D2, Nuke <--> Houdini

[MADjestic]

Hello,

Afaik D2 uses Nuke as it's primary compositing software. On the other hand, I heard that Nuke does not support *.pic Houdini file format. Again - D2 uses both Houdini and Nuke. That's weired. Do you get my point? So - the question is - how does D2 overcome this issue of mutual insupportability? Do you use OEXR format for this purpose(you render in OEXR instead of *.pic)?

And thus there is a consequent question - is it possible to render DeepRaster levels into the OEXR file, the same as we do it with *pic(nc) file format?

Thanks.

[michael]

I don't know of any studio using Houdini that renders *.pic (I'd like to know of any)...

most use tif, exr etc...

as for rendering deep raster stuff into the exr format...I don't see why not...Jason?

[Jason]

Afaik D2 uses Nuke as it's primary compositing software.  On the other hand, I heard that Nuke does not support *.pic Houdini file format. Again - D2 uses both Houdini and Nuke.  That's weired.  Do you get my point?  So - the question is - how does D2 overcome this issue of mutual insupportability?  Do you use OEXR format for this purpose(you render in OEXR instead of *.pic)?

You are very correct it's weird - but there is a very good reason for it: the version of the .pic format file that supports (Deep Raster) layers can only be accessed via the HDK - i.e. there is no public interface to it like there is for the older PD version of the .pic format. Writing an interface in HDK means that running Nuke would require a license of Houdini -obviously unacceptable.

Not only is the latest version of .pic not public but it might never be because .pic enforces the Apprentice Watermark and this would mean that it'd be very easy to remove the watermark for non-licensed users.

Houdini's OpenEXR support unfortunately does not support more than RGBA, so we have to perform the not-so-pleasant task rendering split-out layers as floating point .tiff files and combining them with a post-process (which uses Nuke). Rendering on the farm this is all taken care of, but interactive rendering of .exr's is not fun and the extended exr layers are not accessible in Houdini.

Having full EXR support in Houdini would solve the problem - something not-so-easy to code up on your own.

I hope this helps,

Jason

[MADjestic]

I hope this helps,

Jason

18432[/snapback]

Thanks, Jason. It does.

And the last question - if OEXR images support only RGBA, then does it mean that you also render Z-layer(Depth) as floating-point *.TIFF?

It's just that when I try to save P.z channel into any file-format (through HALO or DeeoRaster rendering), except *.picnc - I get strange results of an alpha-like looking image, that doesn't really look like Z-channel file. Or do I do anything wrong? My *.picnc files are fine. But I can't make any other file-format render P.z, P or N channel data.

[MADjestic]

OK, a little bit of thinking and the problem is solved. heh. nevermind =)

[MADjestic]

BTW, is there any news (coz there aint much at the D2software site) when will be NUKE4.4(the last version afaik, right?) released and what will be the price?

Thanks.

[Jason]

BTW, is there any news (coz there aint much at the D2software site) when will be NUKE4.4(the last version afaik, right?) released and what will be the price?

Thanks.

18458[/snapback]

Nope, that I don't know at all. We use 4.3 in production but I'm not sure if 4.4 is an external customer build only. I have no idea 'bout the external version, sorry.