ANR Depth Camera

Overview

Depth Camera re-photographs the plate from a new camera position. Every pixel is placed in 3D at its distance from ANR Depth Prep and seen again from the camera you set, so near things shift more than far ones, as with a real move. Use it for a slight push-in or drift, a reframe with parallax, a dolly zoom, or a left and right eye for stereo.

A moved camera sees a little of what the original never did, behind the edges of foreground objects. The node fills those gaps from the farther side, so the background stretches in and the foreground never smears; Output > Hole Matte shows exactly where, for a paint or inpaint fix.

Output > ST Map gives the warp itself, so Nuke's STMap node can apply the same move to mattes or other passes.

Inputs

1. Sourcerequired

   The plate to move. All four channels move with it.

2. Depthrequired

   An ANR Depth Prep with Output on Depth; its lens and Focus Distance are read through the wire. Any other image is read as distance from its red channel, with the Custom lens.

Output. The plate seen from the new camera (or the chosen eye). Output can show the Hole Matte (white where the plate had nothing to show) or the ST Map of the warp (red and green: where to read the plate; alpha: not a hole).

Quick start

1. Make a distance pass with ANR Depth Prep (Output on Depth) and set its lens in Lens if you know it.
2. Add ANR Depth Camera. Connect the plate to Source and the Depth Prep to Depth.
3. Open Camera Move and animate Translate (negative Z pushes in) or Rotate for the move. Keep it small next to the nearest distance in the shot.
4. Set Output to Hole Matte to see what the move uncovered, then back to Result.
5. Paint or patch the holes if they show, or set Gaps to Leave Empty and fill them your own way.

The panel

The node's panel as Nuke shows it, with the values of a new node. Click any control to see what it does; tabs and sections work as in Nuke.

All controls

Tips

• For a dolly zoom, set Dolly Zoom and Keep Size At to the subject's distance: the subject keeps its size while the background stretches away. With Keep Size At at 0, the Depth Prep's Focus Distance is used.
• For stereo, set Mode to Stereo. Eye > Anaglyph or Side by Side shows both eyes for checking; render Left and Right for delivery.
• The Plate Is > Between The Eyes makes both eyes, each half as far off, which keeps the gaps smaller. The Left Eye keeps the plate as the left eye and makes only the right.
• Convergence is the distance that sits on the screen; at 0 the Depth Prep's Focus Distance is used.
• If a halo of edge pixels drags across a gap, raise Edge Cleanup; at 0 the soft edge pixels are kept.
• Calibrate the Depth Prep in metres so that Translate and Interaxial are in metres too (0.065 is a human eye distance).

Good to know

• The node runs no AI model and needs no graphics card.
• The plate only holds what the original camera saw: big moves open big gaps, and the fill is a stretch of the background, not new picture.
• In Camera Move with no move set (Translate, Rotate and Dolly Zoom at 0, Zoom at 1) and Output on Result, the plate passes through unchanged.

Works with

ANR Depth PrepTurns any depth map, AI or CG, into one clean, calibrated distance pass that the other ANR depth nodes read, with edges snapped to the plate and flicker removed.ANR Depth and Normal CreatorMakes a depth pass, and with MoGe-2 also normals and positions, from any plate with AI, straight into depth.Z, N or P with the plate untouched.ANR Depth LookAdds what a depth pass makes possible to the plate: fog and haze by distance, a near and far grade, ambient occlusion, a new light with cast shadows.ANR Depth MatteMattes from distance: key everything at a picked depth, split the shot into near-to-far zones, outline depth edges, hold out, insert an element at a depth, or sweep a reveal through the scene.