User Manual

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Nodes can be displayed as a small rectangle or as a larger square. The rectangular form
displays the node’s name in the center, while the square form shows either the tool’s icon or a
thumbnail of the image it is outputting.
TIP: Even if you’re not displaying node thumbnails, you can quickly obtain detailed
information about a node and the data it’s processing by hovering your pointer over it
in the Node Editor and viewing the tooltip bar below.
Choosing Which Nodes Show Thumbnails
If you want to use node thumbnails to help visually identify media and operations in your node
trees, there are a variety options for which nodes should display thumbnails in the contextual
menu that appears when you right-click anywhere in the background of the Node Editor.
Force All Tile Pictures
This option shows thumbnails for every single node in the Node Editor. This can make simple
node trees easier to read, but it’ll make all node trees take up considerably more room.
NOTE: If Show Thumbnails is enabled, nodes may not update until the playhead is
moved in the Time Ruler.
Force Active Tile Pictures
You may also choose to only show thumbnails for nodes that are currently selected, which can
make it easier to see which node you’re working on. When nodes become deselected, the
thumbnails will be hidden again.
Force Source Tile Pictures
This enables thumbnails for all MediaIn and Loader nodes in the Node Editor, as well as all
generators, and is a great way to be able to quickly see where all the clips are in a composition.
Force Mask Tile Pictures
This enables thumbnails for all Mask nodes in a composition, which can make them easier to
distinguish when you’re building complex shapes made from multiple Mask nodes.
Manually Showing Tile Pictures and Node Options
You also have the option of manually choosing which nodes you’d like to show thumbnails.
For example, there may be certain key points of the node tree where you’d like to see a small
visual representation of what’s happening in the composition.
To toggle thumbnails for one or more specific nodes:
1 Select one or more nodes in the Node Editor.
2 Right-click one of the selected nodes, and choose one of the following from the
contextual menu:
Show > Show Tile Pictures
Show > Show Modes/Options
When you’ve manually enabled thumbnails for different nodes, they’ll remain visible whether or
not those nodes are selected.
Chapter – 56 Working in the Node Editor 1101