Looking for node flows to learn Fusion

As a new Fusion Studio user, I'm fascinated by the ability to copy a bunch of code here, paste it in a flow window, and all the nodes appear. For example yesterday I found this thread in which Rony Soussan had posted two snipets of code to generate smoke that are way better than the one that comes with the templates. And that's a good way to learn Fusion, by going into each node and checking the parameters and tweaking them.

So that made me wonder if there's a repository or something like that where other users post code like this. I did a search in this forum for "Code: select all" but mostly I found people with issues pasting their code for troubleshooting.

Every template/macro that people post here or share as free 'presets' in Youtube videos etc can be used in this way. The closest thing to a repository is Reactor, which you can download from the user forum at www.steakunderwater.com

There are also the Bins, which contain a number of example setting files intended for learning about Fusion.

Ctrl+B to open the Bins window. The organization is a little wonky -- find the section Templates on localhost, spin down Fusion and look through the contents there. None of it is production-worthy, and it's all pretty old stuff, but the examples will give you an idea of how to approach a number of effects

Thanks, guys. I'll check that website.

Yes, I knew about the bins, they seem a little lacking though. I don't expect to find Hollywood blockbuster grade templates there, but some of them seem rather disappointing. But like you said, it's pretty old stuff, which makes me wonder why don't they put newer stuff there to showcase the program's abilities. Just my opinion, that's what I would do.

They do showcase the abilities. It shows you what can be done technically.
Then it's up to you - the artist - to make some cool stuff.

This ^

Comp operators, when taken separately are mostly not blowing anyones socks off, and this is the foundational intent: to give the building blocks where each one does just one specific thing, to build what one wants, and aggregate the base ops into higher level tools through groups, macros, templates and whatnot.

On the other hand, I remember the time when I started digging into node based comp stuff and it was a bit of a struggle, not from conceptual side, but from the practical side of figuring out how those basic ops can be juggled to make cool stuff. Because initially it isn’t easy to imagine all the obvious and totally not obvious ways. For this, example scripts are very helpful as they new give ideas. And can also somewhat shatter the illusions, as it turns out fabulous ”hollywood stuff” in comp isn’t some secret plugin that does one-click-this-and-that but just a lot of work with relatively basic tools.

You can open up flows and check them out but Fusion can be pretty obtuse to just check out. The really useful things come from people who have bent the tools to their will and use it in full productions. The flows in the Bin are OK but they are a bit archaic and the ones like the 3D reflections are broken and a spider web that takes a while to reverse engineer.

There are some great resources for learning Fusion node flows. Somebody who hasn't made anything for a bit but absolutely shows some of the best flow theory and explains the rationale behind it is Vito.

https://www.youtube.com/c/ConFusion

He goes over large project layout and workflows that use things like wireless nodes, bitmaps, and ingest regions.

Milolabs is also a great resource. He is the wildest I've watched that uses a spiderweb approach to layout. He's really good and can keep track of it but he definitely "crosses the streams", so to speak.

https://www.youtube.com/c/millolabtuts

Between these two, you should be able to see what sophisticated layouts look like.

Once you know what you're looking at, the other thing to do is watch Nuke tutorials. They all work vertical but then again, so do most of the compers that get deep into it. Top to bottom feeding in new branches from the left and mattes from the right.

After a while you'll start to use the theories and can just save out parts of flows as macros and ".setting" files to add to your tools. It's a deep rabbit hole that ends up with making custom tools for what you need, which is pretty freaking cool.

Here's an old thread where somebody was looking at how to make a planet with atmosphere. By the end, it was a pretty nice flow that could be copy and pasted.
https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=181447&hilit=+fall+off

You could take most of that code and save it to a ".setting" file called "Planet3D.setting" and throw it in your macros folder. From then on, just type Planet3D into the tool window and you're done.

I do find the fastest way to learn new software is to run tutorials designed for its competitors.
Running Nuke tuts in Fusion will help you really learn why the tutorial author used a particular tool because you'll have to spend time learning exactly what the Nuke tool does, which Fusion tool matches, and how the parameters are different. Takes a lot longer, but you really learn it!

Ha! Yeah, it was mostly for compositing theory I guess. Let's call that stage two after getting to know Fusion tools. You guys of the old school had years of experience with eyeon and earlier hardcore compositing theory but it's hard to find those kind of tutorials for Fusion using modern techniques and set ups. I liked your site when you were showing stuff for compositing basics but some of the more sophisticated techniques like UV projection mapping and painting are pretty rare for Fusion. If you go looking for those kinds of things in Nuke however, they're all over the place and it shows the different expectations of compositing competency that is inherent in a modern shop. Fusion CAN do most of it but nobody under 40 knows how.

Looking in the Bin is like looking in a History Museum. Some of the comps don't even work.

Going to Nuke lets you see what is possible in compositing in general. Projection Mapping, High Frequency beauty work, assisted 3d tracking, creating legitimate clean plates, just a whole world that you won't find outside of a few people like Millo and Vito on Youtube. Casey Farris is fine for some kinds of work but when you get down and dirty with hundreds of nodes there's a whole world of next level technique that isn't shown using modern Fusion. Fu9? Yep. FU16+? Nope.

Nuke has an entire chunk of their website dedicated to modern techniques for 99% of the things needed in compositing today. Which, to be honest, isn't even that big of a list. Blackmagic keeps using the term Fusion Effects to describe a Fusion Comp in Resolve while showing off how you can now select text in the window! It's 1/4 of their software and they don't know what to do with it. You still can't make a Fusion comp with a frame start of 1000 in Resolve. It's broken. Nor can you make a comp in the Bins and use it in multiple sequences. Like, the most straight forward and basic concept in post production.

I also think the "modern" style of Fusion hurts the quality of work that you can do in it because of the lack of configuration and efficiencies that have been lost to the new UI. It's coming back but at a snails pace. If they put all the features of the modern toolset with the Fu9 interface, the community would lose it's mind in the best way possible. The people using Resolve would have a meltdown war over simplicity like iMovie vs. configuration like Premiere Pro.

At this point, frankly, Fusion needs Nuke because it's got a generational gap in skills that isn't being addressed by the company that should want the largest adoption numbers it can get. Especially with it's new licensing program and organization platform. There might be two colorists and ten editors in a shop. There can be 50 compositors at the same location. In the commercial world, you'll find five or six Flame operators in a shop. Blackmagic could eat the Flame market if it paid a little attention to Fusion. You'd think they would want to make it easy for a location to make that request of software.

Dare say, going to Nuke to learn what to do is the only real way to learn to comp using Fusion.

Sorry I haven't replied in a bit, some obligations took me away from the Fusion fun. But I will make sure to read your very detailed posts and apply them to my learning process.