Understanding Nuke's unique Layer and Channel system (including the Shuffle Nodes)

Written by Matt_L on .

One of Nuke's unique features is its 'Multi-channel, high dynamic range compositing system'. What this means is that Nuke can handle over a thousand 'Channels' of data; red, green, blue and alpha would be counted as 4 'Channels' out of a possible 1024 available. 'Channels' are stored in 'Layers' which may contain up to eight 'Channels' each. To help understand what's happening take a look at the diagrams below.

A SINGLE LAYER CONTAINING 4 CHANNELSA SINGLE LAYER CONTAINING 4 CHANNELS

256 LAYERS, EACH HOLDING 4 CHANNELS, MAKES 1024 CHANNELS OF DATA
256 LAYERS, EACH HOLDING 4 CHANNELS, MAKES 1024 CHANNELS OF DATA


This 'Layer' and 'Channel' system is unique to Nuke and gives the artist huge flexibility both working directly in Nuke and in using multi-pass files rendered from a 3D package. Let's deal with 3D first.

 

Benefits Coming from 3D
Today many 3D packages and studios support the use of multi-pass rendering. What this means is that instead of rendering your images flattened, you render them in layers based on colour and light information. e.g. a render could be broken down into Ambient, Diffuse, Specular, Reflection and Shadow passes. These are then combined back together in Nuke (or any Compositing package) to create the look of the original flattened version.

FROM TOP LEFT TO BOTTOM RIGHT: BEAUTY (Flattened), EMPTY PASS, DIFFUSE, REFLECTION, SHADOW, SPECULAR
FROM TOP LEFT TO BOTTOM RIGHT: BEAUTY (Flattened), EMPTY PASS, DIFFUSE, REFLECTION, SHADOW, SPECULAR

This gives the compositor a vast amount of freedom in deciding how the final image should look. A colour correction could be made to the Specular pass, for instance, or a blur added to the reflection before the passes are composited together. This is a much faster and more efficient way of working, saving both time and money because the renders do not have to be returned to 3D for re-rendering which is often a long and expensive process.

Nuke's 'Layer' and 'Channel' system gives you the ability to work directly with file formats that can hold all this extra data. Ambient, Diffuse, Specular and Reflection passes are all colour passes which need red, green and blue to make up each pass. Shadow, on the other hand, is often just a single colour and hence needs just a single channel. So, for example, combining together Ambient, Diffuse, Specular and Reflection passes (with 3 channels each) and a single channel Shadow pass would give you a total of 13 channels. Many file formats are unable to handle this many channels, e.g. JPEG supports 3, TARGA supports 4, TIFF only 5 or so. Some file formats though have been specially designed to handle more channels, and the one most companies have now adopted is Industrial Light and Magic's in-house format openEXR (.exr). This file format can support up to 1024 channels of data and has the added benefit of supporting 16-bit floating-point, 32-bit floating-point, and 32-bit integer colour depths.
ILM Logo

 

 

 

 

 

Benefits Inside Nuke

Nuke's unique 'Layer' and 'Channel' system enables us not only to view all these different render passes, but also to reorganise, split-out and work with them in multiple ways. When the above example is loaded into Nuke via the Read node and viewed, the Viewer shows the rgba 'Layer' and RGB 'Channels' as below. In your 3D package this would be your flattened render (Beauty pass).


THE LAYER AND CHANNEL BEING SHOWN IN THE VIEWERTHE LAYER AND CHANNEL BEING SHOWN IN THE VIEWER
(ie The 'Layer' called RGBA and the collective 'Channels' Red, Green and Blue)

Now both the 'Layer' control and 'Channel' control can be changed to show you different information in the Viewer.

image

So in the example below the Viewer has been changed to show the 'Layer' Reflection and then only the 1st or Red 'Channel'

image

Now the reason I say the "1st" 'Channel' as well as "Red" is that the Viewer can only describe the information as Red, Green, Blue or Alpha. For example a file could contain a zDepth pass, a Point Pass, a UV Pass, a Normal Pass, a Motion Vector Pass, or various Mattes, etc. All these utility or AOV (Arbitrary Output Variables) passes are not really colour passes but rather data passes. Unfortunately Nuke does not allow us to view this information using its proper name but always calls it R, G, B and A. So if you had a Motion Vector pass containing U and V information, it would be shown in the Viewer as R and G.

Before we move on from looking at the Viewer, it's worth talking about the middle option between 'Layers' and 'Channels' which by default is set to 'rgba.alpha'. This box only becomes active when the 'Channel' selection box is set to 'Matte Overlay' (Mat). It gives you the ability to specify a matte overlay channel and view it together with your colour channels in one view by showing it as a red semi-transparent shape. Although it would commonly be used to view the alpha channel or any other related Matte over the colour information, the overlay can in fact be any channel you specify in this middle box, giving you the ability to define and view a custom Matte of your choice.

The example below illustrates this. A Bezier node which has been drawn round three tiles on the floor. The output of this Bezier has been assigned to a custom 'Layer' called "floor" and a single custom 'Channel' called "Bezier1" - more about these custom settings later. (Note that in the Viewer, this will be called R not bezier1). In the Viewer, the 'Layer' has been set to rgba and the 'Channel' has been set to the Matte Overlay (Mat) option. The middle box has then been changed from 'rgba.alpha' to 'floor.bezier1' in order to show the Bezier1 custom Matte overlayed with the colour channel.

image

Shuffle and Shuffle Copy
The Shuffle and Shuffle Copy nodes in Nuke enable you to organise and rearrange the 'Layers' and 'Channels' and to create new custom ones if needed. At first they can appear slightly daunting but once you understand their layout, things are much simpler. The first thing to note is the UI for both Shuffle and Shuffle copy are almost identical, which is one of the confusing things.

SHUFFLE, Single Input

SHUFFLE, Single Input       
(Note UI change for ease of understanding)          
          SHUFFLE COPY, Double Input

 

The main difference between Shuffle and Shuffle Copy nodes are the number of input - single versus double. Shuffle lets you rearrange the channels from a single image and then output the result to the next node in your composite, whereas Shuffle Copy lets you rearrange channels from two images into a single output.

Shuffle
The diagram below shows the flow of data ('Layers' and 'Channels') through the shuffle node.

image

I find the easiest way to read the Shuffle node is backwards, ie. "What do I want to get OUT in the end and therefore what do I need to feed IN to achieve this?".

In this example the data is not changed. We want to end up with the 'Layer' rgba containing the 'Channels' Red, Green, Blue and Alpha. To do this we first set the output 'Layer' to rgba (pre-set already). We then need to choose which Input 'Channels' are going to be fed into which Output 'Channels'. We want Red into Red, Green into Green, Blue in Blue and Alpha into Alpha. In order to achieve this we simply check the box where the DATA IN meets the DATA OUT as shown above.

Now let's change the order. We'll put the Red input into the Green output, the Green input into the Blue output, and the Blue input into the Red output. We'll leave the Alpha channel where it is for the time being.

image(Left) ORIGINAL IMAGE . (Middle) SETTINGS . (Right) SHUFFLED IMAGE

Now let's talk about Alpha. You can of course Shuffle any 'Channel' into the Alpha channel as well as Shuffling Alpha into the r, g, b channels, but you also have the option of replacing the Alpha with black (removing the Alpha channel) or with white (making it solid). You do this by using the 0 and 1 columns.

image(Left) ORIGINAL ALPHA . (Middle) SETTINGS . (Right) SHUFFLED ALPHA

The bottom section of the Shuffle node works just like the top and enables you to add data into more than the standard four (r, g, b, a) 'Channels' we've so far talked about. Say you have an Alpha channel that you want to make solid but you still want to keep that data, the bottom section of the Shuffle node can help you do this. You can move the Alpha channel data to a new (or existing) 'Channel' and then overwrite the original Alpha with a solid white (1).

In this example we're make a new custom 'Layer' and 'Channel' to hold our existing Alpha data. To do this, make the Alpha channel solid as above. Now in the lower half change the none box to new which brings up a new dialog box.

image

This New Layer dialog box enables you to create a new 'Layer' with up to eight 'Channels'. First add the name of the new 'Layer' you want to create, then add one or more 'Channel' names. If you click the Auto: rgba button Nuke will fill in the first four 'Channels' automatically for you. Once complete, click OK to return to the Shuffle node.

image

NEW LAYER DIALOG BOX
Name = oldAlpha
Channels = alphaShape

SHUFFLE SETTINGS
Note alphaShape is in the first
'Channel' of the new 'Layer' which
is the R 'Channel', out of rgba

VIEWER 
'Layers' and 'Channels' changed to
show newly Shuffled Alpha.
Note alphaShape is labeled R

Now simply check the box where alphaShape (oldAlpha) and a (rgba) meet, so that your original Alpha channel is shuffled into your new custom 'Layer' and 'Channel'. Please note that, as discussed earlier, when you view this new custom 'Layer' and 'Channel' in the Viewer it will come up under the 'R' label instead of 'alphaShape'.

Shuffle Copy
Once you've got the hang of Shuffle, Shuffle Copy is very straightforward. Let's assume you have two images, one contains the Beauty pass and the other the zDepth pass. You need both of these passes brought together in the same stream so you can use the ZBlur tool which creates a Depth of Field blur.

The first thing to note with the Shuffle Copy node is that whereas the Merge node's inputs are labelled A and B, for some reason the Shuffle Copy inputs are labelled 1 and 2. You can assume 1 is A and 2 is B. In Nuke the B input is always the main direction of the stream and the A input adds something into that existing stream. This works the same way for the Shuffle Copy, 2 is the main stream and 1 brings in the extra data.

In the diagram below the Beauty Pass is coming in on the 2 input and the extra zDepth pass is coming in on 1. If you look at the Shuffle Copy properties you'll see that we have both "1 in" and "2 in" column inputs. Do not panic! It works just the same as the Shuffle node. The red, green, blue and alpha values all need to come from "2 in" which is being fed by the Beauty Pass. We then utilise an existing 'Layer' and 'Channel' in Nuke called 'depth' and 'Z' which we open up in the lower section. Into this we feed the red 'channel' from the rgba 'Layer' of the zDepth Pass (coming in on "1 in").

image

More Information on Shuffle and Shuffle Copy
Up until now we have only been using the 'Layer' rgba with the Shuffle and Shuffle Copy nodes, but there is no reason why you can't change the 'Layer' and Shuffle other passes around. A common use of the Shuffle node is to split out a multipass openEXR back into individual layers so they can be composited together.

image

 

Other CHANNEL Nodes
Some other useful nodes for working with 'Channels' are COPY, CHANNEL MERGE, ADD and REMOVE.

COPY
Replaces 'Channels' in the B input with 'Channels' from the A input.

CHANNEL MERGE
Does simple maths between one 'Channel' from each input and puts the result in the output 'Channel'.

ADD
Adds new 'Channels' to the image and stream.

REMOVE
Removes 'Channels' from the image and stream.

 

Article written by Matt Leonard, Sphere VFX Ltd.

Comments   

 
0 # Adam Benami 2010-12-02 09:46
thanks!
that was very informative
i got one question.
it seems that if the shufflecopy node is used twice in a row it the 2nd node does not keep the layers from the first shufflecopy.
is that right or am i missing something ?

thanks again
-Adam
 
 
0 # Chris Forrester 2014-04-02 07:40
I believe that as long as you keep pipe 2 flowing downwards between the shufflecopy nodes you will see any previous layers at that point and the new one you create.

Think of it in a similar fashion to the B pipe rule when using the merge node but pipe "2" is now "B" and all should be good.

Regards

Chris

Quoting Adam Benami:
thanks!
that was very informative
i got one question.
it seems that if the shufflecopy node is used twice in a row it the 2nd node does not keep the layers from the first shufflecopy.
is that right or am i missing something ?

thanks again
-Adam
 
 
0 # djati waskito 2010-12-08 04:13
hey Matt, it is really usefull for me so far. I really appreciated what you just have written.
thank you

- djati waskito
 
 
0 # Matt Leonard 2010-12-08 04:44
Hi Adam,

You are right, adding multiple Shuffle Copy nodes one under another is not going to work. The correct method is to use the Copy [k] node instead. This can be chained together without hitting the loss of layers above issue.

Really clad you liked the tutorial.

Matt
 
 
0 # Matt Leonard 2010-12-08 04:45
Hi Djati,

Thanks for your kind words!

Matt
 
 
+1 # Giso Spijkerman 2011-02-01 02:36
Thanks Matt,

as an AFX compositer these principles are very new to me but your explanations are very clear and so now it's easier for me to switch to Nuke.

Thanks
Giso
 
 
0 # arash shirzad 2011-09-21 22:46
Thanks Matt, it is very usefull for me...
 
 
0 # Diego Acosta 2012-03-01 11:10
Muchas gracias Matt, saludos desde Colombia...
 
 
0 # Jadan Duffin 2012-07-01 04:05
For some reason, I'm not seeing any images in this tutorial? Is it me?
 
 
0 # vikram kale 2012-08-14 07:49
Thanks matt,
this is such a great information..ca n you please explain copy node also like this..

Vikram
 
 
0 # Andrew Larson 2013-09-10 18:04
I can't see the images either. can you check the links?
 
 
+1 # Frank Rueter 2013-09-11 09:22
these images are all linked to Matt's server, so unfortunately I can't do anything to help here. Matt, can you fix this on your end please?
 
 
0 # Matt Leonard 2014-05-17 11:14
All fixed!

Matt
 
 
0 # rafal kaniewski 2022-03-07 12:12
FYI: NUKE layer channels naming

convention of naming in this post.
. i.e. diffuse.red

RGBA TOP LAYER
The default top layer in the viewer and all tools is rgba. (not beauty.)
RGBA CHANNEL AUTO NAMING
Nuke will sanitize .rgba channels to avoid getting multiple channels in the same layer. i.e. beauty.r / beauty.red in the same layer. So it does this: .red = .r, .R, Red, .RED
FOUR CHANNEL LIMIT
Nuke only works well with four channels per layer. This was to stop the common issue of combining P.xyz & P.XYZ that turned into P.xXyYzZ.

Nuke uses the ‘other’ layer as an overflow of channels. This does not have a limit to its layer count, but it does break several of nuke's tools, or becomes hidden. The ‘other’ layer causes issues in nuke and is best avoided.

Using a simple commandline utility included with the EXR libraries called "exrheader" can prename channel of an exr.
DWAA
This is a compression format designed by ILM for CG renders similar to JPG2000. It uses capitalization on the specific first letter of the channel name to apply compression. (this compression also acts as a mild denoiser)

Lossy compressed Channel names: R, G, B, Y, RY, BY (capital channel names are required)
All other channel names not fitting the above: use lossless(to 16bit float) Zip or RLE. Red, red, r, Green, green, g, Blue, blue, b, x, y, z, U, u, V, v, etc…

So the general rule is for data AOV is lowercase channel names for the first letter, and AOV contribution stick to: R, G, B, Y, RY, BY
 
 
0 # rafal kaniewski 2022-03-07 12:14
Quoting rafal kaniewski:
FYI: NUKE layer channels naming

convention of naming in this post.
. i.e. diffuse.red

convention of naming in this post.
layers.channel i.e. diffuse.red
 

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