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Adding Saved Settings from the File System
TIP: If you drop a setting directly onto a connection line, the new node will be inserted onto that connection.
TIP: If you drop a setting directly onto a connection line, the new node will be inserted onto that connection.
TIP: If you drop a setting directly onto a connection line, the new node will be inserted onto that connection.
Saved settings in your File system can also be used to create new nodes by dragging the .setting file into the Node Editor from a standard file browser. Once dropped, that setting turns into a new node.
Node Modes Including Disable and Lock
Right-clicking one or more nodes and opening the contextual menu reveals a series of commands in the Modes submenu, some with accompanying keyboard shortcuts, that let you set control visibility, disable, lock, update, and cache nodes.
— Show Controls: Sets whether that node reveals its parameters in the Inspector when it’s selected and whether its onscreen controls appear in viewers. On by default.
— Pass Through: (Command-P) Identical to the toggle switch in the Inspector that turns nodes off and on. Disabled nodes are ignored as image data is passed from the next previous upstream node to the next downstream node. On by default.
— Locked: (Command-L) Identical to the lock button in the Inspector that prevents a node from being edited in the Inspector. Off by default.
— Update: (Command-U) On by default. While this option is enabled, all changes to the node will cause it to re-render. When Update is disabled, you can still change the node’s parameters, but those changes will not process or update the image until Update is re-enabled. While disabled, the last processed image for that node will be displayed as a freeze frame. One example of when this is useful is when you have a large or processor-intensive composition (such as a particularly intense particle system), and disabling this option temporarily will let you quickly make several quick parameter adjustments to different nodes without forcing you to wait for the node tree to re-render after every adjustment. Another example of when this is useful is when you want to quickly see the effect of animated downstream nodes while keeping upstream nodes that are too processor-intensive to play in real time from rendering additional frames.
— Force Cache: When enabled, this node’s output for the current frame has an extremely high cache priority, essentially forcing it to stay cached in memory. Off by default.
Toggling any one of these node modes displays a badge within that node indicating its state.