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Using masks with sequencer-based roll/crawl groups

  • 1.  Using masks with sequencer-based roll/crawl groups

    Bryan
    Posted 10-03-2023 02:11

    Hi, all. 

    What we want to do is create a DataLinq-driven roll with feather/gradient masks to fade text in at the bottom and out on top. I've seen Simon's video (QT133) about using masks with a Scene Group, but I don't think you can use Scene Groups with DataLinq-driven rolls/crawls. 

    I know I can put a scene on another layer as a background, but I'm not sure how to mask the text on one scene from a different scene - if that's even possible.

    Thanks for any help. I will play around more with this, but I'm helping someone who has a new XPression install and their first production is this Wednesday, so any help in the next day or two would be greatly appreciated.



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    Bryan Block
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  • 2.  RE: Using masks with sequencer-based roll/crawl groups

    Ross Staff
    Posted 10-03-2023 04:28

    Hey Bryan,

    If you have masks in the parent scene on a higher Z value than the text in a child scene it will mask them, however it won't do that if they are in a layer object. 



    ------------------------------
    Simon Redmile
    Senior Graphic Programmer & Designer
    Ross Video
    Bristol United Kingdom
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Using masks with sequencer-based roll/crawl groups

    Bryan
    Posted 10-03-2023 10:39

    Simon,

     

    Does the parent/child relationship exist in a sequencer group also, and if so, how is it set up? I don't think you can use Scene Groups when your data scenes are Datalinq-driven – unless I'm wrong, but I haven't seen anyone do this or talk about it in the forums.

     

     

     

    Bryan Block

    Technical Director

    Malick Media

    604-881-5600

    cidimage001.jpg@01D9CBA0.C26AB800

     www.malickmedia.com

     

     






  • 4.  RE: Using masks with sequencer-based roll/crawl groups

    Ross Staff
    Posted 10-03-2023 10:53

    I don't think this works with sequencer groups. 

    Scene Groups are actually better for datalinq driven graphics in my experience. 



    ------------------------------
    Simon Redmile
    Senior Graphic Programmer & Designer
    Ross Video
    Bristol United Kingdom
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Using masks with sequencer-based roll/crawl groups

    Bryan
    Posted 10-03-2023 11:07
    Oh - that's interesting. I hadn't seen any examples of how to use scene groups *and* use publish fields. I did see some discussion of how fields in a scene group were not exposed to the Take Inspector. 

    Can you share the way to set this up? Thank you! 








  • 6.  RE: Using masks with sequencer-based roll/crawl groups

    Ross Staff
    Posted 10-03-2023 11:08

    you can't use published fields but they can be connected to datalinq and not published.
    You can then use the +n technique to have to move through the data fields. 

    I also discussed a work around using scripting in this thread where I shared sample project of using published field in this thread just today.

    https://rossvideo.community/discussion/issues-with-crawl-animating-text-and-publishing-text#bmff56b994-8d4d-435f-813b-edd5ba885ad4
    ------------------------------
    Simon Redmile
    Senior Graphic Programmer & Designer
    Ross Video
    Bristol United Kingdom
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: Using masks with sequencer-based roll/crawl groups

    Bryan
    Posted 10-03-2023 11:16
    Ah, fair enough - I think that's the part that had me stuck. 

    Thank you for your help and quick responses! 

    Bryan






  • 8.  RE: Using masks with sequencer-based roll/crawl groups

    Bryan
    Posted 10-03-2023 15:32
    I may have needed to be more specific. I know you can use Datalinq in a scene group (I've seen Patrick's Covid crawl video). However, We want to show a list of people and a related event (i.e. birthday or anniversary), so two fields pulled from a spreadsheet. The only way I've seen to do that (without manipulating the data ahead of time into a single text field) is with a sequencer group roll where you add as many take IDs as needed, and %relid% to link them to the correct row. 

    I don't understand how this would work in a scene group - how do I display 'x' number of rows that I won't know ahead of time, since I can't add multiple take IDs with a scene group? 

    I think using a sequencer group roll and bringing on two separate scenes simultaneously - one with the roll background on a lower layer (-1) and one with a gradient mask to the same background in front (+1), leaving the Datalinq scenes on layer 0 - might do the trick. Seems a bit kludgy, unless someone can explain how to do it with scene groups. 






  • 9.  RE: Using masks with sequencer-based roll/crawl groups

    Ross Staff
    Posted 10-03-2023 18:44

    Within your datalinq connection you can use the <+n> method, have you ever been taught it or seen it? 



    ------------------------------
    Simon Redmile
    Senior Graphic Programmer & Designer
    Ross Video
    Bristol United Kingdom
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: Using masks with sequencer-based roll/crawl groups

    Bryan
    Posted 10-03-2023 19:14

    I haven't seen the +n method – please enlighten me!

     

    I did try my earlier mentioned method of three scenes – a background, the content scene (repeated) and a mask overlay, and it works rather well, as long as you program all the scenes to come online together. That will be my fallback method, but I'd love to experiment with the +n method.

     

     

     

    Bryan Block

    Technical Director

    Malick Media

    604-881-5600

    cidimage001.jpg@01D9CBA0.C26AB800

     www.malickmedia.com

     

     






  • 11.  RE: Using masks with sequencer-based roll/crawl groups

    Bryan
    Posted 10-03-2023 20:43

    Simon,

    I missed part of your message that starts 'you can't use published fields but they can be connected to datalinq and not published'. That's all I saw in my email, but on the forum web page, I now see the rest of your post with the link to the other discussion and scripting example. I'll play with this and the +n method tonight to see what results I get. Thanks for your help here.



    ------------------------------
    Bryan Block
    Malick Media
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: Using masks with sequencer-based roll/crawl groups

    Bryan
    Posted 10-03-2023 23:51

    Simon,

    I can't open the example project in the discussion you linked to above. I'm stuck on 8.5 - maybe that's why? I get an 'exception' every time.

    I imported the scenes from that project, but there's no script that copies the three text objects into the child scenes. Can you paste the script here and indicate where the script is stored and what triggers it?

    I got the <n>, <n+1>, <n+...> functionality working. I built a scene group and a few child scenes using that (incrementing the n+ number for each scene) and it looks like it works, so I'm curious why the need for the above script at all.



    ------------------------------
    Bryan Block
    Malick Media
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  • 13.  RE: Using masks with sequencer-based roll/crawl groups

    Ross Staff
    Posted 10-04-2023 04:46