Cycle CHOP

Summary

The Cycle CHOP creates cycles. It can repeat the channels any number of times before and after the original. It can also make a single cycle have a smooth transition from its end to its beginning, so it loops smoothly.

Since channels may not naturally loop well, the Cycle CHOP provides three different methods of blending between the cycles.

cycleCHOP_Class

Parameters - Cycle Page

Cycles Before before - The number of cycles to loop before the input CHOP. This parameter can be fractional.

Cycles After after - The number of cycles to loop after the input CHOP. This parameter can be fractional.

Mirror Cycles mirror - If enabled, consecutive cycles are mirror images (reversed) of each another. The first cycle is never mirrored.

Blend Start to End extremes - If on, the end of the CHOP is blended into the start of the CHOP to produce a smooth loop. If Cycles Before and Cycles After are 0, Region is non-zero, and Extend Conditions are "Cycle", it loops smoothly forever.

Parameters - Blend Page

Method blendmethod - ⊞ - How to blend between cycles:

• Preserve Length pre - Keeps the total length of each cycle the same as the length of the input CHOP.

• Overlap Sequences ovl - Overlaps each cycle with the previous cycle.

• Insert Blend Region ins - Inserts a region between the cycles where blending is done.

Shape blendfunc - ⊞ - The shape of the blending function:

• Linear lin - Linear blend.

• Ease in ei - Uses an easein() function for blending.

• Ease out eo - Uses an easeout() function for blending.

• Ease in Ease out cos - Uses both easein() and easeout() functions.

• Cubic cub - For Insert Blend Region, uses a cubic() interpolation to fill the region between the cycles.

• Add add - The overlapped regions have the overlapping samples simply added. This is suitable for looping audio.

• Hold Previous holdprev -

Region blendregion - The size of the blend region, in either seconds, samples or frames (set with Units in the Common page).

Blend Region Units blendregionunit -

Bias blendbias - The bias of the blend. A -1 biases the blend toward the beginning of the blend region, 0 is no bias and +1 biases towards the end of the blend region.

Step step - If set to 1, the next cycle will be shifted up or down in value, so that it begins where the last cycle ended. Suitable for the root object of walk cycles.

Step Scope stepscope - The names of those channels that will be affected by the Step parameter.

Parameters - Common Page

Time Slice timeslice - Turning this on forces the channels to be "Time Sliced". A Time Slice is the time between the last cook frame and the current cook frame.

Scope scope - To determine which channels get affected, some CHOPs use a Scope string on the Common page. See Pattern Matching.

Sample Rate Match srselect - ⊞ - Handle cases where multiple input CHOPs' sample rates are different. When Resampling occurs, the curves are interpolated according to the Interpolation Method Option, or "Linear" if the Interpolate Options are not available.

• Resample At First Input's Rate first - Use rate of first input to resample others.

• Resample At Maximum Rate max - Resample to the highest sample rate.

• Resample At Minimum Rate min - Resample to the lowest sample rate.

• Error If Rates Differ err - Doesn't accept conflicting sample rates.

Export Method exportmethod - ⊞ - This will determine how to connect the CHOP channel to the parameter. Refer to the Export article for more information.

• DAT Table by Index datindex - Uses the docked DAT table and references the channel via the index of the channel in the CHOP.

• DAT Table by Name datname - Uses the docked DAT table and references the channel via the name of the channel in the CHOP.

• Channel Name is Path:Parameter autoname - The channel is the full destination of where to export to, such has geo1/transform1:tx.

Export Root autoexportroot - This path points to the root node where all of the paths that exporting by Channel Name is Path:Parameter are relative to.

Export Table exporttable - The DAT used to hold the export information when using the DAT Table Export Methods (See above).

Operator Inputs

• Input 0: -

Info CHOP Channels

Extra Information for the Cycle CHOP can be accessed via an Info CHOP.

Common CHOP Info Channels

• start - Start of the CHOP interval in samples.

• length - Number of samples in the CHOP.

• sample_rate - The samplerate of the channels in frames per second.

• num_channels - Number of channels in the CHOP.

• time_slice - 1 if CHOP is Time Slice enabled, 0 otherwise.

• export_sernum - A count of how often the export connections have been updated.

Common Operator Info Channels

• total_cooks - Number of times the operator has cooked since the process started.

• cook_time - Duration of the last cook in milliseconds.

• cook_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the component timeline.

• cook_abs_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the absolute time.

• cook_start_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator started cooking in the frame it was cooked.

• cook_end_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator finished cooking in the frame it was cooked.

• cooked_this_frame - 1 if operator was cooked this frame.

• warnings - Number of warnings in this operator if any.

• errors - Number of errors in this operator if any.

TouchDesigner Build: Latest\n2022.241402021.100002018.28070before 2018.28070

An Operator Family which operate on Channels (a sequence of numbers (Samples)) which are used for animation, audio, mathematics, simulation, logic, UI construction, and data streamed from/to devices and protocols.

In CHOPs, Extend Conditions determine what numbers you get when you try to get a channel value that is outside its start-end range - in its Extend Regions.

A parameter in most CHOPs that restricts which channels of that CHOP will be affected. Normally all channels of a CHOP are affected by the operator. TOPs have Channel Mask, a similar feature.

A Time Slice is the time from the last cook frame to the current cook frame. In CHOPs it is the set of short channels that contain the CHOP channels' samples between the last and the current cook frame.

samples-per-second of a CHOP. Each CHOP in your network has a sample rate. In contrast, the overall timeline has a Frame Rate, which is the number of frames to cook and display per second, generally your monitor display frequency, default 60.

Exporting is the connection of CHOP channels to parameters of operators. The output of each exporting CHOP is one or more channels, active only while the CHOP Viewer is on. The current value of a channel can be exported to a parameter of any operator, overriding that parameter's value. See Parameter.

An Operator Family that manipulates text strings: multi-line text or tables. Multi-line text is often a python Script or GLSL Shader, but can be any multi-line text. Tables are rows and columns of cells, each containing a text string.

The location of an operator within the TouchDesigner environment, for example, /geo1/circle1, a node called circle1 in a component called geo1. The path / is called Root. This path is displayed at the top of every Pane, showing which Component's network you are currently in. To refer instead to a filesystem folder, directory, disk file or http: address, see Folder.

Every operator in TouchDesigner has a set of control Parameters that can be integer or floating point numbers, menus, binary toggles, text strings or operator paths, which determine the output of the operator.

TouchDesigner is a hierarchy of components. "root" is the top-most network in the hierarchy. The Network Path or Path for root is simply /. A typical path is /project1/moviein1.