Build a Multiple Timeline Show

Generalised Workflow

•Add a timeline and name it by function (content may be ambiguous and changing)

•Add asset(s) so that it is distinctive and visible while you build the timeline structure.

•Add the timeline to the Input Feeds panel. The timeline frame buffer this creates will adopt the timeline name. If you rename a timeline, rename the frame buffer.

•Drag and arrange the named available device outputs into the Output Feeds panel.

Video is placed on the available outputs using viewports. These select pixel areas from the input which can be positioned, scaled and layered on the outputs.

•Add viewport(s) to select timeline frame buffer pixel area(s). These will be added to the Output Feeds. Decide if in and out positions and dimensions are linked or independent.

•Name viewports uniquely, again for their source and function. All of this naming will make external control addressing robust.

Repeat for multiple timelines. Clear, functional and unique names for timelines and frame buffers are very important.

Opacity

These elements have the opacity property, enabling fading and transitions:

Assets – feed pixels to a layer

Layers – feed pixels to a timeline

Timelines – feed pixels to a frame buffer

An empty section of a timeline that is opaque is transparent.

Since all viewports for a particular input (such as a timeline frame buffer) belong with that feed, they will share the opacity of the source timeline. This is a good reason to keep a timeline reference in the viewport name.

Layering

Assets belong to layers and cannot themselves be layered

Layers are stacked within a timeline, and can be re-ordered, with Layer 1 being above Layer 2 and so on, whatever the name they have been tagged with.

Timelines and frame buffers are not layered, but are independent entities. Therefore whichever source – timeline frame buffer or other input – owns the highest-order viewport with opacity, will have priority.

Order

Viewports represent the opacity of their timelines and can be ordered, so when a viewport is brought ‘in front’ or ‘to front’, any other viewports from the same input will share the same order.

Page edited [d/m/y]: 14/12/2023