User Manual

To slide the clip in time or move it through the project without changing its length, place the
mouse pointer in the middle of the range control and drag it to the new location, or enter the
value manually in the Global In value box.
Filename
The Filename field shows the file path of the clip imported to the Node Editor by the Loader
node. Clicking on the Browse button opens a standard file browser. The path to the footage can
also be typed directly using the field provided. The text box supports filename completion. As
the name of a directory or file is typed in the text box, Fusion displays a pop-up that lists
possible matches. Use the arrow keys to select the correct match and complete the path.
NOTE: Loading image sequences is common practice for compositing, whether the
image sequence comes from a 3D renderer or a digital cinema camera. If the last part
of a file’s name is a number (not counting the file extension), Fusion automatically
scans the directory looking for files that match the sequence. For example, the
following filenames would be valid sequences:
image.0001.braw , image.0002.braw, image.0003.braw …
or
image151.exr , image152.exr, image153.exr …
The following would not be considered a sequence since the last characters are
not numeric.
shot.1.fg.jpg, shot.2.fg.jpg, shot.3.fg.jpg
It is not necessary to select the first file in the sequence. Fusion searches the entire
folder for files matching the sequence in the selected filename. Also, Fusion determines
the length of the sequence based on the first and last numeric value in the filenames.
Missing frames are ignored. For example, if the folder contains two files with the
following names:
image.0001.exr, image.0100.exr
Fusion sees this as a file sequence with 100 frames, not an image sequence containing
two frames. The Missing Frames drop-down menu is used to choose how Fusion
handles missing frames.
The Trim In/Trim Out control’s context menu can also be used to force a specific clip
length or to rescan the folder. Both controls are described in greater detail below.
Occasionally, you want to load only a single frame out of a sequence—e.g., a
photograph from a folder containing many other files as well. By default, Fusion detects
those as a sequence, but if you hold Shift while dragging the file from the OS window to
the Node Editor, Fusion takes only that specific file and disregards any sequencing.
Proxy Filename
The Proxy Filename control only appears once the filename control points to a valid clip. The
Proxy Filename can specify a clip that is loaded when the Proxy mode is enabled. This allows
smaller versions of the image to be loaded to speed up file I/O from disk, and processing. For
example, create a 1/4-scale version of an 8K EXR sequence to use as EXR proxy files.
Whenever the Proxy mode of the Composition is enabled, the smaller resolution proxy clip is
loaded from disk, and all processing is performed at the lower resolution, significantly improving
render times. This is particularly useful when working with large RAW plates stored on a remote
file server. Lower-resolution versions of the plates can be stored locally, reducing network
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