Linear workflow
I comp in linear space: there a pixel is proportional to the real amount of light, so adds, blur, defocus and motion blur behave the way they do in a camera, and bright highlights and CG in float aren’t clipped at 1.0.
Artem Andreev
I build shots nobody can tell were built.
- role
- Nuke compositorMiddle
- status
- Looking for a studio position · freelancing now
- location
- Lipetsk, Russia · Moscow time (UTC+3)
- age
- 29
- format
- Remote · open to business trips
Nuke compositor based in Lipetsk, Russia. Compositing since 2020; before that I shot, edited and made broadcast graphics for TV. I work in NukeX, manage colour in ACES 2.0 and do roto by hand. Films, series, music videos, commercials.
- compositing
- since 2020
- main tool
- NukeX
- colour
- ACES 2.0
- resolution
- up to 8K
Read · click a card to watch the full version with sound
Work
- plate · roto · paint
- colour and data
- CG · 3D
- pipeline
Read1klikklak_cafe_comp_v012
UE scene and lighting, render passes, keying, compositing
Read2cg_background_FINAL
3D set in Blender, keying, tracking, clean-up, finishing
Read3DZ_Int_Huawei_CG_BRKDWN
Keying, integration into plates and a phone screen, shadows, colour matching
Read4oni_v_nebe_9maya
Direction, environment, lighting, rendering, editing — all by me
Read5MT_room_exr_v009
Scene, lighting, rendering, compositing
Read6NewLevelSequence
Environment, lighting, compositing
Read7loginof_mascot_v003
3D modelling and texturing
Also credited on
Official videos on YouTube I worked on as part of the team.
- AJ Tracey — Friday Prayer YouTube ↗
feat. Headie One & Aitch. With the DETY CGI studio, together with Spirit View. Directed by Late Milk.
- Tommy Cash — OK YouTube ↗
Clean-up: removing everything that shouldn’t be in the frame. Work that’s meant to be invisible.
Who I’ve worked with
- creators and artists
- Ruslan Usachev
- Eldar Dzharakhov
- Andrey Stary
- Nikita Nikitin
- Alina Pyazok
- Stas Ernik
- Marko Krasso
- Oliver Tree
- Little Big
- Tommy Cash
- AJ Tracey
- NBA YoungBoy
- production companies
- Dokino Studio
- KlikKlak
- KoalaFX
- Legio Felix
- VK
- STS
- NTV
- NLMK
- projects
- Films and series (mostly), sometimes commercials and music videos.
- tasks
- Roto, clean-up, compositing, CG integration, pipeline for other compositors.
- collective
- I collaborate with the DETY CGI studio (dety.team, Moscow).
Grade1 · the technical part
How I work
// why technical shots are safe with me
I came to compositing from behind the camera: for years I shot, lit and edited. So I look at a frame like a camera operator — which lens, where the light source is, how the sensor behaves — and make sure every added layer obeys the same optics and the same light as the plate.
When the obvious route fails, I look for the non-obvious one.
Colour and data Backdrop1
ACES 2.0 / ACEScg
My whole pipeline runs on ACES. Footage from different cameras and colour spaces goes to one standard and is delivered in whatever space the client needs, without distortion.
- cameras · plates
- ACEScg
- client’s colour space
EXR
My main format for internal stages.
- compression
- internal —
ZIP, lossless; for delivery —DWAA 45on request - bit depth
16/32-bit floatwhen the shot has bright sources or CG- CG
- multichannel from Unreal and Blender
- review
ProRes— for review and hand-off
Metadata
From camera metadata I take the sensor, lens, focal length and aperture — for tracking and lens distortion.
I never touch timecode or shot length, so the shot drops back into the edit without offsets.
Plate Backdrop2
Roto by hand
It’s on every shot, even when only keying was asked for. AI roto is only for rough previews.
Multi-pass keying
Clean plate → base key in IBK → Keylight / Primatte / Ultimatte passes for core and edges → combine → despill through an edge matte and recolouring → match levels and colour to the background.
Prep and paint
Removing markers, rigs and debris, stabilisation, rebuilding texture (including skin under markers), clean plates.
Tracking
2D and planar — in Nuke and Mocha Pro on almost every project. 3D camera — in Nuke (both the classic and the new 3D system), previously PFTrack. 3DEqualizer is next on my list.
Lens distortion
Undistort / redistort from lens grids and STMaps, overscan — so there are no empty edges after redistortion.
Grain
Denoise → comp → grain restored with DasGrain.
Optics
I match defocus, motion blur and chromatic aberration to the characteristics of the plate’s lens.
← the graph scrolls →
CG integration Backdrop3
Passes and what they’re for
- rgbdiffusebeauty rebuild
- ZZ-depthcorrect defocus
- PPositionmattes in 3D space
- NNormalslight relighting
- MVMotion vectorsmotion blur in comp
- IDCryptomattefast, clean mattes
Renderers
- Redshift
- Cycles
- Octane
- Unreal Engine
3D in Nuke
The new 3D system, camera projection, ScanlineRender.
Matte painting on a tracked camera: I cut a stadium from a single image into pieces and placed them in space to keep the parallax.
Nuke and automation Backdrop4
NukeX, set up my way
My own menu.py / init.py, scripts that auto-name things from project files, my own gizmos.
My own plugins
I write Nuke plugins with AI assistants. Right now I’m finishing CueWave — audio right inside Nuke, to sync CG to a finished soundtrack (more below, in “Tools”).
Favourite tools
- OpticalLightWrap
- DasGrain
Currently learning CopyCat.
AI
A helper that speeds the work up, not something that does it for me.
Keeping projects in order Backdrop5
Structure and naming
My own folder structure and naming. No file ever gets lost.
project_scene_shot_stage_version
Studio pipelines — ShotGrid. For my own projects — my own platform, Gridman.
Process
- estimate shots and deadlines
- folders and pipeline
- project setup
- comp
- client review
- notes
- final render in the required format
- delivery (usually FTP)
Case under NDA · no video, so here’s a diagram
Hardest shot: the cockpit window
The camera pulls back from the cockpit window of an aircraft in flight. A real plane was filmed, but only its cockpit windows had to stay — everything else had to be replaced with a 3D model of a different aircraft.
// problems
- #1There was no instrument panel in the cockpit.
- #2The sun in the plate was in the wrong place.
- #3 · the big oneAfter tracking it turned out that the real aircraft’s skin between the windows was pushed inwards. The 3D model physically didn’t match the plate — everything slid.
// solution
- track_windowsTrack the windows separately
- stabilizeStabilise
- project_3dTurn them into a 3D projection
- cg_planeFit them into the CG aircraft’s geometry
- light_integrationLighting and integration
- WriteDelivered on a tight deadline, approved by the client
NoOp1 · self-assessment, scale 0–4
Skills
- 0haven’t touched
- 1familiar, learning
- 2used on projects
- 3confident
- 4deep, can teach
Plate
9 skills- Roto: 4 of 4 — deep, can teach
- Paint / clean-up / clean plate: 4 of 4 — deep, can teach
- 2D and planar tracking: 4 of 4 — deep, can teach
- Keying / despill: 3 of 4 — confident
- 3D camera tracking: 3 of 4 — confident
- Grain management: 3 of 4 — confident
- Defocus / motion blur / optics: 3 of 4 — confident
- Lens distortion / STMap: 2 of 4 — used on projects
- Retime / optical flow: 2 of 4 — used on projects
Colour and data
3 skills- Linear workflow / colour science: 3 of 4 — confident
- ACES / OCIO: 3 of 4 — confident
- Multichannel EXR / AOV: 3 of 4 — confident
CG integration
7 skills- CG integration: 3 of 4 — confident
- Cryptomatte: 3 of 4 — confident
- Camera projection / 3D in Nuke: 2 of 4 — used on projects
- Beauty rebuild from passes: 2 of 4 — used on projects
- Relighting with Normals / Position: 2 of 4 — used on projects
- Set extension / DMP: 1 of 4 — familiar, learning
- Deep compositing: 1 of 4 — familiar, learning
Tech and pipeline
6 skills- Pipeline (ShotGrid): 3 of 4 — confident
- Python for Nuke: 2 of 4 — used on projects
- Own gizmos and tools: 2 of 4 — used on projects
- Optimising heavy scripts: 2 of 4 — used on projects
- BlinkScript: 1 of 4 — familiar, learning
- CopyCat / ML: 1 of 4 — familiar, learning
FrameRange1 · 2015 → now
Software
Since when I’ve used it and how well.
Compositing
NukeXmain tool
since late 2025
After Effectsexpert
since 2018
Mocha Proconfident
since 2020
PFTrackbasic
no datesearlier, before 3D tracking in Nuke
3D and CG
Unreal Engineconfident for CG scenes
since 2023
Blenderworking
since 2023
Editing and colour
DaVinci Resolveworking
since 2024
Premiere Proconfident
2016–2025
Graphics
Photoshopconfident
since 2015
Illustratorworking
since 2023
Pipeline and code
ShotGridworking
since 2024
Claude Codeworking
since 2025
Gitworking
since 2025
After Effects → NukeX
Why I moved from layers to nodes
I’d been in After Effects since 2018: motion first, compositing from 2020. By 2025 the projects had outgrown AE: grain in 32-bit and complex comps were held together by workarounds. Even a black background is simply no data in Nuke, while in AE you have to remove it separately.
At the end of 2025 I started Nuke with the ARGUNOV.SCHOOL lessons. Three months later I was using it on real projects, and in 2026 I switched completely. At first I downloaded other people’s gizmos; half a year later I started building my own — they fit my work better.
The hardest part was switching to technical, mathematical thinking. What Nuke gave me most is nodes: change one value and the whole chain recalculates — no digging through layers. And stability.
After Effects stays for complex motion work and for finishing other people’s AE projects.
- 1Adjustment · grade
- 2Precomp · grain32 bpc
- ↳Precomp · assemblyworkaround
- 3Solid · black BGhack
- 4Precomp · key
- 5plate
Gizmos · coding with AI — on top of the main job
Tools I’ve built
I build tools to remove the routine and the mistakes that eat deadlines.
- Gridman
A project manager for VFX and CGI: shots, versions, a review player with ACES presets, frame-accurate notes. Plugins for Nuke, After Effects, Blender and DaVinci Resolve. From Nuke — a shot panel, publishing a render as a version straight from the Write node, notes that jump to the right frame.
gridman.pro ↗ - Gridman Tools
A desktop app: renaming, project checks, transcoding.
gridman.pro/tools ↗ - CueWave
A Nuke plugin: audio and syncing CG to a soundtrack. In development.
~90%
- This site
Built with Claude Code — like a Nuke script: sections are nodes, navigation is the graph. With its own admin panel and a private section for NDA work.
AppendClip1 · from DJ to NukeX
Path
Self-taught in VFX: articles, books, videos. Each node is what led to the next one.
- Early years
DJ → sound engineer → photographer → videographer
Video is where I stayed.
2019 · LSPU University · Lipetsk State Pedagogical University
Founded and ran the student TV channel
First STV LSPU, then just STV; after I left it became MEDIAKUB. Bachelor’s and master’s degrees (2019) in social work.
2019–2022 Lipetskoe Vremya TV channel
VFX and motion design at a TV channel
Channel branding, live broadcast graphics, a system that sped up graphics work for editors; towards the end — directing and producing promos.
- 2020
Started compositing
“Digital design basics” course (Netology).
- 2021 →
Freelance compositing artist
Since 2021 and to this day.
2021–2023 Lipetsk Cultural Spaces
Motion design, shooting and editing
Years with a camera in hand — that’s where my camera operator’s eye comes from.
- 2022
First big project
A space series for a TV channel (under NDA, never released).
- 2023–2024
Films, series, music videos
In 2023 I picked up Unreal Engine and Blender, in 2024 — ShotGrid and DaVinci Resolve. That’s also when I first looked at Nuke.
- 2025
Taught at MediaLab
For three months I taught a video production basics course at a social media production school. The course ended with commercials the students shot themselves.
- late 2025
Started Nuke
With the ARGUNOV.SCHOOL lessons.
2026 · now Now
Fully in NukeX
Gridman, CueWave. Looking for a studio position — remote, or on-site when the job needs it.
StickyNote · a person, not a résumé
About me
Music
My own project, NHP. I started out as a DJ.
Hands
Soldered my own smart home on ESP32, know my way around wiring and car repair. What I don’t know, I pick up fast.
Films
Almost every evening. Favourite — the first Iron Man, for the realism of its visuals. Also the first Transformers films, The Physician and Peculiarities of the National Hunt.
Off the clock
Playing The Witcher 3, reading the Strugatsky brothers (Monday Begins on Saturday), walks in the park.
As a colleague
- Attention to detail — a bit of technical pedantry, but in moderation and where it matters.
- I can explain things: I taught a three-month video production course at MediaLab.
- Fast, but quality comes first.
- I can make the call on a shot myself when there’s no feedback and the deadline is now.
- Languages: Russian — native; English — technical: I read software UI and documentation.
Write1 · get in touch
Contacts
Telegram is the fastest way to reach me. Available 10:00–19:00 Moscow time (UTC+3).
- file
- t.me/metraveer
- hello@metraveer.com
- channel
- t.me/metraveer_cg — my work
- GitHub
- github.com/metraveer
- metraveer
- Gridman
- gridman.pro/artist/metraveer
- CV
- rate
- on request
- format
- remote; open to business trips and on-site work