Should you use LAYERS or NODES for VFX? (Complete Analysis)

[Music] should you snooze [Music] thank you in the world of visual effects there are two types of software that artists use to create or composite visual effect shots that's layer based software and node-based software so to compare the two we'll look at After Effects which uses layers compared to Nuke which uses nodes but the comparisons we'll make should apply generally to any layer or node-based software now any visual effects shot no matter how complex can be broken down into a series of operations applied to an image when it comes to layer based software each layer represents some sort of input usually a photo or video in After Effects there are five basic operations we can apply to a layer one we can create masks this mask reveals the layer below two we can apply effects three we can transform the layer using position scale and rotation four we can create and mask a different way using track mats that is we use a different layer as a mask for the current layer in five we can set the blending mode to change how the layer blends with layers below it so each layer has these five types of operations available when it comes to node-based software we represent photo or video input with a node for mask operations we have other nodes there are nodes for different effects nodes for transform operations and nodes for blending or merging two images together so every operation has a node if we take just some of these nodes we can rearrange and connect them in a specific order this specific node setup will result in the exact same shot that we created with layers now how does each program process these operations well in After Effects to calculate the final shot the program starts with the bottom layer and goes through all the five operations exactly in this order this particular layer is only scaled down next after effects processes the next layer up and does the same operations first any masks are applied then the effects are applied then Transformations track mats and blending mode if we had more layers the process would continue to the top layer and of course all this happens in an instant now to see the same process in Nuke we start with our two photos as input nodes we can think of these connector lines as conveyor belts and the nodes are like machines in a factory now let's look at how this mountain image is processed we'll see the image data moves along the conveyor belt in the direction of the arrows when we reach the first node our image is masked these other nodes just tell us the shape of the mask the resulting image is then repositioned with this transform node then it has three effects applied with these nodes it then goes through another mask node with this input stream telling us what to mask let's look at the background image which we'll see goes through these two transform nodes and finally at this merge node our two conveyor belts merge their products together creating the final image now that we understand the basics let's discuss the first major difference between layers and nodes and that's the order of operations say I have this image and I blur it out and then mask it then say I change the order of these operations so that I mask it out first and then blur it you can see we get two very different results this is why the order of operations is so important when creating visual effects in After Effects we have some control over the order of operations we can change the order of the layers and for each layer let's say I have multiple effects applied I could change the order of the effects or if I have multiple masks I can change the order of the masks but you can't for example apply the effects before the masks are applied in Nuke we can apply operations in whatever order we want just by rearranging the order of the nodes so how about this let's actually build a real visual effect shot to see why this all matters we'll take this shot and we'll replace these screens with some cute cats really quickly though I just want to say videos like this can easily take a month of my life to create from researching writing scripts animating graphics crafting examples filming editing and for this one creating that intro song I hope you can tell that I really care about giving you the best information in the most effective and engaging way possible and so in order to keep this quality up if you can afford to support me patreon is a really good place for that I want these tutorials to continue to be free so that people who can't pay for them can still have this sort of information so I really rely on those patrons and of course a huge big thanks to all the current patrons already helping out okay let's get back to creating our VFX shot starting here in After Effects we have this layer with the TVs and this layer with the cat footage we want to reposition our cat footage so it's sort of in the right position for the Middle TV now we want to mask out the screen but still have the ability to reposition the cat afterwards if I draw a mask on this layer and I move the layer The Mask will move as well this is because the layer masks are applied before the the transform adjustments we want those to be applied after the transform adjustments but remember this sort of reordering isn't possible with After Effects so instead we'll create the masks a different way using the track mats since those are applied after the transform adjustments we'll create a separate blank layer and draw a mask around the screen on this layer we'll then set the cat layer to use this layer as a mask now we can resize the cat footage as desired here in Nuke I've got this node reading in the photo of the TVs and this other node is our cat footage first I'll merge the cat footage on top of the TV photo with this merge node then I'll add this transform node to roughly position the cat footage now in Nuke I can view any node in our graph by connecting it to this viewer node I can look at the background or the cats or the cats after they're scaled down next I'll add this Roto node just floating here for now and I'm going to view the background photo so I can draw a mask around the TV screen then I'll move this Roto node over here and add a merge node I'll set this merge node to the mask operation to apply this Roto as a mask to our cat footage finally I'm going to add a DOT node so I can label this as our middle screen this node does nothing to the image so now let's look at everything we've done if I disable these nodes we can easily analyze the order of operations first we scale down the footage then we mask it and then it is merged over the background and this order gives us the desired flexibility to resize the footage without that mask moving next in After Effects I'm going to duplicate the cat footage twice and create two more track mats for the left and right screens I'll then reposition the cats to fit the screens in Nuke to create two more screens we're going to duplicate these transform and masking nodes twice and then hook these up to the original footage and I'll turn off these mask nodes since they won't be accurate just yet so here we're essentially creating these three different branches for our middle left and right screens where we can apply different operations to the footage and afterwards we want to bring these three branches back together so let's add a merge node and merge the left screen over the middle then we'll add another merge node and merge the right screen over the other two then these are all merged over the background so you can see if I adjust this transform node I have my left screen and if I adjust the other transform node we see the right screen next I just have to update the mask for our left screen and for our right screen as well let's turn these merge nodes back on and ta-da we have our three screens next we want to apply a glow effect to the screens in After Effects I'll add the same glow effect to each layer of the cat footage if we look at them alone we can see the glow is not extending beyond the edges of the screens we want it to look like this what's happening is that for each screen the glow effect is applied first which is followed by the track matte operation which cuts out the screens in Nuke we can recreate this issue by adding the glow here what we want is for the glow to happen here after the mask operations but in After Effects we have no way to change this order so to fix this let's first delete the glow effect from these layers then we'll select the video and matte layers and pre-compose them together this essentially takes all the operations applied to these layers and bundles them together into a new source layer now we can add a glow effect to this new pre-composed layer and adjust a few settings if I turn the background on again we'll see that the glow extends beyond the edges of the screens just like we want it to in Nuke our glowing screens are merged over the background and we see a similar result so we're all set here next we want to lower the contrast on all the screens and let's make the two outer screens black and white in After Effects we can apply a levels effect to this layer before the glow effect and we'll lift the output black level then we'll go into this pre-comp and we'll add a saturation effect to the left screen and turn the saturation to zero we'll then copy this to the right screen now if we go back into the main composition we're seeing the desired result of these color adjustments now into nuke let's first lower the contrast on our screens by adding a grade node right here and increasing the value of the lift slightly then to make the right and left screens black and white I want to rearrange things here just a little and then I'll add a color correction node right before we Branch the left and right screens apart in this color correct node I'll set the saturation to zero so now we have this grade node which lowers the contrast on all the screens and the corrector node which makes only the left and right screens black and white perfect now that we've created pretty much the same shot with layers and nodes let's look at the second big difference between the two and that's the overall organization with nodes in a node graph you can easily see at a glance how the shot is being built up I can select different nodes and turn them on and off to see how they're affecting the shot I can also view different parts of the graph to easily focus on certain elements for example let's just look at our cat footage and we'll quickly add this node and let's clone some cats around then when we go back to viewing the final merge node this effect is applied throughout the whole graph and updates everything with layers here in After Effects visually we don't get as clear an overview of how the shot is being built up up we can click different layers to see what effects are applied or we can click into the pre-comp to see what layers and effects are in here there's just a bit more searching involved now actually if we're in our main composition and we right click we can open this composition flowchart and would you look at that nodes in After Effects now you can't really interact with this much but it is a nice way to see where different layers and effects are throughout your project okay our third difference between layers and nodes is data access what I mean by this is that with nodes we can take data from any node and use it in a totally different place in the shot let's say we want to make this black and white cat footage an overlay for the entire shot we can do this easily by adding a merge node at the bottom and connecting this all the way back to that color correct node I'll change this merge to the plus operation and lower the opacity and boom We reuse that image data quite easily also it's really nice that I can easily copy whole parts of the tree and reuse these node setups for say other shots with layers and in After Effects data access just isn't as flexible now it might sound like I'm promoting nodes over layers so far and that's not completely wrong but there's another big difference that layers does way better than nodes and that's editing and animation let's say I'm in After Effects and I go into this pre-comp because I want to move this layer forward in the timeline and then Midway through the shot let's split this layer so that we can create this edit point and we'll zoom in on the cat's face so we wind up with this to do the same thing in Nuke I first need to move the clip forward in time so I'll use a time offset node set to negative 24 frames one second then I'll create a branch here in the tree and add another transform node I'll scale up the footage and position it like so so we have two branches of this footage one normal and one zoomed in next I need to merge this zoomed in branch on top of the normal one then I'll animate this mix value which is the same thing as opacity I'll go from one at this Frame move a frame back and set it to zero so this is effectively how we make a cut now looking at these nodes this just does not clearly communicate the re-timing and editing decisions we've made having these layers on a timeline is so much easier to work with and understand finally let's animate the shot to zoom in slowly in After Effects we'll link our screens to the background and then animate the background scaling [Music] and nuke we'll add a final transform node and add keyframes to the scale to edit these keyframes we can go to the curve editor or the dope sheet since both layers and their keyframes live together on the timeline interacting with both is intuitive and accessible since nodes in the node graph are separate from the timeline keyframes and animation are not as accessible so which one is better layers or nodes now if you're really going to make this choice in the real world you have to choose a program like after effects or nuke and once you do that you go down a rabbit hole of comparing a bunch of other specific things like features pricing or even job opportunities related with each program but for the sake of argument let's pretend like all of this is equal so we can just compare layers and nodes so in general layers are going to be less complicated that's going to give you a little bit less flexibility and control they're great for simple visual effects shots especially if you have a lot of editing and animation on the other hand nodes are more complicated but that's going to give you more flexibility and control they're great for complex visual effects shots and for building out more customizable workflows now not to be anti-climactic but I really don't think one is better than the other I actually use both After Effects and nuke just depending on the project at the end of the day they're just two different ways of working that can truly lead to the same result now if you want to know more about how I decide which program to use I've released an exclusive video on my patreon where I show some past projects and discuss why I used either after effects or nuke alright well that's all I have for today hey would you do me a favor and maybe share this video um perhaps there's an online group a community or like a forum of people like us who enjoy these sorts of topics I would really appreciate if you did that but thanks for watching I'll see you in the next video [Music]

Channel: InLightVFX

Views: 34,933

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Id: XBQeUllqHvk

Length: 15min 58sec (958 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 11 2023