To import a Compositing node setup from one Blender project into the current one, by performing an Append, it is necessary to group the node setup in the project that contains it and, if possible, give it a meaningful name, to distinguish it from others...
Video Transcript
To import a Compositing node setup from one Blender project into the current one, by performing an Append, it is necessary to group the node setup in the project that contains it and, if possible, give it a meaningful name, to distinguish it from others. Let's see a practical example right away.
On screen, I am showing the project containing the Compositing node scheme that I want to make available for other projects.
To create a Node Group from these nodes, first, I select them with Border Select, whose shortcut is the B key. As you can see, I am including the initial Reroute object in the selection, so the group will have a single Input which will then be internally divided.
Once the selection is made, I create the group using Add Group Make Group, whose shortcut is CTRL G. The screen will change to show the structure of the group, as we can see from the presence of the two nodes Group Input and Group Output.
We can return to the general node scheme by pressing the TAB key. To examine and modify the structure of this or other node groups, we just need to select the group in the scheme and press the TAB key again.
To give a meaningful name to this group, we select it and open the Transform panel by pressing the N key, then we open the Node Properties section and change the NodeGroup string to something more significant. Since the node scheme is for a basic Vignetting effect, I am calling it vignette basic.
Now, we need to save the current file, so as to keep a copy of the group just created. You could create, for example, a Blender project containing multiple post-production node schemes, each grouped and with its own name, so as to create your library of effects ready to be imported, via Append, into your projects.
So let's open another Blender project to see how to import the Compositing node group from our library file.
All we need to do is select Append from the File menu, choose the file with the Node group, and look for the group in the NodeTree section.
Finally, to insert a copy of the group into the scheme, we need to choose it from the Group section of the Add menu.
