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Keyword request and some questions...

Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 1:20 pm
by Michl
Will there be keywords for accessing
* the movie duration ?
* the current timecode of a movies timeline ?

Will there be an option for frame blending/tweening when playing back
movies at a very low speed ?

Can I access other modules variables (e.g. the current BPM from the BACF) ? How to share my variables ?

Michl

Re: Keyword request and some questions...

Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 3:42 pm
by yves@garagecube
Michl wrote:Will there be keywords for accessing
* the movie duration ?
* the current timecode of a movies timeline ?


Many new keywords will arrive in the next beta, including "direct" keywords that allows each module to access directly standard values of the object (x,y,z, angles, etc.) without modifying the user-interface. The main problem when you use "ctrl" keywords is that you can have pretty quickly conflicts between two modules, without speaking of the inability for the user to access the control anymore. With direct values you can give motion to a layer and still continue to use the preview control to move the layer. Also if two modules changes the x,y of the layer, the changes will be cumulated (instead of being erased by the last module). It is pretty useful to combine two modules that apply effect using the same keywords.

Michl wrote:Can I access other modules variables (e.g. the current BPM from the BACF) ? How to share my variables ?


No. You can't. This is a good question... and there is no easy answer. Suppose that you need to access the variable of the BACF and the user did not install it... Also this module may not want that you access and change its variables. A good solution would be a mechanism allowing a module to publish a list of functions and variables. Or kind of a global dictionary that would be accessible from all modules. I'll think about it.

Yves.

Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 8:30 pm
by Akira
I think you can indirectly mess with the movie position reading/changing the ctrl_shuttle variable. Am I wrong, Yves?
<lame_pseudocode_time>
With this you could of make a total calculation of movie position with percentages, setitng the movie's speed to zero and making it advance with a clock synced externally (tap tempo or MIDI clock sync? is that signal supported) and each frame changing the shuttle value. This would make the clip be "beatsynced" to a BPM ammount.
</lame_pseudocode_time>
Anybody thinks this is possible and is better at Python than my n00b self? ;D

Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 12:11 pm
by yves@garagecube
Akira wrote:I think you can indirectly mess with the movie position reading/changing the ctrl_shuttle variable. Am I wrong, Yves?


Yes. You can change the position of the movie but you cannot read it using this keyword. More keywords will arrive in future betas.

Yves.

Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 5:13 pm
by Michl
Yes, having the option to globalize variables within the modules would be really helpful.

Looking forward to the extended keyword dictionary... :-)

Michl