Reading in Deep Footage

You read in deep images to Nuke with a DeepRead node, which is rather like reading in any other images with the Read node. Nuke allows you to import deep images in two formats:

• DTEX (generated from Pixar’s PhotoRealistic RenderMan® Pro Server).

• Scanline OpenEXR 3.1.6, or above (tiled OpenEXR files are not supported).

Importing DTEX Files

Before importing DTEX files, you need to set up Pixar's RenderMan Pro Server 20, or earlier, on your computer.

Do the following:

1.   Install RenderMan Pro Server on your computer, and set up the necessary environment variables that enable Nuke to work with it. For details, have a look at Setting Up RenderMan Pro Server and PrmanRender. Note that you don’t need a RenderMan Pro Server license to work with deep images in Nuke, just installing the software is enough.
2.   Create a DeepRead by clicking Deep > DeepRead.
3.   Navigate to your .dtex image, and click Open. For more information about the Read node controls, see the Managing Scripts chapter.
4.   By default, Nuke tries to automatically detect the .dtex file type by looking at the subimage name. If the name is either Deep Shadow or ends with (or is) .deepopacity, Nuke treats the file as a deep opacity file. However, if you have manually changed the subimage name when rendering the file, Nuke may not be able to detect the file type correctly. If this is the case, set the type dropdown menu to one of the following:

• deepopacity - This forces Nuke to treat the file as an accumulated deep opacity file, corresponding to a RenderMan Display Driver configuration of:

Display "Filename.dtex" "deepshad" "deepopacity"

• alpha - This forces Nuke to treat the file as the newer point-sampled alpha or color, corresponding to a RenderMan Display Driver configuration of either:

Display "Filename.dtex" "deepshad" "a" or

Display "Filename.dtex" "deepshad" "rgba"

Importing Scanline OpenEXR Files

To import scanline OpenEXR files:

1.   Create a DeepRead by clicking Deep > DeepRead.
2.   Navigate to your deep .exr image, and click Open.For more information about the Read node controls, see the Managing Scripts chapter.
3.   By default, the exr prefix is attached to metadata keys to make them distinct from other metadata in the tree. If you’d rather read metadata in "as is" without attaching a prefix, enable do not attach prefix.