Node-based editor

[Masterchief_117]

369/5000

 

 

 

I don't know if this option is currently under development, but in my opinion it would be very useful to have a node-based editor as an option to the layer system (Have both options). Because I work with 32 bit exr files to be able to generate multipass compositing and it would be very useful to speed up the workflow without having to copy the same information to other layers. Thank you.

[ashf]

My guess is that co-existing layer system and node system that's interchangeable might be difficult since they are different architecture.
Practical implementation would be that each layer has own nodes so layers and nodes can co-exist without changing current architecture.
Like Filter Forge plugin has its own node system.

[Frank Jonen]

I don't recall who it was, but someone from the Affinity team once posted here that under the hood it's a node-based architecture that is exposed to the user as a layer stack.

A Compositing Persona would be amazing and is definitely possible but I don't really have high hopes for that. At least not near-term. It would be great to have it with the 3D texture map preview and a few more generative nodes to create surface details. Maybe that could be a step towards getting nodes.

[fde101]

8 hours ago, Frank Jonen said:

A Compositing Persona would be amazing

Agreed

 

8 hours ago, Frank Jonen said:

I don't really have high hopes for that

Also agreed

 

 

One challenge this would face is that while anything which can be done with layers can also be done with nodes, the reverse is not true.  If the user were given the ability to work with the layers as nodes, then when switching back to a persona that presented them as layers, there would not always be a way to represent the node tree as layers in the Layers panel.

One way to solve this would be to represent an entire node tree as a single layer - you could have a "(node composition)" layer which would need to be selected much as a pixel layer needs to be selected when switching to the Liquify persona now.

 

In the interim, there are dedicated node-based compositing tools out there, but they are almost universally intended for video work rather than photo work, so the "affordable" ones are generally limited in terms out output resolution...  although you could try Natron (free) for example.

[Kenzor]

Yes a nodal (fusion /nuke ) Compositing Persona would be amazing . 

[Frank Jonen]

15 hours ago, fde101 said:

One way to solve this would be to represent an entire node tree as a single layer - you could have a "(node composition)" layer which would need to be selected much as a pixel layer needs to be selected when switching to the Liquify persona now.

Indeed. Like a nested document layer. Doing this via a live layer would also open up the possibility of easy versioning within a document. The output then creates the layer to be used in the layer stack. Node tree recipe files are tiny. You could easily stack a few up and send the file to your TD or supervisor for selection. I kinda like the idea. Have all your items in the layer stack and reference them from the comp = portable project file. Or only have one comp layer and reference outside files from there. Best of both worlds. Typography items could be embedded Designer files that have their output as an input in the comp even.

[Aftemplate]