Generators

Generators create their own output rather than changing an upstream shot. Background makes a color or transparent canvas, Text+ produces text, and Fast Noise calculates procedural patterns. Their outputs can become visible layers or control signals for other effects.

A regular Rectangle mask does not act like a visible color layer. To make one, combine it with a Background or build a Shape graph and render it through SRender.

Background is the cleanest way to create solid fills, cards, gradients and an empty frame. Watch the Alpha setting: an opaque fill completely covers the image below when merged over footage.

Resolution and pixel aspect must match the intended composite. Set the generator output to the correct image dimensions before applying filters that rely on a full frame.

Text+ produces a rendered image with alpha and controls for typography, layout, shading and animation. Keep titles on a separate branch so Transform, Glow and masks affect the title rather than the entire shot.

A reliable pattern is Text+ → Transform → Glow → Merge Foreground, with the shot in the Merge Background. Build the graphic first, then animate it.

Fast Noise can make fog, clouds, light textures or patterned backgrounds, but it is also useful as a displacement or effect-control map. Decide which role it serves before connecting it downstream.

Scale controls the size of the main pattern; Detail adds smaller structure. Tune contrast and range before using noise to drive a mask, and verify animation parameters over the full duration.

Background gradients are suitable for soft transitions, while Shape tools are preferable for large vector layouts with reusable elements. Do not build a dense UI with dozens of raster masks if a Shape graph would be cleaner.

Generators are also valuable as technical sources: test grids, white mattes, temporary placeholders and texture references. What matters is where their outputs are connected.

Blur, Glow and Color Corrector modify an existing image. Merge combines two independent sources, normally shot into Background and graphic into Foreground. Verify the destination port and alpha when your element disappears.

Keep source-specific effects before the final merge whenever possible. This preserves independent control and avoids reprocessing the whole frame unnecessarily.

Interview lower third: MediaIn goes to Merge Background; Text+ → Transform → Glow goes to Merge Foreground. Mask only the effect that should be constrained.

Procedural background: Background provides a canvas while Fast Noise generates texture or a displacement field. Finish with color and depth treatments after the basic pattern is established.

Animated interface: use separate Text+ and Background layers for simple assets; for many vector shapes use SRectangle/SMerge and convert through SRender.

Verify resolution, alpha and soft-edge premultiplication. Inspect animation on the first and last frames, and assess performance with full-resolution effects.

Name branches clearly in Flow and group complex work in Underlays so the logic remains readable during revisions.

For a visible texture, send Fast Noise to an image-effect input or Merge Foreground. To restrict an effect, use Fast Noise → Bitmap, select Luminance or the intended channel, and connect Bitmap to Effect Mask. For displacement, feed noise into Displace’s displacement-map input and put the image to distort on its main image input.

Scale sets pattern size, Detail controls finer components, Seethe changes the pattern’s state, and Seethe Rate changes it automatically over time. Center moves the pattern, which differs from changing its internal structure. Check neutral map value, channel selection and displacement direction in the receiving Displace node.

Use Background with Alpha = 0 and the required Width/Height/Pixel Aspect for a transparent technical canvas. Auto Resolution follows composition format when enabled; disable it to set dimensions manually. This Background can establish the assembly format, but does not itself create a visible panel.

For a colored panel, raise Alpha, connect Rectangle to Background’s blue input, and feed Background to Merge Foreground. For multiple vector shapes, use SMerge → SRender; before rendering they are a different data type. Choose a gradient in the appropriate generator’s controls; it does not require an obligatory “solid Background → separate Gradient node” chain.