User Manual

Time Tab
The Time tab is used to modify the time of the Calculation modifier. The controls here retime
the speed of the effect or offset it in time.
First and Second Operand Time Scale
These sliders multiply the frame number and return the value of the operands at the multiplied
frame number. A value of 1 returns the value of the operand at frame x when the composition is
on frame x. For example, if the first operand is animated with a value of 1 to 50 from frame 0 to
10, then a scale of 0.5 would cause the calculation to return a value of 25 at frame 10 (effectively
slowing the animation by half for the purposes of the calculation).
First Operand and Second Operand Time Offset
These sliders return the value of the operand at the Time Offset specified. A value of 10 would
return the value of the operand 10 frames forward in time, and -10 would return the value of the
operand 10 frames back in time. See the example below for a practical example.
Example
The following example uses a calculation to apply blur to a Text node in inverse
proportion to the size of the text.
1 Open a new composition that starts on frame 0 and ends on frame 100.
2 At frame 0, add a Text+ node to the composition.
3 Enter a small amount of text and set the size to 0.05
4 Click the Keyframe button to the right of the Size slider to add a keyframe.
5 Move to frame 100 and set the Size value to 0.50.
6 Connect a Blur node after the Text+ node.
7 View the Blur node in one of the viewers.
To have the blur decrease in strength as the text gets bigger, a simple “pick
whip”-style parameter linking does not work. The controls cannot be directly
connected together because the values of the Text Size control are getting bigger
instead of smaller.
8 Right-click the Blur Size and select Modify With > Calculation from the
contextual menu.
This adds a Calculation modifier to the Blur node. At the top of the Inspector, a new
set of controls appears in the Modifiers tab while the Blur node is selected.
9 At the top of the Inspector, select the Modifiers tab (F11).
10 Right-click the First Operand slider and select Connect To > Text 1 > Size from the
contextual menu.
Although the Blur Size is now connected to the Text Size parameter, this
connection isn’t very useful. The maximum value of the Blur Size control is 0.5,
which is hardly noticeable as a blur.
11 Set the Operator drop-down menu to Multiply.
12 Set the Second Operand slider to 100.
Now the first operand is multiplied by 100, and adjusting the dial gives you a much
blurrier blur.
Chapter – 111 Modifiers 2512