🟧Introduction to the Clip Editor

The clip editor is a versatile way to create laser content and it's at the heart of Liberation. It's easy to make simple things and yet flexible enough to make some incredibly sophisticated and complex effects.

The node based editor was the first part of Liberation that was made! It was born from a conversation with Rob Stanley at a UK laser meet up in 2018 about what an "object-oriented" laser content designer would look like.

Although it seems simple, it's quite a complex system to build, but by the start of 2019 I had a working demo that proved the concept. And it started this whole journey!

It's a node based visual editor (or node graph architecture) that will be familiar if you have used products like TouchDesigner, MaxMSP or VVVV. Although the clip editor is a little different and somewhat simpler as it's been designed specifically for vector graphics.

You can open the Clip Editor by right clicking on the clip button and selecting EDIT CLIP. Or right click on an empty clip button and select CREATE AND EDIT CLIP.

Overview

What you'll see in the clip editor :

• The Creator and Operator node buttons along the top

• The Oscillator node buttons along the left

• A preview of the content in a panel on the right, and if you click on a node, you'll see a second preview that shows you the content at the node itself.

• The node graph for the clip that you are editing (if it's a new clip this wil be empty)

• The Clip Editor panel with various options

While you're editing, you will also see what the clip looks like in the 3D visualiser in the background.

If you don't see any output in the 3D visualiser, you may need to use the zone buttons to turn on the zones you want. You'll also need to make sure that Preview to lasers is enabled, see Clip editor panel below.

Building a clip

You typically start with one or more creator nodes, and connect operators from left to right that process the content. Each of these nodes has an array of sockets along the bottom and each one represents a setting within the node, such as brightness, position, scale, rotation etc.

Oscillator nodes can be connected to these sockets from below and used to animate these settings.

Adding nodes to your clip

Click and drag from one of the node buttons along the top or left into an empty space within the clip editor.

Adjusting settings for a node

Click on the cog icon button (top right of the node) to open the settings panel for that node.

Enabling and disabling a node

Click on the power icon button (top left of the node) to enable and disable the node. The node with dim to show that it is not currently active. Note that content still passes through an operator even if it is disabled, but the node doesn't affect the content.

Connecting Creator and Operator nodes together

Creators and Operators connect from side to side. The input socket is on the left and the output socket is on the right. (Notice that Creators only have an output and no input).

To connect them together just bring them close and the outputs will automatically connect to the inputs.

Clip editor panel

• Timer - at the top of the panel you'll see the current time for the clip as it progresses

• RETRIGGER - restarts the clip from the beginning; extra useful if your clip doesn't loop

• Preview to lasers - when this is checked, you'll see the 3D visualiser update as you edit this clip. If you turn it off, you'll see whatever clips are running outside of the editor. This is a global setting, not per clip.

• UNDO/REDO - for the clip editor itself. Also mapped to CTL/CMD Z and CTL/CMD SHIFT Z.

• SAVE CLIP - saves your edits but warns you about overwriting

• SAVE AS A COPY - saves your clip in the next available slot in the clip deck. This becomes the new position for your clip and all subsequent saves will be in this new place.

• EXIT EDITOR - closes the clip editor. If you have unsaved changes you will get a confirmation panel.