Subtitles of the Movie

In this movie we will have an overview of the Parameters and Globals panels. To the lower right of the Shake interface is the Parameters panel. This is where the settings for any selected node can be changed or animated. Here I have the Mult 1 node selected and its parameters show up here in the Parameters 1. Many of these parameters have sub-parameters, which are represented by a small plus sign to the left. By clicking on the plus sign, you can view or change the sub-parameters. Parameters and sub-parameters each have controls for adjusting a node's settings. There are sliders, like this one, which allow you to slide a value larger or smaller. And if you control click drag in the Value Field, you can access virtual sliders, which allow for finer control. If a parameter has an expression or a link to another parameter, you'll see a small plus sign next to the parameter name, just like it was for the sub-parameters, and when you click on it, you'll see a text field, which shows the contents of the expression. This text field shows an expression that links the red parameter to the green. So when I slide the green, the red goes with it. And sometimes this expression will link together X and Y values or perform a math function instead. Some parameters have buttons that control how a node is processed or a lock symbol that allows you to lock the parameter, or a key symbol, that allows you to key frame that parameter. Parameters will also, at times, have a color control chip, so you can double click the color control chip and it brings up a color picker, where you can select a color. Or you can adjust the color value numerically by changing these number values here or by changing the sliders, as we did earlier. We'll learn more about parameters in the movie about using parameters and globals. Behind the Parameters Tab is the Globals Tab. The Globals Tab is a lot like the project settings of Adobe After Effects or the project properties of other applications. It controls the time range, the frame width and height of elements made in Shake, the pixel aspect ratio, the proxy settings, if you're working with film, your motion blur controls, your color bit depth, field rendering, and ways to control Shake's Graphical User Interface or GUI, and that's found in the GUI controls. The other things that I mentioned, we've got our render controls here for field rendering and we have our format controls here for pixel width versus height, aspect ratio, bit depth, etcetera. And you can access this Globals Tab by clicking on it behind the Parameters Tab, or if you're in your Node View, and double click on a blank area of the Node View, voila, it brings up the Globals Tab. The most basic way to use the Globals Tab is to set the time range to the length of your composite, and the time range is the first parameter for the globals right here. And you can also set the resolution in width versus height, frames per second in the format section. We'll learn more about outputting files, which is what all of this controls, in the movie about file out to disk. So to review, the Parameters Tab controls the settings for your nodes, and the Globals Tab controls the settings for your composite. Because very few nodes in the tool tabs are designed to work in a plug and play way, you'll find that you'll need to use the Parameters and Globals Windows very often in the creation of your composites.