Nuke channels video tutorial

[nathan]

I've seen a few posts lately of people asking just how channels work inside Nuke so I figured that I would do a small video tutorial trying to explain just how channels are used inside of Nuke.

If you already know how to create a layer and add channels then you're not gonna learn much from this video, it is meant more for a person just starting off with Nuke and can't get a grasp on the whole channel concept.

This tutorial has a run time of 13min's and is encoded in the OGG video codec with a resolution of 1024x768. For Windows users I have attached a zip file along with this post that includes the OGG video codec installer if you don't already have it.

I tried to keep the quality good and am quit surprised I was able to capture it at the frame rate I did, Linux doesn't have the best video capture programs but this new one I used didn't do half bad.

The current example tutorials that try and describe channels in Nuke I didn't think gave a good description of just how they work so here you are with my take on it. Any crits are welcome and if you have a question feel free to ask.

[NEO]

This is top notch! :niceone: But you know... Now when you started with making tutorials and clearly showed that you are a good tutor you can not stop! :guitarman more more more! :smirk:

I must admit that I have not worked with beziers like like that. But it's clearly better then my way. I have normally created them "on the side" and taken them into the tree with some kind of merge node or a copy node. But this seems like a better way. But isn't it a bit hard when a script is bounced between people to keep track of things? I mean, things are happening under the hood that the eye don't catch at a first glance on the tree...?

[Ajax]

Thnx Nrgy!!! Totally helpful...

[T.P.]

gr8 tutorial !:) , exectly whats been confusing me :D

[karthikveera]

Thanks For The Tutorial Bro......

[gottony]

Awesome. Thanks

[sgr]

For mac users wanting to play the OGG file in Quicktime can use Xiph (http://www.xiph.org/quicktime/) I just installed it and it works fine. And great tutorial - much appreciated...

[mister su]

good!

[geoff3d]

Regarding compound mattes - should you create one channel per matte? Is this good practice? What's a good naming convention for them? I recall reading somewhere that it's not a good idea to name your channels with names relating to the original loader, as it won't make much sense once you use the channels elsewhere in the script?

Then to subtract one matte by another, should I just use a merge with the same node feeding both A & B, with the merge set to output yet another new channel (the result of the subtract op)?

As well as all of that above (sorry, yet another person trying to get my head around this ;) can someone explain to me how this is more powerful / "better" than using mask nodes & mask inputs ala Fusion? It does seem to me to be actually more long winded (and more memory intensive maybe?) to have to make 3 new separate channels for a simple 2 bezier compound matte...

[wuxia]

Channels are not meant to be used for EVERY operation. They're convenient to transport mattes and passes when you have big scripts. For example imagine having to link a mask from the top of the script to a point 30 nodes below and another 10 nodes to the left. Instead you can just inject it and use it at will. Imagine trying to correct a pass that was loaded at the top of the script somewhere near the bottom of it - again you have to build a pipe and soon your script starts looking like a mad spider's web. It's just more convenient with channels. And don't forget the convenience of importing all cg passes from a single exr sequence.

[eloinischith]

thnx a looooooooooooot ....

if u cud make som more tuts......tht wud b a gr8 help .........

[abhishekghorui]

thank u very much

[Icecream]

thanks nathan!! this forum rocks!!!

[markv]

Hi Nathan
I would love to see your video but it is not playing on my computer.
I dont suppose you could upload the video to a site such as http://www.vimeo.com/
I would love to see what you have done.
Cheers,
Mark

[gebux]

thanks alot for tutorial..nathan
anyway i'm a newbie in nuke is theres any other tutorial link that i can watch or download..?..
i appreciated if you give me some info..
thanks ..

[NEO]

thanks alot for tutorial..nathan
anyway i'm a newbie in nuke is theres any other tutorial link that i can watch or download..?..
i appreciated if you give me some info..
thanks ..

Try out the classes at www.fxphd.com and also take a look at The Foundrys youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/TheFoundryChannel) and their homepage (http://www.youtube.com/user/TheFoundryChannel). There's a bunch of good tuts there. =)