LiveGroup

LiveGroup nodes can be used in conjunction with LiveInput nodes so that multiple artists can work on different parts of the same shot as separate scripts, without the need for rendering. See LiveInput for more information.

LiveGroups are a hybrid of the functionality offered by Precomps, Groups, and Gizmos combining all the functionality that they lack individually. Just like Precomps, LiveGroups can store independent .nk files, allowing you to save a subset of the node tree as a separate .nk script, render the output of this saved script, and read the rendered output back into the source comp as a single image input.

You can also use LiveGroups like Group nodes to nest multiple nodes inside a single node. The original nodes are replaced with the LiveGroup node. When you create a LiveGroup node, its internal structure is shown in a separate Node Graph tab.

See also Precomp and Group.

Inputs and Controls

Connection Type

Connection Name

Function

Input

LiveInput1

The image sequence to which you want to apply the nodes or script inside the LiveGroup node.

Control (UI)

Knob (Scripting)

Default Value

Function

LiveGroup Tab

Publish publish N/A

Click to change the LiveGroup to the 'Published' state and save the current LiveGroup as a .nk script to the location specified in the file control.

Publishing does not add the contents of the LiveGroup to the current script, instead nodes within the LiveGroup are read from the external script.

Make Editable

make_editable

N/A

Click to change the LiveGroup to the editable state.

Make Editable adds the contents of the LiveGroup to the current script when the script is saved.

file file none

Sets the location that the contents of the LiveGroup are read from or written to, depending on whether you're publishing or editing the group.

Reload reload_script n/a

Click to recalculate the .nk script specified in the file control to create the output.

Open

open

n/a

Click to open the .nk script specified in the file control in a new Nuke session.

Render

render

n/a

Click to render the .nk script specified in the file control and output the results from the LiveGroup node.

read file for output

reading

disabled

When enabled, the LiveGroup node reads in the rendered image rather than calculating the output of the script.

When disabled, Nuke calculates the output of the LiveGroup script.

missing frames

on_error

error

Sets the behavior when there is an error opening the output file:

error - display an error message on any missing frames.

black - replace any missing frames with black.

checkerboard - replace any missing frames with a checkerboard image.

read input - display the result of the input tree rather than the rendered file on any missing frames.

Reload

reload_write

n/a

Click to re-read the image written to disk.

advanced

output node

output

none

Sets the name of the node to use instead of the Output node in the LiveGroup.

You can use this control to override what is set as the Output node in the LiveGroup script.

enable

useOutput

disabled

When enabled, the node specified in the output node control is used instead of the Output node in the LiveGroup.

Step-by-Step Guides

Using the LiveGroup Node