NUKE Introduction

10 Day Course
Date: Anytime
Times: 10.00am to 5.00pm
Price: £150.00
Instructor: Self-Learning

Course Setup
This course consists of 10 video-based lessons. Each lesson is approximately 30 minutes in duration and most include supplementary files and footage.
This course can be taken at any time - for instance every day for 10 days, or once a week for 10 weeks.

Nuke was originally developed for in-house use by Digital Domain, the effects house for over 60 major films. They won Academy Awards for their work on “Titanic” and “What Dreams May Come,” as well as nominations for “Apollo 13,” “True Lies,” and “I, Robot.”

This course will give you a comprehensive introduction to NUKE - the node-based compositor produced by The Foundry, used for film and television post-production.
Course Outline

Lesson 1: Overview of the interface and workflow An introduction to Nuke's workflow and layout. Reading image files and setting up working resolutions. A detailed look at the viewer with an introduction to the color space of Nuke.

Lesson 2: A detailed look at channels and layers
Nuke can have up to 64 channels in any script! Using real world examples this lesson will identify the reasons for dozens of channels instead of the standard 4 RGBA channels of most compositing applications. From rotoscoping to multi-pass CG compositing, the channels are one of Nuke’s most unique and best strengths.

Lesson 3: Compositing Working with many nodes and tools such as Bezier and Rectangle; Merge tools including Premult, Merge and AddMix; Translate tools; and in-depth looks at the 2 key color correction nodes, Grade and Color Correct..

Lesson 4: KeyingA look at Nuke’s tools for cutting mattes - working with the Keyer, the HueKeyer, Primatte and the IBK or Image Based Keyer. This pipeline will also show how to split images into sections and reassemble them as well as creating edge and fill mattes.

Lesson 5: More KeyingPrimatte and the IBK. These tools are far more complex then Nuke’s Keyer and far more powerful.

Lesson 6: Color and Color SpaceWhat is sRGB? Why does it matter? Unlike most image manipulation applications, Nuke allows the user to choose their color spaces. Whether you have an 8 bit jpeg image or a 10 bit Cineon film frame, every thing in Nuke is seen as 32 bit floating point data. The focus of this lesson is in all the color tools found in Nuke and some real world examples that will help you identify which tool is right for which task.

Lesson 7: Nuke Filters The focus of this lesson is on Nuke’s powerful set of Filters and how to use them. These will include tools such as GodRays, DeFocus, EdgeBlur and lesser known but equally useful filters such as VectorBlur, iDistort and LightWrap.

Lesson 8: 3D System An introduction to the Nuke’s 3D system in production. Importing camera and object data from various sources and an introduction to projections.

Lesson 9: More 3D This lesson will focus on the Projector and image mapping as well as importing 3D objects and 3D camera data. Rendering and applying true motion blur is also covered.

Lesson 10: Optimising NukeThis lesson will cover optimizing Nuke scripts for speed and trouble shooting errors such as matte lines and resolution / pixel aspect mis-matches. The lesson will also introduce Nuke’s Macro/Custom Tool System called Gizmos. These are extremely powerful and easy to create tools that can be as simple as a default color correction for a particular scene or as complex as a complete assembly of every CG element in a shot.