The node graph

Every grade in Luttie is a chain of nodes, one per panel, applied in order from Source to Output. The node graph shows that chain, with a live preview of the image as it leaves each node, and lets you build and rewire it.

Turn on Advanced mode with the button at the bottom of the panel rail. A Node graph bar then appears under the canvas; click it to open the graph. It docks under the canvas, so the picture changes in view as you work, and you can drag its top edge to make it taller or shorter. Advanced mode stays on until you switch it off. The graph is on desktop only.

A grade starts as one node

A new grade has a single node, Exposure & Contrast, the one stage that always runs. Add others when you need them:

• Right-click an empty part of the graph and pick Add node, or press Shift+A with the graph focused. + Add node in the graph's toolbar does the same.
• Use a panel's controls in the sidebar and its node appears by itself.
• Drag from a node's output and let go on empty space, and the new node goes after it.

Delete node in a node's right-click menu clears what it does and takes it out of the graph. Reset node puts its settings back to their defaults and keeps it where it is.

The default order

When nodes are added, they go into this order unless you wire them elsewhere:

Color Space Transform → Film → White Balance → Exposure & Contrast → Color Wheels → Tone → Saturation → LUT → HSL Secondary → Curves → Hue Curves → Masks → Vignette → Film Effects

So a Color Space Transform converts the footage before anything else, the film engine sees it next, your corrections feed into the LUT, and curves shape the result after it.

Why order matters

The same settings in a different order give a different image. Two examples:

• Curves before or after the LUT: after the LUT, a curve adjusts the finished look. Before it, the curve changes what the LUT receives, which can shift its colours in ways that are hard to predict.
• Saturation before or after Color Wheels: saturation boosted after tinting makes the tint stronger too.

Rewiring

Each node has an input on its left and an output on its right.

• Drag from an output to another node's input, and the node you started from moves there.
• Drag from an input to pick up the wire already in it, and drop it on another node's output to rewire.
• Drag a node over a wire until the wire lights up, and let go to put the node there. Hold Alt to drag past wires without dropping in.
• Alt+← and Alt+→ swap the selected node with the one before or after it.
• Right-click a wire for Insert node here.

Nodes stay wherever you drag them. Where a node sits on the graph is only layout: the order is set by the wires. Tidy lays the nodes out in chain order again, and Fit brings every node into view.

Unplugging and bypassing

There are two ways to stop a node running without losing its settings:

• Unplug takes it out of the chain. Grab the node and shake it, pick up the wire going into it and let go on empty space, or select it and press Delete. The node goes loose and its neighbours are wired to each other, so the picture keeps flowing. Wire it back in, use Plug back in from its menu, or Reconnect all in the toolbar, and it runs again where it sat.
• Bypass keeps it wired where it is but switches it off. The card dims and the node drops out of the render; switch it back on, or press Ctrl+D (⌘D on a Mac), and the grade returns exactly.

Reading the nodes

• Nodes marked No effect with current settings aren't doing anything yet.
• Nodes marked Not included in LUT export won't be in an exported LUT; see what goes into the LUT.
• Click a node, or select it and press Enter, to open its panel's controls.
• Reset order, in the graph's right-click menu, restores the default order and clears every bypass and unplug.
• Esc deselects the node, and pressed again closes the graph.

While the graph is open, the command palette has its commands too.

It's the order everything uses

The order you leave the chain in is what the preview, image and video exports, and LUT exports all use. There's no separate export order to keep in sync.