NODALT
Node-based compositing software for Mac · Private beta NODALT
Made by an artist, for artists.
Built with the community.
AI models · local, free and paid
Today's best models, plugged in like effects.
FLUX.2, Depth Anything, Real-ESRGAN or Wan run locally on your Mac, for free. Nano Banana, Kling, Seedance, Veo or Topaz go through the cloud, at cost, with the price shown under the node before every render. All of them plug in like any other effect: composite, alpha, masks, depth blur.
Cool ring: free, local on your Mac · warm ring: paid, cost and destination shown · confidential mode: anything that would leave the Mac is switched off.
The story
I retouch fashion and beauty films in Paris. A year ago, I started building the tool I was missing.
Nodalt is a year of development, shot after shot. A native Mac node-based compositing app, designed like high-end tools — a node graph, Source, Background and Mask inputs, a cache, viewer shortcuts — without a dedicated workstation or an outrageous license, and with AI where it truly saves time.
Every tool was born from a real shot: skin to retouch without losing its grain, a passer-by to erase, hair to key on a badly lit green screen. If a tool can't hold up on a 4K commercial shot, it isn't in Nodalt.
— Owen, Visualt
Who it's for
For graphic artists, motion designers, compositors and retouchers.
Every effect is a circle, you link them with wires, and the image flows from one to the next: that's it. Node-software regulars feel at home right away; everyone else is guided by the built-in help, which answers even offline.
What Nodalt does
TRACK
Face Reshape · Point Tracker · AI
On a face, Nodalt lays down a 478-point mesh that follows every expression, frame by frame, even when the head turns. Paint, masks and warps — slim, lift, plump — stay glued to the skin, without a single keyframe. On the rest of the image, the Point Tracker follows hundreds of details.
PAINT
Beauty Paint · Beauty Zones · Face Reshape
A few brush strokes, anywhere on the face: forehead, cheeks, nose, jaw. AI removes the blemish and rebuilds the skin's grain instead of smoothing it like plastic. Thanks to tracking, every stroke stays glued to the face for the whole shot.
KEY
AI Keyer · Body Matte · Composite
On green screen, the AI keyer keeps every braid; the Body Matte recovers the whole body. Combined in a Composite, they place the silhouette on another image, with no holes and no green edges.
ERASE
AI Fill · AI Object
Type “person”: Nodalt finds the walker and his pole, cuts them out and rebuilds the landscape behind. The salt, the mountains, the light: nothing gives the retouch away.
EDIT
Film mode · Cut detection · Timeline
Import an edited film: Nodalt finds the cuts and puts every shot in its own world. You retouch shot by shot, the timeline keeps the film in order, and the finished film comes out in one piece.
COMPOSITE
Graph · Composite · Mattes
Two shots, a keyer, a Body Matte, a blurred background, a Composite and a grade on top: every step is a node, every wire can be cut and reconnected. Each node takes on the colors of the shot it works on, so you read the tree at a glance.
Before / after · drag
Beauty Paint: blemishes and dark circles removed, eyes and brows protected automatically, the skin's grain kept. Five brush strokes, tracked across the whole shot.
Community-built software
Tomorrow's nodes will be yours.
With the Node Creator, you describe an effect in one sentence and AI writes the node for you. You tune it, keep it, and share it on the forum as a simple .nodalt file. Others download it, improve it, share it in turn — and no node ever overwrites another: every improvement is a new version.
Nodalt isn't finished software, and that's on purpose. Over time, the community's feedback and nodes will give it a dimension no studio could build alone.
1 · Describe
“A film grain that breathes more in the shadows.” AI writes the node.
2 · Tune
Sliders, inputs, live preview: the node becomes yours.
3 · Share
One .nodalt file on the forum. The community uses it, and improves it.
AI, differently
AI doesn't replace the craft. It makes it faster.
For a year, many models were tested on real production shots: 4K ProRes, extreme skin close-ups, hair on difficult backgrounds. Those that flickered from frame to frame, smoothed skin like plastic or came with a closed license were dropped. The ones that remain became simple nodes.
Local, on your Mac
Models run locally, on your Mac's chip. Your images go nowhere.
Open
Open source only, under MIT, Apache or BSD licenses: SAM 2.1, TAPNext++, RAFT, ViTMatte, MediaPipe, Grounding DINO, LaMa, FLUX.2 [klein]…
Adjustable
AI builds masks, tracking points and motion vectors. You stay in control of every setting, like on any other node.
Confidential
A project under NDA? Confidential mode switches off anything that could leave the Mac. Online models are optional and show their cost and destination before every render.
Private beta
Two months free. Your feedback in return.
Apple silicon Mac · macOS 14 or later · 7 MB .dmg file · how to install
What’s new in beta 0.9.8 · earlier versions
Beta 0.9.8 · Oct 22, 2026
- Hair: Flyaway Cleanup removes flyaway strands over a soft background, the subject protected by its Body Matte; Strand Eraser erases one hair at a time, drawn as a spline, the texture of both edges brought together without blur.
- Background Fill: a matte's area rebuilt with the surrounding background (light and folds carried on, no blur), to recut with the Body Matte afterwards.
- Beauty, Beauty Paint and Beauty Zones: Clean edges option, no more dark rim at the matte's edge.
- Curve editor: the Shape Mask's track points (X / Y, one point per frame) — smooth, delete, correct by hand.
- New Median node, Blur with separate X and Y sizes, ⌘C / ⌘V of nodes from one world to another.
Beta 0.9.7 · Oct 19, 2026
- Face Unfold / Face Refold: the facial skin laid flat and still; a retouch or a mask done once follows the face through the whole shot, expressions included.
- Learned Retouch: retouch 2 or 3 frames, the AI learns the retouch and repeats it on the whole shot, locally.
- Timeline: Extend frame with AI fills the empty bars of a reframed shot (16:9 in a 9:16 sequence…) with a set generated locally.
- Smoother playback: the retouch stays visible while playing (Body Matte, Hair Matte and Denoise computed over the whole shot first), faster AI mattes, big projects open faster.
- Precise (AI) tracking: the mask follows the picture live, frame by frame, with no lag.
Beta 0.9.6 · Oct 18, 2026
- Renders match the source: original resolution (up to 8K), same ProRes, 12-bit, colours and timecode kept.
- The world LUT is applied to the camera's real values: the viewer and the render are identical.
- Shape Mask: Key here animates the shape on top of the track, with auto key (can be switched off).
- Beauty Zones: retouching stays on facial skin (AI), hair and hands left out automatically; eye-corner and upper-lid zones; lying or tilted faces detected.
- World versions: ⌥⌘I keeps the current version and moves on to the next (V1, V2…), back in one click.
Beta 0.9.2 → 0.9.5 · Oct 16, 2026
- First public betas: .dmg install with its guide, blank app on first launch.
- Nodalt account: sign-in with a code sent by e-mail (password optional), forum linked to the app account.
Download
Apple silicon Mac (M1 or later), macOS 14 or later. The app weighs 6 MB: AI packs install later, whenever you choose.
Activate
Enter your email, receive a one-time code: Nodalt is yours for two months.
Tell us everything
The Feedback button, at the bottom of the app, sends your note with a screenshot you can annotate. At the end, a two-minute survey decides what comes next.
Install in two minutes
Why does macOS show a warning?
Nodalt is a private beta: it isn't published or validated (notarized) by Apple yet; that will come with the public release. Until then, macOS shows ““Nodalt” Not Opened” for any app downloaded from a browser that Apple hasn't checked yet. It isn't a virus: the app is just too new for Apple. You confirm the launch once:
1 · Move
Open the downloaded .dmg file and drag Nodalt into Applications.
2 · Open
Double-click Nodalt. macOS shows ““Nodalt” Not Opened”: click Done (not “Move to Trash”).
3 · Allow
System Settings › Privacy & Security: at the very bottom, Open Anyway, then your password.
4 · Activate
Enter your email and the code you receive (it only works once). You then stay signed in, forum included.
Advanced install: one line in Terminal, no warning
curl -fsSL https://nodalt.visualt.fr/install | bashWhat Terminal downloads isn't flagged by macOS: Nodalt opens with no warning. The line downloads the official beta, checks its fingerprint (SHA-256), puts it in Applications and opens it. Open Terminal (⌘ Space, “Terminal”), paste the line, press Return. Read the script.
Trouble installing? Post in the Questions section of the forum.
Previous version: beta 0.9.7 · 7 MB .dmg