Professional Nuke Artist Tries FUSION 👀

[@AlfieVaughan]

I've just made an update to this video! After a year of seeing all the comments and feedback on this one, I took that onboard and did things like installing reactor and getting the layout working better to give Fusion a better chance second time round. Give it a watch here! ► kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZ6Vcp2ZrNCdm9E

[@NonStopMixaTron]

Fusion has the Reactor plug in which is a lot like Nukepedia. I'm always finding new stuff in there. Xglow does the multi step blur/glow effect you needed.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Good to know! Thank you :) I didn't really have time to dig around and look for this kinda thing

[@NonStopMixaTron]

I understand! I used Fusion for a year before even learning about the Reactor plugin library....

[@stephanec3436]

@@AlfieVaughan and in reactor you could find a nuke to fusion node converter ;)

[@jmalmsten]

Reactor is probably the closest thing Fusion has that's essentially open source. Tons of people doing all sorts of plugins. And even outside Reactor, people can readily share macros and groups and drfx files. The main thing about Fusion is probably that while it is very powerful. It still was, as I understand, smaller in the industry than Nuke and AE when Blackmagic bought them. And as they did tons of work to integrate Fusion into Resolve, I think they only recently have been able to put money into new stuff. Like AI tools and the whole USD framework with its own renderer and everything. But mostly, I think the lack of tutorials stem from the fact that yes, there was a tight knit group of experts before BM. but most, if not all tutorials are now done by people who have only begun scratching the surface of what the system can do. I sometimes stumble over showcases from the before BM days where only VFX houses used Fusion. And holy carp, they did some very photoreal stuff. There's just that unfortunate gap in the transfer of knowledge. So I welcome all videos showing more advanced techniques. Going beyond the getting started videos. I want more vfx studio grade tutorials. :)

[@TomSidProductions]

xglow is the best.

[@crypt0sFX]

Good on you for giving our side a go! Fusion is intimidating especially with the lack of tutorials, but you did phenomenal for your first try. Excellent video!

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks very much! I recon I could get used to it eventually. It's just the initial frustration of not knowing how to do something you can normally do with your eyes closed 😂

[@phoenix2gaming346]

@@AlfieVaughan 😆

[@simbee3634]

Really interesting to hear your professional input. One issue you did not mention was the price comparison. For us non-professionals, the difference between Nuke's €5,240 per year subscription, and Resolve Studio's €350 one-off price (or indeed that about 60% of it is available free), is the deciding factor.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Glad you liked it! Yes the price is a big factor for non professionals. This was more from my perspective as someone that does this for a career. Nuke indie is what I use and it's only about £400 a year which is much more affordable. Still a lot more than resolve but I make that money back straight away so the price doesn't bother me. If money was no issue I'd always want to use the best tools available and I believe nuke is superior for high end work

[@manylearn]

Really good to see this video! Lots of AE vs fusion videos out there, but fusion vs nuke is obviously more appropriate I'd love to see a follow up with Reactor installed - basically, it's a plugin/gizmo manager for fusion and IMO basically a prerequisite for doing real work in fusion - It has things like a lightwrap node, a nuke style grade node and even a full set of scripts for adapting fusion to be more nuke-ey (Though I've not tried it) I've been using Fusion a ton recently and my takeaways vs Nuke pretty much boil down to: - Fusion is absolutely kickass for motion graphics - The way fusion treats premult is inconsistent and kind of annoying - I see why the nuke way would put people off, but it's just a fundamentally better approach. In fusion I think the expectation is "Don't worry about manual premult, it'll all be fine" which I think would boil the blood of basically any nuke artist - There's not arbitrary channels in fusion, which is probably the biggest difference and weakness - though there is a reactor script for mapping channels, still a bit rubbish though - Channel booleans absolutely suck compared to shuffling - Fusions viewport performance poops all over nuke, it's way more interactive most of the time (Especially in fusion standalone) - Fusion particles are fantastic The lack of tutorials is rubbish, fusion is waaay better than people expect and honestly, it should be eating After Effects' lunch. I've been tempted to do a bunch of "Translated" nuke comp tutorials for fusion. Could be interesting. It's miles away from nuke and BMD isn't massively interested in putting in the resources to challenge nuke, positioning fusion as a thing for doing quick comps in resolve, which is a shame. Anyway, enough waffle, good stuff! I'd like to see more!

[@AlfieVaughan]

Very good to hear these thoughts! I'll definitely try installing Reactor. A few people have already mentioned it so it's clearly popular and something I should have a look at!

[@mariotriforce]

I would love some of those tutorials ❤❤

[@PatrickStirling]

incredible breakdown! one reason I'm excited about the future of fusion is exactly for the new artists who might otherwise have started by paying for AE before having to learn Nuke from scratch. If students get good at Fusion and want to go pro in Nuke I'd imaging they'd have a pretty decent leg-up 🤘

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thank you! Yeah it would definitely be an easier transition

[@JaimeAndresMedia]

You are not wrong at all, and this is very valuable for those of us who are not VFX professionals but want to dive into creating realistic-looking effects. I recently started to use Fusion to mix 3D objects with footage and it is definitely a steep learning curve. I stopped using Premier a few years back, used FCPX for a while, and decided to settle for Resolve as my editing tool of choice, so it only seemed natural to use Fusion for the times I want to composite something. One thing I learned from your video is that Fusion is actually more powerful than I thought, sure it is not as efficient as Nuke for a professional VFX artist, but for a filmmaker that wants to wow his/her audience (or clients) with a few well-done effects here and there then it's perfect. Thank you for sharing your insights as a professional, great content!!

[@AlfieVaughan]

Glad you liked it! Yes I think for people just look to do some basic compositing it's actually really good because you don't have to export stuff to another software. You can do it all on the timeline essentially

[@AlfieVaughan]

I didn't mean to diss it. I know studios use it too. But knowing more fusion artists than nuke ones is purely based on your personal circle. That's not reflective of the industry. Nuke is much more widely used. I've worked at a couple of places, one being a very big studio and I also have friends at basically every big studio you could name in London. DNEG, Framestore, ILM, MPC... No one is using Fusion there at the really big places

[@SpencerMagnusson]

I just started Fusion recently and ran into several of the issues you did (I used to work as a compositor for a while). I agree that I love how Nuke's input types (values vs color wheel vs RGB) are diverse yet all in one line - makes operations like the grade node very straightforward to use. Appreciate you sharing!

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks a lot! That's nice to hear 👍

[@jensgeumann7564]

You can Change the Fusion UI in the Workspace menu /LayoutPresets/FusionPresets

[@AlfieVaughan]

I tried the ones that were in there but none of them were really what I was looking for. I saw you could import them but didn't bother going that far with it

[@EightNineOne]

@@AlfieVaughan The system is slightly buggered too at the moment, Black Magic hid a load of the layout options in newer versions of fusion, but seem to be slowly putting them back

[@rano12321]

@@AlfieVaughan Workspace> Layout presets> Fusion presets> Mid Flow. It's built in, you don't have to import anything.

[@tiradmiral5532]

Building vertical nodeflow is quite easy. You just have to to dock node to the left or go Window > View Layouts > Left Flow and set your flow to vertical in Preferences

[@AlfieVaughan]

I did set it to vertical in the settings. But for some reason my view layouts didn't have left flow. There were only 2 and they were both rubbish

[@jordanhwang]

I only learned this recently. This helps give you more vertical space if you're trying to setup your nodes like Nuke. Fusion > Workspace > Layout Presets > Fusion Presets > Mid Flow

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks for the tip! A few people suggested this but I didn't see an option for mid flow for some reason

[@coinopanimator]

It's a shame that Resolve doesn't allow user created workspaces and tabbed windows. I would arrange things very differently to what's available if I could (vert node window tabbed in the same column as the inspector - accessable with a key stroke).

[@allentracy5794]

Nice video. I’ve been in VFX for 20 years and the funny thing is that Fusion was a stand alone program and the industry norm before Nuke was ever around. That would be the main reason why Nuke is similar but a bit better, it came after Fusion. Fusion kind of went away for a while (at least you never heard about it) but Resolve has been bringing it back.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks! Yeah I guess it's just the evolution of software

[@Zaqariyah]

New Davinci resolve 18.5 added new nodes like Multimerge, and it's a huge step to simplify compositing especially 2d motion design.

[@AlfieVaughan]

That's good to know! It could definitely do with something like that. It wasn't very intuitive when I was trying to work it out

[@nenoman3855]

Multimerge is a godsend for the few of us who do mograph in Fusion instead of AE.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks for the suggestion! A few people have recommended it

[@TangleWireTube]

Didn’t know about this yet! Excited to try multi merge.

[@SameerBhuptani]

I learned CG compositing in Fusion and also tried Nuke for some basic work but some how my mind is not accepting nuke so i still stick to my fusion workflow and no matter how outdated version i use but still I love working in fusion itself...

[@AlfieVaughan]

That's interesting to hear! It definitely takes a while to get used to any new software. When I switched from After Effects to Nuke I think it took several months to get really comfortable using it!

[@judeng]

For young people just entering the post production industry, it's good practice to know what the dominant software is used. It reduces the things you need to learn and improves your chances of getting work.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Yep, definitely!

[@Pinionistus]

I've used Fusion before Nuke was a thing, and now I'm veteran in Nuke and still using Fusion for certain things. I'd say that such comparison video would make more sense if you'd be somewhat mid-level familiar with Fusion. If you'd know how to do similar things in both software - instead of trying to do same shot while having cursory knowledge of one of the software - would be a much better comparison. Still - your point stands, that Nuke is definitely more used in studios and in pro VFX compositing world - and Fusion would need a mighty rework to be comparable, yet it's a much better alternative proposition than cryptic Natron (which doesn't have 3D system for example). There are strengths and weaknesses in all of the software, it's up to us to choose which one suits the job best.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Yeah that's a fair point but I don't have the time to get good enough at fusion for that. Especially as it's not really worth investing time to get used to it when I won't be using it for much going forward. Maybe some simple timeline animation/really simple comps

[@Leprutz]

So knowing both softwares well, what do you think is better if ther is, or which one is at least easyer or more straight forward to learn?

[@mistrrhappy]

@@AlfieVaughan I'm really excited to see this comparison between Nuke and Fusion. I'm old enough to remember when Shake ruled the pro compositing roost for feature film work. With all due respect, approaching this topic in this manner doesn't show the strengths and weaknesses of each software so much as it shows how well you can adapt to Fusion as a Nuke user without very much advance preparation. You adapted fairly quickly- I wish I were as fast with new software as you! I'd love to see a "Round 2" of this with some of the suggestions from the comments implemented in the future! Thanks again for the time you put into this!

[@Pinionistus]

@@Leprutz as for easier learning I'd stay Nuke, as it has much bigger tutorial library, by order of magnitude. As for software capabilities, there are few key things missing from Fusion, otherwise is quite capable for a lot of mid budget jobs.

[@Leprutz]

@@Pinionistus yes I believe so. I think davinci will only increase over time. But it might bring some caveats with it. Anyways, thanks for clarifying. I believe the worst thing about fusion tutorials is that nothing is really explained. It is just a: how to do effect. But it is important to understand why I do what I do.

[@Danielenfotos]

This is such a great comparison, thanks for sharing. About the problem you had in 06:45 with the color corrector affecting the whole image, you just need to connect the output of the spaceship node into the blue input of the color corrector node. Maybe this is too late now, but once again great video.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Glad you liked it! And thanks for the tip 🙏

[@havok373]

Super interesting to see a professional using Nuke and fusion side by side! I use fusion and aftereffects because the workflow on the studio that i work on, it's so practical to change takes and just enter to fusion tab. Also its important to say, Nuke is expensive for us on Brasil, will use only if you need to work in the bigs studios. I hope start learn someday! Informative video.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks! It's worth downloading the non-commercial version and getting to know it. That's what I'm using here and used it for years. I do have Nuke indie and use it for paid freelance work but I use the non-commercial free version for my KZbin videos so I can show people how to do it in a software they can access for free!

[@havok373]

@@AlfieVaughan Thanks! i don't know about this free version will have all usable to learn. I will instal and try some tutorials to get in use!

[@swissswiss9432]

This was a great video and you did brilliantly picking up Fusion. I work professionally as a vfx compositor on major movies and I have used AE a little, shake, Nuke and Fusion. For sure if you spent more time with Fusion I think that you'd find it as efficient as Nuke for your example comp. You'd find that there's a really neat way to string multiple masks or keys together and each node can subtract, multiply, add, min, max etc . The tracker has that odd bonus of being a merge too ... I never use it - so set the tracker to foreground only and merge it in a merge. I'd say that if you are working at the very most demanding edge of compositing .. then Nuke is the tool, but for most composites and I include major big budget features, then yes Fusion competes. One thing that you have not included is multitasking. I find the Davinci editor great, the colour page good, even audio is pretty handy. So for the trade off you can edit, grade, mix, vfx, graphics, make multiple versions - which you can tweak individually if needed & export all in one app, which makes archiving a breeze. Add to that, even Studio costs next to nothing and rolls out a new version every couple of months .. Makes the Davinci package pretty compelling, even if Nuke is at the sharpest point for compositing.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks for the insight! I totally agree. And good tip about the tracker 👍

[@am3sdigital]

I started in Fusion, but over the past year have been switching to Nuke, and honestly, it’s hard to look back. An issue I ran into with Fusion was one you commented on, that being lack of quality tutorials, and for me the topic that was seriously lacking was lens distortion. Creating an ST map in fusion seems possible, with some really weird workarounds I was never able to figure out. Also once I had a taste of Nuke’s color management, I couldn’t turn back. It just felt so much more intuitive to use than fusion’s color management, which didn’t have a display transform enabled by default. Also, my recommendation for fusion users is if you care about performance, don’t use the fusion page in davinci resolve, use the fusion standalone app. Since the fusion page has a whole other app around it, it’s really clunky, and limits the amount of ram to that you can dedicate to cacheing your composite. Also, perhaps this has been fixed, but the fusion page is severely limited in the file formats that the saver node can export in. You have to use the standalone version if you want to export anything other than an EXR file. Which yeah, usually my saver nodes are EXRs, but trying to render a complex fusion composite to just an Mp4 for preview through the deliver page is a one way ticket to crash city. Anyways, there’s my soapbox.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Haha! Thanks for the insight. That's really interesting. Yeah I found the colour management awful too. I decided to cut it from the video as it was a very niche problem but I found when I brought the EXRs that I also comped on in Nuke, Fusion didn't know what to do with them. They were ACEScg but whatever I did I couldn't seem to display them properly! I tried viewer LUTs, OCIO colourspace nodes going from ACEScg to Rec709 and visa versa... Nothing seemed to get it to look right. I gave up in the end and just comped straight on the ProRes file straight from the camera. Pretty disappointing. I've used ACES in Nuke, Flame and Blender and they were all pretty easy to get setup

[@RyoMassaki]

@@AlfieVaughan Same experience for me. I've been using Resolve for a while now, but never really used Fusion for something more complex than a slap comp, merging CG layers together. Recently I worked on a short SciFi animation using ACES and EXR's and Fusion just wasn't helpful. Not only did it refuse to display the color space correctly, I ran into some premultiply problems with the alpha when trying to compose my CG explosion. In the end, I gave up and used Nuke which is kinda new to me. I was not really surprised to see that everything worked flawless right out of the box without me having to do anything. For serious CG compositing I think I'll stick with Nuke.

[@robalityquality]

use the browsebutton in the savernode, a menu comes up. change the format from exr to all. now you get nice mov. format.

[@mariotriforce]

​@@RyoMassakikzbin.info/www/bejne/j2eqfXefYrp0es0 a recent video on fu coulor management

[@xanzuls]

@@AlfieVaughan Fusion is color agnostic so it doesn't take care of the color by default and works with whatever comes in. You can easily turn on a viewer LUT in Fusion by click on the gird at the top right corner of the viewer and then click edit and then add your OCIO file or chose Linear to Rec709 or sRGB. And in the node graph, the color space transform/gamut node does the same.

[@mfjae]

You should try the krokodove tools for fusion? Might have those 3rd party built in tools you could use maybe?

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[@darkvador6432]

Krokodove won't launch anymore from Fusion Studio 18.5.1 at least...

[@PeeJ_ENT]

How’s it going, I know the Reactor plug in was mentioned as something close to nukepedia but I’m not sure about if the following was mentioned: something worth noting from there is that there is a tool on it called “nuke2fusion” (something close to that) that adds renamed versions of stock fusion nodes with the names that are from Nuke, may be something to look into if you use Fusion again Also I would love to know which video resources were missing for figuring out how to composite? Sincerely, someone from the DaVinci Resolve/Fusion tutorial community Also Jake Wipp, Nomad R Productions, Pirate of Confusion, and Millolab Tuts are the people I think of when compositing in fusion (the latter two for super in depth breakdowns) which are worth checking out Great vid! I’d love to see a more complex scene for comparison to see if Fusion could meet your expectations

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks for the recommendations! For the tutorials, the main one was a tutorial on using the tracker. I watched 7 videos before I found one that actually showed how to use it and then apply that tracking to something else. I also found it impossible to get the colour management working for importing the ACEScg EXRs that I exported to Nuke into Fusion and get them to look correct. I tried for 20 minutes, watched multiple videos and found no answers. In the end I comped it on the ProRes plate from the camera!

[@mariotriforce]

​@@AlfieVaughankzbin.info/www/bejne/j2eqfXefYrp0es0 here's a video on fusions coulor management

[@TheScottAckerlund]

Amazing video, been looking for exactly this. I do think almost all of the things mentioned as a plus for Nuke over Fusion are already built in to Fusion (18 and above at least) Built in light wrap, community based Reactor, color corrector is a bit lacking though. As a former Nuke artist who made the switch 5 years ago, I can say that with the remote work revolution and Blackmagics quest of video production dominance, I imagine the whole “we use Nuke because that’s just what the pro studios use” narrative will die down

[@AlfieVaughan]

Interesting points! Yes lots of people have pointed out things like reactor. I probably should have done some research before giving fusion a go but also wanted this to be a totally real first impression. I see what you mean though! As for Nuke dying, quite possibly! The top software's come and go. Shake, Smoke, Flame... They've all had their time in the sun and something else eventually overtook them. I'm sure with enough good competition the same thing could happen with Nuke. But I hope not because I'll have to learn something else 😂😂😂

[@EightNineOne]

@@AlfieVaughanyou should do a follow up to this video, it seems to have performed pretty well. I’m sure people have shouted the names of all of the good fusion resources at you already. A “tooled up” version of this would be sick.

[@TomSidProductions]

Fusion 9's UI was much more simliar to nuke in terms of flexibility of the UI. but the fusion 15 facelift eliminated most of that customization. I still use Fusion 9 for some instances where tutorials were done in 9, once I finish the comp, I simply copy paste the nodes into the updated fusion and everything works no problem. I just need a fusion dongle.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Yes a lot of people have said it used to be a lot better. Interesting that they took away that customisability

[@scottycartercom]

Hopefully Divince listens to you and makes the ease of work as you said. One window top to bottom. Easy fix

[@AlfieVaughan]

Maybe!

[@danielsonderhoff5882]

👍🏾 I find that you have demonstrated your points in this comparison very objectively, neutrally, and clearly. At the end, you left the option that Fusion could also do good work in your area. There are only a few professionals on KZbin who can present things so cleanly and objectively. I envy your skills in this area and also admire your knowledge. It’s not enough to just know an app; you definitely have to understand the technology behind it as well.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks a lot!

[@periskop]

I agree your comments about the interface - it is still configurable, though nowhere near Fusion 9 - after which they changed it all to Davinci style (which ticked a lot of Fusion standalone users off) - but I guess it was necessary for code maintenance. I'm a 3D generalist so the way Nuke handles render passes and channels is more up my alley. On the other hand I'm no compositor and back when I was choosing a tool there was no Nuke indie. The post production company had a few licenses, but back then Nuke viewport was s l o w as molasses. So went with and got used to working with Fusion. All this is history, way before Blackmagic acquired it.

[@AlfieVaughan]

I found a few ways to set it up exactly how I have nuke. It took a lot of fiddling and some suggestions from people in the comments so not very intuitive. But I got there eventually

[@xanzuls]

Great video and it was nice seeing you showing the workflow and getting things done. I personally use Fusion when I switched from AE and there was a brief time period when I used Nuke before switching to Fusion permanently, but they are both great tools regardless and since I don't do VFX professionally, Fusion mostly solves all of my needs and it doesn't cost as much as a car haha. Few things, •Fusion has Reactor which is similar to Nukepedia but Fusion definitely doesn't have same range of plugins as Nuke. •There's a node for lightwrap in reactor I think. •There are multiple exponential glow nodes in Reactor but my fav one is Tintensity. •And the UI thing you were talking about is something I agree with as well as it wasn't the case with the old Fusion UI up until Fusion 9 It was all dockable and customizable and the node properties even had much better UI as well like the Nuke one before Blackmagic bought it and changed it to modernize it and make it more cohesive with Resolve's UI but it arguably made Fusion worse and many old time Fusion users mad.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks for the info dude! It's a shame reactor doesn't ship with fusion. Sounds like everyone that's serious about it uses it but noobies like me don't realise it exists

[@xanzuls]

@@AlfieVaughan yeah I wish there were more things that would ship with Fusion tbh but it's a community made tool and being maintained by community of users just like how Nukepedia doesn't ship with Nuke either (as far I know) and you have to download it.

[@mariotriforce]

I kind of really dig the vertical fusion layout @xanzuls I assume you know about it tho?

[@xanzuls]

@@mariotriforce Yes, that's what I use. Midflow.

[@Astlaus]

Agreed, Fusion integration with Resolve was a significant regression in terms of UI. On the other hand the workflow between video editor and Fusion is way smoother.

[@jamied6166]

Pre-mult tripped me up a lot at first - the Matte control is very handy and it's on the default tool bar. Great video, really nicely done!

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks! And thanks for the tip 👌

[@swamptv_vfx]

I feel both Fusion and blenders compositors have the advantage of being built it into other software, where doing some small comp work in resolve while editing can be quite convenient and the same would go for certain scenarios using render layers in blender, also fusion has a much better price tag for commercial use cases

[@AlfieVaughan]

Very true. I might even use fusion for the occasional small timeline comp. Probably more motion graphics than VFX. But just because it's built in and convenient doesn't always mean it's the better option. I certainly wouldn't use blenders compositor for anything. I've used it several times and it's dreadful. It lacks some really important basic features that make it hard to use

[@xanzuls]

The advantage of Fusion that it's built inside Resolve but before that it was a standalone comp tool and it's still is a standalone tool.

[@raymobula]

The DaVinci manual is very good too and quicker to learn from there than trying to search KZbin videos.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Good suggestion! Thank you :)

[@raymobula]

@@AlfieVaughan Especially since you know what you are looking for. Helped me to switch

[@EricLefebvrePhotography]

I had the same problem when I moved from Vegas to Hitfilm and From HitFilm to DaVinci ... the learning curve can be pretty steep. I'm trying to make the swicth to Davinci (will be buying pro soonish) but for some of my client work, especially motion graphics, I usually load up HitFilm Pro since I can do the work about 5X faster as I've been editing in that for like 6+ years but I'm slowly getting a hang of Fusion by using it on personal projects. I'm exporting a 2d animation / motion graphics project right now for a study music channel I;ve put together using music I;ve licensed (think LoFi Girl) and using that as a learning project, a lot of stuff has finaly clickedm especially uusing the 3d space (I like having camera controled paralaxing on my seperate 2d layers instead of faking it manually). On thing I love in Fusion is that you can have keyframes LOOP or PING PONG! No more copying and pasting keyframes!!! WOOT! My current video has a 2d anuime girl listening to music on a parch bench and having her head bob up and down to the beat was SUPER easy onceI figured that out.

[@AlfieVaughan]

I can see why it would be tough getting into it! I think with enough time you can get used to anything. You just have to endure the first few difficult weeks!

[@RathJ13]

I know this is a fusion related video, but the sky replacement is so much easier on the colour tab, there's a built in sky replacement effect that makes it soooo easy

[@AlfieVaughan]

Yeah a few people have mentioned that. I know about the sky replacement took but I wanted to mirror the same techniques across both software

[@glmstudiogh]

ok, so I actually started learning node compositing with Fusion before I moved to Nuke, I still use Fusion for subtle effects when editing in Davinci, Fusion is ok, and all you went through is exactly what I suffered when learning Fusion years back

[@AlfieVaughan]

Yeah I think I'll probably use it for small timeline animations too occasionally. I don't mind it I just wouldn't want to do any big shots in it

[@HobysVid]

Iam using Fusion studio for all kinds of comp/ cleanup work from point tracking to 3D projections and sometimes the comps grow really big. No problems at all. Sometimes pre render or use the cache function and go on.

[@gamingrealism5553]

I'm using Fusion from Davinci Studio 18.5 for my VFX compositing in movie industry, and it's a quiet powerful compositing software, because I'm a video editor as well, Fusion make my work perfect.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Yes I can imagine it's very good if you're doing everything yourself as it's all in one software. My specific job is singularly compositing so I don't have to worry about editing timelines etc. so for me nuke makes sense as I think on its own Vs fusion on its own, nuke wins in terms of features and capabilities. If money was no object obviously. Which at a VFX studio it is sort of the case. They'd rather pay a lot more for better software than go cheaper and have artists not working to their full potential

[@gamingrealism5553]

@@AlfieVaughan yes, that why the industry put me as a VFX Editor. Not only to edit the movie shot, but it took me to composite the VFX as well and sometimes help the Nuke compositor to complete the remaining shots. Nuke and Fusion is powerful software, thank you for this video. It will help others to understand the differences. cheers!

[@AaronStowers]

First, this was a fantastic video and one of the best I have ever seen on Fusion. Now, as to the light wrap, you can get a fantastic one through Boris FX for Resolve. I would also like to add that I hope you create more fusion tutorials because someone with your experience could do wonders for the KZbin VFX community. Everyone can't afford Nuke, and the fusion tutorials don't dive into the more complex VFX shots one can achieve with fusion, so many of us use Davinchi, and it's affordable. Lastly, your channel would become one of the largest on the fusion topic because of your skill set.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks very much! Yes, there's also some lightwrap options in reactor as a few people have pointed out. I plan to make another video on using Fusion quite soon. I've been using it a bit here and there since this video and am starting to like it

[@AaronStowers]

@@AlfieVaughan Everything you did in that video are things that I would love to learn. Are you familiar with Synth Eyes by Boris FX?

[@AlfieVaughan]

@AaronStowers Good to know. I know of it but I haven't used it in years. I think I tried it a bit about 10 years ago

[@AaronStowers]

@@AlfieVaughan I would love to master Fusion. Do you have any suggestions?

[@AlfieVaughan]

Not specifically for fusion, sorry. It's not my area of expertise. But for compositing in general, just keep doing it. Shoot stuff yourself, make interesting shots. It also really helps to get feedback from people with a trained eye, professionals if you can. Seeing what they pick out helps improve your eye as well

[@aki_gong6271]

That's a pretty neat video, thanks for sharing. Fusion is an amazing piece of software, in fact most of people with more than 15 years in the industry has probably used it at some point, I started using it when it was Eyeon :) The menus are pretty configurables in Fusion, you can even create folders with different views, undock them, have different overlay spectrums and color calibration tools within the same view, etc... There are tools that will help you like the matte control, or the bright and contrast ;) Both are great softwares, and if you don't need deep compositing, there isn't a reason to use Nuke, unless you want to be a Nuke operator. As compositing freelance artist, non software dependent, Fusion should be the way. Regarding industry standard, it is Nuke, that's correct, but that could be down to many reasons that would also interest to investigate ;) When I'm working in a studio I'm using Nuke, when I'm freelancing I use Fusion. Did you have chance to look into 3D within Fusion? It has been mush more developed than Nukes one for ages, and that type of shot could probably be solved 100% within Fusion, just bringing the FBX, the textures, and create shaders and rendering from Fusion itself.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thank you! Yes I agree with everything you're saying. I think the main and most compelling reason to learn nuke is simply that there's the most jobs going at studios of you're a nuke artist. Supply and demand i guess! As for fusions 3D system, only very briefly. I'm told by other fusion users it handles big 3D scenes very well and you can do some cool stuff!

[@aki_gong6271]

If you have time, take a look at its 3D environment, you can get amazing things done, and so quickly. Its shader system can be pretty powerful, even limited, always depending on needs. Thanks for replying :)

[@SuperSuperka]

Hate this new Fusion for damaged UI. Fusion up to 9 was beautiful and customisable (as you wanted at 3:40)

[@AlfieVaughan]

A few people have pointed this out. It's a shame they haven't managed to make it better

[@slamotte]

yeah fusion tutorials are really limited, it's discouraging tbh. hopefully they'll start making more vids for it with more complicated compositions. Good video mate!

[@AlfieVaughan]

It would definitely help people pick it up! Thanks :)

[@JimRobinson-colors]

As a person that has spoken english for a long time, I tried speaking french for a month. And although I see that french people are able to communicate fairly well. And I seemed to do less and less, googling translations. I have to conclude that English is better. This is basically what I hear when anybody uses any software for years and then dabbles into a different software. With the emphasis of "different"" being the keyword. As you know ( but some may not ) when a different software doesn't do the exact same thing as the one that you normally use - doesn't have any bearing in it's usability or quality, or even ease if use. A lot of time it means that you aren't used to the software workflow and steps. I wonder if a person that has used Fusion everyday and is over the 10,000 hours could deliver the goods with identical outcome in a comparable amount of time, that you could do it in Nuke. That would to me be a better comparison, if I was to start learning and have the choice between the softwares. No worries though - there's always the never ending discussion on PC or Mac.

[@AlfieVaughan]

You're absolutely right. And that's why I said a few times to take what I'm saying with a pinch of salt because I hadn't given fusion enough time to become familiar so it was at an unfair disadvantage. I'd love to put in 10,000 hours of both softwares and compare but that's just a practical use of time!

[@rillaaa5740]

This was brilliant comparison 😂 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿

[@sismith5427]

Its hard to switch after so many years using one software, I think with a proper transition period you could feel as comfortable in Fusion as you are in Nuke, both are highly capable... The biggest thing for me is they are not miles apart workflow wise. But there is one massive elephant in the room... Price. Nuke is over $5000 a license and Fusion is just £245. That means Fusion is just 5% of the cost of Nuke, and it certainly isn't 5% of Nukes feature set, I reckon Fusion hits at least 95% partity with Nuke. Just consider that a studio could have 20 Fusion workstations for the same license cost as one just Nuke workstation, thats crazy. So unless your looking to work in alot of studios, fusion is an exceptional option. The value to feature ratio is amazing. 3d software is the same, industry standards are Maya or Houdini, but if your not working doing 3d, vfx, or character work in Maya or Houdini based studio, then Blender is a great option... highly capable ... and free. I'd also say with certainty that if a pro 3d maya artist was given blender for the first time... they would also struggle.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Yeah I agree with what you're saying. A lot of people are saying that but again the point of the video is specifically why I use it. Not whether it's the right choice for everyone. I have Nuke Indie which is more affordable for freelancing at home and I use fully licensed versions of NukeX at work but obviously I don't pay for the licenses.

[@kubolor1234]

Fusion has Reaktor too.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Haven't tried it! Will have a look

[@MohammadAliFX]

There is an easier way to remove sky by using the colcr page but it requires the studio version of davinci resolve .. however I use fusion quite a lot and what I like about fusion that it could be used in 2d and 3d motion graphics as well as compositing but to be honest when we talk about compositong nuke is more powerful than fusion .. Thank you for this useful comparison between nuke and fusion ..

[@AlfieVaughan]

I do actually have the studio version and know about that feature. It's pretty cool! But I wanted to mirror the compositing techniques in Nuke rather than use a Fusion specific tool :)

[@draken5379]

Very cool video. The one big plus for Resolve with Fusion is the free version, its one of the 'best' free products out there for sure.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Yeah totally! Nuke has a non-commercial version too though 👀 It's free and almost fully featured. Just limited to 1080p and a few other things

[@draken5379]

@@AlfieVaughan ahhh really. Ta for the info ! I must take a look. I dont do very techincal stuff like you though haha, sometimes just need a quick way to edit video/etc together hehe.

[@dzyanw]

I started using Fusion a few months ago, and although I'm learning more and more, coming from After Effects, it just never felt that intuitive and a lot of the "simple" actions seem to require quite a lot node building. Plus animating and adjusting keyframes can be quite cumbersome. But I know a lot of people can make amazing things with it, so ima just keep on trucking, as it comes free with Resolve XD One other thing that irked me though is color grading in Fusion, like you said, feels like it's quite limited, especially with the Resolve color page next to it. Would be nice if they could bring over some of that smooth color page workflow into Fusion to help match scenes that you want to merge and things like that. Also thanks for the vid!

[@AlfieVaughan]

Totally agree! Glad you liked the video :)

[@darkvador6432]

Hey As I wrote in my probably too long comment ;), as Alfie made a weird choice to work in yhe Fusion tab of Resolve instead of the Fusion Studio standalone, you can grade any mask separaretly in the Color tab by adding a MediaOut node after the mask you wish to grade, and assign an number to the ID parameter of this node. Then back in the Color page, adding inputs in the node flow will add these masks in the node flow...

[@mariotriforce]

I personally would love a follow-up video after a month or 2 after using it or fusion studio, and list out all the quirks & differences you've found (obviously on your spare time projects), they are 95% matched from my understanding & that gets closer with reactor, because it would help not just I but also BMD make a better product (alot of the quirks & missing stuff in my view are due stupid foundry patents... 😅)

[@AlfieVaughan]

A few people have said they'd like another one but unfortunately it's just not worth me investing the time to learn fusion properly. I have no intention of actually using it for any compositing going forward other than maybe some simple timeline animations. So as much as I think it would be a good video, I probably won't be doing it

[@mariotriforce]

@@AlfieVaughan I think a problem with that view is it lets nuke win & I am very much anti monopoly..., more places every year are considering resolve and I don't mean just youtubers, pro post houses & broadcasters too really except those who have RnD budget + haveing such a video helps point at BMD and get an understanding of what they can do to improve it. I get it tho it's easy for pros to stay in their comfort zone, where's the ones that last a longer time specialise yes but also adapt (don't get me started on how the industry loves gatekeeping through many formsXD)

[@kneepayne]

If you have to collab with another studio or artists, sometimes you need to be able send and receive formats. If others are using Nuke then you need to get inline with them. Also, when I worked in VFX we used Nuke scripts heavily. I have found scripting in Fusion to not be as strong.

[@kneepayne]

And I am saying this as a Resolve Studio user. I love Resolve but with 15 years experience in VFX and animation I totally get having the right tool for the right job

[@AlfieVaughan]

Fair points! Nuke is very good for sharing files. The fact you can just email someone a group of nodes is awesome 😂

[@Zizos]

Exactly what I thought. Grew up with AE but since I moved to DR, Fusion has kept me back. You can do compositing but it's not that good for creating stuff compared to other software. Unfortunately I don't see them making Fusion much better with the 1 time payment price. Fingers crossed.

[@AlfieVaughan]

I wouldn't hold your breath. They're currently pretty much on top in the colour grading world and also very good for editing. I don't think the compositor is their focus

[@phoenix2gaming346]

NUKE IS BEAST

[@AlfieVaughan]

💪

[@phoenix2gaming346]

@@AlfieVaughan ✅✊

[@bvaccaro2959]

Great video/comparison! Interesting for me as a Flame artist who ’s been forever procrastinating on learning Nuke. I see that some of your’e comp operations can be done in one or two nodes in Flame. I grade in Flame as well as I feel it’s color science for grading (the way it handles colors like Baselight does), well also becaus I know Flame, Lol. But I do think a lot of Nuke artists have better foundational understanding of compositing and all the Nuke Gizmos available definitely are a hudge plus. Also Flame cannot do deep compositing, multitude channel is handled in a very clunky way in Flame. Anyways would be very cool to see you do this in Flame as well since I imagine you know a little bit coming from The Mill?

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks a lot! Yeah most the compositors where I work are flame artists. At the mill it was mostly Nuke but the people that had been there for ages were all flame ops. I guess that's the legacy of a lot of places. I still think Flame is really really good for 2D jobs. Anytime we do a big CG job it's usually me and another Nuke assist. Even the CG team push for Nuke help because like you say we can work in deep and handling multi channels is better in nuke etc. Its all job specific I guess! I don't actually know how to comp in Flame at all. I only use it for running the timeline so I conform in Flame etc and then drop all the shots in, publish to colour etc. and we master the jobs out of Flame at the end

[@bvaccaro2959]

@@AlfieVaughan ah yes, I used to freelance at The Mill NY a lot for a few years and there would be a Nuke artist or two comping on the jobs much of the time.

[@AlfieVaughan]

What do you think? 👀 Let me know!

[@oneaspiringartist5822]

I'm still using blender for compositing because I couldn't download Nuke. I really want to learn Nuke bro 😭

[@AlfieVaughan]

Why can't you download it?

[@oneaspiringartist5822]

@@AlfieVaughan apparently the software "is not compatible with my device". I'm using a Dell from 2016. Idk

[@AlfieVaughan]

Oh dear 😬

[@KelVFX]

I used to be a Nuke user but shifted to Fusion, took some time and was frustrating for a while as I couldn't work as fast but that is just the learning process. A lot of your comments are spot on but I have found Fusion to be faster under the hood than Nuke and as a professional artist with a programming background Fusion is even more flexible (Except the UI which was an ruined in an 'upgrade' some years back). I wouldn't recommend Fusion to everyone but it can certainly compete with Nuke, there is nothing that can't be done in Fusion that is in Nuke.

[@javianhuell523]

Can you try Natron, would love your opinion.

[@AlfieVaughan]

From what I've seen on Natron it's basically identical to Nuke. I don't think there's much of a comparison to make. It's essentially a clone! Although they've stopped developing it now so Nuke has lots more modern features

[@javianhuell523]

@@AlfieVaughan ok, thanks

[@JanKlier]

Great video and discussion. I've used Fusion years ago when starting out (before it became a tab in Resolve, the standalone app is a bit more user friendly UI wise), the benefit of it being affordable, but found it similarly lacking in terms of tutorials and the mid-tier glue type of nodes that make you efficient. In the years since I've moved on to Nuke and Flame and much prefer them for similar reasons you stated. I think Fusion is a great solution for folks that do mostly color and occasionally need to composite or key something that the color page can't handle. And also for folks to learn VFX node based tools who cannot afford a $6K/yr license. But if you're a professional working in this field every day, Nuke is the correct compositor app to use and learn. Not saying that Blackmagic isn't a professional tool. On the color side it most definitely is. The rest, I think they're on the field, but not leading in any way, but happily providing the masses with affordable (i.e. essentially free) tools to mess around with and be creative. And that's a good thing. They're also perfect stepping stones towards the more serious tools, which is also a valuable thing to keep this industry healthy. An old saying comes to mind: Everyone wants to be above average. So you have to appreciate the 50% of the crowd that defines the point of comparison. Fusion is a great point of comparison of why Nuke is the leading tool.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Totally agree! It's very usable and I'll probably use it for small timeline animations here and there. The edit and grading tools are the best I've used so far. Absolutely love the software for those features. But you can't be the best at EVERYTHING!

[@Leprutz]

I cannot agree on a few facts though. I cannot talk about fusion and nuke, but I believe you and also from what I have heard till today, Nuke is usually the pro software in compositing. But Davinci Resolve is pretty effective on editing though. Even more so than Avid Media Composer. One thing is that Avid is very complete within itself and loads of stuff can be handles in there. But so does Davinci Resolve giving us different options. The main problem avid has is, it's very counterintuitive and for the simplest things to do, Davinci Edit beats Avid in every way. And I was an Avid user. But I believe I will stay on Fusion like you say, for some small scale stuff it seems to be perfect and I am no compositer either.

[@MagichourManila]

Thank you for the detailed comparison. What are your thoughts on Flame or Houdini? How do VFX studios utilize them and is it beneficial to learn them, in comparison to Nuke? By the way, I wanted to mention that adjusting the playback speed to 0.75 really made a big difference in how I understood your narration. As someone who doesn't speak English as their first language, it has become much easier for me to follow along. But don't worry, if I ever need to, I can always turn on the closed captions.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks! Flame is pretty similar to Nuke but older and a bit less equipped for large CG jobs. I use it at work to manage the timeline and we have lots of flame compositors. Houdini doesn't really compare as it's a 3D software

[@MagichourManila]

Thanks a lot for your reply!@@AlfieVaughan

[@OnecrasFilms]

This is great! I've been thinking about switching from AE to Nuke for freelance work, do you use Nuke Indie for your freelance work?

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks! I do, yes. Foundry, who make Nuke, have been kind enough to sponsor my channel with a license so I'm fortunate enough not to have to pay for it. I make some nuke tutorials for them on return. But I totally would pay for it if that wasn't a thing. I think the price of indie is very reasonable. If you're getting regular work as a freelancer it pays for itself within a day

[@OnecrasFilms]

@@AlfieVaughan Yeah I see how the yearly rate is definitely worth it. The only other this that's holding me back is that I also do some motion graphics stuff so it's nice that GFX & VFX can be done with one software.

[@AlfieVaughan]

@OnecrasFilms yeah that's fair. It depends what you do. I'm purely VFX 99% of the time so Nuke is like the top of the food chain for me. But it's not great for motion graphics at all so if that was a bigger part of my day to day I'd probably use another software for that work and comp in nuke

[@vassiton]

You know you can arrange all the elements (like the spaceship) in fusion and then output them to their own media out so you can do the final composite on the color page which has far superior cc tools.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Oh interesting. I'll have to try that

[@toekneeshields]

Thanks for the perspective Alfie. I would love to see if there was anything in Fusion that you don't find in Nuke. I have been told that the partical system in Fusion is better than what comes in Nuke but I have not worked in Nuke sense 2009. I used Nuke between 2004 to 2009. Right now I use AE and Fusion if I need any compositing I am also looking to get better at comping In Blender. Back when I was using Nuke I use the compositer in Softimage a lot as well as Cops in Houdini a fair bit. But because I live in Houston Texas I don't have the clientel that is picky about what tools I use and I don't want to spend the money it cost to keep up with Nuke. This is why I have been getting to know Fusion better. I think if you do this idea as a series of different projects you would have a good following. I mean its such a huge marked of potential users for Fusion. Anyway thank for the work and time you spent trying to help others. Its very appriceated.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm glad you liked the video. I'm definitely planning on returning to this topic at some point. I've been using Fusion to do some motion graphics this week and am slowly getting the hang of it

[@geezgod465]

2:23 do you have a video on this ramp method I didn't understand what you did perfectly

[@AlfieVaughan]

I'm afraid I don't. But the idea is you mix the original sky back in with the ramp. So it gradients into the replaced sky which means you don't have to worry about harsh key lines and roto on the edges of the buildings

[@MaxChe]

That's an interesting comparison! My choice like yours is Nuke, I've been using it for almost 9 years now. I looked at the Fusion, but in my tests it was very uncomfortable..... If I could master Maya instead of Blender, then it would be the industry standard, but my choice is Blender, Houdini and Nuke.

[@nihilusedit1447]

I try to learn Houdini but it such a complicated software do you have any advice to learn it ?

[@AlfieVaughan]

Yeah I haven't bothered switching to Maya either. For what I do, blender is perfectly usable. Even at work! I've done my own CG for lots of small bits in my comps before. I don't know houdini at all so can't give any tips I'm afraid. I tried it a couple of years ago but got very busy so stopped doing tutorials and I haven't picked it back up since

[@LFPAnimations]

I learned maya for two years but prefer blender. It is much lighter weight to load, the interface is better, and blender has a much more active community.

[@MaxChe]

@@nihilusedit1447 Start with the basics, poke around the buttons. If you are familiar with other 3D software it will be easier to switch to or learn Houdini, try to do the same things that you do in other software, only with the help of Houdini, so you will slowly transfer your skills to a new environment, moreover, Houdini will become your faithful friend, most likely after learning it you will throw other 3D software in the background, as in Houdini more flexible and intuitive tools, yes, the first time will be difficult, but you do not despair, small steps will reach it

[@MaxChe]

​@@LFPAnimations I agree with you, for the same reason and I preferred Blender, and even just because the network a lot of information and tutorials on it, unlike Maya, such a feeling that there do not do anything but modeling and animation, yes, all this is at an insanely high level, but still it is not enough to cover everyday tasks with which Blender copes much easier and faster, although it lacks basic functions, but nothing, they are on the way).

[@josealberto-rj1si]

great the "color gain" node is similar to the nuke grade it is more extended

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks for the tip !

[@Zaqariyah]

Yep! This is what I'm waiting for!!!! 🤩

[@AlfieVaughan]

🎉😎

[@Rahul-fk7ub]

You should add Houdini in your software bucket list...for simulation....and we all get some nice explanation and tutorial on it ❤

[@AlfieVaughan]

I did try learning it a few years ago. I just don't have time. I don't do simulations enough to make it worthwhile. I can do 99% of what I need to do in blender. Also, even if I learned Houdini I'm not sure id feel comfortable making tutorials until I was really good at it so I could be sure I'm spreading the right information. But that would take years!

[@Rahul-fk7ub]

Ahh...I need to find another mentor for sim 👀

[@arkenavetisyan7308]

I'm trying to decide which one to learn. I edit in Resolve and I work solo so probably it's Fusion for me.

[@AlfieVaughan]

There's no right or wrong answer. The artist matters more than the software anyway 👌

[@glmstudiogh]

Hi. I really love your videos. I remember, in one of your videos, you ran a script which opened Davinci Resolve and it had created folders inside Davinci, How do I do that? cause all I'm able to do now is create a folder structure in windows explorer.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks! It wasn't inside of resolve it was just a .exe batch program I made. If you look at my davonci resolve workflow video I show how I did it. It's a notepad file with some make directory commands for all the folders. It's very simple to setup

[@glmstudiogh]

@@AlfieVaughan I’ve gotten it. Thanks. But what if I want to create multiple folders in one of the main folders?

[@AlfieVaughan]

You just add them on. I do the same in that video. I have subfolders. So you name the main folder and then after it the sub folder

[@glmstudiogh]

@@AlfieVaughan he figured it out tho. So here’s what I wrote; md 1_References md 2_Scene Geos md 3_Footages md 4_Renderings\Shot_01 md 4_Renderings\Shot_02 I also have a python script for that but I wanted to learn another way out

[@anthonythorne8708]

Good video, I own Davinci Studio and have looked at Fusion with curiosity but there seemed to be nearly bugger all tutorial videos out there, and the few I did find were somewhat limited. Meanwhile if you're learning Blender (or C4D like I have) there is pretty much a tutorial out there for every topic you can think of. I've been on the fence debating whether to spend weeks learning Nuke or weeks learning Fusion (and had been leaning towards Nuke) but this video and in particular some comments from others makes me think Nuke is the one.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks! Yeah I agree. The lack of tutorials made it hard to pick up

[@Leprutz]

I am more an editor than a compositor even though I do some compositing myself with the colorpage mostly. Some basic stuff which helps me materialise what what I had in mind while I shot something. Even though compositing seems to be a tool that most editors need now most of the time, I still believe it is good to have some basic knowledge but be a master in one region. For real compositing stuff I would want to have someone doing it for me. But the mere fact of the comments in here saying that both are similar but nukes seems much more straight forward, makes me wanna learn some nuking to be honest. But maybe for my small scale stuff fusion maybe sufficient.

[@TechRealityGlasgow]

And when you check the Fusion price VS Nuke price... the majority of viewers will smile, and move on :) - Interesting to watch this and how you got on.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Nuke has a free version! It's called Nuke non commercial. I'm using it here but I do also own nuke indie for my freelance work

[@TechRealityGlasgow]

@@AlfieVaughan never noticed that!

[@rano12321]

@@AlfieVaughan Yeah but it's non commercial tho, you can't use it for commercial work and it's limited to 1080p and doesn't support h264 etc.

[@Workbenchtv]

All valid and correct criticisms. I like Fusion, but some of the things-like tabs for color channels, or shadows/mids/highs-are annoying because it slows you down. I don't use Fusion in Resolve-I mainly use stand alone-but I wish it had tools from Resolve's Color page instead for its CC node. I too am saddened there's no light wrap by default. And I still struggle with what nodes to use where sometimes, especially to combine mattes. My mantra has been, when in doubt, look for the pre-divide/post-multiply checkbox. 😂 One thing that is nice-and Nuke probably also does this-is that Fusion comps are text files. So I've been able to write Python scripts that can do things with Fusion comps, for example, for one client we have built a look for their 3D elements, and I need reflections comped to block out background elements in After Effects. So as long as we have the same passes, I can run a terminal command, and build an entirely new node tree with the proper image sequences and outputs ready to go for my project. One dumb thing is that Fusion doesn't save relative paths/won't convert paths between operating systems. But because of the text file thing, I can easily swap it from one OS to another with another Python script. tl;dr it's good, but it's not Nuke-yet.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Haha! I agree. Yes nuke also works based on text files. There's some cool tools for pipelines at work for smart copying people stuff on the network where you can just send it to their username and they can paste it into their script. But failing that, we just used to email each other node trees 😂

[@Workbenchtv]

@@AlfieVaughan After Effects used to allow stuff like that too. Sadly, it no longer does. Glad to know Nuke does!. Thanks for the reply! Have a great weekend!

[@andreyg196]

Yo, fantastic video Would you be able to do another similar video where you try to achieve the same result in Blender's compositor? I'm definitely interested to see how it compares

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks! Maybe at some point. I'd have to learn how to use it 😅

[@EightNineOne]

TL;DR - I'd be horrible. Blenders compositor is miles behind even fusion. (If you comp in Blender, you should totally give fusion a go) It'd be like doing a drag race between a 911 and a fiat 500.

[@andreyg196]

I never actually tried to comp in Blender yet, this video has sparked that interest tbh. I'd imagine fusion is great. Only used Davinci for a bit of editing. I definitely prefer Nuke UI for comping

[@EightNineOne]

@@andreyg196 in that case just skip Blenders compositor and jump straight into fusion. Honestly, unless you need some specific features from nuke, you’re better served by the fusion page than nuke non-commercial

[@AlfieVaughan]

I've used the blender a tiny bit. It's ok but it lacks some really obvious tools

[@ericcaissie4563]

I love the grade node in Nuke, it’s so simple and you can tweek the alpha is you choose and one thing I find super complicated in Fusion ( or maybe i don’t know how) is to easily feather with the beziel tool, in Nuke you create a mask and feather as far as you want like simply making a rectangle on top and feathering down and actually controlling where the harder parts will be, like a ramp, but in fusion I don’t get it I push the “D” button and mess around with the green line but can’t control the amount of feather. I hate it and should be the easiest thing. It’s so useful. I miss the keylight as well and lightwrap. But I want to learn it well as its so cheap compare to nuke and there’s no workaround. I used to work for Dneg and it’s hard to transition from NukeX

[@AlfieVaughan]

Yeah I think the grade node is very well thought out. Resolve need to sort their stuff out if they want to compete

[@ericcaissie4563]

You did a very nice work! I’ve been using Fusion for a bit and still struggle coming from Nuke. One question, how did you do your black and white levels? I can’t find any tutorials and the grade node in Nuke is so easy.

[@AlfieVaughan]

@ericcaissie4563 I think I just used gain and gamma to be honest. Not the technically correct way to do it but couldn't see any options for proper black and white points

[@lucidlakeproductions]

This is pretty awesome, never knew what nuke was but this was interesting

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks!

[@MrDebranjandutta]

Noticed you used the fusion tab inside resolve, for an apples to apples comparison maybe you should've compared nuke to backmagics standalone compositor🎉, Fusion Studio

[@AlfieVaughan]

A few have said this. But the original questions came from why if I am editing in resolve why not just use the fusion tab

[@johnaart]

The most compositing ive done is in After Effects... So i have no idea what was going on here... But this was interesting to watch

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks! :)

[@GizmoMaxx]

Hi Alfie, Great video m8 ! How do you View Flame as also industry standard workflow rather than Nuke? Cheers

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks! Flame is even more established than nuke, it has been for years! Although nuke is more popular now as it's much better for CG jobs. Where I work we have nuke and flame artists and I use flame myself for running the timeline on a job. I think it's really powerful but I don't use it for compositing

[@GizmoMaxx]

@@AlfieVaughan i know ! When you mentioned Nuke i was think, who’s still using? Only because of the workflow pipeline. Keep it up with the great work m8 !

[@glmstudiogh]

there's a trick I learn on ho to use the normals to cast the plate colors unto your CG. very helpful, I don't know if you know bout that. if you don't know bout that, here's a tip, you blur your plate very strong, gamma up and merge it to your CG with soft light operation

[@AlfieVaughan]

Yeah I've seen people doing that kinda thing before. Cool trick but I think it's always better to go back to CG and get it right in the render for that. Fixing lighting issues in comp should only be a last resort

[@glmstudiogh]

@@AlfieVaughan yeah I agree, I doubt it’s for fixing light of CG. Rather fitting the plate shades into the CG cause you know most CG’s comes with some funny perfect looks

[@osky1729]

Honestly can’t imagine using fusion, I started in it years ago but I don’t think I could ever go back

[@AlfieVaughan]

It's not that bad. I won't be switching though 😅

[@martinsb6474]

when I read the title of the video, I thought it was a joke (because well, there are nukes that use fusion energy (also, I didn't know Nuke was a software name lol))

[@AlfieVaughan]

Hahaha 😂 without context it's a very different video 💥

[@JoshFryer]

I’d love to see a Nuke vs. Flame video! My studio uses Flame because of plates we get from The Mill, but it’s so freaking expensive! There’s gotta be a similar workflow in Nuke that could eliminate Flame entirely! 🙏

[@AlfieVaughan]

I'd love to but I don't have a flame license at home. I use flame a bit at work for holding the timelines and exporting plates etc. I learned to use it at The Mill funnily enough! Small world. There are other options but they're just not as good. Nuke studio has potential but the playback is so bad. Having clients sat behind you and waiting for stuff to cache is just so painful and awkward. Flame is really really good at that kind of thing with its hard commit feature

[@i20010]

Flame is cheaper than Nuke /Studio per month. Its much better imo than Nuke studio, but its a steep learning curve, and very rare these days.

[@AlfieVaughan]

It's better for running a timeline, not for compositing (it's still very good). Most of the flame ops I worked with at the mill have switched to nuke as most the projects we do/did are big CG jobs

[@JoshFryer]

@@i20010 my studio doesn’t use Nuke Studio, just base Nuke, so it’s a little cheaper. But, the younger guys are all switching to DaVinci. Granted, we use Resolve Studio, but the cost of admission is SO much cheaper than any of the competitors. When the older echelon start to retire in the next 5-10 years, I have a feeling the big developers are going to have to rethink their pricing models, cuz the kids aren’t gonna pay it. Just a hunch. 🤷‍♂️ Especially as clients are spending less and less each year on their advertising budgets.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Oh sorry yes, we don't use studio either. I've used it on 2 jobs in 6 years and it was pretty bad to be honest. Although the job was 15k so I'm not surprised the playback wasn't great 😅 flame is far superior for managing a timeline etc. I've always comped in NukeX at both studios Ive worked at

[@robertYoutub]

Nuke is the more productive tool, because of its multi channel support, essential for CG. It is a lot easier to get things done with a few notes only, much more streamlined and with a better UI. But, it costs is like comparing Maya to Blender. Nuke has an insane price now. So, its more a question about in what you prefer to invest, in your time or software. Meaning if you work a lot in composting, Nuke is the choice. If you want to get into nodal compositing, in a professional way, Fusion is a good starting point. In my opinion the 3d tools and tracker in Fusion is a lot better and easier to use, but thats also personal choice.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Yep, I agree! Foundry sponsor me with a nuke license in exchange for making tutorials for them so I don't pay for mine. But I think indie is quite a reasonable price for freelancers

[@robertYoutub]

@@AlfieVaughan Been there. Had a nice inexpensive license. At some point so, it runs out and now its all rental. If you drop it, you loose all your files and plugins. The restriction in Indi are to high in my opinion. You need NukeX to have a 3d tracker, thats all in Fusion, even in Resolve. And the 3D tracker is really good. I wish they would make Fusion open source, that could boost development again. Like Natron, which was really close to Nuke.

[@AlfieVaughan]

I see what you mean. Nuke Indie has the camera tracker. But yeah if you buy a normal nuke license it's not included. I don't think a normal nuke license is much use to anyone doing serious comp work. Indie or NukeX is the way to go. But yeah, pricey!

[@luigir.179]

@@robertYoutub hello. but natron is no longer developed? on the official github page the latest release dates back to about a year. why?

[@EricLefebvrePhotography]

You did Nuke vs Fusion ... what about Nuke vs ... NATRON? Just curious since iot looks a LOT MORE like Nuke than Fusion does.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Fair point but it's hardly worth doing. Natron is literally a Nuke clone. It has all the same nodes and more or less the same features. Nuke just has a much better development whereas natron is open source. They stopped developing it a while ago once Foundry released Nuke Non Commercial as that basically made Natron redundant

[@adrianocastaldini]

Well, IMHO the possibility to stay in the same software both for editing/grading AND compositing, pretty much compensates the lacks of Fusion. It's the same for Fairlight: Fairlight is a buggy and rigid and limited DAW, and I would work on the soundtrack MUCH better on Reaper, BUT at the end I always stay in Davinci/Fairlight accepting the limits of Fairlight because the all-in-one is a huge PRO for my workflow.

[@AlfieVaughan]

It depends what you're doing. Maybe for small stuff but for the kind of compositing I do Fusion just can't cut it. Even if it is more convenient.

[@adrianocastaldini]

@@AlfieVaughan Of course. In my case, I use so little compositing that Fusion is enough.

[@mariotriforce]

@adrianocastaldini, so the reason why fairlight is a bit weird is because bmds approach is makeing it a mixing & mastering daw as they want it to be used in onlineing, I think fairlight has a very bright future and at least in 18.5 they added rewire support monitoring which will help hook into other daws for audio ❤️❤️

[@adrianocastaldini]

@@mariotriforce Hi, well IMO, in spite of its features, the problems of Fairlight are first of all the bugs, the instability, than the rigid sequence of the FX DY EQ "closed" blocks, the single instantiability of the native blocks per channel, the complete lack of spectrum view and spectrum tools. BMD bought the worst DAW on the market for a coffee, just to say "Davinci has an integrated DAW". In comparison with the Adobe Audition's superb spectrum tools and scientific analysis tool, or with the Reaper's multichannel features and lack of distortion with automation, Fairlight still remain a poor thing IMO... Anyway, it's true that the recent Rewire feature is a good and useful thing ;)

[@mariotriforce]

@@adrianocastaldini sure bugs are their but they are fixing them at least (don't really have instability issues tho truthfully 😅) Unsure what you mean by FXDYEQ being fixed that's been editable since 17.2? Are spectrum tools needed for mastering tho but ya fair enough I agree that needs to be improved, I'll Fairlights automation needs to be sooth between points but I actually find mastering multichannel audio is easier in fairlight compared to most daws At the very least it's getting their in my view 😅, I wonder what this year's fall update will bring truthfully, .1 releases are allways bigger for fairlight ❤️❤️

[@stu9000]

I'd love Blackmagic to watch this and update Fusion accordingly!

[@AlfieVaughan]

Haha! Would definitely be interesting

[@jensgeumann7564]

in fact, Blackmagic is a company that is very responsive to user needs. They have their own support forum in which feature requests are submitted and discussed.

[@casey.taylor]

Is getting into VFX worth doing currently? Whats the industry look like currently for vfx artists or editors in general? Hoping to change careers into something more creative

[@AlfieVaughan]

Definitely! It's a bit of a tough time right now following the writers strike etc but it's all picking back up. I absolutely love my job and I'm so grateful to be able to say that. It depends a bit on where you are etc but there should be work available

[@jsbaxter]

I dont think your wrong..I've beend doing vfx for over 20yrs..started with Chalice/shake/AE/Fusion/ then nuke. Used Fusion for 8yrs and still do off and on. One of my biggest gripes about fusion is its lack of channel controls. You cant make custom channles.But I've found away around it. I did a whole series of Nuke to Fusion videos for nuke artist trying to do some of the same stuff in Fusion. Also did a serioes of AE to Fusion. Like Shuffle /Copy in Fusion ..etc. As a freelanceer, I've had to morph into whatever program a studio wants me to use. Most of my AE clients have moved to Fusion mostly because they moved to Resolve from Premiere ,and Nuke was too expensive. But now nuke isnt 10k anymore, that may change in the near future. Fusion , like nuke, is just a tool, and its the artist who can weild it that makes an effect good/bad/effecient. Even AE is getting into the node base thing with that plug in called Magic Nodes..I've played around with that, and its really in its infant stage..but has the possiblity to be awsome. only time will tell.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Yep I agree! It's only a tool at the end of the day. The person using it will always matter more. I do get the feeling that even if I knew them both equally well, I could do things faster in nuke and get to a final result quicker. But I don't know if that's just me being bias... I think like you say some of the basics like controlling channels aren't quite there in fusion... And for some of the stuff I've done at work like full CG deep compositing, I just don't see fusion being able to handle it anywhere near as well as Nuke

[@ektorthebigbro]

I also like nuke over fusion but the question i have is if i should use nuke nodes to color grade the final shot or use resolve

[@AlfieVaughan]

No Nuke isn't for colour grading. Technically you can. They're all doing the same thing. But you're much better off doing it in resolve. It's actually built for grading. Nuke is only designed to be used as a compositor

[@SiirAnalytiical]

The moment you realize you're a professional gamer. 😵

[@AlfieVaughan]

Am I? 🤣

[@upper24]

a bit off topic here but anyone know the equivalent of Nuke's Keymix in Fusion? also in the standalone version anyone know invert equivalent? thanks

[@Denden-mx9gl]

there's a sky replacement with davinci you can do in less than 5 minutes, but it's on the color tab

[@AlfieVaughan]

Yeah I know but I wanted this to be doing the same thing in both softwares for a better comparison

[@Denden-mx9gl]

@@AlfieVaughan yeah was thinking about that hence I said but it's on the color tab. BTW never heard of nuke. Can you rank AE, Fusion and Nuke? If you say nuke is 1 I'll have a try

[@AlfieVaughan]

It depends what you're doing. If it's VFX, probably Nuke, Fusion, AE. Motion graphics, probably the reverse. Nuke is the leader by a long way for compositing but after effects is much more suited to designy, motion graphic work. Fusion kinda falls in the middle for me

[@Denden-mx9gl]

@@AlfieVaughan got it! I'm more on motion graphics so from what you've said. I better stay with AE. Thanks for going out of your way answering my little question. Appreciate it!

[@Sparky3D]

For someone like me ho already has the paid studio version of Resolve and hasn't learnt compositing yet, would you say going into Nuke is essential? It's a huge cost if we can just use Fusion which we already have.

[@AlfieVaughan]

It depends what sort of work you're doing. For mostly 2D compositing I think it's probably fine in fusion (although I still think nuke is better but id say theyre both "good"). For large scale projects with lots of CG compositing I think Nuke is the only choice really on industry topping projects. For example fusion doesn't even support deep which a lot of heavy CG films use

[@Diamantfeuer1]

Hey, could you maybe make a tutorial on making Iron Man HUD? You could extend the mk 42 suit up video with some HUD scenes, and make a tutorial about it.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Interesting idea! I actually did a HUD effect in my previous Iron Man video! It's here kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5ybqXiglNOlkLc&ab_channel=AlfieVaughan I'll have a think about a tutorial :)

[@Diamantfeuer1]

@@AlfieVaughan Thanks! Just a quick question, how did you do the hologramm of the suit that is shown in the video?

[@AlfieVaughan]

I just used the model and animated it to rotate but I replaced all the materials with a shader that was a Fresnel node going into an emission. It gives that cool edge detect, slightly see-through look. Then some glows and stuff in comp 👌

[@ToddBryantsr]

I don't think it matters for the average film editor -- Fusion is good enough and the DR it's basically free. This in my opinion will offer greater accessibility to DR Fusion while Nuke will become more restrictive. To your point with about a month or so you would be able to gain some level of parity to the work you do but with vastly different paths to entry, DR makes sense to watch.

[@AlfieVaughan]

I agree for the average person Fusion is fine. A lot of people have said similar things in the comments. But I think you're missing the point that I'm saying this purely from my perspective as someone that works on high end VFX work professionally. My experience and requirements from the software will be totally different from people just looking to muck about with compositing or editors wanting to do some basic VFX

[@langdons2848]

Isn't it great that we have so many great tools? I use Resolve for video editing but don't do much in the way of effects so I've never delved into Fusion. Thanks for the comparison and explanation.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Definitely! Nothing to complain about 😂

[@jkartz92]

would you make more fusion based tuts or stick with nuke?

[@AlfieVaughan]

I don't plan on making any more fusion videos. This was just a one off to try it. From my perspective it's not really worth putting in the time to learn fusion if I already know nuke and I think it's better. I'll probably use fusion from time to time for simple animations without leaving resolve. But for compositing nuke is far better

[@StuartHetzler]

Fusion does have 3rd party nodes through Reactor.

[@AlfieVaughan]

Yes sorry. That's been pointed out a lot in the comments. That's just my mistake not knowing it very well

[@MessianicJudaism]

I wish I could get a copy of nuke that will allow me to work in 4k. I can't afford it. I'm doing a documentary for my Synagogue, and there's a lot going on. For example, in the book of Exodus, when the death plague comes, then when Moses receives the Ten commandments, and there's the burning bush. I'm no expert by ANY means, I like the simplicity of nuke over fusion. My fav software I had formal training on are: 3DS Max MAYA Avid Media Composer AE (YUCK) I would love to find formal training using Nuke so I can do my projects as an advanced hobby for my synagogue. I would enjoy very much to chat with you about Nuke and our lessons I'm converting into documentaries. Thank you for this video. Cheers

[@AlfieVaughan]

You can work in 4k in nuke NC you just can't render it out higher than HD. I know it's not ideal but I suppose thats why they limit it. Otherwise they'd make no money because everyone would just use that 🤣 If you'd like to chat I have a VFX mentor tier on my Patreon where I help people with their projects and go over anything they want to discuss. That might be what you're after!

[@convonation4644]

How to start as a VFX artist ? What should a professional VFX artist must know to be called a professional ? How much time would it take to do some decent work in this field ?

[@AlfieVaughan]

The most common routes are either starting as a runner at a studio or getting an internship. As for what you should know, there's no list of things to be able to do. But my job involves everything from compositing CG to sky replacements, tracking, cleanup, beauty work, sometimes a bit of roto, refining... It's a long list. Just being generally competent is the most important thing. As for how long, it depends on the person. It took me several years to go from knowing nothing to being self sufficient and not considered a junior anymore

[@convonation4644]

@@AlfieVaughan omg you replied :) currently i'm a student in one of the reknowned VFX and Animation studio based on Nepal. (Incessant Rain) . so based on your answer, i think im on right track ? :) tysm once again :) instantly subscribed and liked your video once i found you on yt.

[@AlfieVaughan]

I reply to all my comments :) yes sounds like you're doing the right things!

[@wraithdreams]

DaVinci should integrate NukeX and AE in Resolve.

[@AlfieVaughan]

They're made by different companies that are competitors so that's not gonna happen anytime soon 😅

[@VisualistAyush07]

Thank you

[@AlfieVaughan]

No problem!

[@SamuraiTin]

Hi, I'm also trying fusion while I'm more familiar with Nuke. Did you manage to find an overall slider to toggle the gain and gamma in order to check your black and white points?

[@AlfieVaughan]

I haven't used it much sinse to be honest. I plan on making another one of these videos where I learn it a little better and give it a proper shot. But not sure about the sliders, sorry!

[@SinghalLouis]

I am a professional Nuke artist.. Boom..

[@AlfieVaughan]

😂😂😂😂

[@sarlacc66]

Hi, Great vid! I was wondering if you could make a video about the free open source alternative to Nuke called Natron and try it out, see what you think :)

[@AlfieVaughan]

Thanks! I'm aware of Natron and although I've never used it, I believe it's almost exactly the same as Nuke! They've stopped developing it now because Foundry released a free version of Nuke called Nuke Non-Commercial which basically made Natron redundant. I highly recommend checking it out. Although I own Nuke indie, I use non commercial in all my videos so I can share the project files

[@sarlacc66]

@@AlfieVaughan Ok, thanks a lot for the answer!