Introduction to SuperTools - Exploring Example SuperTools Structure:

SuperTools are a very powerful way of creating custom tools inside Katana that can be tailored to different studios to help streamline artists' workflows. Similarly to OpScript nodes, SuperTools can be used to create custom nodes that don’t already exist inside Katana. However, their setup and functionalities differ.

SuperTools are compound nodes that use a set of Python files to create a custom UI as well as dynamically creating and controlling the internal node structure. This means the internal nodes can be created, deleted, and modified depending on the user's actions.

Katana ships with some SuperTool nodes such as GafferThree and Importomatic nodes, as well as example SuperTools. Adam will take a look at some of these examples in this video and examine their Python structure to demonstrate where to create the UI and where to build the internal node structure.

SuperTool Use Case - AttributeWedge:

In this video, Adam will take you through an example SuperTool for wedging Attributes. This SuperTool can be used to make adjustments to inputted Attributes’ values (such as shading/pixel samples) based on the current frame and values inputted into the UI. This can be used to set up multiple value variations, which can be rendered and compared in order to make creative decisions.

Adam talks through step-by-step the structure of the Python files used to build his AttributeWedge node to help you gain an understanding so you can start creating your own SuperTools.