Individual shapes and other objects in layers are referred to as elements in Paragraphic (See Basics – Layers and Elements). Elements can be created and repeated in various patterns by nodes (see Basics – Repeaters), but they can also be modified. For example changing their color, or applying transformations like rotating or scaling them.
This video below covers some basics on how these nodes can be added and set up to apply changes to elements in different ways.
Adding Change nodes to layers
Change nodes in Paragraphic can be added like any other nodes by clicking the Add node button in the Selection panel to the right when a layer is selected, or via the layer context menu.
The change nodes, like other layer nodes, always act on whatever is before them in the layer node sequence. So if the change nodes change the same properties the order in which you add them will matter.
To remove a node you can use the context menu or … menu button on the panel for the repeater node to the right and select Delete node. In this menu you can also find items to reorder nodes, moving them up or down, or to insert new nodes after a node in the sequence instead of at the end.
Apply to modes
If the input of a change node is just a single element, like a single shape, this node will always apply the changes to this element. However, if the input is a group of elements, for example if you’ve added a repeater to this layer, the change node will present a setting for what elements to apply change to.
Group mode
The first apply to mode is Group, in this mode the change is applied to the entire group, for example rotating the group.
Each mode
The second mode applies the change to each individual child element of the group.
Selection mode
The third mode works like Each mode, but also presents you with additional settings to apply the change to only a selection of the child elements in the group. For example affecting every other element, a random selection or some other pattern.
Change nodes and Group nodes
In addition to the Change nodes you can add another category of nodes is called Group nodes. The Group nodes are very similar in that they apply various changes to elements, but as the name implies they are designed to be applied to groups. For example they may apply gradual changes to individual elements in a group, or apply transformations relative to the group pivot point.
So, while Change nodes can be applied to both single elements and groups of elements, the Group nodes are only meaningful to apply to groups of elements. The Apply to modes offered in these nodes also reflect this, as in Group nodes you can only switch between applying the change to Each or Selected, while in Change nodes you can also choose to apply the change to the entire group as a single element.
Deep change
In Each or Selection mode, if the group contains multiple levels of groups, there will also be an option to use what is called Deep change. In this mode the change will be applied to the individual elements all the way down the group hierarchies instead of applying the change to the first level child elements.
