Contact Sheet Generator — Nuke node graph builder

01

Overview

Contact Sheet Generator automates the build of a Nuke contact sheet node graph for turntable or multi-set render sequences. It expects a top-level folder containing one sub-folder per set, each of which contains one sub-folder per image sequence.

The tool scouts the folder structure, lets you pick which sets to include, runs a discrepancy analysis (missing sequences, mixed resolutions, missing frames), and then builds the full Nuke graph — Read nodes wired through optional Text2 label overlays into ContactSheet nodes and Write nodes, all grouped into labelled Backdrops by set and page. The six numbered sections walk you through every step in order.

02

Requirements

• Nuke 15 (PySide2)
• Python 3
• Read access to the image sequence folders being scanned

Nuke 15 already includes PySide2. You do not install it, you do not pip anything, you do not touch your Python environment.

03

Availability

Contact Sheet Generator is part of Cristian's PXLtools production toolkit and isn't publicly downloadable yet. The TurnTable tool is the first public PXLtools release; the rest of the suite is rolling out gradually. Want early access, or to be notified when it ships? Get in touch.

04

Using the Contact Sheet Generator

The tool has six numbered sections. Work through them top to bottom.

INSTRUCTIONS

Shown at the top of the tool, always visible:

1. Enter the main folder path and click Scout Folder.
2. All sets are auto-selected. Use Choose Sets… to refine.
3. Click Analyse Selection to check for discrepancies.
4. Configure resolution, colorspace, label and output options.
5. Click Build Node Graph to build. Click OK to confirm or Cancel to close.

01 — FOLDER

Enter the path to the main folder that contains your sets, or press Browse… to pick it. Then press Scout Folder. The tool walks the hierarchy and reports how many sets and sequences were found. Press View Scan Result… to see the full inventory.

The expected folder structure is:

main_folder/
    Set_A/
        Item_001/  [image sequence]
        Item_002/  [image sequence]
    Set_B/
        ...

02 — SELECT SETS

After scouting, all discovered sets are selected by default. Press Choose Sets… to open the set selection dialog and deselect any sets you want to exclude. Select All and Select None are available for quick filtering. Press Clear Selection to deselect everything and start over.

03 — ANALYSE

Press Analyse Selection to run the discrepancy checker across the selected sets. It reports: mismatched sequence counts between sets, sequences present in one set but missing in another, mixed resolutions within a set, mixed frame counts, and missing frames within a sequence. Press View Discrepancy Report… for the full annotated report.

Discrepancies are warnings, not blockers — you can proceed to Build even if the report has issues.

04 — CONFIGURE

Set the output parameters for the node graph:

• Resolution — HD 1920x1080, 4K 3840x2160, or Custom (enter Width and Height in pixels). This is the total ContactSheet output resolution, not the per-cell size.
• Items Per Page — maximum sequences per ContactSheet node. The tool auto-calculates the grid layout.
• Color Space — colorspace applied to Read and Write nodes, drawn from the active OCIO config. Defaults to scene_linear.
• Missing Frames — how Read nodes handle missing frames: nearest, black, hold, or mirror.
• Output Directory — where the rendered contact sheet images are written. Auto-populated from the main folder path.
• File Prefix / Page Suffix / File Extension — control the output filename pattern: <prefix>_<SetName><suffix><page##>.####.<ext>.

05 — LABEL OVERLAY

Tick Show Layer Name to inject a Text2 node between each Read and the ContactSheet, burning a label into each cell. Configure the label with:

• Separator — the character used to split the filename into tokens (default _).
• Token From / To — the token range to extract from the filename as the label. For example, with separator _ and tokens 2–4, the filename cs_DayLight_Head_SCAN_01_EyesUp.0001.exr yields Head_SCAN_01.

06 — BUILD

Press Build Node Graph. The tool creates all Read nodes, optional Text2 label nodes, ContactSheet nodes, and Write nodes in the Nuke DAG, positions them on a grid, and wraps each set and page in a labelled Backdrop. The project frame range is set to span the longest sequence. When the build completes, press OK to close the tool.

05

Troubleshooting