Reusing a Composition into Another?

So I just finished that tutorial on making a plasma ball and wanted to test it out with some renders or add it to that Planet Earth comp I started yesterday. Can I bring the comp of the plasma ball into anther composition? If yes, how? I looked at the tools and in the huge manual but don't know what to look for.

Thanks in advance
Dennis

Select all nodes, CTRL-C to copy, CTRL-V to paste.

Thanks! Wow that simple huh? I thought I would have to consolidate somehow. So how do we manage the flow window if things get too crowded?

Thanks! Wow that simple huh? I thought I would have to consolidate somehow. So how do we manage the flow window if things get too crowded?

Experience

Basically you'll have to get used to having lots and lots of nodes. You can group some together (CTRL-G) - but I'm personally not a big fan of that - or just pull them apart in sections. At some point you'll probably spend some time revisiting a comp and cleaning it up. You'll find out what works for you, and whether you want to go top-down, left-right or a combination.

Underlays are a great help, too. You can surround tools with them, give them different colors so when you zoom out of your comp you can easily see where you did what.

Documenting your comp with notes helps as well.

What are underlays? I saw an example of 2 tools in a comp surrounded by a colored box that said "Note" at the top with a description written in it. Is that what you're talking about? How is that done? It would be a great help in organization for me. Also I can make notes to myself as I learn and remember what I did.

Yes Notes are your best friend. Also color the nodes by section accordingly. Usually when I have something important in a node or few nodes I color them hot pink with white text so I cannot miss them on the flow. If I have some spline animation on a node I color it orange, loaders have their on colors and so on. You get the idea.

Here you go

Just paste the piece of code in your Flow View.

PS. When you press CTRL+SPACE you get a list of every available tool. You can start typing "underlay" to get to the Underlay node.

Code: Select all

{
   Tools = ordered() {
      Note1 = Note {
         Inputs = {
            Comments = Input { Value = "and this is a note! :)", },
         },
         ViewInfo = StickyNoteInfo {
            Pos = { 818.964, 243.382, },
            Flags = {
               Expanded = true,
            },
            Size = { 196, 179.3, },
         },
      },
      ChannelBooleans1 = ChannelBoolean {
         CtrlWZoom = false,
         Inputs = {
            Background = Input {
               SourceOp = "BrightnessContrast1",
               Source = "Output",
            },
         },
         ViewInfo = OperatorInfo { Pos = { 779.787, 513.039, }, },
      },
      Background1 = Background {
         Inputs = {
            Width = Input { Value = 2048, },
            Height = Input { Value = 1556, },
            ["Gamut.SLogVersion"] = Input { Value = FuID { "SLog2", }, },
            Gradient = Input {
               Value = Gradient {
                  Colors = {
                     [0] = { 0, 0, 0, 1, },
                     [1] = { 1, 1, 1, 1, },
                  },
               },
            },
         },
         ViewInfo = OperatorInfo { Pos = { 449.787, 513.039, }, },
      },
      Blur1 = Blur {
         Inputs = {
            Input = Input {
               SourceOp = "Background1",
               Source = "Output",
            },
         },
         ViewInfo = OperatorInfo { Pos = { 559.787, 513.039, }, },
      },
      BrightnessContrast1 = BrightnessContrast {
         Inputs = {
            Input = Input {
               SourceOp = "Blur1",
               Source = "Output",
            },
         },
         ViewInfo = OperatorInfo { Pos = { 669.787, 513.039, }, },
      },
      this_is_an_underlay = Underlay {
         NameSet = true,
         ViewInfo = UnderlayInfo {
            Pos = { 755.526, 52.9071, },
            Size = { 924.714, 564.139, },
         },
         Colors = {
            TileColor = { R = 0.486274509803922, G = 0.619607843137255, B = 0.0196078431372549, },
            TextColor = { R = 0, G = 0, B = 0, },
         },
      },
   },
}