BL to Nuke and back workflow

[Margus Voll]

Hi.

I wonder if anyone has done workflow without Flame included to the process?

We have done this on Resolve on feature jobs as automation and simple usage thing but i wonder if we could set up similar thing also in BL.

From the demos i have seen by @Daniele Siragusano custom scripts where used but for now i'm not sure if regular user can make such scripts up and working.

 

I will describe here how we did it in Resolve side and what would be my goal to set up in future for BL so it is all a bit hypothetical:

1. all vfx shots are identified and tagged or lifted to another trac

2. vfx connect clips are made with original cam file name + TC main timeline

3. plate is rendered for sending to VFX

4. as VFX connect also shows modified version as it is done no manual ingesting to timeline is needed. If that would not be the case i would do another
   track with link to folder with resulting done VFX shot. Boils down to precise folder structure say /VFX_shot_1/Plate source and /VFX_shot_1/Plate Done
  and having them linked to timeline: this could be done either manually which i would like to avoid or with scripting as making clone of the source to Done folder.

5. export xml for nuke studio to conform for the timeline, we have pre agreed that VFX shots are on video track 2 for example

6. there is custom script that aligns all the source material in nuke studio as Resolve connect does not have human readable folder naming, could be as well
    cam file original name + TC or any other more reasonable naming for better usability for human users

7. on final render results are placed in specific folder with the original matching plate name so it can just be over written as usual we do not need VFX results generation
   as host app is not able to flag or say if new version is available so we preferred to see on timeline if it was done. Separate solution was used to track status anyway.

 

The idea is to keep BLG workflow with Nuke and do all the mastering in BL timeline and not in flame.
Also takes out any need for manual conform and allows to see straight away in session if VFX is done and how it feels with correction in motion in sequence.
There has been regular suggestions like have 3 assistants working around the clock but that does not seems very efficient way of doing things.

I know that we can have much better control in BL over rendering (resolution and colors) but not sure about scripting side.
 

I'm not sure if we should look at standalone python things or should we wait as the scripting side in BL is more implemented (have read some hints over FB BL threads.)

 

Other technical side we did use: all was done over EXR as it had color data and also multi channel masks if needed. ACES was the colorspace we worked in color and VFX.
All material was linked and synced over vpn and we where working in two different city's so not physically in the same location.

I hope i did not miss anything or forgot and it sure might seem like a bit over simplified.
I try to invite Hendrik Proosa here as well who did all the scrip heavy lifting and Nuke side.

 

Hope this makes any sense and could help others as well in the end.

 

 

[Jussi Rovanperä]

Have you looked into using Nuke Studio as the central hub instead of BL?

[Daniele Siragusano]

Hi Markus,

 

try bl-shots on your Baselight, this is a CLI to swap VFX in a Baselight timeline.

Also, notice that we are introducing:

- Python API

- Nuke style %V automated Versioning

- support for OpenClip

 

[Hendrik Proosa]

20 hours ago, Jussi Rovanperä said:

Have you looked into using Nuke Studio as the central hub instead of BL?

Problem with this is that it starts to duplicate a lot of work that must be done on grade/finishing side anyway. I think it boils down to where the logical location of central hub is, and currently on grade side it makes more sense for us.

@Daniele Siragusano, regarding BL python api, can you elaborate a bit more on the depth of planned integration? Are you planning to start with some basic methods first (a'la Resolve) or do you plan to do auto-bindings for exposing most of BL functionality to python straight away? For having real strong footing in pipeline development etc this is highly preferrable to be able to really touch almost everything there is.

[Daniele Siragusano]

We are planning to expose many modules as APIs. But like with everything this needs lots of testing.

We will start with what a typical pipeline TD would need, FileSystem Indexing, handling jobs and scenes, get and set metadata in a scene.

Even today you can build powerful pipelines using CLIs like bl-conform and bl-shots.

I hope this helps. 

Daniele

[Margus Voll]

As we do not have any other instance now here from BL than student then i'm not very sure what you mean by CLI @Daniele Siragusano

This is something we try to look ahead and perhaps pre develop with @Hendrik Proosa
If we get there and have one setup here running and jobs move around then it is good idea to have all in place.
This is how we did it with Resolve side now but there are so many shortcomings there currently which i see BL should be good at.

I agree with @Hendrik Proosa on the subject to have BL as logical hub of mastering and delivery as adding
another workstation that we seldom would use does not make sense or add much benefit for now that we could justify.
Basically i see conform or assist can be the one that can prep render jobs in such case but all the vfx should land to main timeline
with as little sweat and as much automation as possible. As humans have been to the moon in trashcan 1969 then i'm sure simple task as communicating with VFX can be done.

I'm sure we could mimic any synthetic tests if that would help? Not just sure if we can mimic it with student version now.@Daniele Siragusano

 

[Daniele Siragusano]

Hi,

baselight STUDENT comes with the command line interfaces I think.

just typ:

```

/Applications/BaselightSTUDENT/Current/Utilities/Tools/bl-shots

```

in your terminal 

 

[Margus Voll]

Thanks. We take a look and play a little.

[Margus Voll]

@Daniele Siragusano

I wonder if in future releases there could be possibility to build render folder structure from category names or any other
metadata like comments for VFX plates?

Looked into it yesterday a bit.

For now it seems that we can make selections either by group and / or category that i defined additional. (VFX_plates, VFX_result)
Could export edl with category selection in shots list and send it to nuke studio.
Make render but folder structure is something i can just input manually for now. Ideally that would happen
by expression and later on with python integration from category or any other metadata.

VFX_results file structure i could make up now just by copy VFX_plates parent folder and rename it to VFX_results
but there is not good way now to populate them on top VFX_plates track. Option would be to do manipulating EDL if needed and put back
with EDL import on higher track.

For shot name it seems that we can have filename_programTC and such things that would help for now but probably could also have more control in variables i guess.

No clue yet how to do BLG export in that for now but i keep digging some more.

This is just the observation i did yesterday get on my lunch break.
Maybe i'm also a bit off here as BL i'm still discovering as we go.

 

 

[Daniele Siragusano]

You can use almost all metadata to build folder structure %{MetaData}. Checkout the little questionmark button  next to the file path to get inspired.

Also when you create a scene using the scene templates there are a few example deliveries already setup for you.

[Margus Voll]

I will check.

Thanks!