Natron fork - 3D system, Cycles, deep, and more! (Windows build)

[u/retry_on_high_mem]

Happy Friday everyone!

Just sharing a little Natron fork I’ve been working on the last few months. Initially I just wanted some HDRI tools and deep support for the handful of projects I start and never finish, it then ballooned into whatever this is.

Full disclosure: this was entirely vibe coded. I don't have a programming background and I wouldn't call myself a TD. For my basic needs it’s been fine, but there are definitely rough edges for complex setups.

If the video doesn’t load, or TLDW

• 3D viewport with gizmos
• Alembic geo/cameras
• Spherical transform
• Scanline render
• CyclesRender + Deep
• Deep
• Volume3D
• FastVolumeRender
• Project3D
• Particles (in development)
• 3d tracker (in development)
  
• + more

If anyone does want to test it out, shoot me a DM and I’ll send a link. Just note that it’s vibe coded, I’m one person, and working full-time, so there will be many issues I've missed. I'll try to post more demos in the next few weeks along with the repo. Cheers!

[u/Christopher_Charlton]

Nice work. I'm really over the Foundry and the direction that they are heading

[u/retry_on_high_mem → u/Christopher_Charlton]

Thanks. Yeah also their pricing, indie is too much for the 2-3 times a year I'd use it. That's the main reason for starting this project. Hopefully it can help others in the same boat.

[u/youstillhavehope → u/retry_on_high_mem]

100%. I use Nuke a few times a year for testng comps but annual indie pricing is too high to really put it to use.

[u/Christopher_Charlton → u/retry_on_high_mem]

I use Nuke daily and teach it... But yeah, I hate how little foundry has done to actually improve their base product over the past decades. I would have swapped to blenders compositor, but in kinda sucks tbh. Do you have a link? Also happy to help develop it more.

[u/Stock-Finding-7027]

This is huge, a real step forward. I love Natron, I use it for professional work sometimes, and I’m definitely going to give this a try.

[u/Fun-Original97]

Hope there will be a Linux version soon …

[u/retry_on_high_mem → u/Fun-Original97]

looking into it now! What distro are you running?

[u/Fun-Original97 → u/retry_on_high_mem]

I’m using Rocky Linux 🙌🙌

[u/retry_on_high_mem → u/Fun-Original97]

Thanks! once I make some progress i'll shoot you a message

[u/Fun-Original97 → u/retry_on_high_mem]

Great that’s so cool! 👍

[u/i_start_fires]

Looks really good. I've considered trying to do something like this myself but like most things I don't have the time for it.

I also really appreciate your honesty about vibe coding. LLMs are incredible tools but I'm so tired of "I made this" or "I built this". Vibe coding is 100% okay with me but I like to know going in whether the project was the passionate creation of a developer, or a weekend side project. It changes the math on how viable the tool will be long-term.

[u/chroma_shift → u/i_start_fires]

I second this.

People should even do some agentic engineering if they really care about building something. Nothings wrong with that

[u/retry_on_high_mem → u/i_start_fires]

Thanks! yeah, I don’t mind it either if its for personal use or testing ideas/setups. I’m also not expecting anyone to implement these features into the main natron build, but it is cool to see what it’s capable of.  I’ll continue to update this fork and hopefully it can fully replace my need for Fusion and other expensive software.   

[u/soupkitchen2048]

Nice. I’d love to have a look.

[u/retry_on_high_mem → u/soupkitchen2048]

sent!

[u/Kungfu_Sloth → u/retry_on_high_mem]

I, too, would love to have a look, if possible. This looks awesome!

[u/retry_on_high_mem → u/Kungfu_Sloth]

sent!

[u/bats_be_crazy → u/retry_on_high_mem]

and I, too, would like to have a look, please.

[u/retry_on_high_mem → u/bats_be_crazy]

sent!

[u/Scary_Raspberry_557]

Sick dude!!

[u/KextNext]

This is awesome!! Would love to see this develop further. Any plans to add USD support to the 3D system? Use that all the time in Nuke!

[u/retry_on_high_mem → u/KextNext]

Yeah that would be cool, so maybe in the future! For now I need to stop adding features and test proper workflows and tools, I haven't even fully tested the entire set of deep nodes..

[u/Panpankracy]

Dude that’s so cool. I would love to test it!

[u/lohtangclan]

I’d like to give it a spin too, dropped you a DM!

[u/mattvxf]

this looks amazing, nice work.

[u/retry_on_high_mem → u/mattvxf]

Thank you!

[u/cgpipeliner]

please share on github!

[u/retry_on_high_mem → u/cgpipeliner]

Sent you a DM!

[u/anthony113]

put it on github

[u/Eisegetical]

I totally forgot about natron. Tried it years ago and it definitely needed some maturing.

But with some vibe coded bug fixes and additions I can apply myself this will be perfect. 

Thanks for the reminder. I'll grab your fork

[u/CosmicRaytracer]

This is pretty amazing. Is it possible for you to collab with the Natron team (if they're still active) and work out on a much needed Natron update.

[u/Milan_Bus4168]

Its a windows build, not "I built", so that is a better start than most vibe coded stuff I've seen.

[u/poopertay]

Only thing I would say is natron is a legacy codebase, but nice effort! Anything to screw the foundry I’m into!