¶Nuke

¶Running Shift in Nuke

Shift provides a nshift utility script to properly bind the Shift UI to Nuke. In order to run and open Shift in Nuke, execute the following code block inside the Nuke Python Script Editor:

import sys
sys.path.append("<path_to_the_shift_installation_folder>")
sys.path.append("<path_to_the_shift_installation_folder>/shift/thirdparty/python/Lib/site-packages")

from shift.tools import nshift
nshift.show()

¶Shift installation in Nuke

To install Shift and open it through a menu.py entry within Nuke, it is required to set up Shift in the user init.py and menu.py.py Python files from Nuke. Shift can be added to the user init.py and menu.py files from Nuke's preference folder (/.nuke) or to a custom init.py and menu.py files inside a custom folder structure. If the directory where these files are stored is a path sourced by Nuke, they will be automatically executed on startup.

¶Init File

In the init.py file, it is necessary to configure the requirements for Shift to work in Nuke batch and interactive modes. To achieve this, it is only required to add the Shift installation path to the PATH environment variable.

try:
    import shift
except:
    import sys
    sys.path.append("<path_to_the_shift_installation_folder>")
    sys.path.append("<path_to_the_shift_installation_folder>/shift/thirdparty/python/Lib/site-packages")

¶Menu File

In the menu.py.py file it is required to configure the Shift menu.py and toolbar entries in the Nuke UI.

import os
import nuke

try:
    import shift
    shiftPath = os.path.dirname(shift.__file__)  # Get the directory location of Shift
    # Build the path to the shift_icon for the toolbar
    iconPath = os.path.join(shiftPath, "icons", "shift_icon_window.png")
    shiftCode = "from shift.tools import nshift;nshift.show()"
    # Create the toolbar entry
    menubar = nuke.*menu.py*("Nodes")
    shiftM = menubar.addMenu("Shift", icon=iconPath)
    shiftM.addCommand("Shift UI", shiftCode, '')
    # Create a *menu.py* entry
    menubar = nuke.*menu.py*("Nuke")
    shiftM = menubar.addMenu("Shift")
    shiftM.addCommand("Shift UI", shiftCode, '')
except Exception as e:
    pass  # Skip the Error raise to avoid Nuke failing at opening if setting up the *menu.py* does not work on startup.

This code, placed in a menu.py file and executed by Nuke, will create a Shift toolbar entry (Figure 1) and a Shift menu.py entry (Figure 2) when Nuke is initialized.

¶Python Interpreter Setup

In Shift it is possible to launch the execution of a workflow via an application's Python interpreter with the WorkflowProcess node. To achieve this for Nuke, set the path to its Python interpreter the following environment variables:

SHIFT_PROCESS_NUKE : path to Nuke's Python interpreter (python).

The variable can be set in any environment to be able to execute Shift Workflows in Nuke from standalone or other DCC instances.

¶Catalogs

Shift provides some catalogs with operators specific to work within Nuke. Most of these nodes are found in the CreativeSoftware catalog.