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Position Noise

ToolSets / Draw

Draw

2026-09-07

ToolSets/draw/positionNoise.nk

draw

noise

position

pref

utility

procedural

View on GitHub

Samples 3D noise from a position layer so variation follows geometry instead of screen space.

Position Noise reads a chosen layer (default Pref) and drives Nuke’s noise() from the RGB position values. Per-axis scale and offset knobs control frequency and phase; the result is remapped to a centered grayscale and written to all output channels.

Use it when you need break-up, grain, or procedural masks that stick to 3D surfaces via a position or world-pass rather than drifting in screen space. Pipe a Pref or similar XYZ AOV in, set the input layer, then tune x/y/z scale for detail and offsets to slide or animate the pattern.

The group exposes layer select plus x, y, and z scale and offset. Defaults favor mid-range spatial scales; x_offset is set up to move with frame so the noise can evolve over time without extra nodes.

Script code

set cut_paste_input [stack 0]
version 12.1 v4
push $cut_paste_input
add_layer {Pref Pref.X Pref.Y Pref.Z}
Group {
 name positionNoise
 tile_color 0x421010ff
 selected true
 xpos -1162
 ypos 1266
 addUserKnob {20 User l template}
 addUserKnob {41 in l "in 1" T Shuffle35.in}
 addUserKnob {41 x_scale l x T Expression1.x_scale}
 addUserKnob {41 y_scale l y T Expression1.y_scale}
 addUserKnob {41 z_scale l z T Expression1.z_scale}
 addUserKnob {26 ""}
 addUserKnob {41 x_offset T Expression1.x_offset}
 addUserKnob {41 y_offset T Expression1.y_offset}
 addUserKnob {41 z_offset T Expression1.z_offset}
 addUserKnob {26 ""}
 addUserKnob {26 lbl l "" +STARTLINE T "Template v1.0"}
 addUserKnob {22 btn l DerekVFX.ca T "nuke.tcl('start', 'https://derekvfx.ca')" +STARTLINE}
}
 Input {
  inputs 0
  name Input
  xpos 447
  ypos 61
 }
 Shuffle {
  in Pref
  name Shuffle35
  label "\[value in]"
  xpos 665
  ypos 443
 }
 Expression {
  temp_name0 o
  temp_expr0 noise(r*x_scale+x_offset,g*y_scale+y_offset,b*z_scale+z_offset)
  temp_name1 zz
  temp_expr1 o/2+.5
  expr0 zz
  expr1 zz
  expr2 zz
  expr3 zz
  name Expression1
  label "\[knob expr3]"
  xpos 665
  ypos 514
  addUserKnob {20 User}
  addUserKnob {7 x_offset}
  x_offset {{frame/70}}
  addUserKnob {7 y_offset}
  addUserKnob {7 z_offset}
  addUserKnob {7 x_scale l x R 0 100}
  x_scale 32.6
  addUserKnob {7 y_scale l y R 0 100}
  y_scale 31.8
  addUserKnob {7 z_scale l z R 0 100}
  z_scale 26.4
 }
 Output {
  name Output1
  xpos 447
  ypos 1055
 }
end_group