Original subtitles

So we've taken a look at the Node Graph,

and the Curve Editor, and the Dope Sheet,

now I'd like to introduce you to the Viewer,

and the Viewer's where all the nice cool stuff happens.

So I'll take a second here to reiterate that every node that's

added to a comp in NUKE adds data or operations to manipulate an

image or to manipulate a video clip.

By adding a Viewer to our comp and connecting it,

we're able to view all of the operations that happen

upstream to the node that it's connected to.

Also note, the Viewer does not add or remove data from anything in your comp.

It's merely a window into the operations that have

been performed so far upstream.

A Viewer lets you quickly modify parameters inside the node that it's

connected to while showing you the effects of that node and how it's

affecting everything upstream from your node.

You can place as many Viewers as you want into a scene,

and you can cycle through these nodes by using the number keys on your keyboard,

and we'll take a look at that in a second.

Viewer panels are tied to the Viewer nodes connected in the Node Graph,

they do not produce output to the renderer,

they only generate display data to the Viewer panel.

You can connect these nodes traditionally,

however, using the keyboard shortcuts is much faster,

and we'll take a look at that too.

Let's get started by showing you how to add Viewers to the comp,

and to do that,

I'm just going to go to our current Viewer and I'm going to delete

it so that we get started with a blank slate.

The first way to add a Viewer is to come over to the Node Graph,

hit Tab, and if you type Viewer in here,

it's going to pop up and if you click on it,

the Viewer pops up, and you can just connect it to your node like this,

and this Viewer will be tied to your Viewer panel.

I'll delete this.

The next way to add a Viewer is you can come up to your toolbar

menu and go into the Viewer and select it,

and it's going to pop a Viewer in there.

Another way you can do this is to right-click,

go to Image, and that's where the Viewer is to add a Viewer.

Now the easiest way to add a Viewer to your comp is to just select the

node that you want and to hit one on the keyboard,

and that's going to pop a Viewer right in there,

and we're going to take a look at how we can connect this

Viewer to multiple nodes and use the keys on the keyboard

to toggle through those views.

Once you've added the Viewer Node to a comp,

you can connect it to any node in your comp by dragging the

handle out and attaching it to any node.

Each Viewer allows up to 10 pipes.

So if you see this little triangle here,

that'll give us a number 2 and we can plug the number 2 in here,

and then if we pull this out again, we get a number 3,

and if we pull this out again, we get a number 4,

and if we pull this out again, we get a number 5,

so on and so forth up to 10.

If a Viewer Node has several pipes or inputs into it,

you can use the up and down keys to skip through the different views.

Remember in an earlier module when I explained NUKE's

cursor is panel context sensitive,

meaning hotkeys change based on which panel your cursor is hovering over.

Note your cursor must be over the View Panel to use the

up and down toggles through the views.

So if my mouse is over the Viewer, and I hit the up or the down button,

it will toggle through these views.

So if I hit the up button it goes 1, 2, 3,

4, 5, and you'll see over here the little numbers highlight 1,

2, 3, 4, 5, so that we can just toggle through our views.

Another way to do this is these little numbers over here

correspond to keys on the keyboard.

So I can just hit three, or two, or five,

or one,

and jump back and forth between the different views and see the

different nodes that are connected to the Viewer in the Viewport

and the operations they represent.

Now we can also move around in the Viewer.

So to pan in the Viewer, you can hold down the middle-mouse button,

or you can hold down the Alt button on the keyboard and left-mouse

button click to pan around inside the Viewer.

This works the same way as the Node Graph,

and the Curve Editor, and the Dope Sheet.

You can also re-center the frame whenever you're off-center by hitting F.

This will always restore you to the full frame of your current image.

Zooming also works the same as it does in the Node Graph,

the Curve Editor, and the Dope Sheet.

Move your pointer over to the area you want to zoom into

and hold down the left-mouse button and the middle- mouse

button and then just drag.

You can also hit the plus or minus button on your keyboard,

or if your mouse has a scroll button,

you can also use it to zoom in and zoom out.

You can restore the Viewer to 100% at any time by

hitting the Ctrl button on your keyboard,

and the number one.

This will display the image at its native resolution,

or you can hit F on the keyboard to reframe the image to

fit however big your Viewer is onscreen.

Another neat trick is you can use the bracket buttons to hide these

menus on the top and the bottom of the Viewer Panel.

So if I hold down Shift and I hit the left bracket,

it's going to toggle that menu on and off,

and if I hit the right bracket while holding Shift,

it's going to toggle that menu on and off,

and it's nice to just get a clear Viewer from time to time and to be

able to bring those menus back by hitting Shift,

open bracket or close bracket.

In the next clip, we'll take a look at the layer and channel dropdown menus,

we'll look at displaying different different channels and the hotkeys

that we can use to look at the different channels,

and I'll even show you how to use the ContactSheet or the Layer ContactSheet

Nodes so that you can look at all of your channels at once.