🔶 Load Image Batch - Advanced

This is the plain Load Image Batch node's more capable sibling: instead of handing you one image per run, it hands you two - the current index and the one right after it - plus a "hold on this image for N frames" control the basic loader doesn't have. If your animation workflow needs to compare or blend adjacent frames, or you want to repeat a source image across several generated frames before moving on, this is the one built for it.

What it does

path is the folder to read from, same as the basic loader. index (INT, default 1, min 1, max 150000) is the current position. repeat (INT, default 0) controls how long the loader dwells on that index before advancing - at 0 it presumably moves to the next image every run; raised, it holds the same pair of images across that many runs first. Two image outputs come out of every call: IMAGE = Index and IMAGE = Index+1 - the current frame and the next one, loaded together. That pairing is what makes this node useful for anything that needs to look at two adjacent frames at once rather than one frame in isolation.

Two optional inputs, plus one extra output not present on the basic loader. restart (RESTART type) works exactly like it does elsewhere in the pack - wire it to the restarter node and bumping Version resets this loader's position. repeat_Override (REPEAT type) lets something else in the graph - most naturally the pack's own Number Counter or a similar dynamic source - set the repeat count on the fly instead of using the fixed widget value. And the node outputs its own REPEAT value, which is meant to feed the optional repeat2step input on the Number Counter node: wire it through, and a counter tracking your animation's progress stays paced to how long this loader is actually dwelling on each image, instead of assuming a fixed one-frame-per-run cadence that would drift the moment you set repeat above 0.

Why you'd reach for it

Reach for this over the plain Load Image Batch when your workflow needs two frames at once - frame blending, simple interpolation setups, or any comparison between "this frame" and "the next one" - or when you want deliberate control over how many generated frames each source image covers via repeat, rather than a strict 1:1 mapping between source images and output frames. If you only ever need a single current frame with no repeat logic, the plain Load Image Batch node is the simpler tool for that.

Installing it

Via ComfyUI Manager: search "Chaosaiart-Nodes," or "Install via Git URL" with https://github.com/chaosaiart/Chaosaiart-Nodes, then restart. Manually: cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes && git clone https://github.com/chaosaiart/Chaosaiart-Nodes, restart ComfyUI. Linux needs pip install opencv-python and pip install tqdm (venv active first) - this pack's image loading leans on OpenCV, and skipping this is the single most common cause of it failing to load at all. Windows has a bundled Install_windows script. No model downloads.

Troubleshooting

If IMAGE = Index+1 errors out or comes back blank near the end of a folder, you've hit the last image and there's nothing at index+1 to load - either loop your path contents or account for the folder's actual length when setting your batch count. If repeat doesn't seem to change anything, check whether repeat_Override is also wired in - an override input generally takes priority over the static widget, so a stray connection there will silently ignore whatever you set on repeat itself. And if a downstream Number Counter feels out of step with which images are actually loading, make sure its repeat2step input is actually connected to this node's REPEAT output - that's the wire that keeps the two paced together, and it's easy to forget when wiring up a graph with this many small connections.