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Merge Alt

ToolSets / Merge

Merge

2026-09-07

ToolSets/merge/mergeAlt.nk

merge

luminance

color

hue

saturation

LCH

utility

View on GitHub

Combine A and B in CIE-LCH with color, luminance, saturation, or hue operations, plus mix, mask, bbox, and metadata controls.

Merge Alt blends inputs A and B in CIE-LCH space using color, luminance, saturation, or hue operations. An optional mask limits where the effect applies.

The operation control selects which LCH components are taken from A. Mix dissolves between the original B and the processed result so you can dial the strength of the blend.

You can set the output bounding box and metadata from either A or B. Use it when you need to transfer luminance or color traits between layers instead of a standard alpha merge.

Script code

set cut_paste_input [stack 0]
version 13.2 v9
push $cut_paste_input
push 0
Group {
 inputs 2
 name mergeAlt
 tile_color 0x421010ff
 selected true
 xpos -169
 ypos -2
 addUserKnob {20 mergeAlt}
 addUserKnob {4 operation M {color luminance saturation hue ""}}
 operation luminance
 addUserKnob {4 bboxinput l "set bbox to" M {B A "" ""}}
 addUserKnob {4 metainput l "metadata input" -STARTLINE M {B A "" "" "" "" ""}}
 addUserKnob {41 which l mix T Dissolve1.which}
 addUserKnob {26 ""}
 addUserKnob {26 lbl l "" +STARTLINE T "Merge Alt v1.1"}
 addUserKnob {22 btn l DerekVFX.ca T "nuke.tcl('start', 'https://derekvfx.ca')" +STARTLINE}
}
 Input {
  inputs 0
  name A
  xpos 93
  ypos -575
  number 1
 }
set Ncbd6400 [stack 0]
 Input {
  inputs 0
  name B
  xpos 725
  ypos -573
 }
set Ncbd7200 [stack 0]
 Switch {
  inputs 2
  which {{bboxinput}}
  name Switch3
  xpos 1301
  ypos -461
 }
push $Ncbd6400
push $Ncbd7200
 Switch {
  inputs 2
  which {{metainput}}
  name Switch2
  xpos 1094
  ypos -474
 }
 Input {
  inputs 0
  name mask
  xpos 386
  ypos -161
  number 2
 }
push $Ncbd7200
 Colorspace {
  colorspace_out CIE-LCH
  name Colorspace8
  xpos 725
  ypos -461
 }
set Ncbd6b00 [stack 0]
push $Ncbd6400
 Colorspace {
  colorspace_out CIE-LCH
  name Colorspace9
  xpos 93
  ypos -464
 }
set Ncbd5d00 [stack 0]
 ShuffleCopy {
  inputs 2
  red red
  blue blue
  name ShuffleCopy2
  xpos 93
  ypos -314
 }
 Colorspace {
  colorspace_in CIE-LCH
  name Colorspace3
  xpos 93
  ypos -263
 }
push $Ncbd6b00
push $Ncbd5d00
 ShuffleCopy {
  inputs 2
  red red
  green green
  name ShuffleCopy4
  xpos 287
  ypos -320
 }
 Colorspace {
  colorspace_in CIE-LCH
  name Colorspace2
  xpos 287
  ypos -269
 }
push $Ncbd6b00
push $Ncbd5d00
 ShuffleCopy {
  inputs 2
  green green
  blue blue
  name ShuffleCopy1
  xpos 488
  ypos -308
 }
 Colorspace {
  colorspace_in CIE-LCH
  name Colorspace1
  xpos 488
  ypos -257
 }
push $Ncbd6b00
push $Ncbd5d00
 ShuffleCopy {
  inputs 2
  red red
  name ShuffleCopy3
  xpos 725
  ypos -310
 }
 Colorspace {
  colorspace_in CIE-LCH
  name Colorspace10
  xpos 725
  ypos -253
 }
 Switch {
  inputs 4
  which {{operation}}
  name Switch1
  xpos 725
  ypos -199
 }
push $Ncbd7200
 Dot {
  name Dot1
  xpos 906
  ypos -321
 }
 Dissolve {
  inputs 2+1
  channels rgb
  which 1
  name Dissolve1
  xpos 725
  ypos -140
 }
 CopyMetaData {
  inputs 2
  name CopyMetaData1
  xpos 725
  ypos -13
 }
 CopyBBox {
  inputs 2
  name CopyBBox1
  xpos 725
  ypos 50
 }
 Output {
  name Output1
  xpos 725
  ypos 113
 }
end_group