Grey blockout in,
rendered shot out

A few experiments built end to end inside Nuke. Each one shows the rough 3D blockout, the shot it became, the exact prompts, and the Nuke script you can open yourself. The pattern is always the same: your 3D move carries the camera, AI carries the look.

Experiment 01

Night city, armored truck, one continuous take

An 8-second tracking shot: an armored truck drives past a lone bystander under a viaduct, a city glowing on the horizon. Built as a grey 3D blockout in Nuke, then rendered inside the node graph with native audio. An experiment in driving a full shot from a rough previs.

Before / blockout
After / rendered in Nuke

Stage 1 - block it out in 3D

The whole shot is blocked out with simple 3D shapes in Nuke: a boxy stand-in truck, the street and viaduct, a night light rig, and one continuous camera move. Nuke renders that grey animation out. It is not pretty yet, but it locks the exact camera move and timing.

Stage 2 - render it with AI

A GPT Image 2 node repaints one blockout frame into the look you are after (the hero close pass). Then a Seedance 2.0 node runs in reference mode: the grey animation drives all motion through the Reference video input, and three stills wired to the Ref inputs teach the look (the start and end anchors and the hero side pass). Every frame renders with matching engine audio.

The exact prompts

GPT Image 2 - the style frameShow prompt
Restyle image 1 into a photorealistic night city frame. Composition, framing, orientation AND background staging come ONLY from image 1. The truck's design and proportions come from image 2. Image 3 gives the night color palette only. The side-panel logo is the exact weathered mark in image 4.
{
  "ref_authority": {
    "image_1": "the ONLY authority for composition, camera angle, framing, orientation and BACKGROUND STAGING. Close side-on pass: the armored truck fills the frame edge-to-edge, REAR with red taillight at the LEFT edge, NOSE with lit headlight at the RIGHT edge. Behind the truck: continuous dark concrete viaduct pillars and wall across the ENTIRE width of frame. Do NOT pull the camera back, do NOT make a wide shot, do NOT flip or mirror.",
    "image_2": "the truck's DESIGN AND PROPORTIONS, shown at the CORRECT ratio: total length approximately 2.2x total height, tall boxy slab body. Match this silhouette exactly - riveted steel panels, hinged side door, armored window with visor, short sloped hood, amber cab marker lights, roof vent, black steel wheels, tall vertical red taillight strip. Do NOT make the truck longer or lower than image 2. If in doubt, err SHORTER and TALLER, never longer.",
    "image_3": "night COLOR PALETTE ONLY: sodium warmth, neon tints, wet-asphalt reflection quality. Do NOT copy its framing, its skyline, or its bystander. This frame contains NO people and NO skyline.",
    "image_4": "the weathered VFX ENGINE logo, reproduced exactly as shown, weathered, clearly legible, large on the truck's side panel. This is the ONLY marking or text anywhere in the frame."
  },
  "background": "continuous massive dark concrete viaduct pillars and wall directly behind the truck for the FULL width of the frame, matching image 1. NO skyline, NO distant city, NO sky, NO gap or opening in the background anywhere.",
  "truck": {
    "identity": "armored cash-transport truck exactly as in image 2, matte armored charcoal #2A2D33",
    "travel": "driving left to right at speed: nose at frame RIGHT, rear at frame LEFT, side panel with the logo facing the camera, wheels grounded on wet asphalt"
  },
  "pop_package": {
    "rim_light": "thin cyan #3CC8FF rim light tracing the roofline, rear edge and wheel arches, separating the dark body from the dark wall",
    "backdrop": "warm sodium-lit pool of light #FFB43C on the road and on the concrete wall BEHIND the truck so its dark silhouette reads clearly against it",
    "atmosphere": "light urban haze catching the light beams, subtle, not foggy"
  },
  "no_add": "do NOT add people, vehicles, signs, text, windows, doorways or any objects not present in image 1. The background is concrete pillars and wall only - nothing may be invented there beyond concrete surface detail.",
  "exposure": "night scene stays dark, blacks stay black, no daylight brightening; headlight and lamp glow moderate, the truck body NOT overexposed, logo readable"
}
Seedance 2.0 - the videoShow prompt
Photorealistic night city, one continuous 8-second take. An armored cash-transport truck drives from LEFT to RIGHT, passing under a concrete viaduct while a lone bystander turns to watch it pass. Keep the exact camera motion, truck path, timing and framing of the source video - restyle only. Do not flip or mirror; the truck always travels left to right.

Identity: the truck, the scene, the bystander and the weathered VFX ENGINE side-panel logo must match the reference images exactly - matte charcoal riveted armor, slat grille, short hood, amber cab markers, spare tire on the tailgate, tall vertical red taillight strips. The logo stays legible as the truck passes.

Living world: the distant metropolis burns quietly - fire glow on the horizon flickers and pulses, thick smoke columns drift slowly across the skyline, scattered lit windows in the dark towers. Light haze hangs in the air and drifts through the sodium light pools; the beams shift subtly as the atmosphere moves. Neon and sodium reflections shimmer and break on the wet asphalt as the camera moves.

Background continuity: the burning metropolis skyline sits on the horizon for the ENTIRE take - whenever any part of the background is visible, the same dense towers, fires and smoke columns are there. The skyline NEVER appears, disappears, fades in, or changes layout at any point in the shot.

Truck in motion: wheels visibly rotating, body riding with subtle suspension movement over the road, headlight beams sweeping across the concrete pillars as it passes, fine mist kicked up from the tires, red taillight reflections trailing on the wet road.

Close pass: at mid-shot the truck passes VERY CLOSE to camera exactly as in the source video - its armored side panel and the weathered logo fill the frame at the closest point, matching the middle reference image's scale and detail.

Bystander: turns naturally to track the truck as in the source video, jacket and hood stirring slightly in the truck's wake, face never toward camera.

Look: cinematic 24 fps motion blur, night stays dark, blacks stay black, no daylight brightening, headlights and taillights at moderate glow - nothing blooms out. No falling rain - wet ground only, matching the references. Do not add people, vehicles, signs or text; the logo is the only marking anywhere.
Anchors: the FIRST frame of the video must match the start image EXACTLY - the truck begins DISTANT and small, one-fifth of the frame width, headlights on, bystander mid-ground frame-right. The LAST frame must match the end image EXACTLY - rear 3/4 of the truck receding small at frame center-left, taillights lit. Everything between flows continuously from the source video's motion.
Audio: heavy diesel engine approaching from the left, rising then passing with natural doppler as the truck goes by, tires hissing on wet asphalt, air brakes releasing a soft hiss as it recedes. Under it: the low distant rumble of a troubled city, one faint far-off siren, wind moving under the concrete viaduct. No music, no voices, no sudden stingers.

Wired in Nuke as: blockout render to the Reference video input, three look references to Ref 1-3, 8 seconds, 720p, audio on.

Download the projectVE_suv_night_project.zip
Experiment 02

Hero car on a grungy city street

A 4-second orbit-and-push around a sun-faded orange muscle coupe in a daytime back-street. Same idea as the other experiment: a grey 3D previs in Nuke carries the camera move, AI carries the look.

Before / blockout
After / rendered in Nuke

Stage 1 - block it out in 3D

A boxy car proxy, a street with buildings and props, a daytime light rig, and an orbit-plus-push camera are blocked out in Nuke and rendered to a short grey driving clip.

Stage 2 - render it with AI

A GPT Image 2 node repaints a blockout frame into a rendered plate that locks the car look, color, and grime. A Seedance 2.0 node then restyles the whole clip: the driving video carries the camera and motion, the style frame carries the look.

The exact prompts

GPT Image 2 - the style frameShow prompt
Repaint this previs frame as a photoreal plate: late-1960s burnt-orange fastback muscle coupe (#B5552A), oxidized matte clearcoat, road grime and rust; grungy daytime industrial back-street, soot-stained brick, wet asphalt, dumpster; ARRI Alexa Mini LF, 35mm Cooke S4 T2.0, Kodak Vision3 250D.
Seedance 2.0 - the videoShow prompt
Re-render the orbit as a photoreal cinematic shot: the driving video carries the camera and motion, the style frame carries the look. Preserve timing; muted desaturated grade with the orange car the single saturated hero.

Wired in Nuke as: the painted style frame to First frame, the blockout orbit to the Reference video input, 4 seconds, 720p.

Download the projectVE_car_city_project.zip

About these projects

Each download is the real Nuke project: the script with the VFX Engine nodes wired up and the prompts filled in exactly as shown, plus every piece of media it references: the grey blockout, the style frames, the accepted AI takes, and the finished shot. Movie footage ships as QuickTime (.mp4) rather than frame sequences to keep the download light; stills are PNG. Unzip it anywhere, open the script, and every Read resolves: press play. These are experiments, not polished deliverables. Re-rendering the 3D blockout needs only Nuke; generating your own version of any AI pass needs the plugin installed and a VFX Engine account with credits.

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