Cryptomatte is a tool created at Psyop by Jonah Friedman and Andy Jones. It creates ID mattes automatically with support for motion blur, transparency, and depth of field, using organizational information already available at render time. This organizational information is usually names, object namespaces, and material names.

• Demo video: https://vimeo.com/136954966
• Poster: https://github.com/Psyop/Cryptomatte/raw/master/specification/IDmattes_poster.pdf

The goal of releasing Cryptomatte is to turn it into an ecosystem around an open standard. Any developers who wish to make plugins are welcome and encouraged to create tools that inter-operate with the components we are providing. We hope to see a diverse ecosystem of renderers that can create Cryptomatte images and plugins for compositing applications to decode them.

Cryptomatte is licenced using the BSD 3-clause license. See license.txt.

Version 1.4.0 See changelog for version history.

Repo Contents

The contents of this repository are:

Nuke: This contains Python files, an image, and a gizmo. Together these are our implementation for Foundry's Nuke. In Nuke 13, there is also a native implementation which is similar to this one. This implementation is being kept active to allow for a smooth transition.

Fusion: Fusion integration, including a Fuse file, a Lua module and a Fusion shortcut configuration file.

Sample Images: These example Cryptomatte images can be used for testing your Nuke installation, or for testing other implimentations.

Specification: This is a technical document describing the Cryptomatte standard. It specifies how Cryptomattes are structured, encoded, and decoded. It also contains our SIGGRAPH 2015 poster on the subject.

Documentation

• Nuke Documentation - Installation, usage instructions, troubleshooting
• Fusion Documentation - Installation, usage instructions

Implementations

A list of released implementations and links:

Encoders:

• Isotropix Clarisse 3.5 (By Isotropix), Demo
• Chaos Group V-Ray 3.6 (By Chaos Group), 3DSMax demo, Maya demo, Nuke demo
• 3Delight for Katana and Maya 9.0
• Houdini 16.5 Mantra (By Sidefx), Demo
• Blender 2.8.0 Cycles (By Tangent Animation and Blender Foundation): Cryptomatte in Blender 2.8 Alpha 2! demo, Tutorial by Zacharias Reinhardt, Cycles for Animated Feature Film Production by Stefan Werner, Docs
• Blender 2.92 Eevee (By Jeroen Bakker and Blender Foundation)
• Pixar RenderMan 21.7, Docs
• LightWave 3D 2018 (DB&W EXRTrader plugin)
• Redshift 2.6.11
• Arnold 4 (AlShaders), by Jonah Friedman, Andy Jones, Anders Langlands.
• Arnold 5 (CryptomatteArnold) by Jonah Friedman, Andy Jones, Anders Langlands.
• Nuke 8+ "Encryptomatte", by Andy Jones. In this repo.
• Appleseed 2.1.0 by Sergo Pogosyan, Jon Dent
• Autodesk VRed
• Otoy OctaneRender for Cinema4D
• Unreal Engine 4.26
• Unity Cryptomatte - Research Project By Daniel Schmuker at Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg
• Foundry Modo 14.2 mPath Renderer

Decoders:

• Nuke 8+, by Jonah Friedman, Andy Jones. In this repo.
• Foundry Nuke 13
• Fusion: by Cédric Duriau and Kristof Indeherberge at Grid. In this repo.
• Houdini 16.5 Compositor (By Sidefx), Demo
• Blender 2.8.0 Compositor (By Tangent Animation and Blender Foundation): Cryptomatte in Blender 2.8 Alpha 2! demo, Tutorial by Zacharias Reinhardt, Cycles for Animated Feature Film Production by Stefan Werner, Docs
• Autodesk Flame (Autodesk)
• Adobe After Effects (Fnordware ProEXR plugin 2.0)Ships with After Effects 2020
• Adobe Photoshop (EXR-IO 2)
• FilmLight Baselight v5
• Natron by Fahad Hasan Pathik and Fabrice Fernandez

Acknowledgements

• Anders Langlands
• Alon Gibli
• Jean-Francois Panisset
• Psyop
• Solid Angle
• All the members of the Cryptomatte Committee
• Benoit Leveau
• Cédric Duriau
• Kristof Indeherberge
• Vladimir Koylazov
• Peter Loveday
• Andrew Hazelden
• Jens Lindgren
• Rainer Trummer
• Veronica Tello
• Stephen Mackenzie