Quick start

Installing the plugin

Download the one-click installer or the zip package from the Download and installation page and follow the installation steps there. The installer lets you choose English or Chinese for the plugin interface; you can change it later with “语言 / Language” in the plugin, and the change takes effect after restarting Nuke. After installation, restart Nuke; the installation succeeded when the pixRepaint menu appears in the left-hand node toolbar.

Before you start

You need the following to use the plugin:

• A RunningHub account on the international site (runninghub.ai), where the models run. Free accounts can call the API, but jobs may wait longer in the queue and fewer RH coins are included; see RunningHub's website for membership options.
• A pixRepaint subscription code. During the open beta, use the trial code 8888 (pre-filled in the activation window): the trial lasts 30 days from the first activation and each RunningHub ID can use it once. See Free trial. Paid plans for international users will be announced on this site.
• Your RunningHub ID and an API Key. Your RunningHub ID is shown on your RunningHub profile page, as the number after “ID:” next to your nickname; API Keys are on the RunningHub API Key page. You need to be signed in to RunningHub to open both pages; how to enter them is described in the next section.

Compute is paid to RunningHub; pixRepaint subscriptions are paid to us. The two are billed separately.

Activation

The first time, open Nodes › pixRepaint › Account & Licence › Activate… to create a plugin account and redeem a subscription code. The fields of the “Activate…” window are listed below.

When everything is filled in, click “Activate”. The plugin creates the account, redeems the subscription code, signs in this computer and opens the “Manage Account…” window. While signed out, “Activate…” and “Sign in…” are available and “Manage Account…” is grayed out; once signed in, it is the other way round. To switch accounts, click “Sign out” in “Manage Account…” first.

Each account is activated only once. To use the same account on other machines, choose “Sign in…”; there is no need to activate again.

Signing in and password reset

On a new machine, or after signing out, open Nodes › pixRepaint › Account & Licence › Sign in…, enter your username and password (you can also change the machine label and machine tier) and click “Sign in”. You do not need to enter the subscription code or RunningHub ID again. API Keys are stored only on each machine, so after signing in on a new machine, click “Add Key” in “Manage Account…”.

If the username or password is wrong, the plugin shows “Incorrect username or password”. After too many failed attempts in one day, signing in is paused until the next day.

If you forget your password, click “Forgot password…” in the sign-in window, enter your username, “Last redeemed paid code”, “New password” and “Confirm password”, and click “Reset”.

• Accounts that have only used the trial code cannot reset the password themselves; please contact us at pixRepaint@163.com.
• After a successful reset, every machine on the account is signed out and needs to sign in with the new password.

If the account already has the maximum number of machines signed in for its plan when you sign in, the plugin shows “The maximum number of signed-in machines has been reached. Sign out a machine, or wait for one to be released automatically after an hour of inactivity” and lists the account's machines. Choose a machine to sign it out and continue; you do not need to enter the password again.

Account management

Once signed in, open Nodes › pixRepaint › Account & Licence › Manage Account…. The window shows the username, the platform, the RunningHub ID (partly hidden) and its link status, the API Key in use, the “Service” status, the plan, the expiry date of each plan, signed-in machines and the limit, running jobs and the limit, the “Platform key” (the API Key's type on RunningHub and the platform's concurrency limit), the available credit or RH coin balance, the machine tier and the plugin version. The buttons and options are:

API Key

Copy or create an API Key (Consumer / Member or Enterprise / Shared) on the RunningHub API Key page. The API Key is stored only on this computer and used only to submit jobs to RunningHub; our server neither receives nor stores it. You can save several API Keys per account on this computer; select one in the drop-down and click “Save settings”. The API Key must belong to the RunningHub ID linked to the account; if you use a key from another ID, the “Manage Account…” window shows a reminder and later jobs may not run, so switch to a key under the linked ID.

Renewing and upgrading

When paid plans are available, click “Renew / Upgrade” and enter the new subscription code. A code for the same plan adds its time after your remaining time; a code for a higher plan takes effect immediately, and the remaining time of the previous plan is added after the new plan expires. The “Expires” field lists the expiry date of each plan. After a subscription expires you can still sign in and renew in “Manage Account…”.

RunningHub ID link

Each plugin account is linked to one RunningHub ID. Until the account first runs a job successfully on RunningHub, the link status shows “No successful run on the platform yet; the link can be changed” and you can change it with “Change RunningHub ID”; after a successful run it shows “Confirmed”, the link is locked and the “Change RunningHub ID” button is no longer shown. To change it after that, please contact us. Changing the link does not grant another trial.

The same RunningHub ID can be linked to several plugin accounts; in that case the window shows “This RunningHub ID is also linked to other plugin accounts; machines and concurrency are counted separately for each account”. Machines, concurrent jobs and expiry dates are counted separately for each account and are not combined.

Machines and plans

One account can be signed in on several machines. How many machines can be signed in at the same time, and how many jobs can run at the same time, depends on the plan:

Paid plans for international users will be announced on this site. The number of jobs that can actually run at the same time is also limited by your RunningHub account and API Key type, shown in the “Platform key” field of “Manage Account…”. When the limit is reached, newly submitted jobs wait in a local queue and are submitted automatically as earlier jobs finish.

• Changing machines: sign in with the same account on the new machine using “Sign in…”. If the machine limit has been reached, choose a machine to sign out when signing in.
• Retiring an old machine: click “Sign out” on the old machine, or “Sign out a machine” in “Manage Account…” on another machine.
• Automatic release: a machine that has been inactive for an hour releases its place automatically.

Service status light

The “Manage Account…” window and every node panel show a “Service” status:

• Green: jobs can be submitted normally.
• Yellow: the licence service cannot be reached for the moment; jobs are submitted using the licence saved on this computer.
• Red: jobs cannot be submitted right now; the text next to it gives the reason.

Your first repaint

Create an Rp M Paint node and connect:

• source: the source footage.
• mask: the mask (“Mask from” can be alpha or luma); white areas are repainted. Without a mask, the whole frame is repainted.
• refs: optional reference material; see the next section.
• control: an optional structure-control video; see “Structure control” in this section.

Choose the strength in “Mode”. Uniform strength uses a single denoise value for the whole masked area; choose “Light (add texture)”, “Medium (refresh materials)”, “Heavy (repaint)” or “Full (complete repaint)” in “Preset”, or adjust denoise and steps directly. Graded strength uses the mask's gray levels to set the repaint strength of each area (white maps to inside, black to outside), so different parts of one mask can be repainted more or less strongly.

“Transfer quality” has two settings: Fast (default) uploads H.264 10-bit for smaller files, transcoded by the ffmpeg bundled with the plugin; High quality uploads ProRes 4444 12-bit for the most accurate color and larger files. Results generated in the cloud are returned at the same setting and converted to ProRes 4444 after download.

The lead frame setting on the row below the frame range can be set from 0 to 16 (default 0, off). It stabilizes color in the opening frames of the result; 5 to 8 is usually enough, and the result keeps the same number of frames. When it is on, the shot may move up one frame-count step, and the status bar notes the frame count used when you submit.

“Anchor / reference strength” sets how strongly the reference images and anchors constrain the result. The default is 0.999; lower values loosen the constraint. Reference images and anchors share this value, and it has no effect when nothing is connected to refs. This parameter is experimental.

The base model version is chosen with “model” in the “Advanced (usually leave as is)” group: the first item in the list is the newer version (default) and the second the older one. The advanced group is shown after checking “Show advanced parameters” in “Options…”.

Structure control

The control input takes a structure-control video that constrains the spatial structure of the result: a depth map or line art from Rp Control, or white outlines drawn with a Roto. White lines on black (line art, outlines) are the most stable; depth maps should be near-white, far-black. The related parameters are:

• “Control strength”: 1 by default; below 1 the constraint loosens, and 0 means no control.
• “Control from” and “Control to”: the part of the denoising process where control applies, 0 to 1 by default. For example, with 0 to 0.5 the first half fixes the large shapes and positions and the model fills in details freely in the second half.
• “Use mask”: off by default. When on, the mask and source footage are also given to structure control; areas inside the mask where the control image is blank or a solid block of color tend to produce dark patches, so turn it on only when the control image shows clear white outlines throughout the mask.

Submitting and progress

Save the project before submitting: the footage rendered for upload and the generated results are stored in a pixRepaint folder next to the project file. After clicking “Submit”, the panel shows upload progress and speed, queueing and generation progress, and a result node is created next to the node when the job finishes. Draw rotos at the project resolution; the plugin scales them proportionally to the size needed for generation.

Before submitting, Rp M Paint, Rp M Paint Pass2 Upscale, Rp M Sharpen, Rp M Motion Fix and Rp M Remove estimate the size of the job. If it is over what the model can process at once, a dialog warns you: if you submit anyway, the result is likely to show garbled blocks, and the job may run very slowly or even stall. The dialog suggests shortening the frame range, reducing the canvas or using fewer references; you can submit anyway or cancel.

References and prompts

All reference material goes into Rp M Refs, which has three inputs. Connect a single item directly; join several items with an AppendClip first:

• refpic: reference images, up to 9.
• anchors: anchor images, up to 8. By default each sits at its own frame; you can also set positions in “Anchor frames”. Anchors give strong guidance rather than being pasted in directly; keep them at least 40 frames apart.
• refvid: reference videos, up to 3, counted at 24 fps; anything beyond 15 seconds is cut off.

Use these tags in the prompt to refer to the material. Numbers follow the order of the AppendClip inputs, counting from 1 for each type:

For example, you might start with: “<Subject 1> looks like <Picture 1> and moves like <Video 1>”. The prompt box includes a starter template; replace the parts in 【】 brackets. The RunningHub back end does not support reference audio, so there is no need to mention it in the prompt.

Second-pass upscale

Connect Rp M Paint Pass2 Upscale to the previous step's result node and it automatically reuses the prompt, references, anchors and base model version, with nothing to re-enter. To change them, use the “Change prompt” and “Change references” switches.

The node's own parameters include “Size mode” and “Scale”, “Refine steps” and “Repaint start”. “Mask” has three modes: “None” (repaint the whole frame), “From previous step” (reuse the mask sent in the previous step) and “Connect new” (connect a new roto to the mask input).

Crop repaint

Crop repaint sends only the area around the roto for processing. It suits areas that take up a small part of the frame and markedly improves detail. There are two kinds of crop box:

• A Union box: one static box for the whole shot.
• B Follow box: the box follows the roto frame by frame.

Pasting back is done by hand: click “Create paste-back node” on the result node, and the plate, the roto used and the result are connected automatically. The paste-back node's “Keep” offers “Keep plate (result scaled back into the box)” and “Keep result (plate scaled up to the result)”. To crop other content from the source with the same box (for example another roto layer), click “Create crop node”.

Result nodes

When a job finishes, a Read node with an input is created automatically, with the time taken in its label. The input only marks which node produced the result and is not used in calculations. The panel has these buttons:

• “Restore source node (original settings)”: recreates the node that produced the result with the parameters used at submission, reconnecting inputs by the node names used at the time.
• “Create crop node” and “Create paste-back node”: available only for crop-mode results; see the previous section.

Motion fix

Rp M Motion Fix repairs smearing and motion blur caused by fast movement or whip pans: only the blurred frames are regenerated, while all other frames keep the plate. Its inputs are:

• source: the video to repair.
• mask: optional roto; white marks the area to regenerate within the repair range, and black stays unchanged (for example a person you want to keep). Without it, whole frames in the repair range are regenerated.
• refs: optional; connect Rp M Refs or a clip to use as reference images.

first / last set the frame range sent for processing. Frames outside the repair range serve only as context and use the plate when pasted back; longer ranges take longer. Common parameters:

• “Repair range”: with “Auto”, frames that are blurred and moving fast are found when you submit; click “Analyze footage” to see them first. With “Manual”, type Nuke frame numbers on the right, for example 1004-1010, 1020; several ranges are allowed.
• The quality setting on the row below “Analyze footage”: “4× (fast)” is quicker; “8× (sharper, about 2.7× slower)” gives a sharper result and takes about 2.7 times as long.
• “Redraw amount”: 0.7 by default, from 0.3 to 1; higher values change more.
• Crop: works as in Crop repaint; suits shots where only part of the frame moves fast, and requires a mask.

A result node is created when the job finishes. Click “Create paste-back node” on it to use the result within the repair range and the plate everywhere else (when cropped, the result is first pasted back onto the plate using the roto). The node fixes blur over time only; if the image looks soft overall, process it further with other nodes.

Removal

Rp M Remove (experimental) removes people or objects inside the roto and fills in the background. Long shots are generated in segments. It takes about 2.5 times as long as Rp M Paint at the same resolution and length, so a lower resolution is recommended; new nodes default to a scale of 0.75. Its inputs are:

• source: the video to remove from.
• mask: a roto is required; white marks the area to remove.
• refs: optional. Connect a cleaned first frame (the first frame of the range with the object removed, with the same framing and size as source), which markedly reduces unwanted content appearing in the removed area. Clean the first frame thoroughly: faint outlines or specks left behind may be kept and grow over the clip. For shots where the clean image is not on the first frame (for example a person walking in from off screen), connect Rp M Refs: up to 8 reference images, and anchors accept single frames only.

Common parameters:

• “Frames per segment”: 22 / 39 (default) / 56 / 73.
• “Seam”: “Overlap fade” (default) blends gradually over the frames where neighbouring segments overlap; “Straight cut” is a little faster but may jump at the seam.
• “Auto re-roll”: on by default. When unwanted content appears in the removed area, the segment is regenerated automatically (up to 2 times). Each re-roll uses the computing power of one more generation. When off, you are only alerted in the status.
• “Per-frame color”: on by default; corrects the brightness and color of the result frame by frame to match the plate.
• Crop: works as in Crop repaint, with A Union box by default; choose “none” when the person fills most of the frame.

A result node is created when the job finishes, containing the full clip at the generation canvas size. When cropped, click “Create paste-back node” on the result node to paste only the roto area back onto the plate; otherwise composite it yourself. If any segment fails, submit the whole clip again; unfinished jobs from this node are not resumed after Nuke is closed.

Color matching

Rp ColorMatch matches the color and tonality of one clip to a reference clip in the cloud, either across the whole frame or using only a sampling area defined by a roto. Its inputs are:

• target: the video to grade.
• ref: the reference video.
• roto: optional; white marks the area to sample (for example a person). With a roto, mask matching is used and the resulting grade is applied to the whole frame.
• ref_roto: optional; when the subject in ref is in a different position from target, defines the sampling area on ref separately.

Without a roto, choose the whole-frame algorithm in “method”; try mkl first. With a roto, choose in “roto method”: use the default, paired, when target and ref are the same shot with matching positions (for example a generated result against its plate), and mkl when positions do not match. Other common options:

• “Preview mask”: overlays semi-transparent red on the node's output before you submit, to check the sampling area; it does not affect the footage sent for matching. With ref_roto connected, switch between the target and ref sides with “Show”.
• “Sampling interval”: available with mask matching; samples color every few frames, 1 (every frame) by default. It affects only the sampling of ref and roto, and target is still graded frame by frame; 4 to 8 markedly shortens long shots. It must be 1 when “Stabilize brightness / color per frame” is on.
• “Stabilize brightness / color per frame”: off by default, available with mask matching; removes frame-to-frame brightness and color flicker in the footage itself. Draw the roto around an area whose content is stable.

Color matching is sensitive to color precision, so “High quality” is recommended for “Transfer quality”.

Structure control

Rp Control generates a structure reference video from live-action footage or 3D renders; connect its output to the control input of Rp M Paint (see “Structure control” under Your first repaint). The depth map can also be used directly in compositing. “Type” offers four options:

• “Depth”: a grayscale depth map, near-white and far-black, constraining spatial depth and large forms.
• “Canny”: fine edge lines with plenty of detail; textures are extracted as well.
• “HED”: soft edge lines that keep only the main outlines; usually the best choice for line-art control.
• “MLSD”: keeps only straight line segments, for architecture and interiors.

Rp Depth nodes in older projects still open normally.

Enhancement and slow motion

Rp Enhance uses your own copy of Topaz Video AI to restore image quality, upscale and interpolate frames for slow motion. Topaz Video AI is third-party desktop software that you purchase, install and sign in to yourself; pixRepaint does not provide, sell or manage it. Topaz can be installed on this computer or on another computer on your local network.

• “Output size”: choose “Scale” (1 restores without upscaling, up to 4) or “Width / height” (set the target size directly).
• “Enhancement model”: read from your Topaz Video AI, listing only the latest version of each model.
• “Auto parameters”: on by default, letting Topaz estimate the restoration settings; turn it off to adjust “Fix compression”, “Improve detail”, “Sharpen”, “Reduce noise”, “Dehalo” and “Anti-alias / deblur” by hand.
• “Add grain” and “Grain size”: add a layer of grain to the output, to match plates that have grain.
• “Slow motion” and “Slow-down factor”: insert new frames between the original ones, multiplying the frame count while keeping the fps; the default is “No slow motion” and the factor can be up to 16.

When Topaz is installed on another computer on your local network, install the plugin there too (or copy the pixrepaint folder) and double-click topaz_service.bat in it; the window shows the port and password. Then, in “Options…” on each Nuke machine, enter the Topaz service address (in the form http://that computer's IP:port) and the “Topaz service password”. If Windows Firewall asks the first time, choose “Allow”. Closing that window stops the service.

Single-frame upscale

Rp I Upscale upscales a single frame in the cloud, repainting it in tiles to add detail while keeping the original structure.

• “Frame”: the frame to upscale; click “Use current frame” to fill in the current frame on the timeline.
• “Scale”: 1 to 4; 1 keeps the size and only adds detail.
• “Tile size”: 768 / 1024 / 1280 / 1536; the number of tiles for the current settings is shown below.
• “Repaint strength”: higher values add more detail; up to 0.5, facial features and patterns stay essentially unchanged.
• “Adherence”: how closely each tile follows the original while repainting. 1 (default) is the closest; lower values let repaint strength take full effect, adding more detail but possibly changing content such as faces or text.
• “Auto prompt (from image)”: when checked, a prompt is written from the image and filled into the “prompt” box; when unchecked, the prompt in the box is used directly, which is faster. Write prompts in English.

The node works on single frames; upscaling video frame by frame causes flicker. For video, use Rp M Paint Pass2 Upscale or Rp Enhance.

Single-frame edit

Rp I Edit edits a single frame in the cloud from a one-sentence instruction, for example to replace an object, change clothing or remove an element. Connect the original image to source, a roto marking the area to edit to mask (without it the whole image is edited), and up to 9 reference images to refs (join several with an AppendClip first). Without source the node works in generation mode and creates a new image from reference images or text alone.

• “Frame”: the frame to edit; the result node is placed at this frame too.
• “Edit instruction”: one sentence describing the change.
• “Prompt enhancement”: on by default; the instruction is first rewritten into a more detailed description, which is filled into the “Rewritten instruction” box. Keep it on when replacing the masked area with content from reference images.
• “Mark”: sets how the area to change is indicated on the image sent (the plate itself is not affected). Usually keep the default; if the change lands in the wrong place, or you want the masked area regenerated more freely, try another option.
• “Edit near mask only”: on by default; only the area around the mask (extended by “Padding (px)”) is cropped and edited. With “Preview crop box” checked, the node's output darkens everything outside the box to show what is actually sent.
• “Canvas”: sets the generation size by resolution factor (MP) or scale; the actual canvas is shown below.

A result node is created when the job finishes; to paste it back onto the plate, click “Create paste-back node” on the result node. Jobs still running after 30 minutes are cancelled in the cloud automatically to avoid ongoing charges; lower the resolution factor or use fewer reference images and try again.

Options and tools

Open Nodes › pixRepaint › Options… to set the following. The switches are all off by default and take effect when checked:

• When pasting with Ctrl+V, create a Read node directly if the clipboard holds a screenshot or a file path.
• Duplicate the selected nodes while keeping their upstream connections; the default shortcut is Ctrl+Alt+V and can be changed in the panel.
• When dragging in or pasting mp4, webm, mkv or m4v video files, convert them to ProRes before creating the Read node.
• “Show advanced parameters”: show the advanced parameter groups on node panels.
• “Use proxy”: the plugin connects to RunningHub and the licence server through the proxy server address entered below (for example http://127.0.0.1:7890). When unchecked, connections are direct and ignore the system proxy settings. Changes take effect immediately without restarting Nuke.
• “语言 / Language”: the interface language; takes effect after restarting Nuke.

The Topaz service address and “Topaz service password” let Rp Enhance use Topaz on another computer on your local network; leave them empty to use Topaz installed on this computer. See Enhancement and slow motion.

Collect Files into Project: a tool in the pixRepaint menu. It copies files referenced by Read nodes in the project that are outside the project directory into a collected folder in the project directory, and points those Read nodes to the new location; files already inside the project directory are skipped. Save the project first; before copying, the number of files and total size are shown for you to confirm.

Common messages

Contact us

Email pixRepaint@163.com. For common questions before you start, see the FAQ on the home page.