Submit nuke render job with specific views for deadline

Hi, I posted this on deadline forums, I thought it would be on a good place here too.
In this post I describe what files to edit in the deadline repository, if you want to submit not all, but specific view(s) from a multiview (stereo) nuke scene to deadline. The modification include the nuke submitter dialog, where user can check which views to render, and the nuke plugin file. Hope it helps someone. By the way it is for deadline 5.0, the exact solution for other versions may be different.


Submission/SubmitNukeToDeadline.py, gui declaration in __init__ somewhere append this:

1:   self.viewToRenderLabel = nuke.Text_Knob( "separator31", "Views to render:" )   
2:   self.addKnob( self.viewToRenderLabel)   
3:   self.views = nuke.views()   
4:   self.viewToRenderKnobs = []   
5:   for x, v in enumerate(self.views):   
6:    bknob = nuke.Boolean_Knob(('viewToRender_%d' % x), v)   
7:    bknob.setFlag(0x1000)   
8:    self.viewToRenderKnobs.append((bknob, v))   
9:    self.addKnob(bknob)   
10:   bknob.setValue(True)   

Still SubmitNukeToDeadline.py, in SubmitJob function, where writing into plugin info file, for example after: "fileHandle.write( "NukeX=%s\n" % dialog.useNukeX.value() )"

1:  viewsToRender = getSelectedViews()  
2:  viewsToRender_str = ','.join(viewsToRender)  
3:  print 'Views to render in plugin info file: %s' % viewsToRender_str  
4:  fileHandle.write( "viewsToRender=%s\n" % viewsToRender_str )  

Still SubmitNukeToDeadline.py, at the end, a new function to get list of views from submitter dialog (that the user selected) write this:

1:  def getSelectedViews():  
2:   global dialog  
3:   x = 0  
4:   viewsToRender = []  
5:   for vk in dialog.viewToRenderKnobs:  
6:    if vk[0].value():  
7:     viewsToRender.append(vk[1])     
8:   x+=1  
9:   print '\nViews to render: %s\n\n\n ' % viewsToRender  
10:  return viewsToRender  

-------
In plugins/ nuke.py file in RenderArgument function, just before return append this:

1:  viewsToRender = GetPluginInfoEntryWithDefault( "viewsToRender", "" )  
2:  if viewsToRender != '':  
3:   LogInfo( "==VIEWS==\nUsing " + viewsToRender + " view(s) for rendering\n" )  
4:   renderarguments += " -view \"" + viewsToRender + "\""   

And that's it. It's even logging the views to be rendered.
Cheers,
Gabor

Licensing

Hi,
I've been a big fan of the Foundry nuke user mailing list for years now. I strongly suggest reading that for everyone using nuke, there are interesting topics every day, the best resource to find solution to a problem.
But this is not an advertising here. A few weeks ago I read a topic in this list, where a guy, posted a pythonscript as a solution for something. This script was written by me before, even my commented lines were there. Every character is the same with a script that I posted here before. And in that mail at the mailing list there wasn't any indication that it was not written by him, but someone else. True he didn't say he wrote it, either.
I don't expect much first because these that I share here are not the best top-notch scripts/gizmos man has ever created, but I try to do my best. And I didn't put any legal notice into my scripts, until this point. But even with these things, I expected a little mentioning if someone is using my creations to help others, even if these are tiny scripts. Something like, "okay, this is from a blog" Not even have to point to this blog, but something...
Ok, no more crying :)
So from now on, I put a copyright text on the blog, at links menu. Of course nothing else will change, I will post my tools as I can.
Hope this post doesn't bothers you, I just had to do.
Cheers,
Gabor

Copyright

Copyright for all the scripts, source codes, and other kind of software extensions in this blog are under New BSD license, unless otherwise noted:


Copyright (c) 2010 till present, Gabor L. Toth (thoughtvfx.blogspot.com)
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 thoughtvfx 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 COPYRIGHT HOLDER 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.

10k

Okay, so we reached 10000 pageviews! (Of course not in a month or week, but all-time ) I know it's not a big thing, but for me it is. Thanks for everybody, I hope this blog could have been (and will be) useful for you! Come back more often, as I try to post even more often and on even more interesting topics. And if you find useful stuff here, and you can refer to this blog (on your own blog, anywhere), please do!

Thanks,
Gabor

Nuke multiple views in read nodes

Hi,

I had a little problem not long ago, with setting stereo sequences in readnodes. No problem when the filepaths of views differ only in the view names, like BH_010_left.%04d.dpx and BH_010_right.%04d.dpx. Then you can use "%V" as wildcard for view name. But unfortunately our 3d guys was giving me renders where the 2 view are different in version number, like BH_010_v005_layer1.beauty.%04d.exr and BH_010_v006_layer1.beauty.%04d.exr.
(We have redesigned our cg output system to handle this since then, but I share this experience anyway ) The problem is that the file knob in the readnode is capable of splitting for views (split a knob = make different values for different views in the same knob), but the automatic path manipulator tools, like version up-down script, search and replace, that are needed to change so many passes in readnodes at once, are not working with splitted filenames, only working on the view that is not splitted off. For example if you split off left, these will work only on right view.
So the workflow to handle readnodes's paths with splitted views: choose 1 view that will be split off, so you won't be able to manipulate (only one by one). Assume this is the "right" view. Put all the readnodes down, set them to desired version for "right" view. Check that you are on the "right" view (in the viewer top line). Then (while all read selected) run this script:

sn=nuke.selectedNodes('Read')
for n in sn:
n['file'].splitView()


This will split off right view in all readnodes. Now change to left view in the viewer, and then change the version (alt+shift up/down), or do search and replace, those will be effecting the left view only (the "unsplitted" view).
If you have to change both view again, (for example new versions rendered for both view) then unsplit the previously splitted view ("right" in this example), with standing on "right" view, and running this little script:

sn=nuke.selectedNodes('Read')
for n in sn:
n['file'].unsplitView()


It will make readnodes normal again, and you can start the process over again :)
Sounds complicated? It's not, just tedious. Of course I could have used separate readnodes for each view (for each pass), but hey, that would be so simple right? (And too many readnodes)

Deadline - nuke post job script Update

Hi,
recently I had to improve our postjobscript system: I did some code rewrite, now much more elegant. Here I post an example script, that converts the current job's output to half sized exr, and a mov.
These are the changes since the old script that is referred in my old post:
- No more batch file! Running nuke directly.
- Automatically finding the installed nuke from deadline list
- Handling multiple views (currently left-right as viewnames are hardcoded, I need to change that)
- Handling multiple job output sequences

But as usual there can be bugs, so if you find one, please report.
The process to use:
- Put the 2 scripts in a folder somewhere in the deadline repository (for example I use this: DeadlineRepository\scripts\PrePostTaskJobScripts\JobNukeConvert\)
- Edit the JobNukeConvert.py: change the path in line (65) that starts with:
arg= (" -x -F " + framesList + ... to point to the current location of the other python script
- Set the JobNukeConvert.py as a postjobscript from deadline monitor (job properties)
- That's it. It should spit out a half-res. converted exr sequence, and a mov for each job output sequence (will put beside the rendered sequence)
- Of course you need to modify the glt_deadlinepostjobscript_convert.py according to your needs (what kind of formats to convert to etc.), but if you have some knowledge of nuke-python, that can't be that hard. Or maybe I can help...

Let me know if doesn't work for some reason. Or if it does work :) You can donwnload it from here.
I hope someone finds it useful,

Gabor

New gizmo - PaintTrajectory

Hi,

I was watching some nice motiondesign lately (from Polynoid, great artists) and was wondering how to create nice animating thin lines in 3d space. Or at least how to draw a motionpath of something in 3d. I was experimenting with particles for a while but I found that way slow for this. But the great new python docs comes to rescue! I remembered a 2d solution for drawing a track with a paint node. And another one with projecting a 3d point to screenspace. So almost all credit goes to docs writer(s) (Frank Rueter I assume) I hacked together the 2 scripts, a bit rewrite here and there, and created a gizmo for it.
What is does:
Connect the viewing camera to cam input, and link a (animated) 3d point (that can be seen by the camera) to motionpath knob, and run. Spits out a rotopaint with the trajectory painted. In the paint node on stroke tab, set the pressure alters to size, and uncheck opacity (sorry, do it manually at this time), and you can see that the further the point from camera, the thinner the painted line. Change the brush size to make it thicker. If the bounding box clips the stroke, put a crop before the rotopaint.
Here is a picture showing what I'm talking about:

I hope someone find it useful, you can download it from here.
It's still very alpha, keep in mind.
By the way I plan to copy all my extension to nukepedia soon, just need to find some time to organize them :)