Chapter 7, Working with Compositions
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Publishing a Composition | ||
Chapter 7, Working with Compositions |
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Checking the Status of Compositions
Once you have created a project and imported media, you will want to create a composition and update its properties (if needed). By default, the new composition inherits the properties set by the corresponding project preferences--see Setting Project Preferences.
A composition is a file that contains both the current work and the different versions, if any, of that work. Compositions are stored in your file system.
A composition is stored as a file or a group of files, depending on its state. For a newly created composition, a file named <compname>.txcomposition will exist on the file system. Within Toxik, you will see only the name part of the file, not the extension. Whenever a new version is created, a new directory named <compname>.txversions is created and contains additional files, one for each version. Also, if ever you have some paint nodes in your composition, another directory, named <compname>.txpaintstrokes is created to store the paint strokes. By default, the browsers in Toxik does not show the versions and paint strokes directories. To see them, you must deselect the Collapse Compositions option.
You can create a new composition and have it open automatically.
Do one of the following:
Select Composition > New or press Ctrl + N. Type in a name for your composition.
In a browser, right-click an empty area and select New Composition. Type in a name for your composition. Open your new composition by double-clicking it, or by selecting it and clicking Open.
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An Output node appears in the Schematic view (if you have one visible).
In the Composition tab of the Tool UI, update the properties for the composition. Some properties are editable.
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Name -- The name of the composition.
Type -- Designate the composition as footage or as a composition--see Footage Role.
Publish -- The publish mode used when you publish a composition. The publish mode is defined in the project preferences and determines whether a publish operation should render or not. It also specifies the destination and file formats for the render--see Publishing a Composition.
Created -- Date the composition was created.
Modified -- Date the composition was last modified.
Owner -- User name associated with the composition.
Path -- Location of the composition.
Description -- Information you can enter about the composition.
Source -- Identifies the source application from which the composition media is derived. Usually it is Toxik, but if you are using files generated by another application, such as Maya, the source would be set accordingly. You can edit this field.
Primary Output -- Select the output to use as the principal output of the composition. The format, width, height, image aspect ratio, pixel aspect ratio, and rate settings are those of the primary output--see Primary Output.
Format -- Set the resolution of the composition by specifying a known film or video format. The format you select is linked to the following: width, height, image and pixel ratio, and rate. Select Custom to define a non-standard format.
Width, Height -- Width and height (in pixels). These values, together with ratios and rate, may correspond to a predefined format, in which case the format is automatically selected. Otherwise, the format selected is Custom.
Image Aspect Ratio and Pixel Aspect Ratio-- The ratio is expressed as a fraction representing the proportion, width:height, of the image. This value, together with width, height, pixel ratio and rate, may correspond to a predefined format, in which case the format is automatically selected. Otherwise, the format selected is Custom. Image and pixel ratio are linked; changing one updates the other.
Rate -- Frame rate expressed as frames per second (fps). For a given format, a limited number of rates are available. To set a non-standard rate for a given format, change the format to Custom.
Render -- Determines whether the primary output will be rendered when you click Publish. It is on by default. Keep in mind that the value of this attribute is considered by Toxik only if the publish mode enables rendering. In other words, if the publish mode selected is Snapshot, no render will take place even if this button is on. However, rendering can be disabled locally even if the publish mode is Render.
Mode -- Mode used for rendering. Determines the destination and file formats--see The Render Modes.
Channels -- Set the image channel for the primary output: RGB, RGBA, A.
Depth -- Select the bit depth (8, 16, or 32 bits) for the primary output.
Start, End, Duration -- Set the start, end, and duration of the primary output. End is exclusive, so Duration = End - Start. Example Start=0, End=30, Duration=30. Start=1, End=31,Duration=30. And so on.
Poster -- Frame used for proxies, defaults to start value.
Mark In/Mark Out -- Set the in point and out point for the primary output.
Repeat -- Select the default repeat mode (Hold, Loop, Ping-Pong, No Repeat) for primary output when you play it.
There is two modes in which you can load a composition into Toxik: Open and View. The Open mode allows you to modify the composition (read/write mode). The View mode allows you to view the dependency graph and all attributes in the tool UI, but without being able to modify anything (read-only mode). There is a circumstance where you can only view it, and that is whenever another user has already opened the same composition for modification. This is indicated in the browser by a yellow version icon.
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Note: The Player display preference determines what the Player displays (tool input, tool output, rendered output, and so on)--see Displaying Player Option Information in the Player view.
Select Composition > Open or press Ctrl + O.
In the Library Browser, do one of the following:
Double-click a composition.
The working version of the composition is opened in Open mode (read/write). If the composition is in use by another user, it will open in View mode (read only).
Right-click a composition and select Open. If there are any versions of the composition, it is displayed in a list. Select a version to open.
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The version of the composition is opened in Open mode (read/write). If the composition is in use by another user, it will open in View mode (read only).
Select a composition and drag it to the Schematic or Player. In the Gate UI that appears, swipe east to open the composition.
If the composition is not in use and there is no composition currently open, the following Gate UI is displayed. Swipe through the east gate to open the composition.
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If the composition is not in use and there is already an open composition, the following Gate UI is displayed. Swipe through the east gate to open the composition.
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The composition opens in Open mode or View mode. In the tool UI, the Composition tab is displayed.
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The name of the currently open composition is displayed in the taskbar. Click beside the Composition icon to view the list of open compositions.
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Select Composition > Open or press Ctrl + O.
In the Library Browser, do one of the following:
Select a composition, then right-click and select View.
A list is displayed with any different versions of the composition and the working version. You can view any of these compositions.
Select one or more compositions, and drag them to the Schematic or Player. In the Gate UI that appears, swipe north to view the compositions. There might be a different combination of choices depending on whether or not a composition is already open and if a composition has already been opened by anothe user.
The name of the composition you are viewing is displayed in the taskbar.
Click the composition icon to view the list of versions available; both open/writable and viewed/read-only).
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Click the Version icon to view a list of different versions (if any) of this composition. The yellow color indicates that the version is being viewed. That is, it is read-only.
Select Composition > Save or press Ctrl + S.
Select Composition > Save As.
In the Save Composition As Browser that opens, enter a different name for the composition and click Save.
When inserting a composition, you are actually copying all of the nodes from its primary version into the currently open composition. The composition being inserted is not affected by the insert operation.
Select Composition > Open or press Ctrl + O.
In the Library Browser that opens, select a version and drag it to the Player or Schematic view.
In the Gate UI that appears, swipe west to insert the selected version in your current version. The nodes from the primary version are inserted. The output nodes are not.
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When linking a version, you are actually using the primary version. Linking a version with your current version lets you add it to your dependency graph. You can see the result of applying your tool pipeline to any output of any version of that composition--see Linking Compositions.
You can check whether a composition is open or whether it is view-only.
In the taskbar, click beside the Version icon to display the list of versions.
Look at the version icon for each item in the list. A yellow icon indicates a view-only composition. Icons that are not colored indicate compositions you have open for modification.
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