Spectral Lens / Spectral Aberration Pro V2
Physically inspired 7-band chromatic aberration for Nuke. Features Radial, Linear & Spin modes for realistic or stylized optics.
Spectral Lens Aberration Pro V2
First submitted: 6 February 2026
Updated: 16 February 2026
Author: Marty Blumen
Website: https://www.martyblumen.com/
Compatible Nuke versions: 10.0 or later
Compatibility: Windows, Source
Spectral Lens V2 is a physically inspired chromatic aberration gizmo for Nuke that models dispersion as a continuous wavelength phenomenon rather than a simple RGB channel offset. Instead of shifting only red and blue, the image is decomposed into seven discrete spectral bands (from violet to red), allowing intermediate colors such as cyan, yellow, and orange to emerge naturally. This produces smoother, lens-like color separation that better matches real optical behavior.
Each spectral band is transformed around a user-defined Optical Center using a Cauchy-style dispersion model. A Focus Wavelength remains sharp, while shorter and longer wavelengths expand, rotate, or shift based on a dispersion coefficient.
New in Version 2:
Multi-Mode Dispersion: Now supports three distinct optical behaviors:
Zoom (Radial): The classic "push-in" effect where dispersion increases towards the edges.
Spin (Circular): Simulates "swirly" vintage lens characteristics (like a Helios 44-2).
Linear: Creates directional, anamorphic-style spectral smears.
Intensity Control: A global Brightness Multiplier to easily boost or dim the aberration effect without affecting the original plate's alpha.
Smart Workflow: The tool Auto-Centers itself upon creation and includes a Snap to Center button for quick resets.
Compositing Safety: Features built-in Overscan and Crop to Format controls to handle edge pixels and prevent bounding box errors downstream.
The bands are tinted, additively recombined, and normalized to preserve overall luminance and color balance. An optional Gap Smoothing pass blends the discrete bands into a continuous spectrum, trading strict physical accuracy for improved visual cohesion. The result is a controllable, artist-friendly effect that scales cleanly from subtle realism to stylized dispersion.
Version History
v2.0: Added Linear/Spin modes, Intensity slider, Auto-Center, and Overscan.
v1.0.1: Initial release (Radial/Zoom model). with alpha fix - hat tip to Fat Fish
BSD 3-Clause License
Copyright (c) 2026, Marten Blumen
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this
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Spectral Lens — A Nuke gizmo for spectral-based image manipulation.
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