 1 or less than 0 (CMD+click to sample). Therefore we should bring in a clamp node.
Add keymix node.

Do this again for a different areas and built up your script.

We could also create a garbage node using roto and merge(stencil) nodes. Theres no need to add a clamp after every keylight. We can link it before the copy node.

IBK Node
First IBK size should be 1. Patch black to 1. We can stack the IBK colour node
Then when stacking multiply by 2 the patch black section (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128).

Bring in “PxF_ScreenClean.gizmo” script. Clean plate goes to the IBK Colour and plate goes to the original plate.

While viewing the dot above this node, sample part of the green background.

Then add one more keylight beneath it and it will be way easier to key out (because of the solid background). Add a garbage node with roto.

Week 11 – 2nd Assessment Overview
What was covered in the lecture:
This week, we showed what we have done so far for the second assessment. It was really helpful because we got feedback and could see how others are working on their projects. It gave us good ideas and made sure we’re going in the right direction.

Week 12 – Webinar with Josh Parks
What was covered in the lecture:
Channel Merge Node: Frequently used in keying, along with the Key Mix node.
Colour Grading Tips:
– To make objects appear distant, reduce saturation, increase gamma, and lower gain.
– Enhance realism by making background lights pop slightly, creating a more natural look.
Godrays and Glow:
– Use the Godrays node to create laser effects, and link it with the Exceptional Glow node for added impact.

Anamorphic Lens Effect:
– Blur along only the X or Y axis to mimic an anamorphic lens effect.
Grain:
Add significant grain to scenes—it enhances realism and adds a “cool” aesthetic.
Smoke Effects:
Add a Noise node for smoke effects. Revisit the recording at minute 37 for more details.
Reference Footage:
Tears of Steel Footage – https://media.xiph.org/tearsofsteel/tearsofsteel-footage-exr/04_4c/linear/

First Assessment:
I added the raw files to the script, adjusted the project settings, and analyzed the video. Then, I created a general template with the steps I want to follow to improve my workflow and better understand what I need to do. I know it won’t necessarily look like the final script, but it helps me stay organized and clearer on my tasks.

Keying and changing the background colour:
I started with basic keying using the Keylight node. I made only minimal adjustments to the Keylight because I wanted to keep all the details. Then, I added a Constant node and selected a blue color. After merging them, I got the result I wanted to achieve.

Removing Tracking Markers:
I used two different methods to remove the tracking marks from the scene. For the tracking markers that the actor doesn’t walk past, I applied the TransformMasked node.

To handle the tracking markers that the actor does walk past, I used the Rotopaint node and painted each keyframe where the actor and the tracking markers interact. I created a folder for each keyframe and set a lifetime for the Rotopaint.

Adding colour bars to the TV Screen:
I used the Corner Pin node to align the colour bars image with the TV screen. Inside the node, under “From”, I clicked on “Set to Input”, and then under “CornerPin2D”, I selected “Copy From”. After these steps, I could adjust the position of each point.

I used the screen operation under the Merge node.
Then, I created a Roto node and rotoscoped the actor so that when he walks past the TV, he appears in front of it instead of behind it. This was necessary because of the color bars image we added on top of the TV screen.

Tracking and Patching Signs on the Suitcase:
To hide the signs on the suitcase, I created a patch using the TransformMasked node, with two separate patches—one for the top section and one for the bottom. Then, I used a Tracker node with a 2-point tracker to capture the movement and rotation information.
I linked the patches I created to the Tracker node so they would move accordingly.
I also adjusted the lifetime parameter of the Roto so that it deactivates once the patch is out of the scene.
For the top patch, I needed some color correction, so I added a Grade node and adjusted the *Multiply* parameter for different keyframes (setting keys in the *Multiply* parameter) to match the color throughout the sequence.

Final Script and Composite:

2nd Assessment:
The Process:
First I needed to have an idea and create a concept of what I plan to do.

V1 – Before the first feedback

V2 – After the first feedcack – too glowey

V3: After the 2nd feedback – Not ready yet – fixing colours, glow, and focus.

Assets that I used:
Earth:

Galaxy:

Spaceship – Rendered in Blender:

Plate from Action VFX:

Final Script and Video:

Final Video: backup link