The Forged Image manual
Reference and guides for Forged Image — every node, every parameter, and how the systems fit together.
Start here
Forged, and how to read this manual
A compositor built around one rendering path, one undo model, and tools that say what they are doing.
What's new
Recent work, newest first. Dates are when the code landed, not when it was planned.
Basics
The workspace, the keys that matter on day one, and a first comp end to end.
Systems
The larger machines inside Forged Image, and how their nodes fit together.
Crucible
How to pull a matte on a shot that never saw a screen.
Camera Tracker (HDCT)
How to get a solved 3D camera out of a plate.
Anvil
How to track a model through a shot, and paint on it.
The Blacksmith family
Tools that do a whole job instead of a whole operation.
Disintegrate
How to take a subject apart on one clock.
Vector Warp
How to paint once and carry it through the shot.
Colour (MasterColor)
How to do a grade as one thought instead of eleven nodes.
The 3D system
How to put geometry, cameras and volumes in the comp — without becoming a 3D application.
Gaussian splats
How to bring a captured location into the comp — and relight it.
Unreal
How to get Unreal's pixels into the comp, live or rendered.
The families
I/O
Comp
Color
Filter
Keying
Transform
Masks
Blacksmith
Anvil
Model tracking — its own shelf tab beside Blacksmith, because a crafted tool has to be findable as one.
Generate
Time
Other
The utility set: caching, output, and the pipeline plumbing.
3D
Registered by the 3D bridge rather than the 2D shelf. Create them from <kbd>Tab</kbd> search or the 3D workspace.
Off-shelf
Registered node types that are not on any shelf tab — reachable through <kbd>Tab</kbd> search. Twenty-two of them; that is a findability gap, written down rather than tidied away.
Reference
Every node in Forged Image — all 142 of them, grouped by family. Signatures and defaults come straight from the application, so they match the build you are running.