sNGon

sNGon belongs to the Shape generator family. Unlike sJitter, sGrid, sBoolean and other Shape processors, it creates its own vector geometry and therefore has no external input sockets.

A correct Flow starts with sNGon itself. Do not route MediaIn, a mask, or another Shape node into sNGon; the only physical connector exposed by the generator is Shape Output.

Shape Output remains vector Shape data. To view or composite the result as an ordinary image, send it through sRender, which is the point where the Shape stream becomes a raster image.

Sides defines the number of edges in the regular polygon. The captured Controls image on this page shows 6, so that saved UI state represents a hexagon; it is evidence from the capture, not a factory-default claim.

Changing Sides changes polygon topology. Low values produce clearly angular primitives, while high values approach a circular silhouette without turning the node into sEllipse.

Solid changes the construction mode. With Solid enabled the interior is filled with the authored Style color; with Solid disabled the center becomes transparent and outline controls become central to the result.

Border Width controls the thickness of the border or outline. It remains part of the polygon styling and is especially important in Solid Off mode where the border is the visible geometry.

Border Style defines how adjacent sides meet at polygon corners. The documented choices are Bevel, Round and Miter: bevel cuts the corner, round softens it, and miter preserves a pointed join.

Solid Off reveals additional outline controls that are not visible in the captured Solid On screenshot. A control hidden by a conditional UI state must not be treated as if the tool does not have it.

Cap Style is available for the open outline and offers Flat, Round and Square end caps. It becomes visually meaningful when Length is below 1.0 and the contour has two exposed ends.

Position is also part of the open-outline workflow. It moves the location of the visible segment or gap around the polygon perimeter without rotating the entire polygon with Angle.

Length controls how much of the outline is visible. At 1.0 the perimeter is closed; values below 1.0 create an opening, and keyframing Length produces a procedural write-on or trace around the polygon.

X Offset and Y Offset position the Shape in normalized image space. Diagnose placement independently from Width, Height and Angle so that translation is not confused with a change in geometry.

Z Offset [3D] is exposed in the captured Controls UI for depth-compatible Shape workflows. In ordinary flat motion graphics it is usually kept neutral unless a deliberate 3D-compatible arrangement requires it.

Width and Height control polygon dimensions. Matching values preserve symmetric scaling across the two axes, while different values stretch the regular polygon horizontally or vertically.

Angle rotates the polygon around its center. Rotation is especially easy to judge on low-sided shapes such as triangles, squares and hexagons, which makes Angle useful for both layout and animation.

The Style tab carries the Shape color. The captured Style image shows white Color and Red, Green, Blue and Alpha all at 1.0; those values document that screenshot state rather than prescribe a universal default.

The Color swatch and the individual Red, Green, Blue and Alpha controls describe the authored style color through different interfaces. Numeric channels are useful for exact repetition and animation.

Alpha is part of the color itself, while Opacity provides another transparency control. Change one at a time during diagnosis so a reduced final alpha is not incorrectly attributed to the wrong parameter.

Allow Combining matters when multiple semi-transparent Shape elements overlap after nodes such as sGrid or sDuplicate. With it enabled, authored alpha is preserved through self-overlap; disabling it allows overlap regions to compound alpha.

Allow Combining is not a substitute for sBoolean and does not merge arbitrary geometry by itself. It specifically affects alpha behavior when Shape elements combine or overlap inside the Shape pipeline.

sNGon is an efficient source for sGrid and sDuplicate because one parametric polygon stays editable while repetition is handled downstream by a dedicated Shape operator.

For compound silhouettes, route sNGon downstream into sMerge or sBoolean. The combination happens after sNGon; the generator itself still remains a zero-input source.

Choose sPolygon or sBSpline when the contour must be freely drawn, sEllipse for an ellipse, and sStar for a star. sNGon is strongest when the shape should remain regular, symmetric and parameter-driven.

Do not confuse sNGon with the ordinary Polygon mask tool. Shape data and mask data use different pipelines and downstream operators, and a Shape branch normally reaches image compositing only after sRender.

For a filled-shape QC pass, set Sides, then Width/Height, Angle and Style, then inspect the sRender result at 100% Viewer scale. This isolates geometry from raster edge quality.

For an outline QC pass, disable Solid first, then tune Border Width/Style, Cap Style, Position and Length before adding keyframes. This avoids debugging several conditional controls at once.

When semi-transparent repetitions overlap, test Allow Combining intentionally in the Alpha Viewer. Otherwise an alpha-compounding problem may remain hidden until a dense pattern is built.

The captured Controls and Style screenshots are useful UI evidence, but conditional controls must be understood from the documented behavior and live Inspector state rather than inferred from a single collapsed configuration.