What is Reddit's opinion of
NUKE?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
34 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
It's clear that lack of top-end workstation hardware offerings has been a major blow to Mac in professional settings. It suggests Apple is choosing the short-term instead of the long term.
The Linux community can regard that as a weakness in the war against Microsoft, or an opportunity to pick up marketshare for Linux. But the off-the-shelf software support for most of these workflows has been weak in the last decade at least, and the general Linux community doesn't know much about the professional market, and it takes time for any professional market to warm to any change.
VFX are heavy users of Linux because their custom tools, plus AutoDesk Maya, plus all of Foundry's software, plus Blender, are all on Linux. Video haven't been heavy users of Linux because codec support is a patent gray area with different rules in different countries, and because several of the most popular off-the-shelf packages have chosen not to support Linux.
They will want you to buy a license for the period of time you have been using it. You can buy it outright from their website for £3.5k. If you cannot make them happy or come to an agreement with them, they can take you to Court for the full amount, though often they don't actually want to do this.
It's worth noting they have a free version for non-commercial use. You can agree a repayment agreement with them, £10 a month for 25 years or something if you cannot afford to pay it in one go.
Unfortunately, there is no easy or painless way out of this situation.
Will you take Industrial Light and Magic as a source?
"ILM built a digital New York, seamlessly blending real photography and physical sets with CGI that included trees, extras, and buildings."
Note seamlessly blending real photography and physical sets is differentiated from CGI trees, extras, and buildings.
If CGI was all Visual Effects done with a computer, you wouldn't phrase it that way. It would say "using CGI to blend real photography, physical sets, and 3D modeled trees..."
Source: http://lucasfilm.com/industrial-light-and-magic
I'll take it a step further. The Foundry (formerly Digital Domain), which makes high-end Visual Effects compositing software like Nuke, used in films like Gravity and The Force Awakens. They call their users VFX or Visual Effects artists. Note the lack of the term CGI on their site:
https://www.foundry.com/products/nuke
You'll find people who argue CGI is more encompassing but the industry tends to consider compositing separate from CGI.
Here is a job description I found at Dreamworks:
"Summary: The Media Tools Team is seeking an experienced software developer to help build tools and web services for the management and delivery of media for Dreamworks Animated Features. The ideal candidate will be a highly motivated self-starter able to hit the ground running in an agile development environment.
Responsibilities include: Forge a path to a new, scalable, distributed pipeline while supporting active, legacy and third-party software used in feature animation production; Collaborate with Production Management, Artists, Editorial staff to solve technical issues arising from feature production; Use your understanding of computer science and computer animation to deliver creative, workflow-minded solutions to challenging technical problems
Qualifications/Requirements: BS in Computer Science or equivalent industry experience; Minimum 3 years professional experience in Python"
Here's a Reddit AMA that might be interesting to you
These might clear that up a little. I don't personally have much animation experience. I imagine a good way to stand out for these companies is to make something using a tool like Nuke. And I'd keep checking the Dreamworks and Pixar internship/job board to see when something opens up.
To add to the growing list of multiplatform applications with first-class Linux support, some of the VFX industry's heaviest heavyweights; Maya (frankly, most of Autodesk's products), Nuke, Houdini, etc.
Chances are if you've been to the cinema in the last... ever, there's a better than even chance the visual effects in the film you watched weren't made on Mac or Windows machines.
You can use the spline warp node in nuke.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SthlyRNXbkU
If you don't have a copy, just download the non-commercial version.
There's a good thread here that goes over it, you can find a breakdown on Foundry's website.
For composting you would use an application called “Nuke”. It is costly around $10,000 USD, but if you’re going to use it as a non commercial it’s free. https://www.foundry.com/products/nuke-family/non-commercial I’ve been running this software on a $200 USD laptop and it runs fine. But it may crash if you do heavy work in Nuke.
My point here is if you are thinking about just learning the basics of composting your budget is fine. However if you move to other aspects of the VFX pipeline like modeling and animation, your pc or laptop with that low budget wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Foundry "Nuke". It's industry standard Compositing software. It's what a lot of high-end 2d or 2.5d work is done on. Think of it as Photoshop on steroids.
They have a non-commercial license if you want to have a go: here
> Do not say Photoshop, please, something that is free
Well... Of course not. Only very few gif makers still use Photoshop. Most use video editing software like After Effects.
Free Photoshop alternative - GIMP
Free AE alternative - Nuke
Most websites don't create high quality gifs. You can have a look at ezgif.com, that's rather user-friendly.
Also you should think about your resolution. I'd shrink that by 50% to a max width of 960 and use 30FPS. 1920x1080@60 will probably be a problem for any video-to-gif conversion website.
Nuke would be my recommendation. Obviously it's a lot more expensive, but it's the industry standard for compositing/post work for a reason. It's insanely flexible and even just built-in tools (let alone all the plugins and scripts) make it very powerful for non-destructive and high quality post work.
Lynda has a good course for nuke, that is better than the company that makes the software's own tutorials at this point. On that other hand, I wanted to take a node course there, came up with nothing that looked legit...but found a good one on udemy, so it varies by subject in my experience. My library card give me free Lynda access though, so everyone should check if their does too.
No core skills you learn in After Effects will go to waste as long as you are focusing on theory rather than specific tools. Just remember that the best longterm career paths involve being software agnostic, by the time you are industry who knows what the main package of choice will be. It changes place to place and over time, even if Nuke is the biggest player right now. After Effects is a great place to start, I started there, many people do. It doesn't show up a ton in VFX houses but everywhere I've worked still values having staff that are experienced in it. While the tools to complete work change, many things stay largely the same, roto, colour theory-composition, timing, photographic knowledge (if you really want to get a head start by grabbing a camera and learn how it works / how to take a picture, it pays off unbelievably later).
At this point have fun with it and make everything you learn your own, don't follow tutorials step by step without thinking, instead, question if it's the best way, experiment, think carefully about what your clicking, typing, moving before you do it and see if you can guess what happens next.
The best advice I ever got where I was starting RTFM: read the f**king manual. It may be boring but learn the deep guts of the software but if you do and you also learn the components of a good image, in the end, no one will be able to catch up to you.
If you really want to dive into software that's more prevalent right now Nuke offers a free non-commercial use version that's great for learning: https://www.foundry.com/products/nuke/non-commercial
Similar node based compositing software concepts can be learned in Fusion or Natron, both of which are free to use: https://natron.fr/ https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/ca/products/fusion/
But at the end of it, overall don't sweat what package you're in right now too much and have fun making things :)
I don't think you need additional schooling at this stage, but I'm coming from the viewpoint of a self-taught houdini td who started when cmi vfx only sold dvds, so ymmv.
I think your reel will be your first step into the door, and today there's far more resources out there for you to get that reel done (cmi vfx has affordable nuke tutorials). There's a non commercial version of nuke you can use (https://www.foundry.com/products/nuke/non-commercial) - and lots of resources out there to learn about compositing. I think if you search around you'll also find some elements and plates for you to learn comping on.
There's also the mpc academy but I've no experience with that. Good luck!
All the limitations of the Non-commercial version are listed here. I believe it has everything I just mentioned. I use additional "gizmos" which are like plugins which would not be included.
I learnt Nuke initially from a book called Nuke 101. Little old now but still a very good starting point. I would also recommend Hugos Desk on YouTube. Here is a link to his Nuke for dummies series on his channel.
Radeon RX 6900 XT is not on the list of supported GPU's at this time. That doesn't 100% mean that's the problem. But it very well could be that Nuke isn't able to locate "a supported gpu."
There are probably ways to force this but that's beyond my expertise.
Nope. Free for anyone to use. You can’t make money off the free version, and it has a few limitations, but it’s still super powerful. Just a question of if you’ve got a computer that can run it.
Houdini (3d app, used heavily for simulation work and increasingly for everything else)
+
Nuke (2d composites. Think Photoshop on steroids) both have free licenses available.
Once you're familiar with the UIs, I'd recommend finding something you like the look of, find out what the effect is called or how it's described, then try to find tutorials on that, and follow along.
Do lots of small projects. They're easier to debug, and you'll feel the progression faster.
In Nuke, the CPU acts much more than the GPU which only works on a handful of nodes. What you really want tho is to get yourself a suitable amount of RAM. Maybe have a look at this site as well: https://www.foundry.com/products/nuke/requirements officially, the GPUs from the iMac aren't supported, but could still work well enough. Personally I'd get the 16GB 5700 XT to utilize the power in other packages than Nuke as well. Regardless which CPU you use, I'd aim for a 128GB kit, 64GB doesn't really cut it anymore these days.
the free non-commercial one :)
https://www.foundry.com/products/nuke/non-commercial
i (and many others) are happy to answer, but once you are on the website you should check out the differences yourself (if you are just starting the differences are minor). you don't want to run around with every question because it will result in you running around all the time instead of learning and getting experience. the things they teach you in college and tutorial videos are really just the very basics you have to do a lot of your own digging.
if light saber was fun that's good! now do another lightsaber shot without plug-ins. it's a simple comp task, sounds like a prime example of the harmful wizard approach.
does AE have tracking, masking, glow or blur, and color correction options? (i know the answer is YES)
- if YES you don't want a plug-in for this.
- if NO then you don't want to waste your time in AE.
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if 3d is boring in maya, it will be boring in houdini too i guess. at least it will be much harder and longer too. :D (and it's not tightly related to drawing anyway)
also, if you find some task boring it seems logical you won't want to specialize in that task but something else.
explosions is
- either 3d for doing new explosions: dynamics and simulations, king of the hill is houdini (you are in for a few years of learning boring & tech intensive 3d :) )
- or comp for (re)using explosions from live action footage and rendered explosions coming from 3d
FXPHD has a course to become a Nuke official trainer, they will even add your face in The Foundry's website:
Jesus what did they do to you? if you need a compositing program try Nuke. You also wont have to pay that shady Adobe monthly fee - you can buy it all at once and keep it forever!
I am a big fan of open source Natron is kind of a zombie project. Development has stopped and came back but still there is no progress coming and you can't expect that anything will change. Blender has a Compositor, too - but it is still not optimal, I kinda wish that a studio or developers dedicated to VFX join the Blender development in the future.
But for you: Use Fusion for commercial projects or try Nuke non commercial: https://www.foundry.com/products/nuke/non-commercial
What you normally would do is rotoscoping. Drawing lines wit loads of points then animate it, making a mask. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping
The green helps automate this process, all the Green becomes a mask (with a feather).
Drawing a blob around the face inside the green is no problem and you can add this to the mask. You have to recreate (part of) the background anyway, since all the masking creates a hole in the image and is only filled with the rocket character, created by the 3d team.
Tools like Nuke from the foundry help a lot in compositing: https://www.foundry.com/products/nuke/features
You may have missed this, because I'd bet you've been cutting online your whole life, but what they meant isn't editing over the Internet, but rather doing an offline/online workflow, AKA: proxies. They would cut in proxies in either Premiere or Avid, and then reconnect and work with the full res in Flame or Nuke.
There's a subset of VFX called compositing where people assemble the final scene that can be made up of thousands of layers. They get the background plate from the camera, smoke and fire sims, characters, as well as tons of other passes, mattes, etc. so that they can make small adjustments to parts of the scene quickly. A surprisingly common part of the job is to destroy perfectly rendered assets. Motion blur, other blurs, grain, color adjustments, etc. all have to be applied to each of these layers so that they blend together seamlessly. For most films, they use an app called Nuke for this.
For anyone seeing this I looked at his Vimeo and he listed Nuke as one of his main tools. Here's the free link bros:
The realtime composting is done by software called NUKE.
"We bake in UE4, we comp in NUKE, we create 3D environments and animated characters and elements in 3D Studio Max".
Not sure but if I remember correctly nuke has great tracking tool. If advanced vfx is what you want to do as a job in the futur try to learn this software :) Nuke is the go to software for the majority of vfx artist working for hollywood. It's expensive and impossible to crack without wierd torrent that I wouldn't trust if I was you, but they offer a lifetime free version for anyone that which to learn the software. Surelly render are possible but they are full of colored dot added to avoid illegal usage of the free version. Still, every tool are unlocked and you can do neat thing with it ;)
Take a look : https://www.foundry.com/products/nuke
I 2nd u/PotatoRecipe regarding PluralSight and fxphd. PluralSight depends heavily on the course, some are real rubbish, but some are really really good. fxphd has a very high quality level of tutorials, sometimes you watch if for something general and suddenly there's an excourse and you learn something amazing just as a side-effect. But comes at a price.
I also 2nd his other words: Foundry has a pretty neat own learning channel: https://www.foundry.com/products/nuke/tutorials it's not always the way you'd like it, but usually short enough to keep you in.
And to 2nd a last thing, Steve Wright. But not only for the books, also his tutorials; sometimes they are a bit too long if you know what I mean, but great advice and technique. I think he works for Lynda these days, there's a show called Nuke Nuggets IIRC, which is also quite nice
I've had to remove a few comments advocating piracy. We do not condone pirating software on this subreddit.
As visual effects artists we can sometimes struggle with being paid for our work, and everyone should be paid for the work they do. That doesn't stop with us. It also applies to the software developers working to create the tools we use every day. Everyone should be paid for the work they do.
There are plenty of options before pirating software. Nuke non-commercial being one of them, it's there for a reason.
- Mods
This one has numerous disciplines. In general I guess the closest thing is a VFX Artist, but its very broad and you'd need to specialise.
I mean there are artists that work in multiple disciplines called - generalists but you find them more in advertisement work and you got to be really good at it.
A lot of the "grunt" work here is done by compositing artists and I suspect they worked in Nuke (https://www.foundry.com/products/nuke) which is an industry standard. So its probably closest job title that would fit to what you saw there.
Maybe some vfx guys can elaborate more as I mostly do 3D stuff.
Salut ! Sur les grosses prod' c'est Nuke qui prime pour le compositing c'est beaucoup plus robustes pour le traitement des images, généralement la suite adobe est plutot délaissée car beaucoup plus limité out of the box et la gestion des images exr est vraiment pas encore au top
So it sounds like you want to do compositing... Open source, free or trial softwares would be...
Nuke Non-Commercial version - Free trial for 15 days then restricted to HD and a few nodes disabled, but still very very useable and my first choice if I were in your position. Industry standard for film and most tv.
Fusion - Pretty much completely free. A few studio-only things added in the paid version. Not very widely used in industry, but a very strong competitor to nuke. Many parts of fusion are deemed to be better than nuke but it's difficult to knock the industry standard off the top spot!
After Effects - 30 day free trial. Easy to learn (VideoCoPilot.net). Layer based compositing instead of node based.