This window lets you change the default settings for compositing. Unlike the Compositing section of the Houdini Preferences window, these settings only affect the current scene file.
You can set a COP node to "follow project settings" for various parameters (like Resolution and Frame range, which follow by default). In this case, when you change the setting here, the node will use the updated value. This lets you change pervasive settings, such as pixel format, in once place instead of manually editing every node. Conversely, you can have a COP override the project setting for a parameter.
To make the current scene file’s settings the defaults for all future compositing projects, click Save as defaults.
Resolution
The default resolution for compositing.
Pixel Aspect Ratio
The ratio of pixel width to height. Values other that one give non-square pixels.
Pixel Format
Choose 8/16 bit integer or floating point. Higher bit depths allow more colors. Floating point allows greater resolution during color manipulations.
Pixel Black/White Points
The values corresponding to black (usually 0) and white (usually 255 in an 8-bit format).
Enable Large Canvas
Enabling this checkbox maintains all of the information outside of the image frame. For example, if you were to translate an image to the left by 10 pixels and later blur it, the 10 pixels that are off screen are still used in the computation. Also, if another transform causes the pixels to be moved back into the frame, they would will be there. If this checkbox is turned off, the information is lost when it is pushed out of the image frame.
Frame Range
The default playback range for compositing.
Frame Rate
The default playback rate (in frames per second) for compositing.
Global Cook
Lets you work with scaled versions of processed images to save cooking time.
File Operators use the Project Resolution/Pixel Depth by Default
If these options are on, images brought into the scene by new File operators use the resolution/pixel format specified in this window instead of their native values.
File operators use the last entered filename
New file operators default to the last file chosen.