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You’re Doing That Wrong is a journal of various successes and failures by Dan Sturm.

My Custom Nuke Defaults

After a few busy months of post work, I finally found a few days to reevaluate and improve my workflows and system preferences. Since I spend a majority of my time in NukeX, that’s where I decided to start.

I’ve got some new custom tools I built recently that I’ll share with you soon enough, but first things first, Nuke’s default state needed a little adjusting. Here are the items I added to my init.py [1] file that save me tons of time and headache.

init.py:

# Project Settings > Default format: HD 1920x1080  
nuke.knobDefault("Root.format", "HD")  

# Viewer Settings > Optimize viewer during playback: on  
nuke.knobDefault("Viewer.freezeGuiWhenPlayBack", "1")  

# Write > Default for EXR files: 16bit Half, No Compression  
nuke.knobDefault("Write.exr.compression","0")  

# Exposure Tool > Use stops instead of densities  
nuke.knobDefault("EXPTool.mode", "0")  

# Text > Default font: Helvetica Regular (in Dropbox folder)  
nuke.knobDefault("Text.font",   "/Path/to/Dropbox/fonts/HelveticaRegular.   ttf")  

# StickyNote > default text size: 40pt  
nuke.knobDefault("StickyNote.note_font_size", "40")  

# RotoPaint > Set default tool to brush, set default lifetime for brush and clone to "all frames"  
nuke.knobDefault("RotoPaint.toolbox", "brush {{brush ltt 0} {clone ltt 0}}")

Explain Yourself

Since I don’t work in feature film VFX, the HD frame size is a no-brainer.

I do a fair amount of motion graphics animation in Nuke, so I often have the Curve Editor open. I’ve always been frustrated that Nuke never seems to be able to achieve realtime playback when looking at curves, so I ended up making adjustments, then switching back to the Node Graph to view my changes. Very annoying. The recently added “Optimize viewer during playback” button was the answer to my realtime problems [2]. Like all of these custom preferences, I use it so often, I want it to be on by default.

I comp almost exclusively in Open EXR image sequences. For me, 16bit Half Float with No Compression is the appropriate balance of file size and quality. By default, the Write node sets compression to Zip (1 scaneline) and it annoys the crap out of me to change it every time.

I love to use the Exposure tool, especially when color-correcting Log footage by hand [3]. But since I’m a filmmaker and a human being, I prefer to adjust exposure in Stops rather than Densities.

I set the Text node to use Helvetica by default and I keep the font in my Dropbox folder to make sure it’s always with me. Why? Because the default is normally Arial and seriously, are you kidding me?

I love using StickyNote nodes to write myself notes as I’m working. But because either my screen resolution is too high or I’m getting old and going blind [4], I always have to crank up the font size to read the damn things.

When I decide to use a RotoPaint node instead of a simple Roto node, it’s because I want to paint something. And more often than not, I want to paint or clone something for the entire duration of the shot, rather than just a single frame. Boom. Default.

What Else?

I would love to set the default feathering falloff in the Roto and RotoPaint nodes to smooth rather than linear, but I haven’t been able to figure out how to make that happen as of yet.

If you’d like to use these preferences in your Nuke setup, simply copy and paste the code into your init.py file in your .nuke directory. If you don’t have an init.py file in there, just open a text editor and make one.

Happy comping.

UPDATE – September 09, 2013, 04:55:04PM

As Joe Rosensteel pointed out on Twitter, another great tip is changing your 3D control type to Maya controls. I’m not a Maya user myself, but nearly all the 3D artists I work with are, and nothing makes them happier to help you out than saying, “Would you like to take stab at it? You know the 3D controls are the same as Maya’s”. And the 3D control type preference is super easy to adjust. It’s part of the GUI in the application preferences pane, under the Viewers tab.

  1. If you were unaware, you can modify Nuke’s default state by creating a file called init.py in your .nuke directory. The application loads your preferences on launch and it’s easy enough to add/remove settings without screwing up your install. More info on page 18 of the Nuke User Guide  ↩

  2. I don’t remember exactly which version introduced it, but it’s the button that looks like a snowflake to the left of the playback controls.  ↩

  3. Yes, I’m familiar with the concept of LUTs.  ↩

  4. Rhetroical.  ↩