Pattern CHOP
Summary
The Pattern CHOP generates a sequence of samples in a channel. Unlike the Wave CHOP its purpose is generating arrays of samples that have no reference to time (seconds or frames).
It is useful for curve generation like lookup tables, simple shapes that can be converted to SOPs, generating channels that are passed to the Geometry COMP to generate instances, and other non-time-based curve-generation, with as little need to make expressions in Python.
All defaults are in samples, not seconds or frames (though like all CHOPs, it carries with it a sample rate). There is no start-end, just Length in samples.
Tip: To display a CHOP viewer in the units of samples, make the Viewer Active and change RMB -> Units to be Samples.
The Pattern CHOP optionally takes one input CHOP to match the length and sample rate, and, choosing via the Combine Channels menu, Appends or Inserts the new channel(s), Replaces the incoming channels, Adds to the incoming channels or Multiplies the incoming channels.
The Pattern CHOP defaults to one cycle of the curve over the length of the CHOP, no matter how many samples long.
Tip: Customizing each channel: The python object for the Pattern CHOP has a chanIndex
member, so if Pattern generates three channels you can put something like [1, 3, 7][me.chanIndex]
in any parameter to customize its value for each channel. For example, in the Type parameter, put the expression ['sin', 'cos', 'ramp'][me.chanIndex]
to get 3 different curve types.
Parameters - Pattern Page
wavetype
- ⊞ - The shape of one cycle of the pattern.
- Constant
const
- (1)
- Sine
sin
- (-1 to 1)
- Cosine
cos
- (-1 to 1)
- Triangle
tri
- (-1 to 1)
- Ramp
ramp
- (0-1)
- Ramp Samples
rampsamples
- (0 to numSamples-1)
- Square
square
- (-1 to -1)
- Pulse
pulse
- (0-1)
- Random
random
- (0-1)
- Random per Cycle
randomcycle
- All samples in a cycle will have the same randomly generated value.
- Random Non-Repeating Integers
randomnonrepint
- This wave type is used in conjunction with the Randomize pulse. Between each Randomize pulse, the random values at each sample will be non-repeating. For example in the simplest case with a channel length of 1, each time Randomize is pulsed the random value of sample 1 after the pulse will be different than the random value before the pulse.
- Step
step
- (0 to 1) step function
- Cyclic Ramp
rampcyclic
- (0 to (numSamples -1) / numSamples). Same as 'Ramp' type, but on phase shifting the value never goes out of range.
length
- Set the number of samples for this CHOP.
numcycles
- Set the number of repeating cycles of the Type shapes over the Length, except for Random.
steppercycle
-
numsteps
-
bias
- Makes Triangle type into a sawtooth wave, and sets the Square type variable-width.
seed
- The seed for the random Types.
phase
- Shifts the cycle.
phasestep
- Increases the phase for each channel. A Phase Step of .25 when there are 2 channels will shift the second channel to be 1/4 cycle later phase than the first phase, where if the 2 channels are used for x and y, will draw a circle when passed to a CHOP to SOP.
taper
- ⊞ - Two parameters to multiply by a line from taper1
at the start to taper2
at the end. The default of (1 1
) has no effect.
taper1
-
taper2
-
taperdecay
- An exponent that is applied to the result of the taper.
amp
- See also the Range.
offset
- See also the Range.
fromrange
- ⊞ - A value at each From Range will become its corresponding To Range value.
fromrange1
-
fromrange2
-
torange
- ⊞ - A value at each From Range will become its corresponding To Range value.
torange1
-
torange2
-
integer
- ⊞ - A round-off menu to convert all numbers to integers.
- Off
off
-
- Ceiling
ceiling
-
- Floor
floor
-
- Round
round
-
randomize
- When the Type parameter above is set to Random Non-Repeating Integers, this trigger will randomize all the values.
Parameters - Channel Page
channelname
- You can creates many channels with simple patterns like chan[1-20]
, which generates 20 channels from chan1
to chan20
, or t[xyz]
which generates tx
, ty
and tz
. See the section, Common CHOP Parameters for a description of this and all Options. See Scope and Channel Name Matching Options.
combine
- ⊞ - If an input CHOP is attached, it adopts the length and sample rate of the input CHOP, and
- Off
off
- It only adopts the length and sample rate of the input.
- Append
append
- It appends the new Pattern CHOP channels after the last incoming channel.
- Insert
insert
- It inserts the new channels before the first incoming channel.
- Replace
replace
- It replaces the incoming channels using channel-name-matching.
- Add
add
- It adds incoming channels to the generated channels, matching by channel-name-matching.
- Multiply
multiply
- It multiplies incoming channels with the generated channels, matching by channel-name-matching.
rate
- The sample rate of the channels, in samples per second.
left
- ⊞ - The left right extend conditions (before/after range).
- Hold
hold
- Hold the current value of the channel.
- Slope
slope
- Continue the slope before the start of the channel.
- Cycle
cycle
- Cycle the channel repeatedly.
- Mirror
mirror
- Cycle the channel repeatedly, mirroring every other cycle.
- Default Value
default
- Use the constant value specified in the Default Value parameter.
right
- ⊞ - The right extend conditions (before/after range).
- Hold
hold
- Hold the current value of the channel.
- Slope
slope
- Continue the slope after the end of the channel.
- Cycle
cycle
- Cycle the channel repeatedly.
- Mirror
mirror
- Cycle the channel repeatedly, mirroring every other cycle.
- Default Value
default
- Use the constant value specified in the Default Value parameter.
defval
- The value used for the Default Value extend condition.
Parameters - Common Page
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
- To determine which channels get affected, some CHOPs use a Scope string on the Common page.
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.
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 hasgeo1/transform1:tx
.
autoexportroot
- This path points to the root node where all of the paths that exporting by Channel Name is Path:Parameter are relative to.
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 Pattern 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: