Video Device In TOP to multiple containers?

Hi,
I’m planning a show where actors perform in front of a greenscreen, I put backgrounds behind them and play the result to the audience.
I was hoping to run the show with a movie player like this one-
youtube.com/watch?v=zFKkhRG9AcY
Operator hits a button to progress to the next shot when the actors are ready.
A lot of the time it’ll just be putting the performers in front of a background but there’ll sometimes be stuff in the foreground and / or special effects.

I’ve got a Video Device In TOP, I want to get its footage down into containers as they’re selected, do a few operators, send the result back up to the screen.

The problem I’m having is sending the camera footage where I want it to go.
Is there a way to get the output of that Video Device In TOP into a container?
Or am I going about this the wrong way?

Thanks

You can use Select TOPs to get the output from any TOP in your network at any other place(s) in your network.

see Help->Operator Snippets → TOP → Select TOP for some examples

another more visible way to make the connection would be to put an in TOP inside each of the containers and wire the video top to the container.

Hey thanks- it’s all working real nice so far- I’m sending camera footage to containers with Select TOPs, combining my images and sending composites out to screens, but I’m having the problem that the more shots I have in the project, the more places the camera footage has to go to, which slows everything right down.
Is there an elegant way to send the camera to just the currently-live container?
thanks

TD is a pull-based system - nodes only cook when something is requesting their output.
So if you use a switch TOP at the end to select the output you want to see, the other parts of the network will not cook. Watch the green wires between nodes - if they are animated they cook.
Please note that opening a viewer on a node is the same as requesting its output.

Recommended reading: the Order of Cooking

Ah!
Awesome. Thanks.

Hi, I’m having a similar problem, and using the select TOP would solve it but when I copy the select top into the base I get an error saying that it is an invalid path. Has anyone else resolved this issue?

Hi @Ellena,

If possible, please post screenshots or sample files so the answer can be particular to your question.

Our curriculum at learn.derivative.ca has a short introduction to the concepts of paths of operators and networks that might be helpful for you:

the Select TOP has a specific path it references the texture from and when copying the operator to a different component, that path will change.
For example, let’s say you have a Movie File In TOP and reference that with a Select TOP - the Select TOP’s “TOP” parameter would most likely hold a value similar to moviefilein1.

Now let’s say you create a Base COMP in the same network you Movie File In TOP is in and copy the Select TOP into it, you will receive the warning you are getting:

This works similar to a file hierarchy: operators in components will have a different path name - and this has to be reflected when referencing operators that are in different locations.

So specifying the relative (or absolute path) to the Movie FIle In from the Select TOP will get rid of the warning.

You can simplify the process by splitting the pane into 2 and navigating in one to the Movie File In TOP while in the other you navigate to the location of your Select TOP. Now you can drag the Movie FIle In TOP onto the Select TOP and the path will be filled out for you.

cheers
Markus

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