Z-Effects Blog

So it seems to me that a lot of people have issues understanding the merge node in nuke. It is rather simple But i will gladly explain what is going on.

Pretend the merge node is like…your bed, it has 2 inputs you and your girl friend. Now alone you and your girlfriend (when you two are alone, not alone together but alone, drinking your self to sleep and cutting your thighs with razor blades wishing you were together) can’t really do anything to each other you can’t exchange fluids, or alpha channels cuddle, or bring out the brightness in each other.

But you add a merge node (the wild M key) and bam, your in bed together, with god only knows how many variations of what you can do. The merge node, (or over operations in any compositor) is like the Kamasutra of compositing. You can go frontwards or backwards, leftways and upways. Oh man you can even over, or top, or out and in. (I’m so hot for nuke right now I can’t even tell you) any ways, imagine now that not only are you B/F and G/f but you are into the whole tie up slapping scene, so there’s a top and a bottom. Well the merge node knows who’s who, but as young lovers often are, you guys get confused. So say you wanna swap, let her wear the chaps, and you can wear the pony tail. to switch all yu have to do is drag the ‘A’ connect to the other side, and the ‘B’ connect back to where A was, or hit shift X.

so what does this A and B stuff mean any ways, well lets just say if your the A you get to do the whipping (or be the top) ad if your B, well get some ice, cause your gonna get a whiping (or be the bottom). So when the A and the B get together out in public, (or just down the tree a bit) the top goes into the room first followed closely by the B, now imagine you’re the B and your really fat (well some of us don’t have to imagine) and your Girlfriend, the A is slim and skinny (Really nice legs btw, tell her if she ever gets board…im single me and lizzy aint hooken up no mo) so people still see your girlfriend first, but they also see you right behind her.

Now imagine if you say…went from over which is just hey, im me, and your you and what ever alpha channel info we have is all good. but what if you feel a little risky tonight, and want to go and screen each other brains out (oh I know you do…don’t hold back on my account. so what happens, well DAMN you got all crazy looking, all her bright bits are all over you, and god is it every where. But what about darken, now all her dark bits are all over you..and it doesn’t look so hot. The best thing to do is experiment, after all at your age, why not try switching stuff around, and sticking stuff where it don’t belong.

The point is there are a lot of ways to do things, and don’t forget you can adjust how far you go, kinda like a safe word using that Mix slider. And don’t forget being able to mask out wit channels. We all know how hot it can be when you use a mask…ooh…sends chills up my spine. you can merge just little parts (that game is called just the tip btw) or you can merge certain channels, invert things, and adjust bounding boxes…it really is pretty sexy.

Hope this helps. And remember if all else fails…RTFM!!

-Zander

IT kama Sutra