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Open Source Compositing Software for VFX and Motion Graphics

103 points by marcodiego 5y ago

royjacobs 5y ago
This has been posted a few times now, and while it definitely looks very cool I've not yet heard of people actually doing significant work with it (compared to other open source alternatives such as, say, Blender). Curious to hear about people's experiences with it.
- ReleaseCandidat 5y ago
  Still planar tracking only (no motion tracking/solving), so no alternative to Blender (and every other 'real' 3D Compositor).
- CyberDildonics 5y ago
  The last time I tried it, it was so unstable that it was beyond unusable. It wouldn't stay open for more than half a minute even if you did nothing. If you did anything it was an instant crash. I'm not sure how anyone calls something like that a 'release' version. I'm not sure I've ever even left software in that state, let alone committed it and let alone actually letting other people run it.
themerone 5y ago
Unfortionately, in a failed attempt to commercialize Natron, the original developers relicensed from Apache to GPL. I think this killed the chances of any big studios or companies getting involved with development. Blender relicened it's renderer Cycles to Apache to encourage commercial adoption. I think Natron should have stuck to this approach.
- riotnrrd 5y ago
  You're probably correct. GPL is (unreasonably) radioactive to many companies.
- blihp 5y ago
  IIRC, it was the lead developer who implemented the original prototype in his own time who decided the license, not the Blender project. I don't think Cycles was ever GPL as it was developed as a standalone project that could be integrated into Blender rather than an integrated renderer that was split out.
FrostKiwi 5y ago
First time hearing about this, though the similarity to Nuke is uncanny. I'm happy to see OpenFX getting treated as a first class citizen and not be relegated to be the unwanted child of a bigger compositor. Definetly gonna try it out.
- pzone 5y ago
  It’s a free Nuke clone. The similarity is intentional!
  - Melatonic 5y ago
    Considering Nuke is by far and above the industry standard that is probably a good thing
skratlo 5y ago
I recently tried Natron. I work on Linux/wayland. It was constantly crashing on me, I rebooted to Windows and tried the Windows version, it was crashing, and it was getting stuck a lot. IMO Blender can do the same job and do it better.
Joeboy 5y ago
It's frustrating that AFAIK the FLOSS choices are Blender (compositor is robust but has severe limitations and is really, really slow) and Natron (more featureful and faster but crashes if you look at it wrong). Davinci Resolve has Fusion built in, which is good and runs on Linux but it isn't FLOSS and I think has some limitations in the free version.
- formerly_proven 5y ago
  AFAIK the only limitation on Fusion in Resolve is that resolution is limited to Ultra HD (no DCI 4K), just like in the rest of the free Resolve version.
  - e_y_ 5y ago
    There's also some nodes that only work on the paid version (or add a watermark if you try to use them) and there might be restrictions on using OpenFX plugins. IMO, Resolve Studio is pretty reasonably priced considering that version upgrades have been free for many years (unlike Adobe and others which cost hundreds annually), but it's not FOSS and there's still people for which a $300 one-time purchase might be too much.

103 points by marcodiego 5y ago

This has been posted a few times now, and while it definitely looks very cool I've not yet heard of people actually doing significant work with it (compared to other open source alternatives such as, say, Blender). Curious to hear about people's experiences with it.

ReleaseCandidat 5y ago
Still planar tracking only (no motion tracking/solving), so no alternative to Blender (and every other 'real' 3D Compositor).
CyberDildonics 5y ago
The last time I tried it, it was so unstable that it was beyond unusable. It wouldn't stay open for more than half a minute even if you did nothing. If you did anything it was an instant crash. I'm not sure how anyone calls something like that a 'release' version. I'm not sure I've ever even left software in that state, let alone committed it and let alone actually letting other people run it.

themerone 5y ago

Unfortionately, in a failed attempt to commercialize Natron, the original developers relicensed from Apache to GPL. I think this killed the chances of any big studios or companies getting involved with development. Blender relicened it's renderer Cycles to Apache to encourage commercial adoption. I think Natron should have stuck to this approach.

riotnrrd 5y ago
You're probably correct. GPL is (unreasonably) radioactive to many companies.
blihp 5y ago
IIRC, it was the lead developer who implemented the original prototype in his own time who decided the license, not the Blender project. I don't think Cycles was ever GPL as it was developed as a standalone project that could be integrated into Blender rather than an integrated renderer that was split out.

FrostKiwi 5y ago

First time hearing about this, though the similarity to Nuke is uncanny. I'm happy to see OpenFX getting treated as a first class citizen and not be relegated to be the unwanted child of a bigger compositor. Definetly gonna try it out.

pzone 5y ago
It’s a free Nuke clone. The similarity is intentional!
- Melatonic 5y ago
  Considering Nuke is by far and above the industry standard that is probably a good thing

skratlo 5y ago

I recently tried Natron. I work on Linux/wayland. It was constantly crashing on me, I rebooted to Windows and tried the Windows version, it was crashing, and it was getting stuck a lot. IMO Blender can do the same job and do it better.

Joeboy 5y ago

It's frustrating that AFAIK the FLOSS choices are Blender (compositor is robust but has severe limitations and is really, really slow) and Natron (more featureful and faster but crashes if you look at it wrong). Davinci Resolve has Fusion built in, which is good and runs on Linux but it isn't FLOSS and I think has some limitations in the free version.

formerly_proven 5y ago
AFAIK the only limitation on Fusion in Resolve is that resolution is limited to Ultra HD (no DCI 4K), just like in the rest of the free Resolve version.
- e_y_ 5y ago
  There's also some nodes that only work on the paid version (or add a watermark if you try to use them) and there might be restrictions on using OpenFX plugins. IMO, Resolve Studio is pretty reasonably priced considering that version upgrades have been free for many years (unlike Adobe and others which cost hundreds annually), but it's not FOSS and there's still people for which a $300 one-time purchase might be too much.