UI: Silky Smooth Fusion Connections and Node Designs

Fusion will be much eye-pleasing, smooth, easy to use, improved.
If fusion applies design concept of Houdini's Node Graph to itself.
Overview is shown here comparing some features...

This is how it can be Improved

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A Better Close-Up View of Houdini Nodes:
To show how you can give any node a color, name & shape.

You can add comments in a node too

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You can observe how nodes have elegant look, connections and multiple functionalities
with four buttons (bypass,lock,template,display) yet they look simple.

Furthermore, the reason there is only an icon in the middle is that there are 4 buttons, 2 on either side, to help you quickly control common node functions, like bypass or display, without needing a shortcut key or menu to do it (even though both those things also exist).

Thanks to Avinash Lobo for more clarification on the basics of this topic.

For more elaborated info, read Avinash's reply below starting with this image...

Houdini nodegraph is even harder to read than new Fusion one, all nodes are same color and that icon is so faint it is useless. Horizontal occupation is bigger for a lot of nodes in that Houdini example because node label is also taking space. Smooth lines and corners are kind of tasty, but what is the most obvious ugly aspect in Fu is the misalignment of lines when node has two top inputs. For example stacked merge nodes form a pattern of Z-s which is imho yucky.

First thing I would change in Fu nodegraph is the node coloring. Replace that stupid thin line with full colored bg.

I don't like the Houdini node graph icons.
It is dead now but i prefer much more the Softimage XSI ICE node graph , color coded and with easy to do compounds.

I prefer the bottom image (Fusion).

I don't like the Houdini node graph icons.
It is dead now

Houdini nodegraph is even harder to read than new Fusion one, all nodes are same color and that icon is so faint it is useless.

Do you guys know this about Houdini? #VideoBelow
https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/videos/stitch_tool.mp4

It is a one good idea Geetesh.


Here is an example of ICE nodes and how to work with them. Notice how the node can be opened, how it is descriptive inputs and color coded.

I like the idea of merge nodes with multiple inputs.... that I like...

+1 to Softimage style node tree's

That ICE graph is what Blender also does. It has its benefits for flows where a lot of different data types are moved around, like 3D. Not sure it is so useful in comp, where most of data is image data in single stream, but why not.

o my god i really love houdini's node graph, and houdini in general. Houdini is really a great example in how workflows are carefully fine tuned. There are so many options, shortcuts, workflow enhancements which you in advance never expected you wouldn't want to miss. I'd love to see a little more of that in fusion's node graph, or in resolve in general.

Note that in Softimage ICE a node can be saved to your computer as file, it does not only exist in node graph, you can share it, send it to anyone and even password protect it and make a "plugin" .

I have used several node-based applications over many, many years, and Houdini's Network Editor is hands-down the finest node experience out there, by a long shot. I'm not talking about how visually pleasing they are, but how many usability features they offer that can make dealing with complex networks a lot easier.

Cinema 4D's XPresso is the worst, with Resolve's Color Page a close second-worst. They're both arguably more visually pleasing to look at than Houdini, but holy hell, do they both suck hard at their job.

Fusion is not bad, but doesn't hold a candle to Houdini. It would do well to ape several quality of life features that Houdini offers.

Houdini has two node flow paradigms - one that flows vertically downward, and one that flows horizontally across (pretty much exactly the same as XSI's or Blender's Geometry nodes), and they're both first-class node experiences.

The sheer number of useful features that Houdini's node editor has, that Fusion does not, would not make this a practically-sized post for me to list here. Any feature that you have used in another node-based app, and any feature that you wished existed in the node-based app you use, pretty much certainly already exists in Houdini.

by the way, OP's houdini image is stitched together it seems, so i can imagine it could look a bit cluttered and unclear. But man, what a difference houdini makes. It's like having superpowers. Also searching for nodes/effects feels like it could beat googles search function.

Note that in Softimage ICE a node can be saved to your computer as file, it does not only exist in node graph, you can share it, send it to anyone and even password protect it and make a "plugin" .

If you copy a node in Fu it exists in copy buffer as a piece of text with same properties except encryption possibility.

Note that in Softimage ICE a node can be saved to your computer as file, it does not only exist in node graph, you can share it, send it to anyone and even password protect it and make a "plugin" .

If you copy a node in Fu it exists in copy buffer as a piece of text with same properties except encryption possibility.

Thanks. Did not know that, i am not as advanced in Fusion.

The OP's Houdini screenshot really does not do it any justice, the way he has crammed multiple, complex networks into one composite, overlapping image!

Houdini nodegraph is even harder to read than new Fusion one, all nodes are same color

In Houdini, any node can be given a colour, and certain node types already ship with certain colour defaults to help differentiate them by function. You can change these defaults to whatever you want.

and that icon is so faint it is useless.

The icon is not important, except to very loosely identify the type of node. Two of the same node types can be doing very different things, so far more important differentiators are the node name, colour, shape or comment. All these concepts are demonstrated here:


Furthermore, the reason there is only an icon in the middle is that there are 4 buttons, 2 on either side, to help you quickly control common node functions, like bypass or display, without needing a shortcut key or menu to do it (even though both those things also exist).

This is further augmented by a Node Ring that can optionally appear when you're zoomed out a lot. When you zoom out, the nodes get smaller, so those buttons also get smaller. The Node Ring makes it easy to activate those buttons in that state.

Horizontal occupation is bigger for a lot of nodes in that Houdini example because node label is also taking space.

Yes, and this is functionally superior to Fusion's node label where you are restricted to the width of the node. In Houdini, you can go nuts with the node name, making it as descriptive as you could possibly want. Of course, you don't have to use a long name, and can also keep the names extremely short if you choose. Houdini also retains the label of the node type (in the faded text above the name), so you can identify what the node's function is, even if the icon is unrecognisable.


Furthermore, node name width limit is not affected by zoom level, so similarly named nodes are identifiable even from a distance.


Contrast to Fusion, and you very quickly hit a width limit.

First thing I would change in Fu nodegraph is the node coloring. Replace that stupid thin line with full colored bg.

Fully agree with this. This was actually how it was before, and Blackmagic changed it to the current state, a significant step backwards in usability.

The OP's Houdini screenshot really does not do it any justice, the way he has crammed multiple, complex networks into one composite, overlapping image!

Avinash, I've mentioned your explanation above in my post.
Thanks for clearing basics for people new to Houdini.
This needed to be put there in order to first give a full idea
to newcomers about Functionality of Houdini Nodes

In Softimage ICE you could add a comment node.

In Softimage ICE you could add a comment node.

Alex, There's a message for you in a node named (polyextrude_i_m_simple)

shape and comment

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Yeah we had that in XSI and you could put them in node of nodes and node of nodes of nodes...

and XSI nodes / trees can be opened in DS, they are the same, with the exception that DS has alot more operators, those won't show up in in XSI

i think of XSI's comp as DS lite...

I think so, but those were the Softimage compositor nodes.
In this case i only have shown Softimage ICE nodes.

for a while i was playing with Nuke and I like their workflow/flowchart/node structure/notes/grouping/names of nodes/color .... and son on.....

I generally agree with everything, except that in the image OP posted, there's not enough color coding for the individual nodes, also lines that connect the nodes are a bit too thin for my liking, but generally, usability would improve a lot!
I especially love the feature with which you can draw over many nodes and connect them that way, that's totally awesome (https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/vid ... h_tool.mp4)

Please, please get rid of those lines and bring back solid color for nodes. Please !

Houdini nodegraph is even harder to read than new Fusion one, all nodes are same color and that icon is so faint it is useless. Horizontal occupation is bigger for a lot of nodes in that Houdini example because node label is also taking space. Smooth lines and corners are kind of tasty, but what is the most obvious ugly aspect in Fu is the misalignment of lines when node has two top inputs. For example stacked merge nodes form a pattern of Z-s which is imho yucky.

First thing I would change in Fu nodegraph is the node coloring. Replace that stupid thin line with full colored bg.