User Manual

How Many Nodes Do I Need to Use?
In this chapter and the ones that follow, you’ll learn many different techniques for
combining adjustments and nodes in different ways to achieve highly specific effects.
Consequently, new DaVinci Resolve users often wonder, how far do I go? There is no
right answer, but suffice it to say that some of the world’s leading colorists achieve
stunning results in as few as three or four nodes, while others routinely build carefully
organized hierarchies of ten to twenty nodes, or more. The number of nodes you use is
often dependent on the quality of media you’ve been given to work with, as well-lit
footage usually requires less work than material shot run-and-gun with available light,
that typically needs many more adjustments to achieve an acceptable result.
Furthermore, the number of nodes you may use can also depend on what kind of
program you’re working on, with commercial spots affording the colorist enough time in
the schedule to build truly massive grades that adjust every little detail, and narrative
features and television shows requiring you to work faster and do more within fewer
adjustments in order to stay on track. The real answer? Each grade requires as many
nodes as are necessary. No more, no less.
The Node Editor Interface
As you work within the Node Editor, you may find the need to zoom into or out of it to get a
better look at the node tree, and to pan around the working area to deal with large
collections of nodes.
To expand the size of the Node Editor’s working area:
 Drag the border between the Node Editor and the Viewer to the left or right to make it
wider or narrower.
 Right-click anywhere within the Node Editor (except on a node) and choose Toggle
Display Mode, which hides the Viewer and moves the Node Editor to the right of the
Gallery, enlarging it considerably. Right-click and choose Toggle Display Node again to
return to the default layout.
 You can toggle Display mode using the DaVinci control panel by pressing SHIFT UP
and the DISPLAY/CURSOR button above the fourth trackball on the Center panel.
To arrange the node tree to fit your current working area:
 Right-click anywhere in the Node Editor (except on a node) and chose Cleanup Node
Graph from the contextual menu. This will rearrange your node tree to fit in whatever
size working area you have at the time.
To zoom and pan within the Node Editor, do one of the following:
 Use the Node Editor’s zoom slider to shrink or enlarge the nodes in the Node Editor.
 Click the Pan tool (the hand icon) at the upper left-hand corner of the Node Editor, and
drag anywhere within the gray area of the Node Editor to pan around.
 Press the H key to toggle between selection and pan modes in the Node Editor.
 Middle-click and drag anywhere within the Node Editor to pan around.
 Right-click and choose Zoom In or Zoom Out.
 Right-click and choose Zoom to Window to fit the node tree to the current size of the
node graph.
 Right-click and choose Original Size to return the node graph to the default size.
Chapter – 124 Node EditingBasics 2825