Transitions			Rendering the Timeline
Chapter 7, Editing

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Top Vertical Priority

Solo Mode

When there are multiple layers and you display footage in the Player, or play out to tape, or render, Lustre's default behaviour (called Top Vertical Priority) is to display the visible shots from a top-down view of the flattened timeline. This behaviour is further customized by muting layers and prioritizing individual shots. It is also possible to override Top Vertical Priority by soloing a single layer, which forces Lustre to display, play out to tape, and render only that layer.

When selecting segments in the Multi-Layer Timeline, the Storyboard view shows the same selection. See Selecting Shots in the Storyboard.

Top Vertical Priority

With exceptions, at any given point in a timeline with multiple layers, the top shot in a vertical stack of layers is the shot that is displayed, rendered, or played out to tape. This is the Top Vertical Priority rule and it is the default behaviour of the Multi-Layer Timeline when Solo mode is disabled (See Solo Mode).

When there is a gap in the top layer, this gap is transparent when looking down on the timeline; Lustre looks in progressively deeper layers (going from top to bottom in a vertical stack) until it finds the top vertical shot to display. To visualize this, it may help to imagine looking down on the Multi-Layer Timeline so that you would have to see through the top layers in order to see the bottom layers. Your view from the top is a 'flattened' view of the timeline.

The only exception to the Top Vertical Priority rule is layer soloing (see Solo Mode). There are a couple of features which alter the way the Top Vertical Priority rule works; layer muting (see Muted Layers), and shot priority (see Shot Priority).

The following example illustrates how top vertical priority determines which shots are displayed, played out to tape, and rendered. It also illustrates how the displayed shots come from various layers throughout the course of the timeline. For simplicity's sake, in this example, there are no muted layers and no shots assigned with shot priority.

You can use the timeline information field to verify the layer and shot being displayed at any given point in the timeline. See Monitoring the Location of the Current Frame. For example, in the following screen capture, the shot being displayed is shot 3 on Layer 2, and the current frame is frame 183.

When a layer is muted, Lustre ignores this layer when applying Top Vertical Priority. That is, at a given point in the timeline, if a muted layer has Top Vertical Priority, Lustre looks at progressively lower layers in the vertical stack until it finds a shot in an unmuted layer, and then displays that shot.

Warning: If you are using the mute function as a method to create editorial or grade versioning, please keep in mind that the status is not part of the grade file data structure. Therefore, this state is not saved upon exiting Lustre.

The following example illustrates how a muted layer is used within a Multi-Layer Timeline to determine what shots are displayed in the Storyboard and Player when the Top Vertical Priority rule is applied.

In this example, Layer 2 is muted. Therefore, only the shots in Layer 1 and Layer 3 are active.

• Do one of the following:

  • Ctrl-click the name of the layer you want to mute (e.g., V1.L1).

  • Shift+M to mute the layer with focus.

  The layer name indicator turns yellow.

• Do one of the following:

  • Ctrl-click the name of the layer you want to unmute (e.g., V1.L1).

  • Shift+M to unmute the layer with focus.

When you work in the Top Vertical Priority mode (Solo is disabled), you can assign priority on a shot-by-shot basis. A 'priority shot' in a given layer is displayed even if there are shots in the layers above it in the timeline. In the case where there are multiple priority shots in a vertical stack, the priority shot with Top Vertical Priority is displayed or updated accordingly in the Player. Furthermore, the Storyboard thumbnails are updated according to priority after an initial refresh. Lustre represents a priority shot in the Multi-Layer Timeline as a shot with a red dot.

The following behaviours are expected when using the shot priority function:

• Shot priority information is saved to the cut file.

• A priority shot survives trimming, slipping, and sliding operations.

• When using the New button to create a new layer, the reproduced shot in the new layer preserves shot priority.

• When using the Copy button to copy a shot, the reproduced shot does not preserve shot priority.

• You can assign shot priority to a virtual black clip.

• You cannot assign shot priority to a gap.

• When performing a change cut operation with a cut that contains multiple versions of the same shot but with different grades, the shot priority feature allows you to designate the version of grading you would like to be transferred to the same shot in the new cut. However, if a muted layer has a priority shot, the grading metadata for this shot is not transferred to the new cut.

• In the case where a shot dissolves into another priority shot on a different layer within the vertical stack of shots, then the first shot does not dissolve seamlessly into the priority shot. For a seamless dissolve into a priority shot, you must create a dissolve on the layer of the priority shot.

  In the following example, there is a dissolve on Layer 3 between shot 1 and shot 2. The dissolve begins near the end of shot 1, but once shot 2 on Layer 1 begins, the dissolve does not continue. Instead, shot 2 begins without showing the second half of the dissolve effect.

  

  In the following example, the dissolve works as expected because the dissolve is on the same layer as the priority shot.

  

• When one priority shot overlaps another in a different layer, the priority shot with Top Vertical Priority is displayed. In overlap situations, this means that one or more shots are displayed that begin part way through or end part way through the shot.

  In the following example, the first Layer 3 shot is displayed completely and then the Layer 2 shot is displayed starting somewhere in the middle of the shot.

  

Warning: If you mute a layer that has a priority shot, that shot is not displayed, played out to tape, nor rendered.

The following example illustrates shot priority in the Multi-Layer Timeline.

In this example, Layer 2 is muted and Shot 3 in Layer 1 is a priority shot.

• In the Multi-Layer Timeline, Shift+right-click the shot (in the desired layer) to which you would like to assign priority.

  A red dot appears on the shot.

1. In the Multi-Layer Timeline, make sure the positioner and its focus point are focused on the shot to which you apply priority.

2. Press Shift+\.

   A red dot appears on the shot in focus.

1. In the Multi-Layer Timeline, select all the shots to which you wish to assign shot priority. See Selecting Elements.

2. Shift+right-click one of the selected shots to assign shot priority to that shot.

   The Shot Priority flag is enabled.

   

3. In the Flags menu, left-click the Shot Priority flag.

   The Shot Priority flag is highlighted.

   

   Note: The indicator is enabled only if the positioner and focus point is over a priority shot.

4. Click Set Sel.

   All the selected shots are assigned shot priority.

1. In the Timeline menu, enable the Flags button.

2. Right-click the Shot Priority flag.

   A red dot appears on the current shot of the currently active layer.

• In the Multi-Layer Timeline, Shift+right-click the shot with priority.

  The red dot is removed from the shot.

1. In the Timeline menu, enable the Flags button.

2. In the Flags menu, left-click the Shot Priority flag.

   The Shot Priority flag is highlighted.

3. Click Select.

   All priority shots are selected.

Solo Mode

When you enable Solo mode in the Multi-Layer Timeline and place the focus point over a layer, Lustre displays only this layer (including its gaps) in the Storyboard and Player. In addition, this is the only layer that is played out to tape and rendered locally.

A soloed layer in Lustre overrides the effects of layer muting and shot priority (see Muted Layers and Shot Priority). That is, even when a layer is muted, if you subsequently solo this layer, this layer alone is displayed. Likewise, when there are shots with shot priority in several layers, a soloed layer is still the only layer displayed.

Note: If you are using the solo function as a method to create editorial or grade versioning, please keep in mind that the status is not part of the grade file data structure. Therefore, this state is not saved upon exiting Lustre.

The following example illustrates how a soloed layer overrides other layer and shot prioritizing factors.

When Solo mode is enabled, the Storyboard is updated to display shots from only the soloed layer. When Solo mode is disabled, what Lustre displays is governed by what layers are muted, the presence of shots assigned with priority, and typical Top Vertical Priority behaviour.

In the following example, Layer 2 is soloed. In this case, only Layer 2 is displayed in the Player and Storyboard, played out to tape, and rendered. It should be noted that although there is a shot assigned with shot priority in Layer 1, only Layer 2 shots are displayed because Solo mode takes priority.

Warning: If a layer is soloed, the Edit tools (Trash, Delete, Trim In/Trim Out, and Mark In/Out) default to 'Ripple End' behaviour, regardless of the Ripple Mode setting. If no layer is soloed, however, the Edit tools behave according to the individual Ripple Mode selected (Ripple Off, Ripple Start, or Ripple End) and apply to the active or visible layer that contains the focus point. For more information about Ripple Modes, see Trimming With Ripple Mode.

1. Move the focus point of the positioner to the layer you wish to solo.

2. Enable the Solo button.

• Disable the Solo button.

  Note: This operation un-solos the layer regardless of where the focus point is.