Explodes dense Roto nodes into separate nodes to improve performance, organization, and usability while preserving structure and flexibility.
Roto Exploder
First submitted: 15 February 2026
Author: Marty Blumen
Website: https://www.martyblumen.com/
Compatible Nuke versions: 13.0 or later
Compatibility: Source
Roto Exploder for Nuke
Roto Exploder is a Python tool that splits dense, complex Roto nodes into separate, lightweight nodes to improve performance and usability. Heavy roto with hundreds of shapes can slow Nuke significantly. Exploding the structure makes scripts faster, more responsive, and easier to manage.
The tool recursively traverses the internal Roto layer tree, extracting layers or individual shapes into new Roto nodes while preserving their original transforms, attributes, and hierarchy relationships. Depth-limited traversal allows precise control over how much of the hierarchy is expanded.
To maintain efficient compositing performance, the tool reconstructs the result using a balanced binary merge tree. This reduces merge depth from linear O(n) to logarithmic O(log n), significantly improving evaluation speed compared to traditional sequential merges.
Built-in analysis scans the Roto structure beforehand, reporting shape counts, hierarchy depth, and estimated output. Memory-efficient chunked processing ensures stability when working with very large roto structures. The original Roto node is preserved and disabled, ensuring a fully non-destructive workflow.
Highlights
• Recursive layer traversal extracts layers or shapes into new nodes
• Depth-limited hierarchy expansion prevents excessive node creation
• Balanced binary merge tree reduces evaluation complexity to O(log n)
• Preserves transforms, shape attributes, and structure integrity
• Automatic Grid, Column, or Tree node layouts
• Analysis preview before exploding
• Memory-efficient chunked processing
• Improves playback and script responsiveness
• Non-destructive workflow
• Pure Python, supports Nuke 13 to 16+
• Installation instructions included in Read Me
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:
Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
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