This is a very short and basic video about usingCompositing Switch node in Blender 4.3, particularly for animating the activation or deactivation of a node or a group of compositing nodes.
Video Transcript
Hello everyone! This is a very short and basic video about using Compositing Switch node in Blender 4.3, particularly for animating the activation or deactivation of a node or a group of compositing nodes.
As with many of my other video tutorials, the PDF version of this tutorial can be downloaded for free using the link in the description. This is also a great time to subscribe to the channel and enable notifications so you don’t miss upcoming tutorials!
The Switch node allows you to choose between one input or another. The selection is controlled by a checkbox, making the switch between inputs instantaneous. You can animate the checkbox value by right clicking on it and selecting Insert Keyframe from the menu that appears, or by pressing the I key while the mouse cursor is over the checkbox.
The Switch node enables us to activate or deactivate an effect or the parameter of an effect at specific moments. This allows us to animate even the Mute function of a node or a group of nodes, which otherwise cannot be animated in Blender.
For example, to activate the effect of a group of nodes only halfway through the animation, I’m using the Switch node, connecting the Image output of the Render Layer to the Off input, and the output of the group of nodes to the On input.
On the first frame of the Timeline, I insert a keyframe for the unchecked checkbox. This way, at the beginning of the animation, the Switch will deliver the original render.
At frame 125, which in my case corresponds to the middle of the animation, I enable the node’s checkbox and insert a keyframe for it. As a result, the Switch node will remain inactive from frame 1 to frame 124 and will become active from frame 125 onward, making the group’s effect visible only during the second half of the animation.
Since there is a curve in the Graph Editor for the checkbox of the Switch node, it is possible to apply animation modifiers, such as Cycle, which I covered in a previous tutorial on my channel.
For example, to use the Cycle modifier, you need to insert a keyframe where the Switch is deactivated, another keyframe where it is activated, and a third keyframe where it remains active. This creates a basic cycle, with a duration for the inactive phase and another for the active phase, controlled by these three keyframes.
Once this is done, you can add the Cycle modifier to the animation curve to achieve the desired result. This allows you to activate or deactivate the Switch node in a cyclical manner or implement other types of automated animations enabled by animation modifiers.
The transition between inputs in the Switch node is instantaneous because it is controlled by a checkbox. If you need a gradual transition, such as a fade between one input and another, I recommend using a Color Mix node and animating the Factor parameter.
In the Color Mix node, when the Factor value is 0, only the first input is used; when the value is 1, only the second input is used. Intermediate values result in interpolations between the two inputs.
That’s it for this basic tutorial! I hope you found it useful! See you soon!