Setting Up Compositing Part 1

This blog post will go over creating folders for compositing. While compositing comes at the end of the pipeline, it’s actually used in almost every part of the pipeline for simple bash comps to show in review or composite full shots and tweak AOV’s. We’re going to be making a comp directory for each shot and asset which would be a tedious task if done manually. But with the power of Python, it’ll be quick. This will be made even easier by using the Google Sheets API to feed information into just how we want the file structure set up. But we’ll save the Google API introduction for Part 2 and focus on the main script first.

The goal we want to achieve is to make a comp file structure pre-populated with a template for each shot and asset. You will need to make both an asset nuke file template and a generic shot file template. They can be set up however you like, but for this tutorial, we’ll keep it simple and include render outputs for reviews. The template will place the following frames on frame 1000 (studios start frames at 1001, so this won’t mess with our framerange).

What are the benefits of non-compositing departments using compositing for reviews? For animators, reference footage can be shown side by side for animation takes. And for the asset pipeline, it allows for comparison to concept arts composited with moving turntables. A UNM example with concept art from William Brenner and moving turntable wit model/texture by Jared Chavez:

This title frame will be in our asset nuke template:

And this title frame will be in our shot template:

Inside each nuke script, this is the main setup we’ll be using as templates. One with a title frame for assets and one for shots.