Interface

Much of the interface is located in the node editor while the rest of the interface exists in other regions like the 3D viewport.

Animation Nodes have its own node editor which you can select by clicking on the Dope Sheet icon dope-sheet-icon in the tool bar. A new node tree can be added by clicking on the New button.

To add a new node, you can open the Node Menu by pressing Shift+A just like other node systems. The menu contains a group of submenus each of which contains a list of node categorized by their type. The menu includes all the nodes in Animation Nodes except for some passive nodes. Passive nodes are nodes that can only be added through the Search Menu which is covered in the next section.

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Passive nodes are usually added automatically whenever needed, for instance, Parse Number node is automatically added when attempting to connect a text type to a number type:

The search menu can be opened by pressing Ctrl+A, it enables you to quickly find and insert nodes by their names. Some nodes have multiple names for faster access. Moreover, some nodes have the so called “search tags” which are option presets, for instance, searching for “Add, subtract, multiply, …” will add a math node and set it to the required type. The search menu can find any node in Animation Nodes even if it was passive.

Node Settings

Inside the Node

Options that users use often are drawn inside nodes, for example:

Math operation and distribution patterns are node options.

Advanced Node Settings

Options that users don’t use often are drawn in a custom panel called Advanced Node Settings to avoid clustering the UI.

Node Panel

Sockets (Inputs and Outputs) of nodes can be hidden or unhidden through this panel by pressing the “eye” next to the desired socket. Some nodes like subprograms, allows reordering of sockets by using the arrows. You can also change the name and label of nodes in this panel, names has to be unique.

Tree Settings

The tool menu in the node editor in Animation Nodes contain settings and information regarding the nodetree itself. All of the options will be explained in other sections of the getting started guide.

Auto Execution Panel

Include options related to auto execution of the node tree.

Developer

Include options related to inspecting, profiling and debugging node trees.

Overview

Include some information about the node tree like the execution time. The statistics button draws a table that include information about the number and types of nodes in the node tree.

Animation Nodes Tree

This panel includes manual execution button and the scene that the node tree belongs to.

Edit Node labels - If enabled, a text box will appear in every node that lets you edit the label of the node. This is particularly helpful if you want to organize you node tree after you finished building it.

3D View

ID

Includes some options related to the /user_guide/nodes/object/object_id_key node.

Data Input

Displays the the data input nodes inside the panel if Show In Viewport is enabled.

Shortcuts

U

Upon pressing U while selecting a node, a panel that include both the Advanced Node Settings and the Socket Settings of the selected node will appear. This is considered as a more robust way to edit the settings instead of promoting the N menu:

W

Upon pressing W while selecting a node, a pie menu will be promoted that include up to three operators depending on the selected node, those operators include:

Data Input

This is only available if the node has Visible inputs. It will create an Input Node for the selected node’s input socket (or the only existing one):

Viewer

This is only available if the node has Visible outputs. It will create a Viewer Node for the selected node’s output socket (or the only existing one):

Loop Through

This is only available if the node has Visible list outputs. It will create a Loop Input Node with an iterator of the same type as the selected node’s output socket (or the only existing one), as well as create an Invoke Node pointing to the created loop connecting the selected node’s output to the created iterator:

Create Invoke Node

This is only available if the node is a Loop Input Node. It creates an Invoke Node pointing to the selected loop:

E

Upon pressing E while selecting a node, a pie menu will be promoted that include three operators that allows selecting relatives of the selected node, those operators include:

Selected Dependencies

This will select all the nodes that the selected node depends upon, that is, nodes connected to its inputs. Green in the illustration below.

Selected Dependent Nodes

This will select all the nodes that uses the selected node, that is, dependent on it. Orange in the illustration below.

Selected Network

This will select all dependencies and dependent nodes as well of that of them of the selected node, that is, any node connected to the selected node. Blue in the illustration below.

Tab

Tab if pressed while selecting a Loop Input Node, will select all the Invoke Nodes pointing to it. And if pressed while selecting an Invoke Node, will select the Loop Input Node of the loop it is pointing to. This works across node trees, so if a loop is defined in another node tree, Animation Nodes will switch to that node tree, in that case, pressing Tab again will—in some scenarios—switch back to the node tree you were originally at.

Ctrl + Shift + Q

This will disable Auto Execution.