Fusion:
- Multiply Your Time!The Global Start Time, Render Start Time, Render End Time, Global End Time, and Current Time fields allow you to enter arithmetic which gets evaluated to make an entry, just like the other numerical entry fields. HOWEVER, multiplication is not allowed. So while you can do 65+1805 or 452-123 or 2244/24, you can’t do 2*2. A workaround is to divide by the reciprocal! So instead of 10*20, try 10/(1/20). This will return 200, as expected. -Chad
- Find it Again! Ctrl+F brings up the Find dialog, but that disappears as soon as you hit “Find Next” or “Find Previous”. If you want to keep finding, just hit F3 to cycle though all the tools that match the search criteria. You can do this at any time, so by tagging your tools with a special string, you can cycle through a set of tools very easily, even if they are in different parts of your comp. -Chad
- DeMacro! An easy way to convert a Macro to something editable is to select the macro, and hit Ctrl-C to copy it. Paste into SciTE, and replace MacroOperator with GroupOperator. Then Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, tab to Fusion and Ctrl-V. Your group should now have all the same values as your macro did, including animation, but you can open the group and tweak things. -Chad
- Turbo! If you import footage via ffdshow, say an mp4 file, or similar, you can use any ffdshow filters by enabling them with the ffdshow video decoder configuration. They render super fast, and the result is cached by Fusion, so you can pass it on to other tools. I’m talking super fast. Like watching TV fast. You can do everything from deinterlacing, cropping, sharpening, noise reduction, color correction, etc. You can also process things directly from the MPEG stream, like subtitles and post-processing block reduction. And you can override the YUV->RGB conversion settings. The only caveat is that Fusion won’t invalidate the cache when you change something in the filters, so you have to Ctrl-P Ctrl-P the LD to purge the cache. -Chad
- Scalar Normalize! The viewers have a normalize button as well as a color button. If you are viewing RGB images and press the normalize button, you will normalize the RGB according to the luminance. BUT… if you view the individual channels, THEN turn on normalize, you will re-normalize to the values of that channel only. Sadly, doesn’t work for A. -Chad
- Pinch It! Ctrl-dragging a range slider handle will move the OTHER end by the same amount, but negative. -Chad
- Stop Squinting! Ctrl-mousewheel will make the fonts used in text entry boxes larger. -Chad
- Itty Bitty 3D! Change a viewer to 3D, then turn on the 3D SubV. Now you can put any 3D tool in that SubV, and set the main view to 2D. -Chad
- MacroMaskic! You can set one input in a macro to “EffectMask” and it will appear as a regular effect mask input and masks will automatically be connected to it. -Chad
- Simple, Quick! Typing an equal sign in a numeric entry field will turn whatever is typed after the equal sign into a simple expression. By inserting the equal sign in front of the existing value, you can easily make a persistent expression based on the current value.-Chad
- These go to 11! The blend slider on the Common Controls can be cranked up to 11, possibly higher, but a lot more than 1. Can also be negative. Bol, however stops at 10, and doesn’t go over the cliff. -Chad
- Now a comp! Dragging a .setting file from explorer on the Fusion title bar will open your setting as if it were a comp. -Chad
- Console Confidant! Anything you type into the console gets saved in the comp file, so you can leave yourself notes, or have some special settings pertaining to your comp. -Chad
- Rangeminder! Savers will respect their time ranges, and will only output files (and request inputs) when the render range overlaps the time ranges. This allows you to output multiple time ranges in one render. (see #26) -Chad
- To the Top! You can reorder controls in the Timeline and Spline editors. Just click and drag. Useful for putting the important stuff together to save you from scrolling around. Unfortunately, only the Timeline order is stored in the comp. -Chad
- Scalar Slider! SimpleExpressions can have their leftmost numerical component controlled by a slider in Timeline view. Just alt+click the expression and a slider will appear. The slider will stay open until you hit enter or alt+click it again, so you can leave Timeline view and edit the slider from Spline or Flow view. Bonus: left click will let you edit the expression string. -Chad
- Scalar Storage! Use a Bmp to convert greyscale images from RGBA to A. This reduces memory usage by 75% and can sometimes improve rendering speed. Mono images can also be used as 3D textures, where they save video memory as well. I made some Fuses for this, but the Bmp will work without them. -Chad
- UnIntool! You can deactivate a SimpleExpression by putting a “––” in front of it. So “3.14––pi” will return a truncated estimation of pi. -Chad
- Timecode Convert! You can type timecode into a TSt SourceTime field and it will be converted to frames. So 01:01:01:01 would return 87865 automatically if you are running a 24fps comp. -Chad
- Stop! Scroll Lock toggles Some/None rendering modes, without activating that dangerous All mode. -Chad
- Answer me! Dragging a modifier to a viewer will convert the viewer (or subV) into a text viewer, suitable for showing number, point, text, etc. -Chad
- Bullseye! Right-dragging from an output to a tool will bring up the input selection menu, so you can connect to the correct input without using alt. -Chad
- o!emtmsCn Text modifiers can be assigned to the comments of a tool. This allows you to evaluate expressions for tooltips, display timecode, animate the values to mark off different sections, or even juggle up your characters. -Chad
- Noted! You can publish the text of a Note, allowing it to control or be controlled by another tool. This could allow you to have notes in two places in your flow with the same comments. Of course, you can also instance Notes, so you can have them show the same information in two places. -Chad
- Exposed! Groups can be saved to the Macros: folder, allowing them to show up in the macros list. -Chad
- Skip! Setting the “Blend” on a Saver to zero prevents the Saver from requesting that frame. So it’s like having multiple time ranges. Er, no wait, it doesn’t do that. Sorry, it just limits the output of the files. Doesn’t change the requests. -Chad
- Mask be gone! If you set the paint mode of a mask to Ignore, it will not affect the DoD. Unlike setting the Level to zero, this prevents an overly generous DoD from forming. -Chad
- Now a setting! Corollary to #12, if you rename a .comp to .setting, you can drag it into Fusion as if it were a setting, add it to a toolbar, etc. -Chad
- Ping-Pong! Shift-space will start playback in reverse. -Chad
- Next! PgUp/PgDn will pickwalk along a polyline. -Chad
- Start! Any script that you want to execute on startup can be placed in a .scriptlib in the scripts folder. Use it to set up your Fusion session however you want, like arranging windows or whatnot. -Chad
- Flow Walker! The cursor keys in the flow view will walk through the flow to change the currently active tool. -Chad
3ds Max:
- Mouse Chase! You can truck a view so that it centers on your mouse point with the “i” key. Interactive viewport pan I think is what the kids call it. Nice thing is that you can do it whenever, so even if you are in the middle of a modeling operation, you can change the view, allowing you to zoom in really close, but still cover a wide area. -Chad
- Metadata! EXR’s can be set to save out the DoD as well as camera metadata. The DoD saves memory, and the metadata contains the camera’s FoV and transform matrix. -Chad
- Big Preview! Viewport previews are limited to the size of you viewport area. Maximizing 3ds max and working in Expert Mode are two easy ways of getting extra real estate. -Chad
- Bizzaro! A Volume Select modifier using a Output map set to -1 will produce negative selections. This lets resulting modifiers, like Relax, produce results opposite of what they would normally do. -Chad