User Manual

Table Of Contents
Groups
When you work on complex visual effects, node trees can become sprawling and unwieldy, so
grouping tools together can help you better organize all the nodes and connections. Groups
are containers in your node tree that can hold multiple nodes, similar to the way a folder on your
Desktop holds multiple files. There is no limit to the number of nodes that can be contained
within a group, and you can even create subgroups within a group.
Creating Groups
Creating a group is as simple as selecting the nodes you want to group together and using the
Group command.
To create a group:
1 Select the nodes you want grouped together.
2 Right-click one of the selected nodes and choose Group from the contextual menu
(Command-G).
Several nodes selected in preparation for making a group (left), and the resulting group (right).
The selected nodes are collapsed into a group, which is displayed as a single node in the Node
Editor. The Group node can have inputs and outputs, depending on the connections of the
nodes within the group. The Group node only displays inputs for nodes that are already
connected to nodes outside the group. Unconnected inputs inside the group will not have an
Input knot displayed on the Group node.
Deleting Groups
Deleting a group is no different from deleting any other node in the Node Editor. Select a group
and press Delete, Backspace, or Forward-Delete, and the group along with all nodes contained
within it are removed from the node tree.
Expanding and Collapsing Groups
A collapsed group is represented by a single “stack” node in the node tree. If you want to
modify any of the nodes inside the group, you can open the group by double-clicking it or by
selecting the group node and pressing Command-E.
Chapter – 57 Node Groups, Macros, and Fusion Templates 1110