VDMX5 Media Bin
From VidvoxWiki
The media bin is one of the most important plugins in VDMX5. It's primary purpose is triggering media files to playback on layers. Generally this is executed by clicking on the thumbnail of a movie in the thumbnail or list view using the mouse, or by pressing a keyboard or MIDI shortcut. Additionally, the media bin can be used for loading files from a hard drive and file management within VDMX.
Each media bin is broken up into three main sections - the page view, table of contents, and the layer queue. Any of these sections can be hidden when they are not needed by dragging the split view bar that separates it from the other sections.
File Management
Loading files
Before you can use a bin to trigger files, there must first be files loaded. All media bins share the same set of loaded clips.
To load files into VDMX using the media bin, simply drag the desired files from a window in the Finder to either the page view or table of contents. Multiple files and folders can be selected in the Finder and dropped on to VDMX at the same time. If a folder is dragged into VDMX, the entire contents of that folder and all of it's sub-folders will be loaded on to a new page. Once you have released the mouse button, VDMX will begin loading and a status window will appear in each media bin indicating that files are being loaded. During this time, VDMX is checking to make sure each file is of a format supported by VDMX, as well as creating thumbnails and preparing the clips for playback.
Files can also be loaded using a standard OS open dialog box. To do this, either right+click on an empty cell where you would like to insert the loaded files, or select the "Import Media" option from the File menu. Using the open dialog box, locate the files or folders that you wish to load. Multiple files or folders can be selected by holding down the shift or cmd key, just like in the finder.
If you are dragging to the thumbnail view, the files will be loaded on to the currently viewed page. When dragging over the thumbnail view, an insertion point will appear indicating where on the page the files will be added. With the list view, you can add the files to any page that is currently visible.
Selecting files
Before you can organize or inspect files loaded into VDMX, you must select the ones that you wish to work with. This is similar in concept to selecting files in the Finder where you have to select files and folders before you can move, copy, delete, or open a get info window.
- Grid view - hold down on the shift key and click on the desired cells. Hold down on the shift key and drag to select a range of cells all at once. You can keep adding to the selection by continuing to shift click on cells. Selected cells will have a white highlight over them to indicate that they are selected. To deselect a clip, simply shift click on it again to remove it's highlight.
- List view - click on the name in the 'File Name' column. To select a range of files, click on the first file, and then hold the shift key while clicking on the last file you wish to select (just like in the Finder's list view). To add a file to a selection without selecting all the files in between, hold down on the cmd key when clicking on it's file name.
File organization
Once you have files loaded into VDMX, you may want to arrange them in such a way that makes sense for your set. In keeping with the metaphor of the Finder, files can be arranged visibly on a page, renamed, and removed when no longer needed.
Moving cells
To move cells from one location in the thumbnail or list view to another, select the cells you wish to move, and then drag them (while holding down no keyboard modifiers) to the new location. An insertion pointer will appear when dragging over the thumbnail or list view to indicated where the files will be moved to. In the thumbnail view, you can drag files on to a folder to place them in that folder.
In the grid view, files can be shifted around within the current page or moved to a different page. To move cells into another page, drag the selected files on to the name the desired page in the the table of contents.
Tip - If you are only moving one cell at a time in the thumbnail view, you do not have to first make a selection. Instead, you can hold down on the cmd key, then click and drag the cell you wish to move.
Copying cells
To copy, or duplicate cells, first select the cells you wish to duplicate as described above. Then hold down on the option key and drag the cells to where you want the new cells to be added. All of the settings for the selected files (such as in/out points) will be copied as well, but once you have made a copy, the new instance will have it's own settings independent from the original.
Grouping cells on to a new page
To take a selection of clips and move them to a new page, select the clips as described above, then right+click on any select clip and choose the "Move selection to new page" option. A new page will be created and the selected clips will automatically be moved.
Renaming
If you want to change the name of files loaded in the media bin, first select a single cell as described above. Once selected, the name of the clip can be changed using the Media Inspector palette window.
Changing the names of cells in the media bin does NOT change the name of the file in the Finder - it's filename remains the same. Renaming a cell only affects the specific instance of the file in VDMX, which means that if you have a file loaded multiple times, you can assign a different descriptive name to each clip.
Deleting
To remove (unload) files from VDMX, first select the files you wish to delete as described above and then press the delete key on the keyboard. A dialog will appear asking to confirm that you would like to remove the clips from your project. This option is also available by right+clicking on any of the selected cells and choosing the "Delete selection" option. Removing files from your project will free up any resources (eg. RAM) associated with the file.
Pages can be removed from a project using the Table of Contents. Like with clips, pages are deleted by selecting them in the list and then pressing the delete key on the keyboard. When a page is deleted, it's contents are removed along with it.
Previewing and inspecting files
If the Media Inspector window is open when files are selected in a media bin, the inspector can be used to adjust various properties of the selected files, such as the ramload settings and the default speed of a movie, or the resolution that Quartz Composer documents should render at. Some settings can be adjusted for multiple clips at once, but if only one cell is selected, the media inspector will also provide a video preview of the clip and controls for setting clip specific settings like in/out points and QC input parameters. For more information see the section on the Media Inspector.
Triggering files
Triggering files is the act by which you tell a layer to start playing back the specified file. Currently each media cell can only be played on one layer at a time. Which layer the file will be assigned to, and when it will begin playing back depends on the trigger queue and quantization settings which are dicussed later on in this section.
Mouse triggering
At any given time you can trigger a media file simply by clicking on it the thumbnail for the file in either the grid or list view.
Keyboard/MIDI triggering setup
To access the setup for using a keyboard or MIDI notes to trigger files, click the 'opt' button in the title bar of the media bin. A setup panel will drop down over the bin. In this panel are controls for setting up a 'trigger selection' made up of cells that trigger the appropriate file when the key or note assigned to it is pressed. The selection is displayed over the cells in the thumbnail view, and in the 'shortcut' column in list view. This selection can be moved around making it possible to access media when there are more files than trigger cells.
Auto-MIDI range setup
If you are using a MIDI keyboard that uses consecutive notes, you can quickly assign a range of notes to a media bin by choosing the 'Auto-setup with MIDI range' option from the menu in the setup panel. Once you have selected the menu item, press the lowest note and then press the last note. VDMX will automatically create the trigger selection based on the range such that the first note is assigned to the first cell in the selection and the second note pressed is assigned to the last cell in the trigger selection.
Continuous Detect setup
When using a MIDI device that does not use consecutive note values, or when doing assignment using a standard keyboard, or using buttons (eg. from a wiimote or buttons plugin) you will need to set up each assignment one by one.
To begin, click the "'start detecting'" button in the setup panel, then start sending the shortcuts that you wish to assign. For each keyboard press, MIDI note, or button, a new row will be added to the table below the button that shows the index of the cell in the trigger selection, the current keyboard / MIDI shortcut assigned to the cell, and a 'detect' button which can be pressed to assign a different shortcut to the trigger cell if you wish to change it later on. Once you are finished adding trigger cells, click the "'Stop detecting'" button.
To remove a cell from the list after it has been added, select its row in the table and press the delete key on your keyboard.
Stopping clips on note off
When using the keyboard or MIDI to trigger files in a media bin, you can use this option to have the clips automatically stop when you let up on the appropriate key or a MIDI note off is received.
Changing the page and current row
Above the page view section of the media bin are four vvbuttons that can be used to move the trigger selection around in the media bin (both thumbnail and list view), or navigate to the previous or next page. Each of these buttons can be assigned custom MIDI or keyboard shortcuts by right clicking and selecting the appropriate option from the contextual menu that appears.
The Row Up / Down buttons will shift the trigger selection up/down on the current page by the number of cells in the selection. This is similar to setting the transpose on a MIDI keyboard.
Play previous / next / random
Also above the page view section of the bin are three vvbuttons for triggering clips on the current page. Like any vvbutton, you can assign a key/MIDI shortcut or any other data source (such as audio analysis) to activate the button.
The 'prev' button will trigger the cell to the left of the cell that is playing on the next target layer (as indicated in the trigger queue menu at the bottom of the bin). If the layer is playing a clip that is not on the current page, clicking this button will trigger the last cell on the page.
The 'next' button will trigger the cell to the right of the cell that is playing on the next target layer (as indicated in the trigger queue menu at the bottom of the bin). If the layer is playing a clip that is not on the current page, clicking this button will trigger the first cell on the page.
The 'rand' button will trigger a random cell on the current page on the next target layer. If there are no cells on the page, or all of the cells are already playing on other layers, this button will do nothing.
The Layer Queue
The layer queue is a list of layers in each media bin; this list determines which layers each clip will be sent to. When a clip is triggered, it is sent to the layer indicated by the marker in the left hand column. By adding or removing layers from the queue, you may set up a media bin so that it only triggers to a certain group of layers. Shortcuts may be assigned to layers so you can change which layer you wish to trigger in on the fly, and the queue may also be set up to rotate it's order automatically.
Adding layers to the queue
To add layers to the trigger queue, drag them from the list of all current layers to the trigger queue list.
Removing layers from the queue
Layers can be removed the queue for a bin by setting the toggle switch next to it's name to off. Deactivated layers will be skipped over when files are triggered.
Changing the trigger order
There are several ways to change the order of in which layers will be assigned when triggering. To make a layer the 'target' layer for the next time you trigger a cell, click in the left hand column of the layer queue to move the indicator. The layer queue can also be arranged by clicking on the layer names and dragging them to the desired position in the list.
Setting up "make-next" shortcuts
Keyboard and MIDI note shortcuts can also be assigned to immediately make a specific layer the next in the queue. To assign a shortcut, click on the row for the layer in the queue's list where it says "click to set shortcut", then press the key or MIDI note that you wish to use to make it the target layer. Once assigned, a shortcut can be cleared by clicking on the shortcut text in the layer list.
Trigger modes
The trigger mode for a media bin sets behavior for consecutive (one after another) and simultaneous (multiple files triggered at once) triggering of files.
Manual
In this mode, only the targeted layer will receive note triggers. The indicator has to manually be switched in order to play files on a different layer.
Cycle
Whenever a file is triggered, it is assigned to playback on the target layer in the queue, after which the layer indicator will automatically move to the next row in the queue.
Polyphonic
In polyphonic mode, the Media Bin will trigger files on active layers that are not already playing back a different file, starting with the currently targeted layer and then working it's way down the queue. If no active layers are free, the indicated layer will be used instead. This mode is particularly useful with the stop clips on note off triggering option.
Quantized Triggering
Triggering a file does not always mean that it will begin playing back right away. Using Quantized Triggering, you can tell a media bin to place files in a queue to be sent to a layer at some point in the future (determined by some event). To turn quantization off, set the menu to 'Immediately'.
Here are a few examples of when you might want to use quantized triggering-
- When you want a clip to begin playing back as soon as another clip ends (see 'Movie Ends options)
- To have multiple clips begin playing back simultaneously using the mouse
- Switching clips only at the end of a measure (or some other clock division)
If after it is triggered a file is waiting (in queue) to be sent to a layer, instead of the blue highlight that means 'now playing' , the cell will have a yellow highlight indicating that it is on deck. Until the file actually begins playing back, you can change what clip will be sent to the layer when the queue is processed.
Immediately
When using the 'immediately' option, files are sent to the specified layer as soon as they are triggered. This is the default setting for a new media bin.
Clock divisions
If a clock division (eg. half note, whole note), triggered files will wait in the trigger queue until the clock reaches the specified time division and all triggers waiting in the queue will begin playing back at the same time.
Movie ends
These options will cause triggered movies to begin playback when currently playing movies loop or end. The conditions and which triggered movies begin playing back depends on which of the 'movie ends' options is selected.
Target layer
When this option is selected, the clip that was most recently assigned to trigger on the layer will begin playing when the layer ends. For example, if you have movies waiting to be triggered on both layer 1 and layer 2, the movie waiting to play on layer 1 will trigger when layer 1 ends, and the movie waiting to play on layer 2 will trigger only when layer 2 ends.
Any movie ends
All movies waiting in the queue will be sent to their layers whenever any currently playing movie ends or loops.
Specific layer ends
All movies waiting in the queue will be sent to their layers whenever the movie on the specified layer ends or loops.
Manually
When this option is selected, a vvbutton will appear next to the quantization menu. Movies waiting in the queue will not begin playing back until this button is activated. Like any vvbutton, you can use a keyboard or MIDI shortcut, or any datasource to trigger the button.
Display settings
Changing the number of columns for thumbnail view
Use the 'columns' slider above the thumbnail view to adjust the number of columns for the current folder. The slider ranges from 1 to 20. Fewer columns means bigger thumbnails and less clips per row. This option can also be set by right+clicking anywhere on the grid view.
Single / Multi Page View
By default, the Page View only shows the current selected page when in grid view, adding empty rows to fill up any extra space. In multipage view, all of the visible pages are displayed in the page viewer at the same time, separated by page tabs that can be expanded or collapsed to show the contents of each page.
Show file names / trigger highlights in thumbnail view
If you find the filename or trigger overlays in the grid view to be distracting, they can be disabled in the options panel using their respective toggles.
Setting the height of thumbnails in the list view
The Row Height slider above the list view to changes the size of the thumbnails in the list view.
Hiding / showing the page view, table of contents, and layer queue
The interface splitter that separates each of the three main sections of the media bin can be dragged to adjust the size of each section. There are two splitters - one runs horizontally between the layer queue and page controls, and the other is placed vertically in between the table of contents and the page view area. When collapsed, the layer queue is replaced by a menu for changing the target layer.
Update layer windows on next layer change
When this setting is turned on, layer windows will automatically switch tabs to display the targeted layer as it is changed in the media bin.