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Old network
As of Houdini 20.5, use Copernicus nodes instead of Compositing nodes. Though both networks still exist, the Compositing network is now designated as COP Network - Old. The Compositing network and its nodes will be deprecated and then removed in a future Houdini release.
Compositing node (COP2) networks ¶
Old network
As of Houdini 20.5, use Copernicus nodes instead of Compositing nodes. Though both networks still exist, the Compositing network is now designated as COP Network - Old. The Compositing network and its nodes will be deprecated and then removed in a future Houdini release.
A Compositing network contains 
compositing nodes (COP2s) for manipulating 2D pixel data. This is useful for compositing images such as render passes, but you can also use COP2s to manipulate other pixel-based data, such as depth maps.
Houdini creates a default compositing network at /img. You can also create your own Compositing network at any level of the scene (for example, next to a render node that uses the Compositing network to process its output).
Wiring COP2s together controls the flow of image data, from nodes that load or generate image data through nodes that modify the i.
Compositing nodes have a different node body from other network nodes.
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Compositing nodes include a preview thumbnail in the node body. To hide or show the preview thumbnail, click the arrow in the bottom left corner of the node.
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To control which image plane the node displays, click the plane menu in the bottom right corner of the node.
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Because of the special features built into compositing node, you cannot assign custom shapes to them.
You can view the image generated by a compositing network in the Composite View tab.
See compositing for more information on using compositing nodes.
COP2 flags ¶
Icon |
Key |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Q or B |
Bypass disables the node, making it pass its input image through to the output unchanged. This is useful for testing and visualizing the effect the node is having in the viewer. When a node is bypassed, the flag on the left of the node is lit yellow. |
|
T |
Template makes the node’s image diff-able in the viewer. You can use controls in the viewer UI to compare between the display output and the template output. When the template flag is on, the flag second from the left of the node is lit purple, and a maroon ring appears around the node. |
|
E |
Output marks the node whose output is used as the output for the entire network. When the output flag is on, the flag second from the right of the node is lit dark orange, and an orange circle appears behind the node. |
|
R |
Display marks the node whose output appears in the COP2 viewer. Often this is at the end of the network, showing the cumulative output of the network, but you can (and will often) move the display flag around the network to check the output of different nodes. When the display flag is on, the flag on the right of the node is lit blue. |
Nodes ¶
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Adds two images together.
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Creates an anaglyph from a pair of input images.
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Composites the first input (Foreground) over the second (background), but only where the background alpha exists.
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Averages the foreground image and the background image.
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Blends frames from two sequences together using a simple linear blend.
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Blurs an image.
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Adds a border to the image.
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Applies a brightness factor and bright shift to the first input.
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Builds a bump map from a plane.
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Copy channels from any of inputs into the output image.
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Mask or key an image based on its color.
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Creates a constant color image.
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Applies a variety of color corrections to the image
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Adjusts the R,G,B and/or A channels based on a user-defined curve.
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Maps a range of color to a new range.
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Replace a color region in an image with another region.
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Generates a simple HSV color wheel.
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Does a composite (over, under, inside, add, etc) between two images.
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Increases or decreases the contrast of an image.
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Changes the data format of a plane.
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Performs a generic convolve on the source image.
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Fits an image into an arbitrary quadrilateral.
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Generates a four corner ramp.
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Crops an image and changes its resolution.
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Extracts matte from Cryptomatte image.
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Flattens a Deep Shadow/Camera Map into a flat 2D raster.
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Defocuses an image similar to a real camera defocus.
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Deforms an image by moving the underlying UV coordinates.
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Removes film grain from an image.
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De-interlaces a frame of video by either averaging scanlines or copying a scanline.
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Removes planes or components from an input sequence.
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Removes white noise from an image.
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Uses machine-learning algorithms to denoise images with high quality and speed.
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Darkens depth boundaries in an image.
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Creates a depth-of-field mask, which describes how out of focus parts of the image are.
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Computes the difference between the foreground image and the background image.
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Expands and shrinks mattes.
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Creates a blurred shadow offset of an image.
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Blurs the edges of an image.
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Detects edges in the input image.
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Adds a lighting effect to the image by using a bump map.
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Applies an environment map to an image.
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Equalizes colors by stretching or shifting the image histogram.
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Error Function Table Generator
Creates an image containing precomputed error function terms for hair albedo computation
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Expands and shrinks mattes.
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Extends the length of a sequence so that it can be animated beyond its frame range.
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Extracts a plane or channel from a multi-plane source.
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Fills empty areas of an image using the colors at the edges the non-empty areas.
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Fetches a sequence of images from another COP, even in another network.
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Merges two fields into one Interlaced Frame.
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Splits an interlaced frame into two fields per frame (odd and even fields).
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Swaps the two fields containing the even and odd scanlines of the frame.
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Loads image files into Houdini.
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Flips the image horizontally and/or vertically.
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Adds a variety of atmospheric effects to an image, including fog, haze and heat waves.
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Renders anti-aliased text.
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Cleans up flipped normals by making them face the camera.
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Performs a variety of mathematical functions on the input image.
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Applies gamma correction to the image.
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Keys out parts of the image based on pixel position or normal direction.
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Renders geometry from a SOP as a single color image.
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Computes the gradient of an image.
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Adds grain to an image.
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Converts between RGB and HSV color spaces, or applies hue and saturation modifications.
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Adjusts the saturation or luminance of the image based on hue.
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Detects illegal pixels, like NAN and INF, in images.
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Restricts the foreground color to the area of the background’s alpha matte.
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Interleaves image sequences.
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Applies a photographic pixel inversion to the image.
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Imports geometry attributes as image planes using a UV attribute
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Generates a blackbody ramp, or colorizes a black and white image with a blackbody ramp
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Reads in DDS (DirectDraw Surface) Files
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Converts a single mosaic (flipbook/subuv) image into a sequence of sub images based on the frame
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Generates a texture that can be used as a simple resolution checkerboard
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Simple Helper Node to generate the default Normal Color
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A Simple Node That Overlays 2 Normal Maps together
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Convert a Grayscale Image Into a Normal Map
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Invert individual channels on an image
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Adjusts black point, white point, and midrange to increase, balance, or decrease contrast on a Normal Map.
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Rotates a Normal Map while correcting recalculating it’s internal vectors
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Ensures the normal map is balanced in a unit vector
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Load Substance Archive (SBSAR) Files into COPs
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Layers a series of inputs together by compositing them one by one on the background image (input 1).
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Adjusts black point, white point, and midrange to increase, balance, or decrease contrast.
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Adds a light to the image.
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Limits the pixel range at the high end, low end or both.
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Applies a lookup table to the input.
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Sets the alpha to the luminance of the color.
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Keys the image based on luminance (or similar function).
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Masks out an area of an image.
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Outputs the maximum value of the foreground and background images for each pixel, which tends to lighten the image.
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Applies a 3 x 3 or 5 x 5 median filter to the input image.
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Merges the planes of several inputs together.
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Applies metadata to an image sequence.
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Outputs the minimum value of the foreground and background images for each pixel, which tends to darken the image.
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Converts a color or vector into a scalar quantity, like luminance or length.
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Takes a sequence of images and combines them into 1 image by tiling them.
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Multiplies the foreground image with the background image.
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Generates continuous noise patterns.
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Does nothing.
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Restricts the foreground color to the area outside of the background’s alpha matte.
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Composites the first input (Foreground) over the second (background).
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Modifies an image’s pixels using expressions.
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Allows colour to be converted to or from a premultiplied form.
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Performs a pulldown (cine-expand) on the input sequence.
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Performs a pushup (cine-expand) on the input sequence.
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Quantizes input data into discrete steps.
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Renders frames out to disk.
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Does a radial or angular blur.
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Generates a variety of linear and radial ramps, which are fully keyframable.
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Copies the sequence information from its input.
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Change the name a plane.
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Renders a mantra output driver directly into a composite network.
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Simply reverses the frames in the sequence.
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Draws one or more curves or shapes.
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Imports a 2d Volume from SOPs as planes into a composite network.
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Changes the resolution of the image.
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Adds two images together, saturating at white like photographic addition.
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Sequences two or more inputs end to end.
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Generates simple shapes, such as circles, stars and regular N-sided polygons.
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Sharpens an image by enhancing the contrast of edges.
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Shifts an image sequence in time.
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Shuffle frames around to do out-of-order editing.
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Creates sky and ground images for use as environment maps.
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Either removes frames from a sequence or allows you to order them in a user-defined order.
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Streaks an image, adding a motion blur effect.
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Contains networks of other COPs.
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Subtracts the foreground image from the background image.
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Passes the input of one of its connected inputs through, acting like an exclusive switch.
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Replaces input 1's alpha with input 2's alpha.
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Generate noise suitable for terrain height maps.
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Tiles the image sequence with multiple copies of the input image.
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Blurs a pixel through several frames.
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Uses a second input to time warp the first input on a per pixel basis.
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Stretches or compresses a sequence in time.
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Warps time by slowing or speeding it up throughout the sequence.
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Translates, rotates and/or scales the input image without changing the image resolution.
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Trims an input sequence in time by adjusting the beginning or the end of the sequence.
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Creates a UV map.
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Composites the first input (Foreground) under the second (background).
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Extracts an arbitrary quadrilateral area out of the input image.
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Runs a VEX script on its input planes.
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Runs a VEX script on the planes it generates.
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Contains a VOP network that filters input image data.
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Contains a VOP network that generates image data.
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Performs vector operations on the input.
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Blurs an image by using pixel velocity to produce a motion blur effect.
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Cuts a small window out of a larger image.
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Does a wipe between two input sequences.
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Makes two elements mutually exclusive; if their alpha mattes overlap, the overlap is removed.
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Does a Z composite of two images.
