WHY ARE SO MANY APPLICATIONS EITHER SWITCHING TO OR USING NODAL WORKFLOWS?
There are two main types of UI interaction modes in contemporary digital content creation applications. The ‘common’ method depends on the artists clicking on icons, using tools and screen gimbals. This is an excellent way for artists who may be new to the software to get to grips with the ‘correct way of doing things’ implemented by the developers.
The nodal methodology goes deeper and allows artists to have access to practically every one of the options as an independent item or node. When connected together in a tree structure, nodes enable artists to create bespoke elements suited to their working methods or the nature of the project.
In many respects, nodal workflows are a visual programming language for artists. This can be both intimidating or liberating, depending on the artist (or time of day, for that matter).
Nodal workflows are potentially not great for those artists who are in a rush or new to an application; here the ‘common’ method is preferable as the user interface shortcuts to the most widely used tasks.
A lot of applications do use both methods, standard and nodal, in their workflows. Texturing, for example, has moved to a nodal workflow across the majority of render engines. However, recently there has been a push by digital content application developers to unlock every parameter to a nodal interface.
This means we are unlikely to see a nodal version of a sculpting application like Zbrush, for example, which is totally dependant on the artist’s input – but for more procedural processes such as motion graphics, nodal workflows do offer
a range of benefits. Nodal workflows tend to make applications quicker, as they don’t need the ‘layer’ of standard UI tools. Still, the counter to this is that they also make applications less intuitive to new users. Both Houdini and Adobe Substance 3D Designer are applications that depend on nodal workflows and are considered to have a steep learning curve. As with most things in life, there is no ‘correct’ content creation workflow. Both have their strengths, but nodal workflows do offer a key to unlocking the full creative potential of any application that supports them.