Chapter 5: Nodes in the Worksheet

The Worksheet view is where you create and edit the flowchart of nodes that describes a shot, and it is also where you choose which node data to display and modify in the Image Viewer, Node Panel, and Curve Editor.

In This Chapter

Getting Around in the Worksheet

Creating and Connecting Nodes

Working with Nodes

Finding Nodes

Adding Nodes to the Custom Menu

Adding Underlays to the Worksheet

Building the Shot

The Worksheet includes a node menu strip that you can use to create any node you need, starting with one or more source nodes. Then you connect other nodes that represent the operations you wish to perform on the source imagery.

You can think of the image data as flowing downstream from the source nodes through the network, being modified along the way, until the modified imagery is ready to be rendered (written to disk as a series of image files). This means, for example, that when you composite two or more images, the separate flows of data merge at the composite node.

Changing the Shot

The node network is essentially a description of the image operations to perform, and the order in which to perform them. You can edit this description at any time and at any point in the node network. You can insert and delete nodes and change the order in which operations occur by changing the connections to and from the nodes.

 Node network in Worksheet.

Fig. 5.1 Node network in Worksheet.

Controlling the Contents of Other Views

In addition to editing the flowchart of nodes, the Worksheet is also used to specify the particular node you want to edit in other views, so that parameters for a node operation can be set in the Node Panel and the effect can be evaluated in the Image Viewer.

Click once on a node and release the mouse button to select it. The node will highlight and its data will be displayed in any Image Viewer, Node Panel, or Curve Editor in the current layout that has not been pinned. (A view that is pinned does not follow the current Worksheet selection. See Dynamic Focus in chapter 4 for more information.)

Getting Around in the Worksheet

The Worksheet offers an infinite viewspace. The current size of the view frame may not be large enough to view the entire node network at once; in fact, a very large network may not fit in the visible viewspace even when the Worksheet is maximized.

To make it easier to view and manipulate the current node network, you can drag the viewspace around under the view frame to bring a specific section into view, and you can zoom in and out.

Moving

There are several ways to move the viewspace around in the view frame:

Zooming

You can scale down the contents of the viewspace to see more of the node network at once:

Centering

The Center button in the lower left corner of the Worksheet is used to recenter the node network in the view frame. Click the button, or press the Backspace hotkey, and the network will snap to center.

Tip:

 

When you have zoomed out on the viewspace, press the Home hotkey to simultaneously recenter the contents and reset the scale to normal.

Worksheet Actions Menu

Click and hold down the right mouse button in the Worksheet to access the Worksheet Actions menu, which is used to cut, copy, paste, and delete nodes. Refer to Cut, Copy, and Paste and Deleting Nodes for more information about these commands.

Note:

 

To clone a node, use the Create Clone command in the Node Actions menu of that node. Clones are described in Creating Clones.

The Worksheet Actions menu is also used to access the node finder, as described in Finding Nodes. The Custom command in the Worksheet Actions menu is described in Adding Nodes to the Custom Menu.

About Group Nodes

The final command available in the Worksheet Actions menu, Create Group, can be used to place all selected nodes in a container node, called a Group node. This is a good way of organizing a large network into manageable sub-networks.

In addition, however, the Node Panel of a Group container can be customized to display relevant parameters from various nodes within the Group. (The Group node can even be saved to the Custom node menu for reuse.) Group nodes merit their own chapter in this manual: Chapter 22: Creating Group Nodes.

Creating and Connecting Nodes

You create a new node by selecting it from a menu in which all node operations are listed. The nodes are organized in categories according to general purpose: matte creation and editing, color correction, compositing, and so on. When you select a node from the menu list, a new node of that type is created and placed in the Worksheet.

The node menus are available in a menu strip in the Worksheet and in a popup menu. The popup menu can be accessed from multiple views and offers more control over how the new node is inserted into the network, as explained in the section on The Popup Node Menu. In fact, once you become familiar with the popup node menu, you may use it exclusively.

Tip:

 

You can even assign a hotkey to create any type of node you use frequently. For more information about assigning hotkeys to commands, see Hotkeys in chapter 13. For more shortcuts to node creation, see The Popup Node Menu.

The Node Menu Strip

Image showing the node menu strip in the Worksheet.

Fig. 5.2 The Node Menu strip includes the categorical node menus and the Import button (top left).

Click and hold one of the node menus in the strip at the top of the Worksheet to access a list of nodes in that category. For example, the Source node menu contains the Image In node, which is used to import image files into RAYZ, and other nodes, such as Color Bars and Gradient, that are used to generate images from scratch.

Note:

 

The node menu strip also includes the Import button, which is equivalent to using the Import Footage command (Ctrl-i) in the File menu. Import Footage is described in Chapter 10: Importing Images.

If a node is selected in the Worksheet when you create the new node, the new node's input is connected to the output of the previously selected node. If no node is selected, the new node is placed in the Worksheet unattached.

If the node menu strip is not visible, select it from the Tools menu in the title bar of the Worksheet. You can use this menu to turn the node menu strip on or off at any time. You may want to turn it off to save room in the Worksheet and use the popup menu instead.

Text-Only Node Menu Display

You can display a text-only node menu in the Worksheet to save space, in lieu of using the iconic node menu strip. The type of node menu display is a preference. To switch from icon to text display, select Edit > Preferences > Worksheet > Icon Node Menu, and change the value from On to Off.

Image showing the text-only node menu strip in the Worksheet.

Fig. 5.3 Node menu display can be set to text only in the Preferences panel.

For more information about using the Preferences panel, see Chapter 13: Setting Preferences.

The Popup Node Menu

You can create new nodes without using the node menu strip: hold down the Space bar and a popup version of the node menu will appear. The popup menu is context sensitive--the new node will be connected based on the position of the cursor (that is, based on the object being targeted by the cursor) when you access the menu.

Creating Multiple Nodes

You can create as many new nodes as you want while the popup node menu is visible. Just continue to hold down the Space bar after selecting the first node and then select as many additional nodes as you need. Each new node is placed in the Worksheet as soon as you select it from the menu and connected to the previous node automatically.

Guidelines for Adding Nodes to a Network

You can access the popup node menu with the cursor over a node, over a specific input connector, or over a connection line, and the new node will be inserted into the network accordingly:

Inserting a New Node into an Existing Dataflow

If the output connector of a target node is already connected to another node, the new node is inserted into the network between the target node and the next node downstream. If the target node has multiple connection lines branching from its output, the new node is inserted into the top branch.

Tip:

 

To insert a new node into a specific branch, target the appropriate connection line branching from the node instead of the node itself. The line will brighten when the cursor is over it to indicate that it is targeted.

Creating a New Branch

To start a new branch from the target node, hold down the Control key when you access the popup node menu. The Ctrl-Space bar option accesses the Branch menu, which is green to distinguish it from the regular, or Insert, menu.

When you select a node from the Branch node popup menu, it is connected to the output of the target node in a new branch.

Replacing a Node

To replace the target node with a new node of a different type, use the Shift modifier with the Space bar. Holding down Shift-Space bar accesses the Replace menu, which is blue to distinguish it from the Insert and Branch menus.

Any node you select from the Replace menu will replace the target node, with any connections to other nodes intact. For this reason, the Replace menu only includes nodes with the same number of connectors as the target.

Tip:

 

You can hold down the Space bar to access the popup node menu from the Image Viewer and Node Panel, too. In that case, the new node is appended to the node currently in the view. If you use the Control-key modifier, the new node starts a new branch, and if you use the Shift-key modifier the new node replaces the node in the view.

Connecting Nodes

As discussed in the previous section on The Popup Node Menu, node connections are often made automatically when you create a node. In any case, it is easy to make, change, and delete connections.

To connect one node to another, you drag one of the Input Connectors of a node to the Output Connector of another node and release the mouse button. (You can also drag the output connector of a node to an input connector of another node.)

Image showing two nodes being connected.

Fig. 5.4 A "ghost connector" appears under the cursor as you drag.

If you change your mind, just release the mouse button while the cursor is over the Worksheet instead of over a node.

Note:

 

To avoid infinite loops, RAYZ will not allow you to connect the output of a downstream node to an upstream input.

To delete a connection , Ctrl-click the connection line.

Image showing two nodes being disconnected.

Fig. 5.5 When you hold down the Control key and move the cursor over a line, the cursor changes to a scissors icon to indicate that clicking on the line will delete the connection.

To change a connection , drag the connection line from the input connector of one node to the output of another and release the mouse button.

Tip:

 

The RAYZ Status bar displays relevant information about any node or connection line you target with the cursor. Point the cursor at each connection line to a multi-input node such as Multi-comp to quickly sort out which line flows from which input node.

Input Connectors

When you create a new, unconnected node, you will see one or more input connectors hanging off the left side of it. The number of input connectors depends on the type of node.

The Image In node has no input connectors, because it is used to start a flow of image data. The Brightness node, on the other hand, has two inputs, one for the image to be brightened and an optional input to use for a mask. And a node like Multi-comp, which can accept an unlimited number of input images, generates a new input connector each time you use the last one.

Image showing examples of input connectors on nodes.

Fig. 5.6 Image In node has no input connector; Resize has an optional Reference input connector (R); Blur has an optional Mask input connector (M); and Multi-comp creates new Image input connectors (I) on the fly.

Input Types

In addition to the primary input image--the image being modified by the node operation--many nodes give you the option of connecting a mask input, which is used to control which pixels in the primary input are modified, and how much. (See also Using Mask Inputs in chapter 7.)

Some nodes accept both a mask input and another control image, in addition to the primary input. For example, the Ultimatte node enables you to input separate garbage and holdout mattes, and the Convolve node lets you input a mask image and a kernel image.

The node input connectors for these optional inputs are easy to distinguish because they are labeled differently: rather than being labeled "I," mask inputs are labeled "M," the Convolve kernel input connector is labeled "K," and so forth.

Position the cursor over any input connector to find out more about it; its purpose will be explained in the Status bar.

Output Connector

Regardless of the number of input connectors, all nodes have a single output connector, because the data can flow out of a node in as many directions (that is, create as many branches) as you need.

Image showing an example of node branching.

Fig. 5.7 Example of node image data branching out into separate flows.

The only exception would be any Group nodes for which you specify multiple output connections, where each output represents a different node within the group. For more information, see Chapter 22: Creating Group Nodes.

Working with Nodes

You can reposition any node in the Worksheet by dragging it. You can cut, copy, paste, clone, or delete a node by selecting the appropriate command from the Node Actions or Worksheet Actions popup menu or by using the hotkey equivalent. In the same way, you can display a thumbnail image of the node contents or turn a node off temporarily so that the image data passes through it unchanged. All of these options are described in the following paragraphs.

Node Actions Menu

Every node features a Node Actions popup menu. Commands in this menu affect only the individual node from which the menu was accessed. You can use the Node Actions menu to

Image showing the items in the Node Actions menu list.

Fig. 5.8 Typical example of items available in the Node Actions menu.

To access the Node Actions menu, click and hold down the right mouse button on the node. (The node does not actually have to be selected to use the menu, as explained below in "Manipulating a Node Without Selecting It.")

Commands accessed from the Worksheet Actions menu, on the other hand, affect all selected nodes. (The Worksheet Actions menu is accessed by right-holding in the Worksheet instead of on a node.)

Selecting Multiple Nodes

You can select multiple nodes to manipulate them as a unit. Shift-click to select multiple nodes, or drag a bounding box around them.

To deselect a node or nodes, you can click on another node to select it instead, or you can click anywhere in the background of the Worksheet so that no nodes are selected.

Manipulating a Node Without Selecting It

You can reposition a node, make node connections, and invoke any command in the Node Actions menu without actually selecting the node. This means that you can arrange and edit a node network in a number of ways without changing the current display in the Image Viewer and Node Panel, given the fact that node selection is the method used to control which node data is displayed in other views.

Note:

 

Whenever you want to apply the same action to multiple nodes at once, however, you will have to select the nodes.

To move a node without selecting it, simply drag it to a new location and release the mouse button. The drag action, where you click and hold down the mouse button as you move the mouse, is interpreted differently from a click. Of course, you can also drag a selected node to reposition it.

Just as you can move a node without selecting it, you can also invoke commands from the Node Actions menu without selecting the node: Right-click and hold down the mouse button to access the popup menu, drag through the menu until the command you want is highlighted, and then release the mouse button.

To use the hotkey for a command in the Node Actions menu, you need to indicate which node the command should apply to by targeting the node; that is, by positioning the cursor over the node. For example, if you press the p key you will toggle Pass Thru on or off for the targeted node.

Cut, Copy, and Paste

To cut or copy a single node or multiple nodes, select the node or nodes and then use the appropriate command in the Worksheet Actions menu (right-hold in the Worksheet to access).

You can also use the hotkeys: Ctrl-x to cut and Ctrl-c to copy. As long as the cursor is anywhere in the worksheet, these hotkeys apply to any and all selected nodes. (You cannot target an unselected node and cut or copy it.)

To paste a node or nodes, select the Paste command from the Worksheet Actions menu, or use the hotkey equivalent, which is Ctrl-v.

Deleting Nodes

Single Node

To delete a single node, target it in the Worksheet and press the Delete key. This is the equivalent of selecting the Delete Node command from the Node Actions menu. Be sure that the cursor is not over an unselected node at the time or the targeted node will be deleted instead.

Multiple Nodes

To delete multiple nodes simultaneously, select them and then use the Delete Nodes command in the Worksheet Actions menu (right-hold in the Worksheet to access). If the cursor is targeting one of the selected nodes and you use the Delete key, only the target node will be deleted; the other selected nodes will remain in the Worksheet.

Pinning a Node to a View

The Node Actions menu includes an "pin to" choice for every Node Panel, Image Viewer, and Curve Editor in the current layout. For example, you would select "pin to imageviewer1" to pin the node image to the Viewer named "imageviewer1" in the layout. This concept is explained fully in the section on Dynamic Focus in chapter 4.

Pinning a Node to a New View Window

In addition to pinning the node to an existing view in the current layout, you can use the Node Actions menu to create a new view window that displays the contents of the node. This is described in detail in the section on Creating a View in a Separate Window in chapter 4.

Creating Clones

You can create a clone of any node (using the Node Actions menu command described above). When you clone a node, the clone and the original node become indistinguishable. Not only is the clone an exact copy of the original node in all of its parameter values and other characteristics, but any change you make to either node is reflected in the other. You can create as many clones of the same node as you wish.

Clones are a great way to apply the same change to a number of different images because you can adjust the values in one of the clones and all of the others change in the same way. Clones are always in sync. This means that you can go back and tweak the effect at any time by changing one node, not all of them.

Pass Thru

You can temporarily turn off a node, so that the image data flowing into the node from upstream passes through the node unchanged. This is more convenient than having to actually reroute the connections around the node and then change them back again later.

Select Pass Thru from the Node Actions menu, or press the p key on the keyboard while the cursor is over a node to toggle Pass Thru on and off. (Pass Thru mode can also be controlled by using the checkbox in the strip at the top of the Node Panel.)

Image showing node in Pass Thru mode.

Fig. 5.9 When Pass Thru mode is in effect, a red "x" drawn over the node indicates this fact.

Pass Thru is disabled in the Source nodes (nodes which do not have an input connector), as they start a dataflow and therefore have no upstream data to pass through, and in the Image Out node, which terminates a flow.

Node Thumbnail Display

You can display node icons or thumbnail images on a node by selecting an option from the Node Display submenu of the Node Actions menu:

This is a great way to make large node networks more "legible" and to quickly scan networks to locate specific nodes.

Image showing node network with thumbnail images used for key nodes.

Fig. 5.10 Crop node (left) displays thumbnail of image data; Sharpen node (right) displays icon of node type.

For example, you can display thumbnails on all Image In nodes to easily distinguish various source imagery, and you can use thumbnails to tag nodes at significant points in a shot.

In fact, all source nodes, including the Image Out node, appear by default with the node thumbnail image displayed.

For another way to make a large network easier to scan, see Adding Underlays to the Worksheet.

Interpreting Node Feedback

Nodes in the Worksheet change their appearance to indicate various conditions:

Image showing various node feedback states.

Fig. 5.11 Node feedback, clockwise from top left: Brightness is selected; Gamma is pinned to a view; Stabilize is in alert mode; Ultimatte CSC is in error mode (because it requires the other input to be connected).

Image showing error message displayed in Status bar.

Fig. 5.12 Mouse over a node to read the error or alert message in the Status Bar.

Finding Nodes

You can search for any node in the Worksheet using the following criteria:

Right-hold in the Worksheet and select "Find Nodes..." from the Actions menu to bring up the Find Nodes panel, or use the equivalent hotkey: Ctrl-f with the cursor positioned anywhere over the Worksheet.

Image showing the Find Nodes panel.

Fig. 5.13 Find Nodes panel shows results of search for all nodes with names that start with "ultimatte."

Selecting Search Type

Select the type of search you want to perform from the Search By menu and then enter the search string, if searching by name, or choose a search criterion from a menu of options for the selected search type.

Search by Node Name

When Node Name (the default) is selected, a text field is active in which you type the search string, as shown in Fig. 5.13 above.

If you do not remember the exact name of the node, or if you want to find a group of similarly named nodes, you can type wildcards (metacharacters) in the search string:

Char.

Result

Example

*

matches any string of characters, including none

ultimatte* would find ultimatte1 and ultimatte_gk1

?

matches any single character

roto? would find roto1 and roto2

[ ]

matches any single character you type within the brackets

*[1] would find roto1 and ultimatte1 and image101

Search by Node Type

Image showing the Find Nodes panel Node Type option.

Fig. 5.14 Node Type Search.

When you search by Node Type, the text field is replaced by a menu from which you can select any type of node, from Add to Z-comp. The search will return all nodes of that type, listed by their unique name ("add1" or "my_zcomp," for example).

Search by Node Category

Image showing the Find Nodes panel Node Category option.

Fig. 5.15 Node Category Search.

Search by Node Category when you want to find all node types in a category, such as Source or Composite nodes. The results will be listed by name. For example, if you select Matte Nodes as the category, the search will return any Roto or Ultimatte nodes in the network, listed as "roto1," "roto2," "ultimatte1," and so forth, depending on how you named them.

Search by Node Status

Image showing the Find Nodes panel Node Status option.

Fig. 5.16 Node Status Search.

You can search for nodes by status to find all nodes that are currently

Search Results

Press the Find button to display the search results. All nodes matching the search criteria are listed by name ("blur1," e.g.) in the pane on the right.

Double-click on any name in the list to select the corresponding node and reorient the Worksheet to bring the node to the center.

You can perform as many searches as you need without closing the panel. When you are finished, press the Done button to close it.

Adding Nodes to the Custom Menu

You often use several nodes together in a specific way to create a particular effect. If you want to reuse such a configuration, you can save it to the Custom menu, where it can be selected in one step rather than starting from scratch each time. This is analogous to recording a macro.

  1. Select all nodes you want to save to the Custom menu.
  2. Right-hold in the Worksheet and select "Save Selected As Custom" from the Worksheet Actions popup menu.
  3. Type a descriptive name in the dialog box that will appear and press Enter when you are done.

The name will subsequently appear in the Custom menu, just like any other node. When you select it, the exact configuration of nodes you saved, with any connections intact, will appear in the Worksheet.

Deleting Custom Nodes

To delete a Custom node, remove the corresponding file from the Custom directory, which is located by default in the .rayz/2.0 application directory.

Note:

 

The Custom directory path is specified in Edit > Preferences > File Paths > Custom Node Search Path. For more information about using the Preferences panel, refer to Chapter 13: Setting Preferences.

Adding Underlays to the Worksheet

Underlays are resizable, color-coded markers that make it easy to find specific nodes or groups of nodes. This Worksheet feature can be especially useful in large networks. Underlays include an editable text field so that they can be labeled or used for notes and comments. Underlays never cover up the nodes (hence the name).

To draw an underlay, Ctrl-drag a bounding box in the Worksheet. The underlay will be drawn in the bounding box area.

To add text, click the underlay to select it and a box with a dashed outline will appear in the upper left corner. Then you can click in the text box and start typing. To edit existing text, double-click it.

Image showing an underlay used to comment on approval status of a color correction operation.

Fig. 5.17 Example of an underlay used to comment on the approval status of a color correction operation.

Underlay Actions Menu

To change the color or stacking order of an underlay, right-click and hold on the underlay to access the Underlay Actions popup menu.

Image showing the items in the Underlay Actions popup menu.

Fig. 5.18 Underlay Actions Menu: right-hold on underlay to access.

Underlay Color

You can change the color of any underlay by selecting a different swatch from the Color submenu of the Actions menu. (To edit the swatch colors, refer to the section below on the Underlay Colors Tool Strip.)

Underlay Stacking Order

Underlays will overlap if you position them to do so. To change the order of an underlay in a stack of underlays, select Raise or Lower from the Actions menu.

Underlay Colors Tool Strip

A different color is assigned to each underlay you create in turn, as defined in a palette of underlay colors. To display this palette in a tool strip, check the Underlay Colors item in the Tools menu (located in the title bar of the Worksheet).

To change the color of any swatch in the palette, right-hold on the swatch to access the popup color spectrum. Drag the cursor across the spectrum bar to select the color you want and release the mouse button.

Note:

 

To change the default color palette, edit the color values in the Project Settings panel, which is accessed from the RAYZ Edit menu. Expand the Current Colors group and select Node Underlay Color Palette.