I'm not sure which version of Blender is being used for this tutorial, but I'm using 4.0 on 3-25-2024 and it turns out that the instruction to use shortcut key (Ctrl + Shift) after installing "Node Wrangler" does not produce the expected result of turning the viewport items multicolored. The result is that the nodes just sit there without changing.
When trying to manually reproduce the result in the nodes myself (sans shortcut keys) by looking closer at the video to see what had changed in the nodes, I was unable to, as the node on the far right was off screen, not allowing me to see the new destination of the (Texture Coordinate > Generated) dot.
Luckily, I was able to trial and error my way through it by leaving Material Output on Target > All, and placing the Texture Coordinate > Generated dot into the Material Output > Surface dot.
I'm guessing that part of this is me not understanding nodes as well as I should despite three tutorials that have used them, but haven't explained them in great detail.
I hope that sharing this will help prevent someone from having the same issue / pulling their hair out.
It should work, noting has changed in respect to that:
If you Control + Shift and click on the texture coordinate node, with the node wrangler enabled, it will cycle through as in the video, even in the latest version of Blender. Perhaps you can add some screenshot or even better a screen grab video of your screen to see what could have gone wrong.
Hi Chris RedOmicronCreator ,
Like Omar said, this shortcut still works in 4.0, 4.1, 4.2.
Make sure your Mouse Pointer is hovering over the Node you want to preview (the middle or right of the colored header should always be good) and press and hold CTRL+SHIFT and then LMB.
I'm not sure what else you could be doing wrong 🤔
Please let us know if you get it to work.
Yeah I think the confusion is that Jonathan mentions a new hotkey combo of CTRL+SHIFT,
however doesn't mention to 'click' on the node whilst holding the hotkey combo.
You can see the version of Blender used by looking in the bottom right corner.
We do advise using the version used in the course, as you need to focus on learning the concepts of 3D CG.
These concepts don't change with Blender version and have remained the same for centuries, OK not centuries but decades.
The thing that has changed is Blenders UI, a few buttons and some settings, but they have no influence over the core concepts of 3D CG.
Thank you to Omar, Martin and Adrian for helping me with this very embarassing oversight on my part! Yes, all of you were exactly correct. The solution was to hold Ctrl + Shift, THEN LMB click on the texture coordinate node. What I was doing was just pressing Ctrl + Shift and expecting the result. Watching the video more closely, he does click without saying to do so. I'm embarassed I missed it as I do follow tutorials step by step.
Adrians tip about blender version in the LR corner is also very helpful and I upgraded today via Steam so it will stay updated. I also made sure all my Preferences match too for a seamless transition. I'm new to this community and can already tell that it's rife with people much smarter than I. I appreciate all of your help!
