Draw BackdropNodes by dragging a marquee. Shift+B, drag, done. Colour tones, saved palette, label options. Nuke 11-17+.
Marquee Backdrops
First submitted: 17 March 2026
Updated: 27 August 2026
Author: Marty Blumen
Website: https://www.martyblumen.com/
Compatible Nuke versions: 11.0 or later
Compatibility: All, Source
Nuke's built-in backdrop workflow requires you to place a node, then manually resize and reposition it around your network. MarqueeBackdrops replaces that with a draw-first approach: press Shift+B, drag a rectangle where you want the backdrop, and it appears instantly — sized and positioned exactly as drawn.
HOW IT WORKS
Press Shift+B with the Node Graph focused. The cursor switches to a crosshair. Click and drag to draw your backdrop rectangle. On release, a label dialog appears so you can name it straight away, and a colour is assigned automatically.
Colours come from a tone you choose — Muted, Pastel, Natural, Ocean, Sci-Fi, Matrix, Sunset, Neon, Film Noir or Batman. A tone is a slice of the hue wheel plus saturation and brightness ranges rather than a fixed set of swatches, so it never runs out of colours, and successive backdrops are stepped across that slice so neighbours stay distinguishable. Every colour used is saved to a palette that persists across Nuke sessions. Open it from the toolbar to switch tone, reuse a colour, remove one, or set how labels are drawn — font size, bold and centring.
A toolbar button is also provided to wrap a backdrop around selected nodes with a single click.
FEATURES
• Drag-to-place marquee — draw the backdrop exactly where and how large you want it
• Ten colour tones — Muted, Pastel, Natural, Ocean, Sci-Fi, Matrix, Sunset,
Neon, Film Noir, Batman; each with a live preview strip in the palette panel
• Auto-colours — spaced across the tone's hue range so neighbours stay distinct
• Persistent palette — colours you've used are remembered between Nuke sessions; pin one to reuse it
• Label options — font size, bold and centring, also remembered between sessions
• Inline label dialog — name it immediately after drawing
• Wrap-selection shortcut — creates a backdrop fitted around selected nodes
• Nuke 8 through 17+ — PySide, PySide2 and PySide6 all supported, auto-detected
• Python 2.7 and 3.x
• Windows, Linux, macOS compatible
INSTALLATION
1. Copy marquee_backdrop.py to ~/.nuke/
2. Add to ~/.nuke/menu.py:
import marquee_backdrop
toolbar = nuke.toolbar("Nodes")
toolbar.addCommand(
"Other/Backdrop (Marquee)",
"marquee_backdrop.create_backdrop_around_selected()",
"shift+b",
icon="Backdrop.png",
)
toolbar.addCommand(
"Other/Backdrop Palette...",
"marquee_backdrop.show_palette()",
icon="Backdrop.png",
)
No extra packages required — only the Qt bindings already bundled with Nuke.
The "shift+b" hotkey on the first command is a fallback. While the Node Graph has focus the marquee event filter claims Shift+B first, so you get the draw tool; when the DAG isn't focused the key falls through to the menu command and wraps the current selection instead.
USAGE
Shift+B Arm the marquee tool (cursor becomes crosshair)
Click + drag Draw the backdrop rectangle
Release Backdrop is created; label dialog appears
Escape Cancel at any point
Right-click Cancel at any point
Toolbar button Wrap backdrop around selected nodes
Palette panel Switch tone, reuse colours, set label font size / bold / centring
PALETTE PANEL
Left-click swatch Pin that colour for new backdrops
Right-click swatch Remove it from the palette
Tone Mood new colours are drawn from, with a preview strip
Use random colours Unpin, back to drawing from the tone
Clear palette Forget every remembered colour
Font size / Bold / Centre How new backdrop labels are drawn
Tone, palette and label options are all saved to
~/.nuke/marquee_backdrop_prefs.json. Delete that file to reset.
CONFIGURATION
ASK_LABEL = True # toggle the label dialog
RANDOM_COLOUR = True # draw colours from the active tone
DEFAULT_COLOR = 0x4C4C52FF # every backdrop, when RANDOM_COLOUR = False
PRESET = "muted" # starting tone
COLOUR_SATURATION = (0.10, 0.26) # HSV ranges for the Muted tone only;
COLOUR_VALUE = (0.38, 0.55) # lower = more muted
FONT_SIZE = 42 # starting label size
BOLD_LABEL = True # starting bold state
CENTRE_LABEL = True # starting centring state
DEBUG = False # print trace lines to the Script Editor
CHANGELOG
─────────
1.2.1 Fix for Z-ordering
1.2 Ten colour tones (Muted, Pastel, Natural, Ocean, Sci-Fi, Matrix, Sunset,
Neon, Film Noir, Batman) selectable from the palette panel, each with a
live preview strip. Tone is remembered between sessions. Colour
precedence is pinned swatch, then tone, then DEFAULT_COLOR when
RANDOM_COLOUR is off.
1.1 Nuke 8-10 support (PySide/Qt4). Muted colour palette with golden-ratio
hue spacing. Persistent palette panel. Label font size / bold / centre
options. Right-click now cancels mid-drag.
1.0 Initial release.
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2026 Marten Blumen
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
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copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.
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