Curve Math, Plotting, Multiple Outputs, Ect...

*Curve Math*

I've noticed when doing math operations on curves that the values depicted in the graph range from 0 to 1 which makes sense because in the end we're working with pixel values that share that range.

However, it makes the multiply function of the curve math component limited because you can't scale a value up outside of using the amplify component.

I understand the logic behind it. The values are clamped so they can be applied directly to pixels but perhaps you guys can allow for the graph to accept values greater than 1 and just clamp the result?

*Plotting Curves*

Would it be possible to get a curve component where we were permitted to plot points? Sometimes when I'm trying to construct an elaborate curve I wish I could just plot some points because the alternative is to create a series of curves and add or subtract them from one another.

*Multiple Outputs*

Could you change the extract channel components so they have three outputs?

Generally speaking, if I use an extract channel component, I use them in sets of three so giving it all three outputs would save real estate.

*Blank Nodes*

I would love to have a small node that does nothing more than accept an input and pass it through with no changes.

I realize you can do that with a few components already but it would be handy to have specialized nodes that didn't take up as much real estate as a full fledged component so you can better arrange your overall filter for legibility.

*Labels*

I'd also like to see another specialized node that doesn't do anything but serve as a label. It would be great just to have a place to comment on or document what is going on at a particular location in your filter.

You could extend this "label" node to group components together. Perhaps when the label node is selected, a box is drawn around all the components that are part of that group and they are selected in turn.

*Control Organization*

Finally, I'd like to see the addition of tabs. This way you can group related controls together and disable tabs when those controls shouldn't be active.

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Richard Bartlett wrote: I would love to have a small node that does nothing more than accept an input and pass it through with no changes.

Adjustments > Invert with the checkbox turned off As for arranging filters for legibility, I think having groups/subroutines would be a better idea. We're discussing that, but we don't have anything concrete yet (prototypes, screen mockups etc).

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Richard Bartlett wrote: Finally, I'd like to see the addition of tabs. This way you can group related controls together and disable tabs when those controls shouldn't be active.

This would result in a Tabs-in-Tabs construct:

Presets
Settings
- Tab 1
- Tab 2
- Tab 3
Lighting
About

I can tell from my experience as a UI designer that tabs-in-tabs are confusing and difficult to use, and we made lots of effort trying to eliminate tabs-in-tabs from FF's interface entirely.

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Richard Bartlett wrote: Would it be possible to get a curve component where we were permitted to plot points? Sometimes when I'm trying to construct an elaborate curve I wish I could just plot some points because the alternative is to create a series of curves and add or subtract them from one another.

Yes, but this requires serious architechtural redesign of FF's internals. Currently, all components are parametrical -- that is, fully defined by their inputs. An editable curve would mean that FF now has components that can have "binary" data not accessible or definable via inputs.

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Vladimir Golovin wrote: I agree, this sounds absolutely reasonable -- I had several mock-ups of multi-output components. Here's one of the problems with this idea. Imagine you have a 3-out ExtractRGB component. How would you view each of the extracted channels separately when they are produced by a single selectable component? Yes, you will be able to look at their thumbs in the editor, but you can't see the channels in the preview on teh left without having to implement additional UI tricks.

I don't imagine seeing a preview of the separate color channels is terribly important. I mean, you can still get them to show up in the preview pane. You just have to connect their outputs to an invert component (with the invert checkbox unticked ) and select that component instead.

But if it's absolutely necessary, you could use a listbox to select the channel to display in the preview pane.

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Vladimir Golovin wrote: We are discussing the idea of a HDR pipeline that won't clip intermediate results passed between components. However, it's too early to say if this will apply to curve components as well.

Disscussion is good. Discussion is good.

Regarding connections and readability:

In my experience, good readability of a filter schematic is mostly a result of the author deliberately organizing his components into 'logical' or 'operational' groups. Since we have an expansive (even infinite?) workspace, there is no need to pile components into dense spaghetti-like jumbles.

Also, for the sake of filter efficiency, connections WILL go all over (and underneath) the place eventually to enable the node-caching optimizations. So, it seems, authors need to learn how to SPATIALLY organize filter components rather than worry about the FLOW of data (connections). I will stress here that this is my perception of the problem, and not meant to be read as absolute.

Sidenote: Maybe a good idea would be to provide TWO connection styles to choose from: 'direct' and 'orthogonal'. Orthogonal connections would only go horizontally and vertically, breaking into sharp corners where necessary.