All language subtitles for 5. Using the TimeOffset Node

So right now we have a MasterreadNode that is our animation from 1 to 100.

If we scrub along here,

we see this thing shaking along and we've seen how we can

change these clips by trimming them, or by slipping them,

or by repositioning them; however, when you do this,

what you're doing is you're changing the values for this

MasterreadNode inside this Read Node,

and that might have profound consequences later in the chain or

when you pass this file off to somebody else.

Generally,

you want to leave the data in the Read Node as it is by default so that it

doesn't mess up other people that are using the comp and so you maintain data

continuity as you move forward while you work.

So I'm going to show you a workflow here that you should use to make

sure that the Read Node stays the Read Node and you're making

modifications downstream from the Read Node.

So if we go back to the Node Graph,

we can drop a node in here called a TimeOffset Node.

I'll just hit Tab on the keyboard, and navigate to TimeOffset,

hit Enter, connect this to our clip with TimeOffset highlighted,

hit 1 on the keyboard so that we're looking at the TimeOffset,

and go back to the Dope Sheet.

You'll notice now that our MasterreadNode is nested under this TimeOffset Node.

That is exactly what we're looking for because now we can

make our changes to this TimeOffset Node instead of making

changes to our MasterreadNode.

So we can just move this around the same way we would normally move this around,

and it's making changes to the TimeOffset Node instead of to the MasterreadNode.

So if we play the animation back,

you'll see that we have black frames until frame looks like 35,

and then our animation plays.

So if we jump this to 50, everything should be black before 50,

and if we play this, you'll see that all the frames are black,

and then our Read Node is offset by 50 frames,

and that it ends at 149.

So if we go back here,

if we highlight the MasterreadNode and hit 1 to view that with our Viewer,

and go back to the beginning,

you'll notice that the animation starts at 1 and goes through frame 100.

That's because our MasterreadNode now remains unchanged,

but if we look at this TimeOffset Node by highlighting it and

hitting one on the keyboard to switch the Viewer,

you'll see the offset that we baked into the animation.

So this just gives you a quick and easy way of performing

changes in a node that's not your master node,

and I can't stress how important this is in production because you

really want to work with a non-destructive workflow.

Another cool little trick that I'll show you here is if

you have the TimeOffset highlighted and you see the

beginning frame and the end frame,

you can just double-click on these and they become little

breakout values that you can type your own values into if

you need a specific frame range.

You can just type those in.

So,

double-clicking on these things just gives you the value and you can type

in whatever value you want and it'll change the offset,

if you need a more precise way to move this clip around.

Now that's a non-destructive way of providing a TimeOffset in your comp,

but perhaps you want to trim and slip the clip non-destructively as well.

That's the function of a TimeClip Node, which we'll talk about in the next clip.