Nuke8.0v5GettingStarted

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GETTING STARTED GUIDE

VERSION 8.0v5

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Nuke™ Getting Started Guide. Copyright © 2014 The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Use of this Getting Started Guide and the Nuke software is subject to an End User License Agreement (the “EULA”), the terms of which are incorporated herein by reference. This Getting Started Guide and the Nuke software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the EULA. This Getting Started Guide, the Nuke software and all intellectual property rights relating thereto are and shall remain the sole property of The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd. (“The Foundry”) and/or The Foundry's licensors.

The EULA can be read in the Nuke User Guide Appendices.

The Foundry assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this Getting Started Guide and this Getting Started Guide is subject to change without notice. The content of this Getting Started Guide is furnished for informational use only.

Except as permitted by the EULA, no part of this Getting Started Guide may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of The Foundry. To the extent that the EULA authorizes the making of copies of this Getting Started Guide, such copies shall be reproduced with all copyright, trademark and other proprietary rights notices included herein. The EULA expressly prohibits any action that could adversely affect the property rights of The Foundry and/or The Foundry's licensors, including, but not limited to, the removal of the following (or any other copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notice included herein):

Primatte™ patent is held by IMAGICA Corp.

In addition to those names set forth on this page, the names of other actual companies and products mentioned in this Getting Started Guide (including, but not limited to, those set forth below) may be the trademarks or service marks, or registered trademarks or service marks, of their respective owners in the United States and/or other countries. No association with any company or product is intended or inferred by the mention of its name in this Getting Started Guide.

ACADEMY AWARD ® is a registered service mark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Linux ® is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

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Stereoscopic images courtesy of Mr. Henry Chung, HKSC (http://www.stereoscopy.com/henry/). Images illustrating warping and morphing courtesy of Ron Brinkmann (http://www.digitalcompositing.com). Some texture images courtesy ofhttp://www.mayang.com/textures/. Images from “The Day After Tomorrow” ©2004 courtesy of and copyright by 20th Century Fox. Images from "Stealth" courtesy of and copyright by Sony Pictures Inc. Images from "xXx" ©2002 courtesy of and copyright by Columbia Pictures Industries. All rights reserved by their respective owners in the United States and/or other countries.

Thank you to Diogo Girondi for providing icons for the Nuke user interface and Tim Baier for proofreading. Getting Started Guide writing: Eija Närvänen, Joel Byrne, Charles Quinn, and Tytti Pohjola.

Getting Started Guide layout design: Annabel Landau and Ash Joseph. The Foundry 5 Golden Square London W1F 9HT UK Rev: 28 April 2014

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Getting Started

About this Getting Started Guide

9

Getting Help

9

Viewing Tool Tips 9

Viewing the Context-Sensitive Online Help 10

Using the Help Menu in Nuke 11

Contacting Customer Support 12

1 Meet the Nuke Product Family

Flavors of Nuke

13

About NukeX 13

About Nuke Assist 14

About the Personal Learning Edition 17

Key Concepts

18

Understanding the Workflow 18

Working with Multiple Image Formats 19

Channel Operations 19

8-, 16-, and 32-Bit Image Processing 20

Compositing in 3D 20

Render Farms 21

2 Installation and Licensing

Operating Systems

22

Windows

22

Nuke on Windows 22

NukeX on Windows 29

Nuke Assist on Windows 30

Nuke PLE on Windows 31

Mac OS X

32

Nuke on Mac OS X 32

NukeX on Mac OS X 39

Nuke Assist on Mac OS X 40

Nuke PLE on Mac OS X 40

Linux

41

Nuke on Linux 42

NukeX on Linux 48

Nuke Assist on Linux 49

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3 Using the Interface

The Nuke Window

52

Panes and Panels 52

Toolbar, Menu Bar, and Content Menus 54

Using the Toolbar

55

Using the Menu Bar

58

Working with Nodes

58

Adding Nodes 58 Selecting Nodes 60 Replacing Nodes 61 Renaming Nodes 62 Editing Nodes 62 Cloning Nodes 63

Disabling and Deleting Nodes 64

Connecting Nodes 65

Indicators on Nodes 67

Viewing Information on Nodes 68

Customizing the Node Display 69

Creating Node Tool Sets 70

Navigating Inside the Node Graph

71

Panning 71

Zooming 72

Bookmarking the Pan and Zoom Level 73

Bookmarking Nodes 74

Fitting Nodes in the Node Graph 74

Searching for Nodes 74

Cleaning up the Node Graph 75

Properties Panels

75

Managing the Properties Bin 76

Controls That Appear on All Properties Panels 76

Displaying Parameters 80

Using Input Fields 80

Using Sliders 82

Separating Channels 82

Using the Color Picker and Color Controls 83

Customizing a Node’s Defaults with Node Presets 90

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Panning and Zooming the Viewer Window 112

Hiding Floating Viewers 113

Using the Viewer Controls 114

Hiding and Showing Viewer Toolbars 136

Locking the Viewer Zoom Level 136

Viewing Overscan in the Viewer 136

Viewing Deep Image Information in the Viewer 137

Using the File Browser

137

Undoing and Redoing

141

Progress Bars

142

Handling Errors

142

4 Managing Scripts

Setting Up Your Script

144

Name, Time Span, and Frame Rate 144

Setting the Default Project Directory 145

Full-Size Formats 145

Proxy Mode 146

Loading Image Sequences

150

Importing Image Sequences 150

Loading Images from an External File Browser 154

Naming Conventions 154

Changing the Relation Between the Current Frame and the Frame Read In 154

Reformatting Image Sequences

156

Image Caching

156

The Cache Directory 157

Defining the Settings for Caching 157

Clearing the Disk Cache 158

Using the DiskCache Node 158

Caching Files Locally for Better Performance 159

Saving Scripts and Recovering Back-Ups

160

Saving Scripts 160

Automatic Back-Up of Scripts 161

Recovering Back-Ups 162

Closing Nuke Scripts

162

Loading Nuke Scripts

163

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Written Tutorials

Introduction

165

The Projects

165

Installing the Project Files

165

Tutorial 1: Compositing Basics

Introduction

167

Starting Nuke

167

Using the Toolbar

169

Using the Menus

169

Customizing Your Layout

170

Saving Files and File Backup

171

Setting Up the Project

173

Working with Nodes

174

Inserting Nodes 174

Connection Tips 177

Importing Image Sequences

179

Navigating Inside the Windows

181

Working with Viewers

182

Reformatting Images

183

Using Proxies and “Down-res”

184

Compositing Images

185

Color-Correcting Images

187

Masking Effects

188

To Create and Apply a Bezier Mask 188

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One-Point, Two-Point, Three-Point, Four

194

Open the Tutorial Project File

195

Tracking a Single Feature

195

Tracking Obscured Features

200

Stabilizing Elements

202

Match-Moving Elements

204

Epilogue

206

Tutorial 3: Keying and Mattes

Introduction

207

Open the Tutorial Project File

207

Keying with Primatte

208

Image-Based Keying

213

Rotoscoping

218

Keying Video

222

Epilogue

229

Tutorial 4: 3D Integration

Introduction

230

The Basic 3D System

230

The 3D Viewer 231

The Geometry or Scene Node 231

The Camera Node 231

The ScanlineRender Node 232

Open the Tutorial Project File

232

Setting Up a 3D System

233

Making a Scene

238

Merging and Constraining Objects

241

Animating a Scene

243

Working with Geometry

246

Lighting and Surface Properties

250

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Getting Started

Nuke is an Academy Award® winning compositor. It has been used to create extraordinary images on

scores of feature films, including Avatar, District 9,Australia, The Dark Knight, Quantum of Solace, The

Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Iron Man, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, and

countless commercials and music videos.

About this Getting Started Guide

If you are new to Nuke, you may want to start by reading throughMeet the Nuke Product Familyon page 13. This chapter explains concepts you should know before using Nuke.

Before you can start exploring Nuke, you of course need to install Nuke on your machine. For instructions on how to do so and launch either the commercial version of Nuke or the Nuke Personal Learning Edition, refer toInstallation and Licensingon page 22.

Once you have successfully installed and launched Nuke, you can sit back and start familiarizing yourself with the interface.Using the Interfaceon page 52 is designed to help you understand the workflow, the workspace and the different controls. It also provides you with information on adjusting the interface to suit your preferences. Finally, to learn about scripts and script management, turn toManaging Scriptson page 144.

After these chapters, you can sink your teeth into theWritten Tutorialson page 165 and learn the basics of compositing with Nuke.

Getting Help

Nuke features several forms of help, in a variety of locations.

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To view a tooltip for a node, move your mouse pointer over the ? icon in the node's properties panel.

Viewing the Context-Sensitive Online Help

The context-sensitive online help includes a comprehensive description of each node and its parameters. To display these descriptions in your default web browser, click the ? icon in the node's properties panel.

Selecting the Help Source

In Nuke, the context-sensitive help content may differ depending on what you've selected as the help source in the Preferences.

To select the help source:

1. Press Shift+S on the Node Graph to open the Preferences dialog. 2. Go to the Control Panels tab.

3. Under Documentation, set documentation source to:

• local - Use Nuke's built-in help system. This is included in the Nuke installation and does not require an Internet connection.

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NOTE: When you click on a ? button on a node, Nuke searches the following locations for HTML files with the same name as the requested node (for example, blur.html):

1. Directories contained in the NUKE_PATH environment variable.

2. The /$HOME/.nuke and /$HOME/.nuke/Documentation directories. 3. Your local plugins directory.

On Windows, this is either C:\Program Files\Common Files\Nuke\8.0\plugins\ or C:\Program Files (x86) \Common Files\Nuke\8.0\plugins\.

On Mac OS X, this is /Library/Application Support/Nuke/8.0/plugins/. On Linux, this is /usr/local/Nuke/8.0/plugins/.

4. The Nuke installation directory.

• foundry - Use the help system available on The Foundry website. This contains the most up-to-date information, but requires an Internet connection.

NOTE: On Windows, you may have to add a firewall program or port exception to view the most up-to-date help from our website. If the connection is blocked, Nuke falls back to the local copy.

• custom - Use your own custom help system.

4. If you set documentation source to local, you can either:

• enable auto port to automatically assign a free documentation server port, or

• use local port to specify a local documentation server port manually and port range to define a range of ports to attempt. Typically, the local port value should be 1024 or higher. Setting the value to 0 causes a port to be automatically assigned.

NOTE: To be able to use the online help from multiple sessions of Nuke running at the same time, you must enable auto port.

5. If you set documentation source to foundry:

• the foundry host field displays The Foundry documentation server host address. • use foundry port to specify The Foundry documentation server port.

6. If you set documentation source to custom:

• set custom host to your documentation server host address. This must be an Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) address.

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• Key Assignments - a list of hot keys.

• Documentation - the Nuke Getting Started Guide, Nuke User Guide, Nuke Reference Guide, the Nuke Developer Kit (NDK), and documentation for using FrameCycler, Python, TCL, and expressions in Nuke.

• Release Notes - important updates to features and bug fixes.

• Training and Tutorials - Nuke tutorial videos, and a list of other training resources. • Nukepedia - an online resource containing useful information about all things Nuke. • Mailing Lists - information on Nuke-related e-mail lists.

• Plug-in Installer - open the Nuke plug-ins page on The Foundry website, which gives you easy access to a large selection of plug-ins for Nuke.

Contacting Customer Support

Should questions arise that the PDF documentation or the online help system fails to address, you can contact Customer Support directly via e-mail at [email protected] or via telephone to our London office on +44 20 7479 4350 or to our Los Angeles office on (310) 399 4555 during office hours.

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1 Meet the Nuke Product Family

This chapter introduces the different flavors of Nuke and explains some key concepts you should

know before using Nuke products.

Flavors of Nuke

Nuke comes in four distinct flavors with different levels of functionality:

• Nuke - The Foundry’s original, award-winning compositing tool. Nuke provides a stable foundation from which to deliver shot-based VFX work.

• NukeX - includes all of Nuke’s features with the addition of a range of specialized plug-in tools to eliminate the need to perform certain tasks in third-party software packages. NukeX is the most powerful application in the Nuke product family. To run it, you need both a Nuke and a NukeX license.

SeeAbout NukeXand the NukeX section in the Nuke User Guide for more information.

• Nuke Assist - a feature of NukeX intended for use as a workstation for artists performing painting, rotoscoping, and tracking. Two complementary licenses of Nuke Assist are included in every Nuke X maintenance package. Nuke Assist only supports a limited subset of Nuke tools.

SeeAbout Nuke Assistfor a run down of the functionality provided by Nuke Assist.

• Nuke PLE - a special version of the commercial Nuke application that you can run without a license, intended for use as an educational tool.

SeeAbout the Personal Learning Editionfor a run down of the restrictions placed on using the PLE version.

About NukeX

When using NukeX, you have all the features of Nuke in use, plus the following: • CameraTracker

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• Particles • PlanarTracker • PointCloudGenerator • PoissonMesh • PrmanRender • ProjectionSolver • VectorGenerator

Nuke and NukeX are fully compatible, with Nuke capable of viewing and rendering - but not editing - NukeX features.

About Nuke Assist

Nuke Assist is licensed as part of a NukeX maintenance package and is intended for use as a workstation for artists performing painting, rotoscoping, and tracking. Nuke Assist doesn’t support any NukeX-specific features apart from PlanarTracker, and has a limited subset of Nuke nodes and features available. The following nodes are supported by Nuke Assist:

Nuke Assist Nodes

Image

Checkerboard ColorBars ColorWheel Constant Read Viewer

Draw

Bezier Radial Ramp Rectangle

Roto RotoPaint

NOTE: Bezier is only available through the X menu. Press X in the Node Graph and then enter Bezier as a TCL command to add the node.

Time

FrameBlend FrameHold FrameRange TimeEcho TimeOffset

Channel

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Nuke Assist Nodes

Add Copy ChannelMerge Remove Shuffle ShuffleCopy

Color

Invert OCIO CDLTransform OCIO Colorspace OCIO Display OCIO FileTransform OCIO LogConvert

Keyer Keyer Merge

AddMix Dissolve KeyMix Merge Premult Switch Unpremult

Transform

Crop CornerPin PlanarTracker Reformat Tracker Transform TransformMasked

Views

JoinViews OneView ShuffleView Split and Join Stereo Anaglyph Stereo MixViews Stereo ReConverge Stereo SideBySide Metadata

AddTimeCode CompareMetadata CopyMetadata ModifyMetadata ViewMetadata

Other

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You can load projects created in Nuke and NukeX and work as normal, within the constraints of Nuke Assist. The Viewer renders the output of the node tree whether the components are supported or not. Any unsupported nodes and plug-ins in the Node Graph are outlined in red and their controls are grayed out. You cannot modify the output of unsupported nodes and plug-ins.

TIP: For more information on node trees and node-based compositing, seeUnderstanding the Workflow

on page 18.

Using Gizmos, Groups, Precomps, Knobs, and Python

Gizmos, Group, and Precomp nodes can be loaded as normal, but if they contain any nodes that are not supported by Nuke Assist they have a red outline around the node in the Node Graph and the control panel controls are grayed out.

NOTE: Nuke Assist allows the creation of custom knobs, but they can't be edited.

Python scripts work as usual for nodes that are supported by Nuke Assist, but any attempt to add unsupported nodes displays an error message in the Script Editor output section, or terminal (in -t mode).

For example, executing nuke.createNode('Transform') adds a Transform node to the Node Graph, but

nuke.createNode('Blur') prints the following error:

# Result:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "<string>", line 1, in <module>

RuntimeError: Blur is not available in Nuke Assist

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About the Personal Learning Edition

The Nuke Personal Learning Edition is a special version of Nuke that you can run without a license. The Personal Learning Edition is meant for personal, educational, and other non-commercial use. It is aimed at students, industry professionals, and others interested in Nuke. It includes all the features of the commercial version of Nuke, offering you a chance to explore and learn the application fully while using it from the comfort of your own home.

The PLE is a fully functional version of Nuke, but, being aimed for non-commercial use only, it does differ from the commercial version in some aspects. Here are the main differences:

• Watermark. The PLE displays a watermark (shown below) on any images in the Viewer as well as images rendered out to files. This is to prevent the commercial use of the images.

• External data storage. All external data storage is encrypted in the PLE, including Nuke scripts (these are saved with the extension .nkple), gizmos (saved with the extension .gzple), and copying to the clipboard. Among other things, this means the PLE saves files in an encrypted format, unlike the commercial version of Nuke, which saves scripts unencrypted as plain text. The commercial version of Nuke cannot load files created with the PLE.

The PLE, however, can load scripts and gizmos created with the commercial version.

• Scripting. In PLE mode, Nuke restricts the amount of nodes that can be retrieved at a time by scripting. Functions such as nuke.allNodes() in Python return only the first 10 nodes available rather than all of them at once, and scripts written to iterate through the Node Graph are not able to retrieve any more nodes beyond a set point. The commercial version of Nuke can retrieve any and all nodes at any time as the command names would suggest. • BlinkScript. The BlinkScript node is disabled in the PLE.

• WriteGeo. The WriteGeo node is disabled in the PLE.

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• Command line rendering. It is not possible to render a PLE script with -x from the command line. In other respects, the PLE contains all the functionality of the commercial version of Nuke.

Key Concepts

Nuke products are a resolution-independent compositing system, with extensive channel support, powerful image manipulation tools, and a rich 3D compositing environment. This section explains concepts you should know before using Nuke products.

Understanding the Workflow

All Nuke products utilize a node-based workflow, where you connect a series of nodes to read, process, and manipulate images. Each node in the project an image keyer, a colorcorrection, or a blur filter, for example -performs an operation and contributes to the output.

A Nuke project consists of a network of linked operators called nodes.

Saved projects are called script files. You can open a Nuke project file in a text editor, and you will see a series of sequential commands which are interpreted and executed when you render the output.

A simple Nuke script.

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In the image above, you see an example of a very simple Nuke script. Two Read nodes reference image sequences on disk. Effect nodes extract a matte and blur an image. A Merge node (named over) composites the foreground image over the background. Finally, a Write node renders and outputs the completed composite to disk. You’ll also see a Viewer node, which displays the output of any node in the script.

NOTE: Nuke Assist does not support Write nodes or render farms. See Flavors of Nukefor more information.

Working with Multiple Image Formats

Nuke products support multiple file formats, such as Cineon, TIFF, OpenEXR, HDRI, and RAW camera data (using the dcraw command-line program), and allows you to mix them all within the same composite. By default, Nuke

products convert all imported sequences to their native 32-bit linear RGB colorspace. You can, however, use the Colorspace node to force one of several color models, including sRGB, Cineon, rec709, gamma 1.80/2.20, HSV, or HSL. The Log2Lin node lets you convert between logarithmic and linear colorspace (and vice versa).

NOTE: Nuke Assist does not support Colorspace or Log2Lin nodes. SeeFlavors of Nukefor more information.

There are no restrictions on image resolution - you can freely mix and scale elements of any resolution within the same script. You can, for example, use a 2k film plate as the background for video shot in PAL format, and then output the result in HD1080i. Nuke products automatically adjust their Viewers to accommodate the image you’re viewing.

Channel Operations

In Nuke products, you can assign the output of each node as new channels, and pass them to the next node in the script. When you need to reuse a particular channel (say, to apply a color correction to the hair), you simply choose the channel containing the matte from the downstream color-correction node.

Nuke products support up to 1023 channels of image data. This provides additional benefits when working with computer-generated (CG) elements, especially when such elements are rendered out in the OpenEXR format.

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Nuke products can include and operate on multiple channels in the data stream.

For example, your 3D department could render out multiple lighting passes for a particular CG element (beauty, fill, backlight, reflection, shadow, etc.) as an .exr sequence, which you could then read into a Nuke script. You would be able to access all of the render passes stored within the .exr sequence from any downstream node in your script. You might choose to color correct only the CG element’s highlights by using the specular pass as a mask to a particular color correction operator. Such an approach again has the advantage of keeping the Nuke script free of unnecessarily complex branching - virtually all render passes and mattes can be passed through a single pipe in the script.

The Channels chapter in the Nuke User Guide explains how to take full advantage of the 1023-channel workflow.

8-, 16-, and 32-Bit Image Processing

Some digital compositing systems, especially those geared for video work, are optimized for processing exclusively 8-bit elements (that is, images with 256 intensity values per channel). Other systems allow for the mixing of 8, 16, and 32-bit elements.

For Nuke products, which began as a film effects tool, image quality is paramount. Thus, they support the processing of exclusively 32-bit-per channel elements (elements with lower bit depths are converted to 32 bits per channel upon import). Thirty-two bit support allows for a much richer palette of colors and floating point precision in all script calculations. In practice, this means that Nuke products carry out every operation - from an increase in gamma to a transform - with much greater accuracy than a lower-bit-depth system.

Compositing in 3D

Some digital compositing systems support a strictly two-dimensional workflow. Nuke products, by contrast, offer a robust 3D workspace that lets you create and render complex scenes composed of polygonal models, cards (planes

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textured with images), cameras, lights, and textures.

This 3D workspace has countless uses, the simplest of which is generating pan-and-tile scenes. These are scenes with 2D image planes arranged into a curved shape, and then rendered out through an animated camera to give the illusion of a seamless environment.

Simple pan-and-tile scene.

The 3D Compositing chapter in the Nuke User Guide explains how to make full use of Nuke’s 3D workspace.

Render Farms

Nuke products are supported by virtually all third-party and proprietary render-queuing software. By integrating Nuke products with such a system, the render load can be distributed across all the Nuke- or NukeX-licensed machines on your network, whether Windows, Mac, or Linux-based.

NOTE: Nuke Assist does not support Write nodes or render farms. See Flavors of Nukeon page 13 for more information.

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2 Installation and Licensing

We know the installation and licensing of a new application can be a boring task that you just want to

be done with as soon as possible. To help you with that, this chapter guides you to the point where

you have an open workspace of Nuke in front of you and are ready to start compositing to your

heart’s content, whether it be with Nuke, NukeX, Nuke Assist, or the Nuke Personal Learning Edition.

Operating Systems

To see the installation and licensing instructions for your operating system, go to: •Windowson page 22,

•Mac OS Xon page 32, or •Linuxon page 41.

NOTE: For more information on the differences between Nuke, NukeX, Nuke Assist, and Nuke PLE, see

Flavors of Nukeon page 13.

Windows

To install and license a Nuke product on Windows, see: •Nuke on Windowson page 22,

•NukeX on Windowson page 29, •Nuke Assist on Windowson page 30, or •Nuke PLE on Windowson page 31.

Nuke on Windows

Nuke is The Foundry’s original, award-winning compositing tool. It provides a stable foundation from which to deliver shot-based VFX work.

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Nuke System Requirements on Windows

Qualified Operating Systems

• Windows 7 64-bit • Windows 8 64-bit

NOTE: Other operating systems may work with Nuke, but have not been fully tested. If you have any problems with a particular operating system, please contact our support team.

Other System Requirements

• x86-64 processor, such as Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon, with SSE3 instruction set support (or newer). • 5 GB disk space available for caching and temporary files.

• 1 GB RAM (minimum requirement).

• Display with at least 1280 x 1024 pixel resolution and 24-bit color.

• Graphics card with at least 512 MB of video memory and driver support for OpenGL 2.0 (minimum requirement). • To enable optional GPU acceleration of Viewer processing, you need OpenGL 2.0 with support for floating

point textures and GLSL.

• To enable Nuke to calculate certain nodes using the GPU, there are some additional requirements. For more information, seeRequirements for GPU Acceleration.

• R3D Rocket cards require the Rocket Driver 1.4.19.0 and Firmware 1.1.16.5 or later.

NOTE: To avoid graphical problems, such as text disappearing in the Viewer and Node Graph, it is important to keep your graphics card drivers up-to-date. Driver updates can be obtained from the web sites of the graphics card manufacturers (for example,www.nvidia.comandsupport.amd.com).

NOTE: If you’re using R3D Rocket graphics card, note that using it in Nuke will most likely only be considerably faster when you’re reading in at full resolution. If you’re reading in at half resolution for instance, using Nuke without the R3D Rocket card enabled may be faster. This is because the R3D Rocket graphics card is designed to be fast when reading in multiple frames at the same time. This is not how Nuke works internally, and therefore reads with the R3D Rocket card disabled may sometimes be faster

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24 Requirements for GPU Acceleration

If you want to enable Nuke to calculate certain nodes using the GPU, there are some additional requirements. You need to have:

• An NVIDIA GPU with compute capability 2.0 (Fermi) or above. A list of the compute capabilities of NVIDIA GPUs is available atwww.nvidia.co.uk/object/cuda_gpus_uk.html

NOTE: The compute capability is a property of the GPU hardware and can't be altered by a software update.

• Graphics drivers capable of running CUDA 4.2 or above. These are bundled with the regular drivers for your NVIDIA GPU. Drivers from April 2012 onward support CUDA 4.2.

Go tohttp://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-usfor more information.

NOTE: We recommend using the latest graphics drivers, where possible.

Installing Nuke on Windows

Nuke 8.0v5 is installed separately to any previous versions installed.

The installation package installs Nuke, NukeX, Nuke Assist, and the Nuke PLE version, and icons for these appear in your installation folder.

To install Nuke on Windows, see either:

•Installing Nuke with the User Interface (UI), or •Installing Nuke from the Command Line.

Installing Nuke with the User Interface (UI)

1. Download the correct .exe installation file from our web site atwww.thefoundry.co.uk. 2. Double-click on the file to install Nuke.

3. Follow the on-screen instructions. By default, Nuke is installed to drive letter:\Program Files\Nuke 8.0v5. 4. The Nuke plug-ins page on The Foundry website opens, giving you easy access to a large selection of plug-ins to

use with Nuke.

5. Proceed toLicensing Nuke on Windowson page 26.

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NOTE: On Windows, if you install Nuke to a network drive to run from multiple computers, please ensure that the correct Microsoft run time libraries are installed on each machine that runs Nuke. To do this, run

vcredist_x64.exe on each machine. The appropriate one of these files can be found in the VCRedist

subdirectory in the folder where Nuke is installed.

Running Nuke without installing the libraries on your machine may work correctly, particularly as many systems (such as Windows Vista by default) already have them. If the libraries are not present, Nuke can still run correctly, but some plug-ins may fail to load with error messages such as “This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.”

Please note that these libraries are set up automatically on the machine that runs the Nuke installer, so users installing on their local machine do not need to worry about this issue.

Installing Nuke from the Command Line

To install Nuke from the command line, do the following:

1. Download the correct .exe installation file from our web site atwww.thefoundry.co.uk.

2. To open a command prompt window, select Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt. 3. Use the cd (change directory) command to move to the directory where you saved the installation file. For

example, if you saved the installation file in C:\Temp, use the following command and press Return: cd \Temp

4. To install Nuke, do one of the following:

• To install Nuke to the current directory and display the installation dialog, type the name of the install file without the file extension and press Return:

Nuke8.0v5-win-x86-release-64

• To install Nuke to a specified directory and display the installation dialog, use the /dir install option: Nuke8.0v5-win-x86-release-64 /dir=“C:\Nuke”

• To install Nuke silently so that the installer does not prompt you for anything but displays a progress bar, enter

/silent after the installation command:

Nuke8.0v5-win-x86-release-64 /silent

• To install Nuke silently so that nothing is displayed, enter /verysilent after the installation command:

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26 Launching Nuke on Windows

To launch Nuke on Windows, do one of the following: • Double-click the Nuke icon on the Desktop.

• Select Nuke8.0v5 from Start > All Programs > The Foundry > Nuke8.0v5.

• Using a command prompt, navigate to the Nuke application directory (by default, \Program Files\Nuke8.0v5) and enter nuke8.0v5.

If you already have a valid license, the Nuke graphical interface appears, and a command line window opens. If you don't have a license or haven't installed one yet, proceed toLicensing Nuke on Windows.

Licensing Nuke on Windows

The following licensing methods are available:

• Activation Keys and Node Locked Licenses - these can be used to license Nuke on a single machine. They do not work on different machines and if you need them to, you’ll have to transfer your license.

Node locked licenses, sometimes called uncounted licenses, do not require additional licensing software to be installed.

• Floating Licenses - also known as counted licenses, enable applications to work on any networked client machine. The floating license is put on the server and is locked to a unique number on that server.

Floating licenses on a server requires additional software to be installed on the server to manage the licenses and give them out to the client stations that want them. This software is called the Foundry Licensing Tools (FLT) and can be downloaded at no extra cost from our website.

These instructions run through the basic options for both licensing methods, but you can find a more detailed description in the Foundry Licensing Tools (FLT) User Guide available on our website

www.thefoundry.co.uk/support/licensing/tools/

Obtaining Licenses

To obtain a license, you'll need your machine's System ID (sometimes called Host ID or rlmhostid). Just so you know what a System ID number looks like, here’s an example: 000ea641d7a1.

NOTE: Bear in mind that, for floating licenses, you'll need the System ID of the license server, not the machines on which you intend to run Nuke.

There are a number of ways you can find out your machine's System ID:

• Launch Nuke without a license, click Status, and then scroll down the error report until you see your System ID. • Download the Foundry License Utility (FLU) fromwww.thefoundry.co.uk/support/licensing/and run it. Your

System ID is displayed.

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• Download the Foundry Licensing Tools (FLT) free of charge fromwww.thefoundry.co.uk/support/licensing/and then run C:\Program Files\TheFoundry\LicensingTools7.0\ Foundry License Utility.exe

When you know your System ID, you can request a license for The Foundry products: • from The Foundry's Sales Department [email protected]

• from the product pages on our web site, such aswww.thefoundry.co.uk/products/nuke-product-family

• by launching Nuke without a license and selecting:

• Buy Nuke - opens a web browser directly to The Foundry website to purchase a license.

• Try Nuke - displays the 15-day trial license download screen. Enter your The Foundry account details or create a new account and follow the on-screen instructions to receive a trial license.

NOTE: By default, if you have installed a temporary license, Nuke displays a dialog at start-up alerting you to the number of days remaining. If you want to disable this behavior, you can set the FN_DISABLE_ LICENSE_DIALOG environment variable to 1 to suppress the warning message about imminent license expiration. See Configuring Nuke in the Nuke User Guide for more information.

Installing Licenses

When you start the application before installing a license, a Licensing dialog displays an error informing you that no license was available. The installation process is dependent on what type of license you requested:

• License file - if you requested a license file, typically foundry.lic, this option allows you to browse to the file location and install it automatically. SeeTo install a license from diskfor more information.

• Activation Key or license text - if you requested and Activation Key or license by email, this option allows you to paste the key or license text into the Licensing dialog, which then installs the license in the correct directory. SeeTo install an Activation Key or license textfor more information.

• A floating license - if you requested a floating license to supply licenses to multiple client machines, this option allows you enter the server address that supplies the client licenses.

NOTE: You must install a floating license and additional software on the license server to use this option. SeeTo install a floating licensefor more information.

To install a license from disk

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6. Click Open to install the license automatically in the correct directory.

To install an Activation Key or license text

1. Launch Nuke.

The Licensing dialog displays.

2. Click Install License to display the available license installation options. 3. Click Activation Key / License Text and then either:

• Enter the Activation Key string in place of Insert Activation Key Here. A license key typically looks something like this:

nuke-0101-77d3-99bd-a977-93e9-8035 OR

• Copy the license text and paste it over the Copy/Paste license text here string. License text typically looks something like this:

INCREMENT nuke_i foundry 2013.0929 29-sep-2014 uncounted \ HOSTID=000a957bfde5 ISSUED=29-sep-2012 \

SIGN="00DA 99A9 E744 217E 8AD3 E7AF E289 C0C6 \ 6B23 2891 AC01 0F50 E64D 8847 8B22 3A40 2BE9 \ A268 B7C2 4BC0 36AF"

4. Click Install.

The license is automatically installed on your machine in the correct directory.

NOTE: Activation Keys require an internet connection. If you access the internet through a proxy server and cannot connect to the activation server, you may get an error dialog prompting you to either:

Click Use Proxy to enter the proxy server name, port number, username, and password. This enables the application to connect to the activation server and obtain a license. The license is then installed

automatically, or

Click on the web link in the dialog and use the System ID (also known as hostid) provided to manually activate and install a license.

To install a floating license

If you requested a floating license from The Foundry, you will receive your license key (foundry.lic) in an email or internet download. You should also receive the Foundry License Utility (FLU) application to help you install the license key on the license server machine. The server manages licenses for the client machines on your network.

NOTE: The FLU is also available to download from www.thefoundry.co.uk/support/licensing/

1. Make sure you have saved both the license key (foundry.lic) and the FLU application in the same directory.

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2. Run the FLU application.

The license key automatically appears in the FLU window if the FLU and foundry.lic are in the same directory.

TIP: If they are not in the same directory, you can either copy and paste the contents of the license key or drag-and-drop the file into the FLU window.

This checks the license file and, provided that the license is valid, installs it into the correct directory.

4. In order for the floating license to work, you will need to install the Foundry Licensing Tools (FLT) on the license server machine.

For more information on how to install floating licenses, refer to the FLT User Guide, which you can download from our websitewww.thefoundry.co.uk/support/licensing/

5. Once your license server is up and running, launch Nuke on the client machine. The Licensing dialog displays.

6. Click Install License to display the available install methods.

7. Click Use Server and enter the server address in the field provided. The format for the server name is: <port>@<servername>, for example, 30001@red.

NOTE: You must perform steps 5 through 7 on each client machine that requires a license from the server.

NukeX on Windows

NukeX includes all of Nuke’s features with the addition of a range of specialized plug-in tools to eliminate the need to perform certain tasks in third-party software packages. NukeX is the most powerful application in the Nuke product family. For more information, seeAbout NukeXon page 13.

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30 Installing NukeX on Windows

NukeX is installed along with Nuke (seeInstalling Nuke on Windowson page 24). If you already have Nuke installed and have obtained a license for both Nuke and NukeX, you automatically have access to the NukeX features, including FurnaceCore. During the Nuke installation, four shortcuts are created for you: one each for Nuke, NukeX, Nuke Assist, and the Nuke Personal Learning Edition (PLE).

Launching NukeX on Windows

To run NukeX on Windows, do one of the following: • Double-click the NukeX icon on the Desktop.

• Select Start > All Programs > The Foundry > Nuke8.0v5 > NukeX8.0v5.

• Using a command prompt, navigate to the Nuke application directory (by default, \Program Files\Nuke8.0v5), and enter Nuke8.0v5 --nukex.

Licensing NukeX on Windows

To use NukeX, you need both a Nuke and a NukeX license. The NukeX license won’t replace your Nuke license, which ensures you can still run previous versions of Nuke.

The procedure for obtaining and installing a NukeX license is the same as that for Nuke licenses. SeeLicensing Nuke on Windowson page 26.

NOTE: Two Nuke Assist licenses are included with NukeX maintenance licenses. SeeNuke Assist on Windowson page 30.

Nuke Assist on Windows

Nuke Assist is intended for use as a workstation for artists performing painting, rotoscoping, and tracking. Nuke Assist only supports a limited subset of Nuke tools. For more information, seeAbout Nuke Assiston page 14.

Nuke Assist System Requirements on Windows

The system requirements for Nuke Assist are the same as those for Nuke. SeeNuke System Requirements on Windowson page 23.

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Installing Nuke Assist on Windows

Nuke Assist is installed along with Nuke 8.0v5 or later. SeeInstalling Nuke Assist on Windowson page 31.

Launching Nuke Assist on Windows

Do one of the following:

• Double-click the Nuke Assist icon on the Desktop.

• Select Nuke Assist8.0v5 from Start > All Programs > The Foundry > Nuke8.0v5.

• Using a command prompt, navigate to the Nuke application directory (by default, /Program Files/Nuke8.0v5), and enter

nuke8.0v5 --nukeassist

Licensing Nuke Assist on Windows

Two free licenses of Nuke Assist are included with purchases of NukeX maintenance licenses.

Nuke PLE on Windows

If you simply want to try out or learn Nuke, you can run the Nuke Personal Learning Edition (PLE) without a license key. The PLE allows you to explore most of Nuke’s features, but prevents the commercial use of the application. For more information, seeAbout the Personal Learning Editionon page 17.

PLE System Requirements on Windows

The system requirements for the PLE are the same as those for Nuke. SeeNuke System Requirements on Windows

on page 23.

Installing the PLE on Windows

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• Using a command prompt, navigate to the Nuke application directory (by default, /Program Files/Nuke8.0v5), and enter nuke8.0v5 --ple.

No License Required

You don’t need a license to run the PLE.

Mac OS X

To install and license a Nuke product on Mac OS X, see: •Nuke on Mac OS Xon page 32,

•NukeX on Mac OS Xon page 39, •Nuke Assist on Mac OS Xon page 40, or •Nuke PLE on Mac OS Xon page 40.

Nuke on Mac OS X

Nuke System Requirements on Mac OS X

Qualified Operating Systems

• Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)

• Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) • Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks)

NOTE: Nuke is expected to function correctly under OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), but we are seeing UI

performance degradation compared to previous OS X versions. We are working on resolving these issues.

Other System Requirements

• x86-64 processor, such as Intel Core 2 Duo or later.

• 5 GB of disk space available for caching and temporary files.

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• 1 GB of RAM (minimum requirement).

NOTE: If you’re using R3D Rocket graphics card, note that using it in Nuke will most likely only be considerably faster when you’re reading in at full resolution. If you’re reading in at half resolution for instance, using Nuke without the R3D Rocket card enabled may be faster. This is because the R3D Rocket graphics card is designed to be fast when reading in multiple frames at the same time. This is not how Nuke works internally, and therefore reads with the R3D Rocket card disabled may sometimes be faster when working in lower resolutions (< 4K widths). Note that the R3D Rocket card will always produce better results than Nuke when downsampling. Also, the R3D Rocket card can only be used by one application at a time, so if you are viewing multiple Nuke scripts at once, you may only be able to use the R3D Rocket card in one.

Requirements for GPU Acceleration

• An NVIDIA GPU with compute capability 2.0 (Fermi) or above. A list of the compute capabilities of NVIDIA GPUs is available at:

www.nvidia.co.uk/object/cuda_gpus_uk.html

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34 Installing Nuke on Mac OS X

To install Nuke on Mac OS X, see either:

•Installing Nuke with the User Interface (UI), or •Installing Nuke from the Command Line.

Installing Nuke with the User Interface (UI)

1. Download the correct .dmg installation file from our web site atwww.thefoundry.co.uk. 2. Double-click on the Nuke8.0v5-mac-x86-release-64.dmg archive to extract the .pkg installer:

A .pkg file is created.

3. Double-click on the .pkg file.

4. Follow the on-screen instructions to install Nuke. By default, Nuke is installed to /Applications/Nuke8.0v5.

5. The Nuke plug-ins page on The Foundry website opens, giving you easy access to a large selection of plug-ins to use with Nuke.

6. Proceed toLaunching Nuke on Mac OS Xon page 35.

Installing Nuke from the Command Line

1. Download the correct .dmg installation file from our web site atwww.thefoundry.co.uk. 2. Launch a Terminal window.

3. To mount the .dmg installation file, use the hdiutil attach command with the directory where you saved the installation file. For example, if you saved the installation file in Builds/Nuke, use the following command: hdiutil attach /Builds/Nuke/Nuke8.0v5-mac-x86-release-64.dmg

4. Enter the following command: pushd /Volumes/Nuke8.0v5/

This stores the directory path in memory, so it can be returned to later. 5. To install Nuke, use the following command:

sudo installer -pkg Nuke8.0v5-mac-x86-release-64.pkg -target "/" You are prompted for a password.

6. Enter the following command: popd

This changes to the directory stored by the pushd command.

7. Finally, use the following command to eject the mounted disk image:

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hdiutil detach /Volumes/Nuke8.0v5

NOTE: By running a silent install of Nuke, you agree to the terms of the End User Licensing Agreement. To see this agreement, please refer to the Appendices in the Nuke User Guide or run the installer in standard, non-silent mode.

Launching Nuke on Mac OS X

To launch Nuke on Mac OS X, do one of the following: • Click the Nuke dock icon.

• Open the Nuke application directory (by default, /Applications/Nuke8.0v5/), and double-click the Nuke icon (or list item).

• Open a terminal, navigate to /Applications/Nuke8.0v5/Nuke8.0v5.app/ and enter ./Nuke8.0v5. If you already have a valid license, the Nuke graphical interface appears. If you don't have a license or haven't installed one yet, proceed toLicensing Nuke on Mac OS X.

Licensing Nuke on Mac OS X

The following licensing methods are available:

• Activation Keys and Node Locked Licenses - these can be used to license Nuke on a single machine. They do not work on different machines and if you need them to, you’ll have to transfer your license.

Node locked licenses, sometimes called uncounted licenses, do not require additional licensing software to be installed.

• Floating Licenses - also known as counted licenses, enable applications to work on any networked client machine. The floating license is put on the server and is locked to a unique number on that server.

Floating licenses on a server requires additional software to be installed on the server to manage the licenses and give them out to the client stations that want them. This software is called the Foundry Licensing Tools (FLT) and can be downloaded at no extra cost from our website.

These instructions run through the basic options for both licensing methods, but you can find a more detailed description in the Foundry Licensing Tools (FLT) User Guide available on our website

www.thefoundry.co.uk/support/licensing/tools/

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36

NOTE: Bear in mind that, for floating licenses, you'll need the System ID of the license server, not the machines on which you intend to run Nuke.

There are a number of ways you can find out your machine's System ID:

• Launch Nuke without a license, click Status, and then scroll down the error report until you see your System ID. • Download the Foundry License Utility (FLU) fromwww.thefoundry.co.uk/support/licensing/and run it. Your

System ID is displayed.

• Download the Foundry Licensing Tools (FLT) free of charge fromwww.thefoundry.co.uk/support/licensing/and then run /Applications/TheFoundry/LicensingTools7.0/Foundry Licence Utility.app

When you know your System ID, you can request a license for The Foundry products: • from The Foundry's Sales Department [email protected]

• from the product pages on our web site, such aswww.thefoundry.co.uk/products/nuke-product-family

• by launching Nuke without a license and selecting:

• Buy Nuke - opens a web browser directly to The Foundry website to purchase a license.

• Try Nuke - displays the 15-day trial license download screen. Enter your The Foundry account details or create a new account and follow the on-screen instructions to receive a trial license.

NOTE: By default, if you have installed a temporary license, Nuke displays a dialog at start-up alerting you to the number of days remaining. If you want to disable this behavior, you can set the FN_DISABLE_ LICENSE_DIALOG environment variable to 1 to suppress the warning message about imminent license expiration. See Configuring Nuke in the Nuke User Guide for more information.

Installing Licenses

When you start the application before installing a license, a Licensing dialog displays an error informing you that no license was available. The installation process is dependent on what type of license you requested:

• License file - if you requested a license file, typically foundry.lic, this option allows you to browse to the file location and install it automatically. SeeTo install a license from diskfor more information.

• Activation Key or license text - if you requested and Activation Key or license by email, this option allows you to paste the key or license text into the Licensing dialog, which then installs the license in the correct directory. SeeTo install an Activation Key or license textfor more information.

• A floating license - if you requested a floating license to supply licenses to multiple client machines, this option allows you enter the server address that supplies the client licenses.

NOTE: You must install a floating license and additional software on the license server to use this option. SeeTo install a floating licensefor more information.

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To install a license from disk

1. Save the license file to a known location on disk. 2. Launch Nuke.

3. Click Install License to display the available license installation options. 4. Click Install from Disk.

5. Browse to the location of the license file.

6. Click Open to install the license automatically in the correct directory.

To install an Activation Key or license text

1. Launch Nuke.

2. Click Install License to display the available license installation options. 3. Click Activation Key / License Text and then either:

• Enter the Activation Key string in place of Insert Activation Key Here. A license key typically looks something like this:

nuke-0101-77d3-99bd-a977-93e9-8035 OR

• Copy the license text and paste it over the Copy/Paste license text here string. License text typically looks something like this:

INCREMENT nuke_i foundry 2013.0929 29-sep-2014 uncounted \ HOSTID=000a957bfde5 ISSUED=29-sep-2012 \

SIGN="00DA 99A9 E744 217E 8AD3 E7AF E289 C0C6 \ 6B23 2891 AC01 0F50 E64D 8847 8B22 3A40 2BE9 \ A268 B7C2 4BC0 36AF"

The license is automatically installed on your machine in the correct directory.

NOTE: Activation Keys require an internet connection. If you access the internet through a proxy server and cannot connect to the activation server, you may get an error dialog prompting you to either:

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38 To install a floating license

If you requested a floating license from The Foundry, you will receive your license key (foundry.lic) in an email or internet download. You should also receive the Foundry License Utility (FLU) application to help you install the license key on the license server machine. The server manages licenses for the client machines on your network.

NOTE: The FLU is also available to download fromwww.thefoundry.co.uk/support/licensing/

1. Make sure you have saved both the license key (foundry.lic) and the FLU application in the same directory. 2. Run the FLU application.