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Documentation

Install Hoides Matte, make your first matte, and look up every control.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit)
• Nuke 15–17
• NVIDIA GPU with a current CUDA 12 driver
• ~5 GB free disk for the AI models

1. Install

1. Download the installer: Hoides_Matte_v1.0.exe
2. Run it. It installs the plugin, the AI models and the Nuke integration automatically.
3. Launch Nuke and press Tab → type Hoides Matte, or find it under the Hoides toolbar menu.

2. Make your first matte

1. Connect your plate to the node's Source input and open the Viewer.
2. In Objects & Prompts, turn on Draw Box and drag a box around your subject — or use Text Prompt, type something like car, and press Detect.
3. A matte appears instantly. Under Tracking, leave Mode on Anchored and press Play — the matte follows the subject across the shot.
4. Tidy the edges in Edge Refinement (Output Quality: Refined), then in Output set a folder and switch on Render to Disk to bake the mask sequence.

3. Free trial

The first time you add a Hoides Matte node, your 7-day free trial starts automatically — no key, no account, no card. It’s fully featured so you can test on real shots.

When the trial ends the node stops producing mattes — the output is replaced by a clearly-marked disabled frame until a licence key is entered. Your comp and object setup are untouched; activating a key restores everything instantly.

4. Activate your licence

After purchase you’ll receive a licence key by email. To activate:

1. Select your Hoides Matte node and open the Licence section in the properties panel.
2. Copy the Machine ID shown there (32 characters).
3. Paste your Licence Key into the field and press Activate.

The status changes to Licensed and mattes work again immediately. Activation stores the licence locally and is verified fully offline from then on — a good fit for firewalled facility machines. It only needs network access for that one activation call to api.hoides.com.

5. Move to another machine

Each seat is locked to one machine but transferable anytime. In the Licence section press Deactivate on the old machine, then activate with the same key on the new one. That frees the seat instantly.

Viewer controls & shortcuts

Objects are created and edited directly on the Nuke Viewer. These work whatever tool is active:

Action	How
Shift + drag	Draw a new box anywhere — no need to switch tools first
Shift + click	Add an Exclude point (pushes the matte out of that area)
Ctrl + click	Add an Include point (pulls the matte into that area)
Delete / Backspace	Delete the selected object
Click a box or point	Select it — handles appear for resizing
Drag a corner handle	Resize the box (re-runs from the current frame)

The violet OBJECTS panel in the top-right of the Viewer is interactive:

• Click the header to collapse or expand the list
• Click the eye on a row to hide/show that object’s matte
• Click the ✕ on a row to delete that object
• F1001 is the init frame; 1001 → 1067 is the tracked range

Property panel reference

Objects & Prompts

Control	What it does
Select / Move	Default tool — click to select, drag handles to resize
Draw Box	Drag on the Viewer to add a box object (up to 16)
Click Point	Click a subject to segment it from a single point
Include / Exclude Point	Correct a matte — add areas that were missed, or remove spill
Detail Level	How finely a point-click segments: Auto, Low, Medium, High
Text Prompt + Detect	Type an object name (“car”, “person”) and press Detect to find it automatically
Score Threshold	Minimum confidence for a text detection to be accepted (default 0.3). Raise it if you get false hits
IoU Threshold	How much two detections may overlap before they’re treated as the same object

Tracking

Control	What it does
Mode — Anchored	Memory stays keyed to the init frame. The stable default
Mode — Continuous	Re-initialises whenever you edit a box on a new frame
Region Mode	Combined: one region covering all objects (fastest). Separate: an independent region per object (best for objects far apart). Whole Frame: no cropping
Region Padding %	Context kept around the subject. More padding helps fast motion
Region Smoothing %	Damps region jitter between frames
Region Aspect Limit	Stops the region becoming extremely wide or tall
Boost Init Frame	Extra quality pass on the first frame, where the matte matters most
Fit Box to Mask	Snaps the box to the generated matte so it stays tight
Re-track on Edit	Re-runs tracking from the current frame when you move a box

Edge Refinement

Control	What it does
Output Quality	Refined: ViTMatte soft edges (hair, motion blur). Raw: the hard SAM mask — faster
Edge Model	Refinement model. ViTMatte in v1.0
Preview Edges	Shows the trimap so you can see the band being refined
Edge Pre-Blur	Softens the mask before the trimap is built — helps noisy edges
Trimap Erode / Dilate (px)	Sets the uncertain band: erode pulls the inner edge in, dilate pushes the outer edge out. Widen it for hair or heavy motion blur
Trimap Opacity	Blend between the refined and unrefined matte

View

Mode	Shows
Plate	Your source, untouched
Alpha	The matte as a black-and-white silhouette
Overlay	Coloured tint over the plate — one colour per object (default)
Premultiplied	Source × alpha — the cut-out subject
Stencil	Source × (1 − alpha) — everything except the subject
Trimap	The refinement band itself

Output (bake to disk)

Control	What it does
Render Masks to Disk	Switch on, then press Play — each frame is written as it renders
File Format	PNG (8-bit grey + alpha) or EXR (float)
32-bit float EXR	EXR only — otherwise 16-bit half
Filename Prefix	hoides_matte.#### — the #### becomes the frame number
Output Folder	Where the sequence is written. Open Output Folder reveals it

System

Control	What it does
Acceleration	CUDA is the default. TensorRT is roughly 2× faster after a one-time engine build per shape (cached afterwards)

Need help?

Email jayakumar@hoides.com with your Machine ID and order reference and we’ll sort it out.