Nuke Tips – Vector Blur vs Motion Blur (Transform Node)

Personally this boils down to the situation at hands. As shown above, both looks very similar when use properly (click here for the 720p MOV sample).

While both method employs 2D motion blurring (which can leads to artifact or error when dealing with object that moves in 3D space), personally I prefer Vector Blur for a bit more control than the built-in Motion Blur function in Nuke Transform node.

Also take care of the bounding box when using Vector Blur. Ensure there is enough padding to prevent streaking.

Remember to pipe in a MotionBlur2D node before you use the VectorBlur node!

Below is sample Nuke script (copy and paste it into the node graph) that I use for the above GIF demo since a large 2MB GIF is not practical for regular browsing:

set cut_paste_input [stack 0]
version 8.0 v5
Text2 {
 inputs 0
 font_size_toolbar 100
 font_width_toolbar 100
 font_height_toolbar 100
 message VectorBlur
 box {257 887.5 791 988.5}
 hidden_bbox {257 887.5 791 988.5}
 transforms {{0 2}
   }
 cursor_position 7
 font {{ SF Old Republic : Regular : SF Old Republic.ttf : 0 }}
 scale {1 1}
 cursor_initialised true
 initial_cursor_position {{257 988.5}
   }
 group_animations {{0} imported: 0 selected: items: "root transform/"}
 animation_layers {{1 11 1024 778 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0}
   }
 name Text1
 selected true
 xpos -203
 ypos -123
}
Transform {
 translate {{curve x7 0 x12 -48.88401586 x18 -72 x25 -94.30142629 x30 -102 x40 40 x53 74 x60 0} {curve x7 0 x12 -51.77813959 x18 -62 x25 -18.57849438 x30 19.99999809 x40 38 x53 -52 x60 0}}
 rotate {{curve x7 0 x12 -5.1149616 x18 0 x25 35.15418296 x30 180 x40 0 x53 145.1915029 x60 0}}
 center {516 934}
 name Transform1
 selected true
 xpos -203
 ypos -80
}
set N13261940 [stack 0]
push $N13261940
MotionBlur2D {
 inputs 2
 name MotionBlur2D1
 selected true
 xpos -203
 ypos -15
}
VectorBlur {
 channels rgba
 uv motion
 grow_bbox 34.5
 name VectorBlur1
 selected true
 xpos -203
 ypos 19
}
set N3b7f31b0 [stack 0]
push $N3b7f31b0
push $cut_paste_input
Text2 {
 font_size_toolbar 100
 font_width_toolbar 100
 font_height_toolbar 100
 message MotionBlur
 box {1165 887.5 1717 988.5}
 hidden_bbox {1165 887.5 1717 988.5}
 transforms {{0 2}
   }
 cursor_position 2
 font {{ SF Old Republic : Regular : SF Old Republic.ttf : 0 }}
 scale {1 1}
 cursor_initialised true
 initial_cursor_position {{1165 988.5}
   }
 group_animations {{0} imported: 0 selected: items: "root transform/"}
 animation_layers {{1 11 1024 778 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0}
   }
 name Text2
 selected true
 xpos 33
 ypos -120
}
Transform {
 translate {{curve x7 0 x12 -48.88401586 x18 -72 x25 -94.30142629 x30 -102 x40 40 x53 74 x60 0} {curve x7 0 x12 -51.77813959 x18 -62 x25 -18.57849438 x30 19.99999809 x40 38 x53 -52 x60 0}}
 rotate {{curve x7 0 x12 -5.1149616 x18 0 x25 35.15418296 x30 180 x40 0 x53 145.1915029 x60 0}}
 center {1486 940}
 motionblur 1
 name Transform2
 selected true
 xpos 33
 ypos -65
}
Transform {
 translate {-328 0}
 center {1024 778}
 name Transform3
 selected true
 xpos 33
 ypos -41
}
Merge2 {
 inputs 2
 name Merge1
 selected true
 xpos 33
 ypos 19
}
Transform {
 translate {79 -58}
 scale 0.4
 center {1024 778}
 name Transform4
 selected true
 xpos 33
 ypos 43
}
Reformat {
 format "640 280 0 0 640 280 1 Test"
 resize none
 name Reformat1
 selected true
 xpos 33
 ypos 86
}
Viewer {
 inputs 2
 frame 52
 input_process false
 name Viewer1
 selected true
 xpos 33
 ypos 181
}