- The property panels live here in the property bin.
So we'll take a look at the property bin first.
This is the new script I'm using.
The property bin has
a number of features designed to help you
manage the open property panels
that are used to adjust the settings
for each node.
To open a property panel
you double-click on the node
and they open up here
in the property bin,
and you can scroll through them
if there's more than you can see.
Another way to open a property panel
is if you add a new node.
So I'll go to the transform tab
and get a transform node
and it immediately opens it up here
in the property bin.
In the upper left-hand corner
there's this very important number.
This number controls how many open property panels
you can have at any one time.
When you're new to Nuke
it can be very confusing
to have a lot of property panels open.
So while you're new
I recommend you set this down to a small number like two
and all the property panels closed
except for the top two.
If you'd like to close all the property panels
in the property bin
click this guy here
and it'll clear everything out.
I'm going to open up two more property panels
to show you this.
If the blurry node here in the node graph is selected
you can see it's also highlighted
here in the property bin.
If I select the grayed node
now the grayed node property panel is highlighted.
Note the property panel's outline
is the same color as the node.
So clicking on the node will highlight its property panel.
Conversely, you can click on the property panel
and it'll highlight the node.
The property panel, of course,
is where you adjust the settings for a node.
There are several features that are common to all nodes
regardless of type.
Here we'll take a look
at the ones you will use the most.
First of all there's this top row of icons
and you can see they're identical
between this blur node and this grayed node.
The first icon here is a twirl down that will hide
and show the property panel.
It does not close it.
It just collapses it.
This icon here will center this node
in the flow graph for you.
For example, I'll deselect
and I'm going to move my node way offscreen
because I've got a great big flow graph.
I click on this
and it'll snap that node
to the middle of the screen for me.
This will show you what node is the input
to the current node you're working on.
This is to create and use presets.
Remember in a previous video
I showed you how to rename a node
in the node graph
by selecting the node and typing N.
There's a second way to rename a node.
You can select it here in the property panel
and type a new name.
There, now this node's name is My_Blur.
Back to our property panel.
This allows you to change the color of the node.
If the node has onscreen controls
this will allow you to change the color of those.
Now this is the undo, redo, and revert buttons
which we'll circle back to later
after we see how to adjust node parameters.
If you want to float a property panel
here's your icon right here.
Click on this
and now you can float it anywhere you want
in the node graph.
Do your thing
while you have the layout exactly like you want it.
If you'll hover the cursor
over the question mark
you'll get a tool tip for this node
and if you click on it
it'll open up the manual for that node,
very nice new feature with Nuke 8.
If you want to re-dock the property panel
back into the property bin
click on the same icon here
that you used to float it
and it'll re-dock,
and if you'd like to close the property panel
just click on this little X
in the upper right-hand corner.
Another commonality to every single property panel
is the node tab here.
This tab has features that control the node itself,
not the properties.
So for example we have this label field
and what you can do with that
is you can add your own label
like motion blur.
And down here now My_Blur node has motion blur
as a label.
This row of controls here allows you to change
the font, the size, and the pitch of the text
that's on top of your node.
There are a number of other features here
but the one you'll want most
is the postage stamp.
Let me show you that.
I'm going to open up the Merge node
into the property bin,
switch to its node tab,
and now when I turn on postage stamp
I get a postage stamp of my composite.
Use the property bin to manage your open property panels
and use the open property panels to manage your nodes.
In the next video
we'll see how to adjust the settings
or parameters of a node
to get the effect you want.