Time Machine TOP
Summary
The Time Machine TOP combines pixels in a sequence of images stored in a Texture 3D TOP. Whereas "morphing" warps an image "spatially" (in xy), Time Machine warps images only in time.
Time Machine, originally known as "tima" in PRISMS, was first used in 1995 for warping effects in Ghost in the Shell, a Japanimation cyber film that heavily used PRISMS for camera perspective effects, compositing, 3D and effects.
You must connect a Texture 3D TOP to the Time Machine's first input. It uses this array of images and displays different depths of the 3D texture.
The second input determines the time offset of the output image. The second input is expected to be monochrome, but uses the red channel when it is not monochrome. By default, where there is a black pixel in the second input, it gets the oldest layer of the 3D texture. Where there is a white pixel in the second input, it gets the most recent layer of the 3D texture. Black Offset and White Offset adjust the range of time that the black to white parts of the image are offset within. For example, if Black Offset is -10 and White Offset is 0, then a black pixel would be 10 frames behind in time, a white pixel the current frame, and a 50% grey pixel would be 5 frames behind in time (in between the Black and White Offsets).
Parameters - TimeMachine Page
blackoffset
- Sets the time offset for black areas of the Input 2 image.
blackoffsetunit
-
whiteoffset
- Sets the time offset for white areas of the Input 2 image.
whiteoffsetunit
-
Parameters - Common Page
outputresolution
- ⊞ - quickly change the resolution of the TOP's data.
- Use Input
useinput
- Uses the input's resolution.
- Eighth
eighth
- Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
- Quarter
quarter
- Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
- Half
half
- Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
- 2X
2x
- Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
- 4X
4x
- Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
- 8X
8x
- Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
- Fit Resolution
fit
- Fits the width and height to the resolution given below, while maintaining the aspect ratio.
- Limit Resolution
limit
- The width and height are limited to the resolution given below. If one of the dimensions exceeds the given resolution, the width and height will be reduced to fit inside the given limits while maintaining the aspect ratio.
- Custom Resolution
custom
- Enables the Resolution parameter below, giving direct control over width and height.
resolution
- ⊞ - Enabled only when the Resolution parameter is set to Custom Resolution. Some Generators like Constant and Ramp do not use inputs and only use this field to determine their size. The drop down menu on the right provides some commonly used resolutions.
- W
resolutionw
-
- H
resolutionh
-
resmult
- Uses the Global Resolution Multiplier found in Edit>Preferences>TOPs. This multiplies all the TOPs resolutions by the set amount. This is handy when working on computers with different hardware specifications. If a project is designed on a desktop workstation with lots of graphics memory, a user on a laptop with only 64MB VRAM can set the Global Resolution Multiplier to a value of half or quarter so it runs at an acceptable speed. By checking this checkbox on, this TOP is affected by the global multiplier.
outputaspect
- ⊞ - Sets the image aspect ratio allowing any textures to be viewed in any size. Watch for unexpected results when compositing TOPs with different aspect ratios. (You can define images with non-square pixels using xres, yres, aspectx, aspecty where xres/yres != aspectx/aspecty.)
- Use Input
useinput
- Uses the input's aspect ratio.
- Resolution
resolution
- Uses the aspect of the image's defined resolution (ie 512x256 would be 2:1), whereby each pixel is square.
- Custom Aspect
custom
- Lets you explicitly define a custom aspect ratio in the Aspect parameter below.
aspect
- ⊞ - Use when Output Aspect parameter is set to Custom Aspect.
- Aspect1
aspect1
-
- Aspect2
aspect2
-
inputfiltertype
- ⊞ - This controls pixel filtering on the input image of the TOP.
- Nearest Pixel
nearest
- Uses nearest pixel or accurate image representation. Images will look jaggy when viewing at any zoom level other than Native Resolution.
- Interpolate Pixels
linear
- Uses linear filtering between pixels. This is how you get TOP images in viewers to look good at various zoom levels, especially useful when using any Fill Viewer setting other than Native Resolution.
- Mipmap Pixels
mipmap
- Uses mipmap filtering when scaling images. This can be used to reduce artifacts and sparkling in moving/scaling images that have lots of detail.
fillmode
- ⊞ - Determine how the TOP image is displayed in the viewer.
NOTE:To get an understanding of how TOPs work with images, you will want to set this to Native Resolution as you lay down TOPs when starting out. This will let you see what is actually happening without any automatic viewer resizing.
- Use Input
useinput
- Uses the same Fill Viewer settings as it's input.
- Fill
fill
- Stretches the image to fit the edges of the viewer.
- Fit Horizontal
width
- Stretches image to fit viewer horizontally.
- Fit Vertical
height
- Stretches image to fit viewer vertically.
- Fit Best
best
- Stretches or squashes image so no part of image is cropped.
- Fit Outside
outside
- Stretches or squashes image so image fills viewer while constraining it's proportions. This often leads to part of image getting cropped by viewer.
- Native Resolution
nativeres
- Displays the native resolution of the image in the viewer.
filtertype
- ⊞ - This controls pixel filtering in the viewers.
- Nearest Pixel
nearest
- Uses nearest pixel or accurate image representation. Images will look jaggy when viewing at any zoom level other than Native Resolution.
- Interpolate Pixels
linear
- Uses linear filtering between pixels. Use this to get TOP images in viewers to look good at various zoom levels, especially useful when using any Fill Viewer setting other than Native Resolution.
- Mipmap Pixels
mipmap
- Uses mipmap filtering when scaling images. This can be used to reduce artifacts and sparkling in moving/scaling images that have lots of detail.
npasses
- Duplicates the operation of the TOP the specified number of times. Making this larger than 1 is essentially the same as taking the output from each pass, and passing it into the first input of the node and repeating the process. Other inputs and parameters remain the same for each pass.
chanmask
- Allows you to choose which channels (R, G, B, or A) the TOP will operate on. All channels are selected by default.
format
- ⊞ - Format used to store data for each channel in the image (ie. R, G, B, and A). Refer to Pixel Formats for more information.
- Use Input
useinput
- Uses the input's pixel format.
- 8-bit fixed (RGBA)
rgba8fixed
- Uses 8-bit integer values for each channel.
- sRGB 8-bit fixed (RGBA)
srgba8fixed
- Uses 8-bit integer values for each channel and stores color in sRGB colorspace.
- 16-bit float (RGBA)
rgba16float
- Uses 16-bits per color channel, 64-bits per pixel.
- 32-bit float (RGBA)
rgba32float
- Uses 32-bits per color channel, 128-bits per pixels.
- 10-bit RGB, 2-bit Alpha, fixed (RGBA)
rgb10a2fixed
- Uses 10-bits per color channel and 2-bits for alpha, 32-bits total per pixel.
- 16-bit fixed (RGBA)
rgba16fixed
- Uses 16-bits per color channel, 64-bits total per pixel.
- 11-bit float (RGB), Positive Values Only
rgba11float
- A RGB floating point format that has 11 bits for the Red and Green channels, and 10-bits for the Blue Channel, 32-bits total per pixel (therefore the same memory usage as 8-bit RGBA). The Alpha channel in this format will always be 1. Values can go above one, but can't be negative. ie. the range is [0, infinite).
- 16-bit float (RGB)
rgb16float
-
- 32-bit float (RGB)
rgb32float
-
- 8-bit fixed (Mono)
mono8fixed
- Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 8-bits per pixel.
- 16-bit fixed (Mono)
mono16fixed
- Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 16-bits per pixel.
- 16-bit float (Mono)
mono16float
- Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 16-bits per pixel.
- 32-bit float (Mono)
mono32float
- Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 32-bits per pixel.
- 8-bit fixed (RG)
rg8fixed
- A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 8-bits per channel, 16-bits total per pixel.
- 16-bit fixed (RG)
rg16fixed
- A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits total per pixel.
- 16-bit float (RG)
rg16float
- A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits total per pixel.
- 32-bit float (RG)
rg32float
- A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 32-bits per channel, 64-bits total per pixel.
- 8-bit fixed (A)
a8fixed
- An Alpha only format that has 8-bits per channel, 8-bits per pixel.
- 16-bit fixed (A)
a16fixed
- An Alpha only format that has 16-bits per channel, 16-bits per pixel.
- 16-bit float (A)
a16float
- An Alpha only format that has 16-bits per channel, 16-bits per pixel.
- 32-bit float (A)
a32float
- An Alpha only format that has 32-bits per channel, 32-bits per pixel.
- 8-bit fixed (Mono+Alpha)
monoalpha8fixed
- A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 8-bits per channel, 16-bits per pixel.
- 16-bit fixed (Mono+Alpha)
monoalpha16fixed
- A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits per pixel.
- 16-bit float (Mono+Alpha)
monoalpha16float
- A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits per pixel.
- 32-bit float (Mono+Alpha)
monoalpha32float
- A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 32-bits per channel, 64-bits per pixel.
Operator Inputs
- Input 0: -
- Input 1: -
Info CHOP Channels
Extra Information for the Time Machine TOP can be accessed via an Info CHOP.
Common TOP Info Channels
- resx - Horizontal resolution of the TOP in pixels.
- resy - Vertical resolution of the TOP in pixels.
- aspectx - Horizontal aspect of the TOP.
- aspecty - Vertical aspect of the TOP.
- depth - Depth of 2D or 3D array if this TOP contains a 2D or 3D texture array.
- gpu_memory_used - Total amount of texture memory used by this TOP.
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.
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