Quick Start Guide — Nuke
This guide is for Neat Video v4 plug-in for OFX hosts being used with Nuke Studio 9.
If you use another Neat Video plug-in or another editing application, please select the corresponding quick start guide.
1.Installing the plug-in
To install the Neat Video OFX plug-in:
-
Make sure you have started Nuke at least once before installing the plug-in. If you
have not done that yet, start Nuke and exit it.
- Download the installer of Neat Video for OFX hosts:
- If you already purchased the product and have a current license for the Pro plug-in, please download the Pro plug-in from My Products page
- If you want to try Neat Video before purchase, please download the Demo plug-in from Download page
- Starting the installer:
For Windows:
Double-click the downloaded EXE file to start the installer
For Mac OS X:
a. Double-click the downloaded DMG file to mount the volume
b. In the mounted volume, double-click NeatVideoOFX.Intel.pkg to
start the installer
(you may be prompted to enter the Name / Password of the OSX
administrator account)
For Linux:
Double-click the downloaded package NeatVideoOFX.Intel64.tgz to
open the archive and extract the installer from it (
NeatVideoOFX.Intel64.run)
(you may be prompted to enter the Name / Password of the administrator account)
-
Proceed through the steps of the installation process. Use the default settings offered
by the installer.
- Start Nuke and right-click in the Node Graph panel in the main window of Nuke. Then find Neat Video > Reduce Noise v4 in the list.
In case the plug-in has not become available in Nuke, please contact Neat Video support for assistance.
2.Running Neat Video on a sample video clip
Please download the test-kit prepared to help you start using Neat Video. Having downloaded, please unzip it to a new folder on the hard disk.
The test-kit includes a sample video clip: SampleClip.mp4. This is a typical video clip captured by a digital video camera in high-gain mode. Some technical information about the sample clip is available in the SampleClipInfo.txt file.
Please start Nuke and go through the steps below to clean the clip using Neat Video.
2.1. Add the sample clip to the project
1. Create a new project in Nuke
Go to File > New Project to create a project in Nuke.
2. Importing a media file
- Right-click in Node Graph tab to open the popup menu and select Image > Read.
- Navigate to the folder with input clip, select SampleClip.mp4 .
- Make sure the frame rate is set to 25fps.
A node with the sample clip will appear in the Node Graph panel in the bottom of the main window of Nuke:
-
Connect the Read1 SampleClip.mp4 node to the
Viewer1 node to see the preview.
The Nuke preview window will display the sample clip and you will see that there is strong noise in it. The task of Neat Video is to reduce this noise.
2.2. Add Neat Video effect to video clip
- Right-click Read1 node.
- Find Neat Video > Reduce Noise v4 in the list:
2.3. Configure Neat Video
1. Open Neat Video plug-in window
- Select Reduce Noise v4. This will add a node with Reduce Noise v4 into the Node Graph and enable controls in the Properties panel in the right part of the main window of Nuke.
- Select a frame for noise analysis using the selector in the timeline range.
-
Click Prepare Noise Profile in the
Properties panel to open the Neat Video plug-in window.
(If you run the Demo plug-in, click OK in the popup splash screen of the plug-in to proceed further).
The Neat Video plug-in window will open and display the current frame from the clip.
- At this point Neat Video will ask to specify the scan type of the clip. Please select Progressive.
- Click the button in the bottom of the Neat Video window and select Linear :
2. Build a noise profile for the clip
To reduce noise in this frame and in the whole clip, Neat Video generally needs a noise profile describing the noise properties of the clip. You can prepare such a profile using the Auto Profile function:
-
In the Device Noise Profile tab click
Neat Video will then automatically analyze the noise to build a new noise profile:
- Visually inspect the selected area — it should contain no visible details, only noise; otherwise the noise profile and subsequent noise reduction may be inaccurate.
If the selected area does contain any details, move the selection to a featureless area or simply draw a new selection in such an area (the selection must be at least 32x32 pixels large). Then click the Auto Profile button again.
- After that Neat Video is ready to filter the clip.
3. Check Preview
- Switch to the Noise Filter Settings tab
You will notice that Neat Video has already applied noise reduction based on the default filter settings and the preview shows a clearly visible difference: there is less noise than in the original frame.
You can try to adjust the filter settings and see how that affects the results. For example, try to adjust the Temporal Filter > Radius setting (in the Temporal tab in the Filter Settings box in the right part of the window) from 2 to 1 or to a higher value. This will apply weaker or stronger temporal noise reduction to the frame.
4. Apply the changes
- Click in the bottom of the plug-in window.
Neat Video will save the current settings and close its main window.
(If you run the Demo plug-in, it will also describe the limitations of the Demo version at
this point).
Once this step is completed and Neat Video window is closed, the filter is ready for work.
The Nuke preview window now shows the clip with noise reduction applied to it:
2.4. Further steps inside Nuke
To apply Neat Video noise reduction
- Create a write node (menu Image > Write), link it (after) to the Reduce Noise v4 node, set up the parameters of the write node and then start render using the Render button.
- Go to menu Render > Flipbook Selected.
This will automatically apply Neat Video noise reduction to the sample clip and save the result to a new video file on the hard drive. You will then be able to open this new file, evaluate the filtration results and adjust the filter settings if necessary.
Please see the User Guide (Win), User Guide (OS X) and User Guide (Linux) for more details about adjusting the filter settings and other aspects of using Neat Video. These Video Tutorials will also help you to get the most out of Neat Video noise reduction.