User Manual

A viewer indicator enabled for the right
viewer and disabled for the left viewer.
To load a node into a viewer using the Node View indicators:
 Clicking an indicator turns it white to show that node is currently loaded in the
corresponding viewer. Clicking it again turns the indicator black and removes it from the
viewer. Nodes only display View indicators if they’re currently being viewed. If you want
to view indicators, hovering the pointer over the node makes the indicators visible and
available for clicking.
 You can also use keyboard shortcuts to toggle each View indicator. The default two
viewers are assigned numeric keyboard shortcuts 1 and 2. Pressing the corresponding
number once displays the selected node in the appropriate display view, while pressing
it again clears that display.
For complex compositions, you may need to open additional viewers. For example, one viewer
may be used to display the end result of the final comp, while another viewer displays the
source, a third viewer displays a mask, and a fourth viewer might be a broadcast monitor
connected via a Blackmagic DeckLink card or other display hardware. When you have more
than two viewers, additional View indicators are added and each one is assigned a consecutive
number between 3 and 9.
The more viewers you add, the more you may need help remembering which viewer is
represented by which View indicator. Positioning the pointer over the View indicator in question
will display a tooltip with the name of the viewer it represents.
Drag and Drop Nodes into a Viewer
If the View indicators are too small of a target for you to click on reliably and you are not
keyboard oriented, another way to load a node into a viewer is to drag and drop it onto the
viewer you want to load it into. This offers a quick explicit way to assign a node to a viewer,
especially for pen and tablet users. Please note that as you drag, the node will appear to move
at first, but it’ll snap back into its original location once the pointer leaves the Node Editor.
Using the Contextual Menu
You can also right-click a node, and then choose View On > Left or Right to display the node on
the appropriate viewer.
Clearing Viewers
Whenever you load a node into a viewer, you prompt that node, all upstream nodes, and other
related nodes to be rendered. If you load nodes into both viewers, this is doubly true. If you
want to prevent your computer from processing views that aren’t currently necessary, you can
clear each viewer.
Methods of clearing viewers:
 Press 1 or 2 to empty the left or right viewers if they’re filled.
 Press ` (the Accent key) to empty both viewers.
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