Natron 1.0.0-RC1
Pre-release
This is Natron version 1.0.0 release candidate n°1.
Natron 1.0.0 RC n°1 changelog:
New ResizeOIIO node to reformat footage. It internally uses the OpenImageIO library and
offers numerous optimized filters. One should prefer Lanczos filter for downscaling and
Blackman-harris filter for upscaling.
New ColorMatrix node to apply a matrix to colors
New TextOIIO node to render some text. The node is not finished and you currently have
to set the name of a system font yourself. We will try to improve the node later on and propose
more options.
Rework of all the alpha premultiplication state of the workflow in Natron:
-
All readers now have a "Premultiplied" choice, that is automatically set to what's found
in the image file header. However some images are badly encoded and say they are not
premultiplied but in fact they are and vice versa. To overcome the issue, the user can
still modify the parameter if it is obviously wrong.
You can assume that READERS ALWAYS OUTPUT ALPHA PREMULTIPLIED IMAGES (or opaque)! -
Writers have the same parameter and work kind of the same way: It detects what's the
pre-multiplication state of the input-stream and set automatically the value it has found.
However, again it can be wrong, so the user is free to modify the parameter. -
Readers output pixel components can now be specified. They will be set by default when loading
and image, but the user can control it.
Writers can now choose the format to render
New node-graph bird view, though you cannot interact with it yet.
New "turbo-mode" (button on top of the properties bin): when enabled nothing but the viewer
will be refreshed during playback for maximum efficiency. Mainly this overcomes the issue that
all parameters animation refresh can be expensive during playback.
New checkerboard mode for the viewer: when checked, everything transparent in the image
will have a checkerboard behind. This can enable you to better appreciate transparency.
You can control the color of the checkerboard and its size in Natron's preferences.
Project paths: The project can now have path variables that allows you to express
file paths relative to a variable instead of always using absolute file paths. This is
great for sharing work with others and/or moving image files safely.
By default there is always the variable [Project] that will be set to the location of
your project file (.ntp).
Project paths are to be used between brackets, e.g:
[MyPath]myImage.png
You can also express files in a relative manner to a variable, e.g:
[MyPath]../../Images/myImage.png
By default if you don't specify any project path but express the file in a relative manner,
it will be understood as being relative to the [Project] path.
For example, if [Project] is:
/Users/Me/Project/
Then
../Images/Pictures/img.png
would in fact expand to: /Users/Me/Images/Pictures/img.png
You can also have some project paths depending on other paths, e.g:
[Project] = /Users/Me/Project/
[Scene1] = [Project]Footage/Scene1/
[Shot1] = [Scene1]001/
If you're using project paths, be sure to use them at the start of the file-path and no
where else. For example
C:\Lalala[Images]Images.png would not be interpreted correctly.
Lastly, in the preferences of Natron there is an option in the General tab (disabled
by default) to auto-fix file paths when you change the content of a project path or the
variable name.
For example if you change
[Project] = /Users/Me/Project/
to
[Project] = /Users/Me/MySuperProject/
Then all file-paths that depended on this variable will be updated to point to the
correct location of the file.
File-paths are now "watched" by Natron: When a file changes outside of Natron, for example
because another software have overwritten it or modified it, Natron will be notified
and will reload the images.
New shortcuts editor: you can now customise the entire keyboard layout for the
application.
Caching has been improved and should now be more aware of your system capabilities. It
should strive for being as close possible to what the settings in the preferences are
set to. Note that it might still need some tweeking on some platforms
though because we're using system-dependents informations to make the Cache work.
You can now add control points/keyframes to curves by double-clicking on them. However, it
doesn't apply for the Roto beziers.
File dialog speed has been increased drastically
ReadFFMPEG: improve stability a lot
Parameters links and expressions are now displayed in the nodegraph (you can disable
them in the right click menu).
File Dialog: New preview viewer that allows you to visualise quickly what the selected
image file/sequence corresponds to.
Saving application's layout: You can now import/export the application's layout in the
Layout menu. You can also change the default layout by setting the parameter in the preferences
to point to a valid natron's layout file (.nl).
Node presets: You can now import/export node presets. You can then re-use any
configuration on any other project and share it with others.
The command line renderer is back! You can pass it a project filename in arguments
and render with it. For the final release we will also add the possibility to set a frame
range for a writer.
TrackerNode: more export modes: basically we added the possibility to export to a CornerPin
where the "to" points would be linked against the tracks. We also added a stabilise mode which is
in fact just a regular export to CornerPin with the "Invert" parameter of the CornerPin checked.
Undo/Redo support was added for restoring default parameters
The "link to..." dialog for parameters have been re-designed for a better user interface
The "Tab" menu to quickly create a node has been slightly adjusted: you can now type in
anything any word , e.g: "Blur" and it will propose all types of Blurs.
Value parameters can now have their increment based on where the mouse cursor is
New nodes menu icons were made by Jean Christophe Levet.