Track Block

Track Block

Animate video Transport inside a Track Animation track of an element / parameter inside the Timeline editor or the Function Editor Read More

An element track Block allow a Video or any layer with a track (such as Noise layer Generate a possibly animated noise image Read More or a composition with a Main timeline) to be cut, mount and time-remapped inside a Timeline Timelines specificity is to play, cut and edit video layers easily, and to animate layers and their parameters Read More
Note that there are 2 types of blocks , the ones with a Transport Thing that can be played out of a Timeline or Function Cue and that doesn't need to be inside an Animation Bank Read More (identified by the littles dots inside of them) and the ones without.
-Blocks with Transport Thing that can be played out of a Timeline or Function Cue and that doesn't need to be inside an Animation Bank Read More can be Video files, Noises or a Compo Composite 2D Layer, Shape layer and 3D Layer together. [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [N] to create a new composition after opening Smode Read More containing a main Timeline. In this case it's transport will be bind to the timeline in which it is.
-Blocks without Transport are all still layers, such as an Image file. It can also be a video file played with a Standalone Player Is used to play either video layers or generative layers such as Noise layer or Droste or the marvellous Video File Read More and then merged into the timeline as Standalone. Block without timelines have embedded their activation and a fade in / fade out.


When a standalone video is merged into the timeline, you have 2 choices :


-Make slave will create a block with transport inside of the timeline and destroy the Standalone Player Is used to play either video layers or generative layers such as Noise layer or Droste or the marvellous Video File Read More .
-Keep as Standalone will create a block without transport (so only activation and opacity will be animated inside of the timeline)


When child elements of the blocks are also animated, then the will appear as a schematic representation when the block is closed:


A block is an easy way of animation for basic purposes such as fade in/fade out.
When you'll select it inside of the timeline you'll gain access to it's parameters. It can be looped, played in ping pong, backward or forward. It can be cut and duplicated, accelerated or slowed down, even time-remapped. Here is all block manipulations that will came in handy :


Time Remapping

One particular thing you can do with blocks is to time-remap them.
Time remapping will only work on blocks with a transport, obviously.
To activate the time remap, just right click on a block ad choose "Custom Position Track (Time Remap)". Once you do that, you'll be proposed to activate the frame blending (this choice will only be proposed if doing Time remapping over a Video File Generate an animated image by playing a video file. Play it either with its Transport or from a Timeline (by drag n dropping the layer inside it) Read More Layer.


Once it's done you'll notice that the little dots indicating that the block contain a transport disappeared. It is because now the transport of the video will directly be animated through the newly created Track below the Block. Smode will automatically Smode will create a Key at the beginning and another at the end corresponding the the start/end time of the Layer. All you have to do now is to put some new keys (ctrl+click). Time remapping is actually only animating a Layer Transport Thing that can be played out of a Timeline or Function Cue and that doesn't need to be inside an Animation Bank Read More with a Function Cue An animation bloc defined by a Function Read More


To disactivate the time remapping, right click on the block and uncheck the "Custom Position Track (Time Remap)" option. Or if you simply deleted all the time-remap keys, be sure te reactivate the "automate transport" option inside of the Block parameters :


You'll see the little dots reappear inside of the block which mean that it will now behave as expected.
Now with theses shortcuts in mind, here is a little tutorial to show basic blocs manipulations and trans-coding videos into Hap from any video format (almost any). This video will also show you how to do time remapping over a video bloc:

This video show more or less the making of the Bake compositions How to transform a Compo into a video file inside a composition to gain fps Read More tutorial.

Parameters

  • Position (Seconds) : Position of the track block
  • Auto Length (On/off option) : Auto length of the track block
  • Length (Seconds) : Length of the track block
  • Footage (Footage) : Footage of the track block

See Also: