Photoshop Link

Overview

Photoshop Link connects a frame of your comp to Photoshop. Send to Photoshop writes the frame under the playhead to a file and opens it in Photoshop. Import to Nuke brings that file back as a Read next to the link, and from then on every Ctrl+S in Photoshop updates the Read, within about a second.

Colour is exact by default. TIFF, colour as the footage writes the frame in the colourspace its Read decodes with (a 16-bit TIFF for video and image files, a 32-bit float TIFF for EXR, so nothing is clipped), and the imported Read decodes it the same way: untouched pixels come back as they left. The other choices in send as give an sRGB 16-bit TIFF that every Photoshop tool works on, a linear 32-bit float TIFF, or a PNG with alpha, where the alpha becomes Photoshop transparency.

Photoshop needs no setting up: the Photoshop that is open gets the frame, otherwise the one you used last starts with it.

What it makes

The link passes its input through unchanged. The painted frame comes back through the Read that Import to Nuke makes (with a Premult under it for PNG), labelled from Photoshop.

How to use it

1. Select the footage node and add Photoshop Link: it connects to the selection.
2. Choose the file type in send as, right under the buttons. Keep TIFF, colour as the footage for an exact round trip.
3. Go to the frame you want to paint and press Send to Photoshop. The frame opens in Photoshop; if Photoshop was closed, it starts and opens the frame when it is ready.
4. Paint, then save with Ctrl+S.
5. Back in Nuke, press Import to Nuke once: a Read of the painted frame appears next to the link.
6. Keep painting: every Ctrl+S in Photoshop updates that Read.

Tips

• frame is the frame Import to Nuke brings in. Send sets it; change it to import a frame you sent earlier.
• Choose TIFF sRGB 16-bit for Content-Aware Fill and Generative Fill: they do not work in Photoshop's 32-bit mode.
• With PNG 8-bit + alpha or PNG 16-bit + alpha, erase in Photoshop to cut the alpha. Paint on the one layer: a PNG cannot hold more.
• The files go to a photoshop folder next to the Nuke script, or to the folder you set in folder. Open folder shows it.
• The imported Read has a Photoshop tab: untick update when Photoshop saves to freeze it, or press Open in Photoshop to open its file again.
• Sending a frame again after it was changed in Photoshop asks first. Yes keeps the changed file in a backup folder and sends a fresh copy of the footage; No opens the changed file instead.
• A save made in Photoshop while the script was closed is picked up the next time you open it.
• Each button press is one undo step.

Good to know

• TIFF, colour as the footage refuses rather than guesses: when a colourspace node (OCIOColorSpace, Colorspace, Log2Lin and the like) sits between the Read and the link, or when the Read's colourspace is not in the project's colour configuration. Choose TIFF sRGB 16-bit or TIFF linear 32-bit float then.
• With no Read upstream (a CG render, a Constant), the frame is sent as an sRGB 16-bit TIFF.
• TIFF sRGB 16-bit clips values above 1; TIFF linear 32-bit float keeps everything, and Photoshop opens it in 32-bit mode.
• PNG alpha is straight, so the imported Read gets a Premult under it: use the Premult in your comp.
• The Read shows a copy of the Photoshop file, kept in a nuke_copies folder, because Photoshop cannot save over a file that Nuke is reading.
• Only when no installed Photoshop is found does Nuke ask, once, where Photoshop.exe is.
• An unsaved script sends its files to a nuke_photoshop folder in your home folder. Save the script first to keep them next to it.
• The live update runs in Nuke's interface, not in command-line renders.

Works with

ANR GPT ConnectionChat with GPT inside Nuke: edit or add to a frame with image generation, or have it build and animate nodes in your script.ANR AI Upscaler - MatcherBrings a low-resolution image up to plate size with an AI upscaler, then lines it up with the original plate and matches its colour.