Ben's Comp Newsletter: Issue 035

 
Hey,

I'm happy to share a handful of really useful tools with you this week!
 

DasGrain


DasGrain, by Fabian Holtz, is a semi-automatic regrain tool which intelligently analyzes the grain in your plate, and uses it to regrain an entire degrained comp. It works by:
  • Isolating the grain by finding the difference between a plate & its degrained counterpart.
  • Analyses the grain response over a range of luminance, and adapts the grain to fit your comp based on its own luminance.
  • Uses a mask input to restore the plate's original grain, so you don't have to Keymix your plate back over top at the end of your script.
However, the real power of this gizmo comes from how it breaks up grain in areas with distinct luminance detail that bleeds through from the plate. It uses a Voronoi pattern to redistribute a flat grain sample into problematic areas, which "normalizes" your grain plate, and makes all your regraining problems disappear!

It's not often that a tool comes around that totally changes the way you work. Fabian reached out to share the updated version of DasGrain with me a couple of weeks ago, which I've had the pleasure of testing out, and it's now available for you to download!
 
Click here to download DasGrain from Nukepedia.

B_IBKstacker


I recently came across Boris Martínez Castillo's website searching for a tool for a specific problem. He has a bunch of great tools, but B_IBKstacker is one that really caught my eye...

When using IBK to key a shot, a common workflow is to refine the details of your IBKColour node with a smaller size, then copy/paste the node a bunch of times to create a detailed clean screen.

Boris' Python script automatically handles the copy/pasting, then expression-links all the knobs on the copies to the original for easy changes, and finally, it creates & hooks up the IBKGizmo node for you. It's quite convenient and handy to not have to do this manually ever again!
 
Click here to download B_IBKstacker from Boris' website.

F_Backdrop
 

A while ago, I shared a Python Script I wrote that lets you add Backdrop Node Presets to a menu for easy access. This week I decided to extend it's functionality, to aid in creating better backdrops, faster...

While doing some research to discover what other backdrop tools exist, I stumbled upon an existing solution by Franklin Toussaint which I really like!

His F_Backdrop tool replaces Nuke's existing BackdropNode, and gives you a bunch of colour preset buttons in the node's properties panel, which saves a few clicks. Although I especially appreciate the buttons that grow and shrink the Backdrop's size as well!

It's definitely worth your time to replace Nuke's default backdrop node with this one.
 
Click here to download F_Backdrop from Franklin's website.

Disney - The Magic of Animation


The kaptainkristian Channel on YouTube is filled with well thought out video essays on the art & theory of filmmaking.

In this video, he lays out the fundamental principals of animation, as practiced by Disney's famed, "Nine Old Men". As Compositors, we don't often get a chance to think about these principles, but they're important ones to brush up on and should subconsciously slip their way into your day-to-day work.
 
Click here to watch Disney - The Magic of Animation.

Did you find this newsletter informative?


Have you created, or do you know of any outstanding Gizmos, Python Scripts or Tutorials that you would like to share with the global Compositing community? Please send me an email, and I will do my best to include it in a future issue of this newsletter.

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