Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Today, no Houdini, no Maya. This one is pure Nuke: I take Steffens raw full-CG V-Ray render of a Gotham bank and comp it to final using Glass, the photographic lens toolkit I built for Nuke 16.
🚀 Nuke 14/15/16/17 Win/Linux/Mac NOW SUPPORTED
Glass mimics what actually happens to a light ray on its way through a real lens and onto the sensor. One Lens State "brain" node holds the lens and camera identity and drives nine correlated modules, and if your EXR has a Z-depth channel it's basically plug and play. In this video we go node by node through the real lens anatomy:
• Prepping real-world depth (even without a position pass)
• Lens breathing, distortion & chromatic aberration with astigmatism and coma
• Anamorphic defocus with proper cat-eye bokeh and dispersion
• Vignetting, flares, diffusion, front-element dirt & sensor grain
• Integrating the background with a depth haze, then reviewing every stage with my BreakdownWipe node
There is a full commercial edition, and because Foundry caps Python on Nuke Indie and non-commercial tiers, there is also a cheaper Glass LE edition that runs as 4 self-contained gizmos on Indie. If you try it on a shot, I'd genuinely love to see the result, drop it in the Discord.
🎬 CREDITS
The Gotham bank shot was built by Steffen Hampel — huge thanks for letting me light and comp it here. Go watch his full 3D breakdown:
youtube.com/watch?v=dwCKo4lYmAA
And a big thank you to the CG Lounge creators who shared the EXR renders I used across this promo. This community makes it possible.
🎥 TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro: something completely different
0:58 What Glass is: a photographic lens, stage by stage
1:52 Full edition vs Glass LE for Nuke Indie
3:21 The shot: Stefan's Gotham bank render
4:01 Matching & merging the background plate
5:12 Cleaning up the heavy EXR (denoiser shuffle)
7:08 Prepping real-world depth with Glass Utility
9:45 Calibrating depth without a position pass
10:57 Proving the depth with Defocus
11:53 Lens Breathing & the Lens State brain
14:47 Lens Distortion (metadata driven)
16:56 Aberration: chromatic, astigmatism, coma
20:36 Defocus: anamorphic bokeh & cat-eye
23:59 Vignetting
24:50 Lens Flare: bloom, streaks, starburst, ghosts
30:16 Diffusion, Dirt & Sensor grain
31:10 Integrating the background with depth haze
36:16 BreakdownWipe: every stage in one view
39:09 Before / after & the final look
39:50 How to get Glass (editions & early bird)
📂 GET GLASS
▶ https://cglounge.studio/assets/glass?coupon=GLASSLAUNCH75
🚀 First 10 people: 75% OFF with code GLASSLAUNCH75
• Free: $0, full preview at 1080p with watermark
• Glass LE: $19, 4 gizmos, made for Nuke Indie
• Pro: $89, the full toolkit for commercial Nuke
• Studio: $199, adds render-farm rights
10 lens presets (clean, anamorphic, vintage, portrait), 157 aperture/bokeh shapes, a lens-dirt plate library, GPU accelerated (Blink) with CPU fallback, free updates. Windows + Linux (no macOS yet).
👥 JOIN THE COMMUNITY
Discord: discord.gg/z35NUgV
Mentorship & courses: https://cglounge.studio/creator/arvid
❤️ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL
If this helped you, a like and subscribe (hit the bell) really does help the channel.
Instagram: instagram.com/arvidschneider
Twitter/X: twitter.com/arvidurs
🎵 MUSIC
Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com/referral/7cfjxk
#Nuke #VFX #Compositing #CGI #LensEffects #FoundryNuke #Filmmaking
Affiliate links: I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you—thanks for the support!
Arvid Schneider | VFX Artist & Houdini Educator | Crafting next-level visuals. Let's level up together!
Today, no Houdini, no Maya. This one is pure Nuke: I take Steffens raw full-CG V-Ray render of a Gotham bank and comp it to final using Glass, the photographic lens toolkit I built for Nuke 16.
🚀 Nuke 14/15/16/17 Win/Linux/Mac NOW SUPPORTED
Glass mimics what actually happens to a light ray on its way through a real lens and onto the sensor. One Lens State "brain" node holds the lens and camera identity and drives nine correlated modules, and if your EXR has a Z-depth channel it's basically plug and play. In this video we go node by node through the real lens anatomy:
• Prepping real-world depth (even without a position pass)
• Lens breathing, distortion & chromatic aberration with astigmatism and coma
• Anamorphic defocus with proper cat-eye bokeh and dispersion
• Vignetting, flares, diffusion, front-element dirt & sensor grain
• Integrating the background with a depth haze, then reviewing every stage with my BreakdownWipe node
There is a full commercial edition, and because Foundry caps Python on Nuke Indie and non-commercial tiers, there is also a cheaper Glass LE edition that runs as 4 self-contained gizmos on Indie. If you try it on a shot, I'd genuinely love to see the result, drop it in the Discord.
🎬 CREDITS
The Gotham bank shot was built by Steffen Hampel — huge thanks for letting me light and comp it here. Go watch his full 3D breakdown:
youtube.com/watch?v=dwCKo4lYmAA
And a big thank you to the CG Lounge creators who shared the EXR renders I used across this promo. This community makes it possible.
🎥 TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro: something completely different
0:58 What Glass is: a photographic lens, stage by stage
1:52 Full edition vs Glass LE for Nuke Indie
3:21 The shot: Stefan's Gotham bank render
4:01 Matching & merging the background plate
5:12 Cleaning up the heavy EXR (denoiser shuffle)
7:08 Prepping real-world depth with Glass Utility
9:45 Calibrating depth without a position pass
10:57 Proving the depth with Defocus
11:53 Lens Breathing & the Lens State brain
14:47 Lens Distortion (metadata driven)
16:56 Aberration: chromatic, astigmatism, coma
20:36 Defocus: anamorphic bokeh & cat-eye
23:59 Vignetting
24:50 Lens Flare: bloom, streaks, starburst, ghosts
30:16 Diffusion, Dirt & Sensor grain
31:10 Integrating the background with depth haze
36:16 BreakdownWipe: every stage in one view
39:09 Before / after & the final look
39:50 How to get Glass (editions & early bird)
📂 GET GLASS
▶ https://cglounge.studio/assets/glass?coupon=GLASSLAUNCH75
🚀 First 10 people: 75% OFF with code GLASSLAUNCH75
• Free: $0, full preview at 1080p with watermark
• Glass LE: $19, 4 gizmos, made for Nuke Indie
• Pro: $89, the full toolkit for commercial Nuke
• Studio: $199, adds render-farm rights
10 lens presets (clean, anamorphic, vintage, portrait), 157 aperture/bokeh shapes, a lens-dirt plate library, GPU accelerated (Blink) with CPU fallback, free updates. Windows + Linux (no macOS yet).
👥 JOIN THE COMMUNITY
Discord: discord.gg/z35NUgV
Mentorship & courses: https://cglounge.studio/creator/arvid
❤️ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL
If this helped you, a like and subscribe (hit the bell) really does help the channel.
Instagram: instagram.com/arvidschneider
Twitter/X: twitter.com/arvidurs
🎵 MUSIC
Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com/referral/7cfjxk
#Nuke #VFX #Compositing #CGI #LensEffects #FoundryNuke #Filmmaking
Affiliate links: I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you—thanks for the support!
Arvid Schneider | VFX Artist & Houdini Educator | Crafting next-level visuals. Let's level up together!
