Null Population

[dhavalmistry]

I just realized something, there is something called "Null" under population menu.....I tried it but couldnt figure out what it is??...

[MeltingIce]

I just realized something, there is something called "Null" under population menu.....I tried it but couldnt figure out what it is??...

A lot of times null groups are used for workflow improvement and grouping objects together for easier reference.  Not sure what the use is in TG2 though.

[Will]

Yes I have been wondering about this aswell but MeltingIce's anwser is kind of what I was think but maybe Oshyan will pop-in and say. By the way I haven't seen Jo or Matt around lately, must be working on the next update kep up the good work boys (and girls)!

Regards,

Will

[Oshyan]

Yep, Jo and Matt are hard at work.

Null objects can have many uses but I've most often seen them used as stand-ins or references to external objects. Say for example you're composing a scene in TG2 and plan to render a high poly complex object in another app to composite in later. For reference when setting up your scene you could load the object itself, taking up memory and slowing things down, or you could just use a stand-in. In more complex scenarios these can actually be used by cross-communication scripts to automate data interchange and compositing.

- Oshyan

[Dark Fire]

Aah...Very clever Oshyan. Null objects are quite useful then...

[efflux]

Null object is useful of course but what about a null node? I know you could just use another node that is doing nothing but I think we need a null node which is a different colour so that we can hook graphs up between different internal networks and still easily see what's going on. This is what I presently need to do but don't see any way to make the connections visually obvious, at least in a quick and easy way.

[cyphyr]

Any chance the nulls will be used for parenting so when a the null is moved/scaled/rotated all the child objects are moved/scaled/rotated at the same time?
Richard

[Oshyan]

Any chance the nulls will be used for parenting so when a the null is moved/scaled/rotated all the child objects are moved/scaled/rotated at the same time?
Richard

Not likely this year, but very possibly in a future update.

- Oshyan