Natron Tutorials Part 1: The basics of the Software Layout

This is the first part in a mini series of Natron Tutorial videos. Part one is for people new to Natron and the goal is to get familiar with the software layout so we can comfortably move onto common node based compositing techniques.
Footage download:
720:
drive.google.com/file/d/1dn3L...
UHD:
drive.google.com/file/d/13ouA...
X-Wing:
drive.google.com/file/d/1qioU...
Music: www.bensound.com
#Natron #Compositing #VFX
Natron Series Course Outline:
Ep1: Introduction and GUI overview
- Node Menu and side menu
- Top menu
- Invisible Setting node
- User settings (shift + s)
- Node graph
- Viewer
- Nodes being a tools/settings container
Ep2: Key framing
- Keyframe state on and off and note expressions
- Using the viewer timeline and dope sheet to spot keyframes
- Animate a colour wheel to bounce
- Using the curve editor
Ep3: Tracking
- Tracker node
- Point track
- Copying track to transform node
- 4 point track and corner pin
- Linked vs unlinked
- Using corner pins to do quick roto
Ep4: Channels and Premultiplication
- RGB
- Alpha channel
- Premultiplication
Ep5: The Merge node
- Quick explanation of A over B
- Over, under, max, screen, mask, stencil, difference, minus
- How to see the math for the others
Ep6: Marker removal
- Paint clean frame
- Transform offset
- Corner pin
- Switch matte
Ep7: Basic Compositing
- Text Element
- Apply corner pin
- Make cast shadow
Ep8: Rendering
- Movie files vs image sequences
- Common file types; exr, mov
- Render settings: channels, path, hash, frame range, unpremultiplied
- Babying the render
- Checking the render
My socials:
Instagram: / harry_chrisp
Twitch: / pro_hazza
TikTok: harry_chrisp
Twitter: / harry_chrisp
Other KZbin: / @prohazer4818
Website: harrychrisp.com/
Sections:
Series Intro: (0:00)
Natron Basics: (1:10)
Node Graph: (2:27)
Import Footage: (2:50)
Connect Viewer: (4:06)
Properties: (4:31)
Change Image Colorspace: (5:00)
End of File Error: (5:55)
Movie File vs Image Sequence: (6:21)
Keyboard Shortcuts: (8:05)
Project and User Settings: (9:10)
Viewer: (10:43)
Layout Customization: (15:24)
Outro: (15:57)

[@oscarfilms9375]

THANK YOU! your an excellent instructor! I have been struggling with Natron for some time now! I tried a project recently which upon writing out all that effort, it wouldn't write out. Then I found this!

[@HarryChrisp]

Glad you find it useful and yea Natron is frustrating when I comes to rendering! Hopefully the tactics in my rendering video get it working for you :)

[@camiloginesrodriguez2354]

Thanks Harry, I am new on VFX software and I like to use Linux so this really helped me!

[@HarryChrisp]

Glad I could help, good luck!

[@Jordan-kl6zt]

Stunning commentary and very handsome. Keep it up

[@HarryChrisp]

Thanks mate! It takes a while to make my hair look that good, happy it was appreciated

[@joejohnston3]

I think a good tutorial idea, would be: "How to do a gunshot effect in Natron" (or something in the VFX range....) that would be awesome!

[@HarryChrisp]

Yea I can make that tut for sure!

[@averageviewer5221]

@@HarryChrisp omg yes and it might attract new audience

[@aryadeval8172]

love your videos thanks bro

[@HarryChrisp]

Thanks for the kind words, glad you're enjoying them!

[@adrianwolff2007]

Good job, please keep doing it. I need a work flow in linux with low spec, kdenlive and natron is my best bet.

[@HarryChrisp]

Thank you! More is on the way! Linux is tricky because adobe doesn’t work on it but yea Natron and Nuke will

[@onannyt]

so good 👍 Idea

[@HarryChrisp]

Thanks! Hope you were able to follow along!!

[@like8053]

thanks for Sharing it's me long thai

[@viderjun8257]

F*CK KZbin ALGORITHM YOU DESERVE MORE VIEWS! Great work!

[@HarryChrisp]

Hahaha thanks for the gas!

[@DarinMufida]

subscribed. this is what I need thankyou. But it would be great if you make a video about natron's shortcuts or a trick that will save time on natron if you don't mind.. anyway have a good day :)

[@kundansahu8126]

hey you got 1 more subscriber, tnx for video man

[@HarryChrisp]

Thanks heaps! I’m just two subs off getting the custom URL now 😊

[@kundansahu8126]

@@HarryChrisp i am subscribing in other account too

[@HarryChrisp]

@@kundansahu8126 you’re a legend bro, thank you so much 🙏

[@aroldoalves]

One more subscriber!

[@HarryChrisp]

Love it! Thank you 🙏

[@Im_Ninooo]

I'm starting out with Natron now (thought I really wish I've known about it sooner) and I've found that Ctrl + Z doesn't work when you transform something with the viewer controls.. is this normal?

[@arasantoonstest]

👍

[@arphyl2815]

How did you do the image sequence (exr) Files? Great content by the way!

[@HarryChrisp]

Thanks! And sorry I haven’t yet uploaded the image sequence version of the footage because it was too larger file, I’ll down rez and make it available tonight! I’ll also make a proper video on rendering for Natron. In the mean time you can covert footage to an image sequence by rendering it out using a write node and naming the file .exr or .png or .jpeg (in most software you’ll have to use # for the frame numbers) so an example file name would be: footage.####.exr

[@HarryChrisp]

Sorry for the delay, my website was being difficult! I've updated the link to be a google drive one so you can download the image sequence :)

[@natureli5599]

How to convert the concept of timeline into a nodal way to display special effects at a certain time? ?

[@HarryChrisp]

This would be done using a combination to time offset and switch nodes. Using key frames in the switches as cuts. You could do it with the frame range settings in the read node but from experience that way is much harder to keep track of

[@natureli5599]

@@HarryChrisp Can you make a tutorial? Thank you

[@HarryChrisp]

@@natureli5599 I'm not very good at motion graphics (you'll notice my end screen is a still frame) so am afraid I don't have much to offer in that area. If I'm ever forced into making worth while graphics I'll be sure to share the process then.

[@mohamedaldihani6890]

Could you please help me. I have a problem when open project said can not load frame.

[@HarryChrisp]

I can try.. I haven’t had that problem before but can run through my normal trouble shooting process. Firstly is the script responsive? Can you move around the node graph? If so I’d suggest copy and pasting into an empty new natron session and see if that helps and go through the nodes, starting with the reads, and seeing where it fails. Let me know how that goes

[@CsokaErno]

I started with Natron and I stopped with Natron :/ It is unable to display video view. This is very slow - no, it doesn't move, or just very slowly. I don't know why, I have a pretty strong graphics card, processor and 32 GB RAM. Do you have any idea how I can use it at all? :(

[@CHARON_FILMS2]

Can we do motion graphics in natron like making intro for yt?

[@HarryChrisp]

Yes absolutely! Natron is more designed for shot work but it has the capability to do motion graphics as well

[@CHARON_FILMS2]

@@HarryChrisp thnks alot :)

[@leolucasbr8946]

where is the video file?

[@Kun1-P]

DL the 720 file and remove the folder from the zip, then drag the folder into the program and it should auto covert as a video, jus make sure its NOT in the zip!

[@Vivek_Z]

How is this compared to Nuke? Is it more user friendly compared to Nuke?

[@HarryChrisp]

Hey Vivek! It’s buggier and 2d only. Very similar in terms of user friendliness but the bug positive side is it’s free

[@nitmo8557]

Is there away to blow things up in Natron. Like a space ship being struck by a missile? Without involving Blender.

[@HarryChrisp]

Do you have the elements for the space ship and missile? If so then you could do it with some 2d explosion elements

[@nitmo8557]

@@HarryChrisp Yes , I do. But how do I do it?

[@HarryChrisp]

@@nitmo8557 if you get through this whole series you should have a decent understanding of comping in Natron, then compile the ship, missile and explosion together

[@thevampirediaries8732]

Hi! A question is Natron free or does it cost money?

[@HarryChrisp]

Completely free!

[@rohanstevenson553]

The problem I ma having is that Natron is not recognising the image sequence as a sequence. I've tried several...I've played around with the frame start and end - it's just not seeing the sequence as a sequence.

[@HarryChrisp]

Hey Rohan, a couple of things to check are: Check the file naming is correct name.####.exr (or whatever extension your using) Check the play head is on the correct frame. Check the image on that frame actually works in another program. Check the frame numbers in the read node are correct. Check the full file path in the read node is correct including the frame number padding. Can you get 1 frame of your sequence to work or none at all?

[@rohanstevenson553]

@@HarryChrisp A thanks for the reply. The file naming WAS correct, but for some reason Natron did not recognise it as an image sequence. There is a drop down menu next to the file selector where you can choose "sequence" that I didn't notice before, so I did in the end manage to figure it out for myself...but I lost fair few hours and a bit of hair.

[@ivanlinuxandunix]

Very good! just one issue... The example video that I'm going to use is in a JPEG sequence, that is CRAP cuz any online converter I found either said I can't upload more or they were just straight up LYING and didn't convert the images to video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UPLOAD A VIDEO FILE PLZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@HarryChrisp]

You don’t need to convert a jpeg sequence to a video file. Natron can read it as if it was a video file as long as they have consecutive numbers in the file name to use as frame numbers

[@ivanlinuxandunix]

@@HarryChrisp Thank ya!!!

[@aatikaalia5008]

Can someone tell me how to "zoom in" or "zoom-out" in natron?

[@HarryChrisp]

With the scroll wheel on a mouse

[@aatikaalia5008]

@@HarryChrisp Are there any shortcut buttons for zoom in and zoom out? I mean if I don't want to use mouse!

[@HarryChrisp]

@@aatikaalia5008 you can use the F key to fit to your selection, does that do the trick?

[@aatikaalia5008]

@@HarryChrisp Yeah! I've tried that F shortcut button and it worked. Thank you for your aasisstance and guidance!:) You're so kind and courteous.:)

[@rudrapratapjatal7496]

Your voice is too low

[@HarryChrisp]

What should I do about it?

[@rudrapratapjatal7496]

@@HarryChrisp use better microphone, or increase your speaking voice👍

[@HarryChrisp]

@@rudrapratapjatal7496 alright, I’ve got a better mic now

[@MadWlad]

sheesh @rudrapratapjatal7496 … just turn the volume up.