Eyeon Fusion Master Class 104A Flow Overview Video Lecture | Eyeon Fusion: A Practical Hands On Course - Professional Skills

fusions flow view editor is the main
work area of the application it's where
you load and combine the layers of the
composite using the flow allows you to
govern how layers and effects are
assembled and in which order they occur
the flow view represents your project
and flows from the beginning to end
each node visible in the flow view
represents a single tool or function
being applied to your footage navigation
around this view is very similar to the
image viewer holding down the middle
mouse button will pan holding down the
middle mouse button plus the left mouse
button will zoom in holding the middle
mouse button plus the right mouse button
will zoom out holding down the middle
mouse button plus the left mouse button
and scrubbing left and right will zoom
in and out have variable increments
using the numeric keypad x' plus and
minus will zoom in and out respectively
the flow view also contains a sub view
like the displays it will help you
navigate larger compositions by default
this is set to auto mode and will only
appear when the comp is too large to fit
within the flow view you can change this
via right-clicking on the NEM T portion
of the flow and choosing options Auto
Navigator to select a tool in the flow
view simply left-click on the node
double clicking on the node will bring
up that tools control in the right tool
panel you can also box select a number
of nodes together holding ctrl and
clicking will add in remove nodes from
the selection an important distinction
needs to be made here between selected
tools and the active tool there can only
be one active tool in the flow at any
time active tools will be the target of
any operation the user makes such as
keyboard entries or adding masks
selected nodes can be moved
grouped
or used to filter the data in the
timeline
or spline view
selected nodes will highlight in blue
with white text the active tool will be
yellow with black text adding tools to
the flow can be accomplished in several
ways drag and drop from the bins drag
and drop from the toolbar click on the
toolbar drag and drop from Windows
Explorer
the add tool script ctrl + the spacebar
right click on the context menu to add
tool you may notice that the nodes on
the flow viewer are color-coded
generally they are group so that green
equals source and input tools light red
equal savers to output gray equals
standard 2d tools orange equals masks
magenta equals particle tools slate blue
equals 3d tools dark cyan equals 3d
material dark yellow equals 3d texture
dark orange equals 3d light very dark
tools are generally considered passed
through or disabled meaning they are not
calculated in the final result red tools
have failed rendering their last request
for one reason or another the ordering
and connection of added tools will be
determined depending on the case if
there is a tool currently active the
next tool will be appended and
automatically connected if a tool is
viewed and a new tool is dropped on the
view the new tool will be inserted after
the view tool if no tool is selected in
the flow it will be added where the
mouse was last clicked if added via the
context menu the new tool will be placed
where the mouse was right clicked after
adding a tool to the flow you need to
connect the nodes together to visualize
the result simply left-click and drag
the red square output from one tool and
drop it onto the triangle input on the
next desired node if a tool offers more
than one input such as a mask or
secondary image input the arrows will be
color coded when learning the
application it may be easiest to right
click drag to the next node as this will
pop up a dialog and list each of the
individual inputs you can connect to
typically brown inputs are the primary
green being the secondary and blue being
masks if you have the input of a node
reversed using ctrl W on your keyboard
will swap the two primary inputs once
you begin working on a project it may
become apparent that you need to reorder
now
to get the desired result rearranging
notes can be done in several ways hold
the shift key and click drag the tool or
selected nodes to be moved you can also
cut copy and paste selected nodes via
the right context menu or keyboard
shortcuts control X for cut ctrl C for
copy ctrl V for paste in order to locate
a specific node in a flow you can use
the ctrl F command this will open a
pop-up dialog and allow you to enter the
name of a node if there are multiple
matches you can use f3 to find the next
match or Shift f3 to find the previous
match working with the nodal structure
offers great flexibility but with said
flexibility also comes a tendency for
chaos begin organizing your flow in
either a left-to-right or top-to-bottom
method this will make it far easier to
understand what is happening in the flow
view as well to aid a fellow compositor
if they require to open your comp for
any reason the autoflow build direction
can be set as a preference or option
from the flow view right-click to open
the context menu and choose options
build flow horizontally or vertically
another option to assist in maintaining
a clean and organized node tree is to
use the flow views snap to grid option
this can be enabled via preferences or
via the right-click context menu under
arrange tools to grid you can easily
align already existing nodes to the grid
by opening the context menu and choosing
lineup all tools to grid in very large
compositions sometimes the layout can be
confused with the fact that connections
and pipes are being drawn down through
other tools in order to clean these
connections up you can use a pipe router
this little node will allow you to
reposition a pipe around the main
portions of the flow so the connection
is easily read the next level of flow
organization involves a few other tools
namely the underlay the sticky note and
the group underlays are a great way to
color code
sections of the flow view with nodes
that perform a related task or layer to
create an underlay it could be found in
the tool menu under the heading flow an
underlay can be resized easily along its
edges to fit the desired nodes once
nodes are on top of the underlay
selecting the underlay header will
select all tools within to select just
the underlay use alt while clicking the
header sticky notes can be useful to
leave yourself or other artists
information regarding sections of the
comp just to open the note and begin
typing once closed the note contents can
be read via the tooltip window by
hovering your mouse pointer over the
note clusters of similar tools can be
grouped to form a single small node back
on the flow view in order to see the
contents of a group use the expand
window button on the node once open two
more icons are visible one to minimize
it back down the other a small hand the
hand can be used to treat the group node
as a window which can be panned around
group should be reserved for tools that
are only going to need a minor
adjustment for the final result as there
is no easy way to add or remove
connections to tools within the group if
you need to add or remove tools or make
connections from within or outside of a
group you will need to ungroup the node
make the connection and regroup you
should now be familiar with fusions flow
view to work with your projects
understanding the color coding of nodes
and inputs as well as keeping the nodes
organized will help you get the most at
a fusion speed for all your compositing
needs as always for the most up-to-date
descriptions and details on fusion visit
manual VF expedia.com