ANR Normals Matte

Overview

Normals Matte makes mattes from the direction each surface faces, using the normals from ANR Normals Prep. A Facing Key keeps everything that faces the way of the surface you pick in the viewer, such as all the floors or every wall facing left, with a soft fall-off in degrees.

Zones splits the shot by orientation: facing up in red, down in green, sideways in blue and toward the camera in alpha. Rim gives the surfaces turning away from the camera (a fresnel matte), all round or from one side. Curvature finds edges, for wear and chipped paint, and creases, for dirt and grime.

Directions normally move with the camera. With Directions In on World Space and a Camera named on the Normals Prep, they are fixed in the world, so a key on the floor does not slide as the camera turns.

Inputs

1. Sourceoptional

   The plate. The matte is put into its alpha, multiplied with it or tinted over it, as Output says.

2. Normalsrequired

   An ANR Normals Prep with Output on Normals. A pass wired in directly is read as camera-space normals; turn on Normals Are Packed (0-1) if it is packed.

Output. With Output on Matte in Alpha, the plate with the matte as its alpha. Output can also give the matte in every channel, the plate premultiplied, or a tinted preview. Zones writes its four mattes into red, green, blue and alpha.

Quick start

1. Prepare the normals with ANR Normals Prep (Output on Normals).
2. Add ANR Normals Matte. Connect the plate to Source and the Normals Prep to Normals.
3. Keep Mode on Facing Key, set Output to Preview, and drag the Pick handle in the viewer onto a surface facing the way you want keyed.
4. Widen Angle to take in more directions, and raise Softness for a gentler edge.
5. Press Use Pick to freeze that direction, so the key stays on it when the picked surface moves away.
6. Set Output to Matte in Alpha (or Matte) and use the result downstream.

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

• With Direction From on Pick Point, the normal under Pick is read on every frame; animate or track the point to follow a surface. Angles keeps a fixed direction: Azimuth 0 faces the camera, 90 right; Elevation 90 faces up (floors), -90 down (ceilings).
• Rim with From One Side at 1 and Rim Angle set toward the light gives a rim matte on one side only, for a rim light or a light wrap.
• In Curvature, Size sets the size of edge looked for; raise Low to drop faint bumps.
• Invert flips any matte, for example to grade everything except the floors.

Good to know

• The node runs no AI model and needs no graphics card.
• Zones ignores Output.
• World Space needs a Camera named in the Normals Prep's Camera Node; the Status line says when it is available. Without one, directions stay in camera space.

Works with

ANR Normals PrepTurns any normal pass, AI or CG, packed or signed, camera or world space, into clean camera-space normals, or makes normals from a depth pass or the plate itself.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 Normals LightRelights a plate through its normals: up to three new lights with shadows, an HDRI environment, a matcap, or refraction of a background through the surface.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.