TIMELINE

A Timeline is where you place the content that you want to play to your audience. The content, like videos or audio, is defined in assets and by dragging an asset to a Layer on the Timeline you create cue. By selecting a cue on the timeline you can further edit how the referred asset is used in the show. For instance, you may want to change the duration of a video clip or you may want to add an Effect.

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  1. Name shows the name of the Timeline.
  2. Time Position Indicator shows the current time position using a vertical line drawn through the Timeline window.
    • Its color indicates the Click Jumps to Time state.
  3. Jump button to jump to where the Time Position Indicator is located on the Timeline.
  4. Timeline Time shows where the Time Position Indicator is located.
    • Edit this to jump to a specific time.
  5. Active Layer shows a pink vertical bar to convey that this layer is active.
  6. Cue object that can be selected to edit show content.
  7. Effects shows the chosen effects for the selected cue.
    • Use the eye to hide/show a specific effect curve
  8. Tween Curve allows you to create and edit tween points.
  9. Play button to start the playback.
  10. Pause button to pause the playback.
  11. Stop button to stop the playback.
  12. Zoom Out button to zoom out the Timeline view.
  13. Zoom In button to zoom in the Timeline view.
  14. Horizontal Scrollbar to scroll to a specific time in the Timeline view.

TIMELINE CONTEXT MENU

There are two context menus in the Timeline window, one for editing the timeline itself and one for working with cues.

TIMELINE GENERAL CONTEXT MENU

If you right-click in the Timeline window, without having any cue selected, you will open the general context menu.

You can also open this menu by clicking on the three horizontal lines in the top left corner of the Timeline window.

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  • Cue operations:
    • Add Play Control Cue adds a play control cue.
    • Add Pause Control Cue adds a pause control cue.
    • Add Output Cue adds an output control cue.
    • Add Marker Cue adds a marker cue.
  • Layer operations:
    • Insert Layer inserts a layer above the active layer.
    • Add Layer adds an additional layer at the top of the Timeline.
    • Delete Layer deletes an additional layer at the top of the Timeline.
    • Select All Layer Cues selects all cues on the active layer.

TIMELINE CUE CONTEXT MENU

If you right-click in the Timeline window, while having one or multiple cues selected, you will open the cue context menu.

You can also open this menu by clicking on the three horizontal lines in the top left corner of the Timeline window. Again, at least one cue needs to be selected for this menu to be shown.

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  • Properties activate and show the Cue Properties window.
  • Find Asset tries to find the asset(s) associated with the selected cue(s).
    • The asset(s) found will be selected in the Asset Manager window.
  • Move opens a dialog that allows you to move the selected cue(s).
  • Cut cuts the selected cue(s) allowing you to paste the cue(s) later on.
  • Copy copies the selected cue(s) allowing you to paste the cue(s) later on.
  • Delete deletes the selected cue(s).
  • Effect opens a sub menu allowing you to add or remove effects to the selected cue(s).  .
  • Trim allows you to shorten the duration of the selected cue(s) based on where the Time Position Indicator is located.
    • Start edit the start time of the cue.
    • End edit the end time of the cue.
  • Reset allows you to reset some settings.
    • In-Time.
    • Duration resets the duration of the selected cue(s) to the original duration.

LAYERS

A Timeline consists of multiple layers on which cues can be added. When the show is empty you can think of the layers in the Timeline as a stack of fully transparent papers. As you add image or video cues to the layers you will fill these transparent "papers" with pixels. The layer with the highest number represents the top of the "paper" stack which means that cues placed on this layer will render on top of cues placed on layers below it. You may override this behaviour by changing the Stacking on the cue.

Layers further up the layer stack may occlude cues further down: Alt text

If a cue is selected on the timeline it will be prioritized for movement operations in the Stage window: Alt text

CUE OVERLAPS

When two cues reside on the same layer they may overlap. This is usually an unwanted state so when an overlap has been detected the affected cue objects, in the Timeline, are marked with a striped pattern. This can be resolved by selecting and moving cues until the pattern disappears.

Not all cue overlaps are forbidden. Media cues may have overlapping cues of the following types:

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There is also another exception where cue overlaps are allowed and that is when you are using Fade-in/out as shown in the video below:

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TIME POSITION INDICATOR

The Timeline Position Indicator shows the current time position using a vertical line drawn through the Timeline window. Its color indicates if the Click Jumps to Time is active. If it is active it means that when a cue is selected the Timeline Position Indicator will jump to the start of the cue.

The Timeline Position Indicator is drawn as a solid pink line if Click Jumps to Time is active, otherwise it will be drawn as a dashed purple line.

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CUE TRIM

This feature allows you to change the duration and starting/end frame of the referred asset based on where the Time Position Indicator is located. You can think of it as cutting out parts of the start or the end of a video or audio clip. When you trim a cue using Start the In-time property is changed.

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