User Manual

An open group window
showing the minimize button.
When you open a group, a floating window shows the nodes within that group. This floating
window is its own Node Editor that can be resized, zoomed, and panned independently of the
main Node Editor. Within the group window, you can select and adjust any node you want to,
and even add, insert, and delete nodes while it is open. When you’re ready to collapse the
group again, click the minimize button at the top left corner of the floating window, or use the
keyboard shortcut (Cmd-E).
Panning and Scaling within Open Group Windows
You can pan and scale an open group window using the same mouse buttons you use to pan
and scale the main Node Editor. However, when you’re working in an expanded group and
simultaneously making changes to the main node tree, you may want to prevent the expanded
group from being individually panned or scaled. Turning off the Position button at the right of
the group title bar locks the group nodes to the size of the nodes in the rest of the overall node
tree. Turning on this Position button lets you size group nodes independently of the rest of the
node tree.
Ungrouping Nodes
If you decide you no longer need a particular group, or you simply find it easier to have
constant access to all the nodes in the group at once, you can decompose or “ungroup” the
group without deleting the nodes within it to eliminate the group but keep the contents in the
Node Editor.
To ungroup nodes, do the following:
1 Right-click on the group.
2 Choose Ungroup from the contextual menu. The nodes inside the group are placed
back in the main node tree.
Saving and Reusing Groups
One of the best features of groups is that every group and its settings can be saved for later
use in other shots or projects. Groups and their settings can be recalled in various ways.
A good example of when you might want to Save and Load a group is in a studio with two or
more compositing artists. A lead artist in your studio can set up the master comp and create a
group specifically for keying greenscreen. That key group can then be passed to another artist
who refines the key, builds the mattes, and cleans up the clips. The setting can then be saved
out and loaded back into the master comp. As versions are improved, these settings can be
reloaded, updating the master comp.
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