Kronos (NukeX only) is a retimer, designed to slow down or speed up footage. It works by calculating the motion in the sequence in order to generate motion vectors, which in turn, enables you to generate an output image at any point in time throughout the sequence by interpolating along the direction of the motion. Kronos also contains a number of controls to allow you to trade off render time versus accuracy of vectors.
Connection Type |
Connection Name |
Function |
Input |
FgVecs |
If the motion in your input sequence has been estimated before (for example, using F_VectorGenerator), you can supply one or more vector sequences to Kronos to save processing time. |
BgVecs
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MoSrc |
An alternate Motion Source input, for example, if your Source sequence is very noisy and interfering with the motion estimation. |
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Matte |
An optional matte of the foreground, which may improve the motion estimation by reducing the dragging of pixels that can occur between foreground and background objects. |
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Source |
The sequence to retime. |
Control (UI) |
Knob (Scripting) |
Default Value |
Function |
Kronos Tab |
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Local GPU |
gpuName |
N/A |
Displays the GPU used for rendering when Use GPU if available is enabled. Local GPU displays Not available when: • Use CPU is selected as the GPU Device in the Preferences. • no suitable GPU was found on your system. • it was not possible to create a context for processing on the selected GPU, such as when there is not enough free memory available on the GPU. You can select a different GPU Device, if available, by navigating to the Preferences and selecting an alternative from the GPU Device dropdown. NOTE: Selecting a different GPU requires you to restart Nuke before the change takes effect. |
Use GPU if available |
useGPUIfAvailable |
enabled |
When enabled, rendering occurs on the Local GPU specified, if available, rather than the CPU. The output between the GPU and CPU is identical, but using the GPU can significantly improve processing performance. NOTE: Enabling this option with no local GPU allows the script to run on the GPU whenever the script is opened on a machine which does have a GPU available. The GPU processing also requires certain NVIDIA GPUs and CUDA drivers. For more information on the minimum requirements, please refer to the Nuke Release Notes available in Help > Release Notes. |
Input Range |
input.first |
N/A |
The first frame of input to use. When you first create the node, this is automatically set to the first frame of the Source clip. After that, it is only updated if you click Reset. |
input.last |
N/A |
The last frame of input to use. When you first create the node, this is automatically set to the last frame of the Source clip. After that, it is only updated if you click Reset. |
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Reset |
resetInputRange |
N/A |
Resets Input Range to the frame range of the current Source input. This can be useful if the clip in the Source input has changed. |
Timing |
timing |
Speed |
Sets how to control the new timing of the clip: • Speed - describes the retiming in terms of overall duration, for example, double speed halves the duration of the clip or half speed doubles the duration of the clip. • SourceFrame - describes the retiming in relative terms, for example, ’at frame 100 in the output clip, display frame 50 of the source clip‘. You’ll need to set at least 2 key frames for this to retime the clip. |
Speed |
speed |
0.5 |
This control is only active if Timing is set to Speed. Values below 1 slow down the clip and vice versa. For example, to slow down the clip by a factor of two (half speed), set this value to 0.5. |
Frame |
frame |
1 |
This control is active only if Timing is set to Source Frame. Use this to specify the source frame at the current frame in the timeline. For example, to slow down a 50 frame clip by half, key the SourceFrame to 1 at frame 1 and the SourceFrame to 50 at frame 100. |
Vector Detail |
vectorDetail |
0.2 |
Adjust this to vary the density of the vector field. A value of 1 generates a vector at each pixel, whereas a value of 0.5 generates a vector at every other pixel. Higher values pick up finer movement, but also increase processing time. |
Smoothness |
smoothness |
0.5 |
A high smoothness misses lots of local detail, but is less likely to provide you with the odd spurious vector, whereas a low smoothness concentrates on detail matching, even if the resulting field is jagged. NOTE: The default value should work well for most sequences. |
Shutter |
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Shutter Samples |
shutterSamples |
1 |
Sets the number of in-between images used to create an output image during the shutter time. Increase this value for smoother motion blur. |
Shutter Time |
shutterTime |
0 |
Sets the equivalent shutter time of the retimed sequence. For example, a shutter time of 0.5 is equivalent to a 180 degree mechanical shutter, so at 24 frames per second the exposure time will be 1/48th of a second. |
Automatic Shutter Time |
autoShutterTime |
disabled |
When enabled, Kronos automatically calculates the shutter time throughout the sequence. Note that this only produces motion blur when the retimed speed is greater than the original speed. |
Output |
output |
Result |
Sets the final output display for the retimed image. Selecting anything other than Result is only useful when a Matte Channel is used. • Result - displays the retimed Source image. • Matte - displays the retimed Matte input. • Foreground - displays the retimed foreground. The background regions outside the matte input may show garbage. • Background - displays the retimed background. The foreground regions inside the matte input may show garbage. |
Matte Channel |
matteChannel |
None |
Where to get the (optional) foreground mask to use for motion estimation: • None - do not use a matte. • Source Alpha - use the alpha of the Source input. • Source Inverted Alpha - use the inverted alpha of the Source input. • Matte Luminance - use the luminance of the Matte input. • Matte Inverted Luminance - use the inverted luminance of the Matte input. • Matte Alpha - use the alpha of the Matte input. • Matte Inverted Alpha - use the inverted alpha of the Matte input. |
Advanced |
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Flicker Compensation |
flickerCompensation |
disabled |
When enabled, Kronos takes into account variations in luminance and overall flickering, which can cause problems with your output. Examples of variable luminance include highlights on metal surfaces, like vehicle bodies, or bodies of water within a layer that reflect light in unpredictable ways. NOTE: Using Flicker Compensation increases rendering time. |
Advanced > Tolerances |
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Weight Red |
weightRed |
0.3 |
For efficiency, much of the motion estimation is done on luminance only - that is, using monochrome images. The tolerances allow you to tune the weight of each color channel when calculating the image luminance. These parameters rarely need tuning. However, you may, for example, wish to increase the red weighting Weight Red to allow the algorithm to concentrate on getting the motion of a primarily red object correct, at the cost of the rest of the items in a shot. |
Weight Green |
weightGreen |
0.6 |
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Weight Blue |
weightBlue |
0.1 |
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Vector Spacing |
vectorSpacing |
20 |
Sets the spacing between motion vectors displayed on the Viewer when Overlay Vectors is enabled. The default value of 20 means every 20th vector is drawn. |
Overlay Vectors |
showVectors |
disabled |
When enabled, the motion vectors are displayed in the Viewer. Forward motion vectors are drawn in red, and backward motion vectors in blue. NOTE: Motion vectors displayed in the Viewer are added to your output if you don’t turn off the overlay before rendering. |