Tk-nuke: Setting default tank_channel names for different output

Ricardo_Musch · October 29, 2019, 4:17pm

Ive been trying my best to try and make the ShotgunWrite node have a different tank_channel name based on the profile of the node.

i.e. if the profile is “output” the tank_channel text field should be set to “comp” and if the profile is “smartvector” the tank_channel field should display “smartvector” and if the profile is “precomp” it shoudl display “precomp” (see picture).

I’ve tried to do this in the node settings in the tk-nuke-writenode.yml and in a nuke onUserCreate and onCreate callback but whatever I do, it has no effect.

Any pointers? If not, could Shotgun please include this kind of functionality in a update?
Because otherwise it kind of forces us to create out own Nuke Writenode as simply telling artists “Please make sure you name the node correctly” does not work…

Patrick · October 30, 2019, 10:32pm

I could be wrong but it sounds like you need to fork the app and add that as a new feature.
Good idea though!

Ricardo_Musch · October 30, 2019, 10:36pm

Yeah that’s an idea.
It would be nice though if Shotgun tools wouldn’t unnessesarily override/break an application’s normal behaviour.

Setting knob values is a quite common thing in Nuke and in my opinion that should work for any tool made for nuke, Shotgun or not

Patrick · October 30, 2019, 11:55pm

Here’s where you could look. You probably need to update the method here.

github.com

shotgunsoftware/tk-nuke-writenode/blob/b28ab4d18fb0d26f91d3d0b9e56233e29933df8c/python/tk_nuke_writenode/handler.py#L1138


            packed_rgb = (packed_rgb + min(max(element, 0), 255)) << 8 
    
        self.__update_knob_value(node, "tile_color", packed_rgb)


    # Reset the render path but only if the named profile has changed - this will only
    # be the case if the user has changed the profile through the UI so this will avoid
    # the node automatically updating without the user's knowledge.
    if profile_name != old_profile_name:
        self.reset_render_path(node)


def __populate_initial_output_name(self, template, node):
    """
    Create a suitable output name for a node based on it's profile and
    the other nodes that already exist in the scene.
    """
    if node.knob(TankWriteNodeHandler.OUTPUT_KNOB_NAME).value():
        # don't want to modify the current value if there is one
        return
    
    # first, check that output is actually used in the template and determine 
    # the default value and if the key is optional.

tannaz · October 31, 2019, 10:56pm

Hi all – we had a chat about this internally, hoping to find a way to do it. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to, but we had a couple thoughts:

One was to add a hook that reacted when modifications were made in the node. I’d imagine we’d want to scope this.
Another thing we tried was to add tank_channel to the settings dict in the writenote app config (here’s settings in the manifest, and here it is in use in the Default Config), but it didn’t affect the output value.

I’ll have to run this by engineering and product – I’m not sure which of these ideas makes the most sense within the app’s logic, if either, and considering @Patrick’s input, maybe breaking out the populate_initial_output_name() logic into a hook is actually the right approach. But before I do, I’d be interested to know what you think of these potential solutions, and which would serve your needs best. Thanks!

Ricardo_Musch · November 1, 2019, 10:57am

Hey Tannaz, thanks for that!

I think most logical would be in the settings on the writenodes (as it is a knob on a writenode).
However as added bonus it could ofcourse have a hook so that more complex logic is possible.

At the moment, in our case it’s literally just to match the output name to the writenode settings so not everything is named the same.

Patrick · July 16, 2021, 9:57am

Is there any update on this from SG? It would be great to have this feature built in to the official release.

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Tk-nuke: Setting default tank_channel names for different output

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