About 'Node Grouping'!

Michael_Bridges · October 17, 2018, 10:41am

In this video (objectives)…

Learn about node groups
Append a nodegroup into an existing file
Make the node group available to all new news

After watching (learning outcomes)…

Be able to create node groups and have them available in all future and past Blender Files

(Unique Video Reference: 16_PW_BEC)

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Norbert_Kupeczki · October 20, 2018, 8:29pm

Hi @Michael_Bridges,

I found a solution for this little issue with the group input in node groups.
It is a silly little thing, but if you attach any other nodes to the node group inputs it will work properly… at least it does in Blender V2.80.27.

I hope it helps, it is pretty annoying to open up those groups every single time if you want to change some data.

Richard_Rayer · October 31, 2018, 7:29pm

I got my color height node made but included the Color Ramp. I can see after viewing the rest of the lecture that it is not quite the best way to do it. Making the Note Group “Color by Height” and connecting that to the color ramp outside the group would allow for use of many different color combinations.

I also like Norbert’s suggestion on group input on node groups. I haven’t tried it yet but I am sure it looks like it solves the problem nicely.

Carl_Gustafsson · November 1, 2018, 3:55pm

Thanks for the tip of adding a “Value” node to the input. Worked well!

Also - any type of value can be affected by Object Info variables. E.g. how much noise is introduced into the texture coordinates:

Capricas_Kirito · January 30, 2019, 10:26pm

At some point they have corrected the bug that plagued Michael in the video so the inputs are working properly in the Jan 28, 2019 release.

Astradeni_13 · June 2, 2019, 10:33am

Hi!
I did it a little differently; instead of adding an ‘Object Info’ node in the previous lecture, I added a ‘Geometry’ node.

In this one I connected the Input of the Group to both the Subtract and Divide Math nodes (including the ColorRamp) like this:

so by adjusting the values of the Group (and a little fiddling with the ColorRamp) there can be all sorts of gradient combinations…

ysvry · August 19, 2019, 9:44pm

right, my version works fine also the push tab x2 isnt neccesary no more to update the 3d viewport.

ysvry · August 19, 2019, 9:46pm

great lesson , what a powerfull function that append is. never used it much but guess i better start developing my workflow around append, can be usefull for thousands of presets. thx

Jaco_Pretorius · October 8, 2019, 10:10am

Thanks for the many hints above…

Also using Geometry location and I have a reusable height-heat-map material now. Quickly tried it on a generated landscape and it just worked. Nice.

vi.paints · June 12, 2020, 11:43pm

Repeatability - fantastic! I’m loving the append. Thanks to @Carl_Gustafsson regarding Object Info and @Astradeni_13 for use of Geometry node, and @Jaco_Pretorius for the heat map idea. Very useful lesson.

I played around with all of the above - a lot of happy accidents and pushing nodes around. This node group controls the level of snow and spring greenery colour on mountains. It also adds a bit of a rocky texture and noise so there are no straight lines. Probs is a way to simplify the math nodes etc. etc. always more that can be done!