Nothing stops a good promo dead in its tracks like a static chart, dense graph or any other data- or image-intensive block of information. But who has the time to reanimate the graphics? Maybe this plug-in can help.

Nodes, first released by Yanobox in 2010, lets you tether text, graphics, numbers or any other images to nodes you can then animate in 3D space. The newest version, just out, has opened up a bit more and now lets you assign custom images to as many as 1,000 nodes. You can also isolate and highlight individual nodes, animate by keyframe, and play more with your opacity, cascading size and grid shape by adjusting the width and height.

Development partner Noise Industries, creators of the FxFactory engine that Nodes runs on, has posted a video on its YouTube channel that will give you a quick overview of some of the things the upgrade will do:

Nodes 1.2 is a free upgrade for current Nodes users and is included in the current version of FxFactory 2.5.7, a free download that supports After Effects 10.5 in CS5.5. You’ll need an Intel-based Mac running OS X Leopard (v.10.5.8) or Snow Leopard (v. 10.6.3) and an ATI, NVIDIA or Intel HD graphics card.