User Manual

The toolbar is divided into sections that group commonly used nodes together. As you hover
the pointer over any button, a tooltip shows you that node’s name.
 Loader/Saver nodes (Fusion Studio Only): The Loader node is the primary node used
to select and load clips from the hard drive. The Saver node is used to write or render
your composition to disk.
 Generator/Title/Paint nodes: The Background and FastNoise generators are
commonly used to create all kinds of effects, and the Title generator is obviously a
ubiquitous tool, as is Paint.
 Color/Blur nodes: ColorCorrector, ColorCurves, HueCurves, and BrightnessContrast
are the four most commonly used color adjustment nodes, while the Blur node is
ubiquitous.
 Compositing/Transform nodes: The Merge node is the primary node used to
composite one image against another. ChannelBooleans and MatteControl are
both essential for reassigning channels from one node to another. Resize alters the
resolution of the image, permanently altering the available resolution, while Transform
applies pan/tilt/rotate/zoom effects in a resolution-independent fashion that traces
back to the original resolution available to the source image.
 Mask nodes: Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, and BSpline mask nodes let you create
shapes to use for rotoscoping, creating garbage masks, or other uses.
 Particle system nodes: Three particle nodes let you create complete particle systems
when you click them from left to right. pEmitter emits particles in 3D space, while
pMerge lets you merge multiple emitters and particle effects to create more complex
systems. pRender renders a 2D result that can be composited against other 2D images.
 3D nodes: Seven 3D nodes let you build sophisticated 3D scenes. These nodes auto
attach to one another to create a quick 3D template when you click from left to right.
ImagePlane3D lets you connect 2D stills and movies for compositing into 3D scenes.
Shape3D lets you create geometric primitives of different kinds. Text3D lets you build
3D text objects. Merge3D lets you composite multiple 3D image planes, primitive
shapes, and 3D text together to create complex scenes, while SpotLight lets you light
the scenes in different ways, and Camera3D lets you frame the scene in whatever ways
you like. Renderer3D renders the final scene and outputs 2D images and auxiliary
channels that can be used to composite 3D output against other 2D layers.
When you’re first learning to use Fusion, these nodes are really all you need to build most
common composites. Once you’ve become a more advanced user, you’ll still find that these are
truly the most common operations you’ll use.
Node Editor
The Node Editor is the heart of Fusion because it’s where you build the tree of nodes that
makes up each composition. Each node you add to the node tree adds a specific operation that
creates one effect, whether it’s blurring the image, adjusting color, painting strokes, drawing
and adding a mask, extracting a key, creating text, or compositing two images into one.
You can think of each node as a layer in an effects stack, except that you have the freedom to
route image data in any direction to branch and merge different segments of your composite in
completely nonlinear ways. This makes it easy to build complex effects, but it also makes it easy
to see what’s happening, since the node tree doubles as a flowchart that clearly shows you
everything that’s happening, once you learn to read it.
Chapter – 53 Exploring the Fusion Interface 990