Image Duration - Simple Question

[Alex Trujillo]

Hi, I'm new and trying to figure this out, maybe this has been covered seems very simple. I am using the free version to test and see capabilities before we use for a future show. How does one set the time duration of an image? I drop the jpg in and it appears as a video clip. Do I set an action or animation cue for time length of the image(clip)? If someone can briefly show me what it would look like that might be quicker. I eventually would like to put a title over the image slide.... so I can edit titles on the fly at a show. thx.

[Mike Post]

Hi Alex,

Welcome to QLab.  What you’re asking isn’t difficult although the description suggests you are working with QLab version 2.  The Animation cue was folded into the Fade cue for Version 3.  Since you’re just starting out, I’d strongly suggest getting V3.  It’s just as free and V2 is on the way out, albeit somewhat slowly.  There’s several other steps to consider in getting this set up.  I’ll start by describing what you asked.

Dropping in a JPEG file will display it.  The duration is as long as you let it stay there.  To make it go away, you have options.  You probably want it to fade away, which means using a Fade Q in Version 3.  You can create one just below the Video cue by dragging it from the toolbar above the cue list.  It looks like 3 faders, the 7th icon from the left.  

Note the red X next to the Fade cue.  This is because it needs a target (your video cue) and an action (the fade out).  It you move the cursor to the X without clicking, it will actually tell you one of the problems - need Target.

You can target the Fade cue to your Video cue.  Do this by clicking and dragging the Video cue onto the Fade cue. The Q title should change accordingly.  

Now with the Fade cue selected, click on the Geometry tab and look for Opacity.  You can set Opacity to 0 - this should also automatically set the check box next to the field and the red X should go away.  At this point, you have a fade built, but all it does is make your image invisible - it’s still there in memory.  To clean up, click the check box labeled 'Stop target when done’ to the left side of the window.

Now, if you click once on the Video cue and hit the Space Bar (same as clicking GO) your output screen should black out and display your slide.  Then hit the space bar again and it should fade over 5 seconds until it’s gone.  Once the fade stops the cue, your screen should go back to whatever background the output screen had.

From there you can change the speed (duration) of the fade by changing the Action time of the fade cue.  Doubleclick on the 5:00 under Action in the Fade cue and set a new time in seconds.

Also, if you want it automated, you can set it up to display your image and then fade it out after a set time.  You can do this setting the Video cue to Autocontinue.  Click on the far right side of the video cue under the column with the arrow.  Click once and you get a simple arrow.  Directly to the left of that arrow is a field called the Post Wait time which you can change by double clicking on it and typing in a number of seconds - in essence the duration you were looking for.  Note if you click twice on the Continue column, you get an arrow with a ball at the top.  This is an Autofollow which waits the duration (Action time) of the cue to execute the next one.  Since a JPEG duration is 0, it means it will automatically launch the next cue immediately.  

I hope this helps.  There a bunch of other things about setting up your output surface and whatnot as well as many other things you can do with a fade cue, including setting it up to fade your image up from blackness.  There is some beginning documentation at the link below for more reading and I and others here are very happy to help with questions.

http://figure53.com/qlab/docs/

Mike Post

mdp...@mac.com

http://mdpostdesign.com

(601) 307-8657

On Jan 27, 2015, at 9:54 PM, Alex Trujillo <alexrt...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi, I'm new and trying to figure this out, maybe this has been covered seems very simple. I am using the free version to test and see capabilities before we use for a future show. How does one set the time duration of an image? I drop the jpg in and it appears as a video clip. Do I set an action or animation cue for time length of the image(clip)? If someone can briefly show me what it would look like that might be quicker. I eventually would like to put a title over the image slide.... so I can edit titles on the fly at a show. thx.

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[Alex Trujillo]

Hi Mike,
Thanks for replying. I downloaded version 3.1.7 a couple days ago. That should be version 3, yes? I was going to include this title slide into a group of video clips, the group would loop continuously on a tradeshow booth monitor all day. Wasn't necessarily needing a fade out for a production show feel, it can cut hard directly to next cued video. Do I still need to use this fade cue> geometry> opacity to achieve it this way? and can this technique all be used with the free version?_A

[Mike Post]

Yep - you’re on Version 3.  

My apologies - the fade cue is not available to the unlicensed version.  Oddly enough, I was able to fade Geometry while only having a Pro Audio license installed, but it just doesn’t work with no licensing.

(Chris et. al.?  Got you ears on?  Is that normal?)

You need to have some sort of cue to clean up your memory or else things pile up and could cause other problems.  You can use Stop cues to do this in the free version.  Basically it’s a similar structure to what I described before except all it does is ‘stops’ the video cue clearing out that chunk of memory which means all you have to do is target the right cue.

Basically, you’re doing something like this assuming each image will last for 2 seconds:

Note that the first Stop cue is stopping a cue that isn’t running yet but will be there for the loop

Also note the Start cue at the bottom to set yourself back to the first cue in the loop.  This is not a Goto cue - that won’t work.  

There are other cleaner ways to do this involving groups and cue lists, but I thought this would be the easiest to see the mechanism..

Hope that helps!

Mike Post

mdp...@mac.com

http://mdpostdesign.com

(601) 307-8657

[Chris Ashworth]

On January 28, 2015 at 3:43:14 PM, Mike Post (mdpost...@gmail.com) wrote:

Yep - you’re on Version 3.  

My apologies - the fade cue is not available to the unlicensed version.  Oddly enough, I was able to fade Geometry while only having a Pro Audio license installed, but it just doesn’t work with no licensing.

(Chris et. al.?  Got you ears on?  Is that normal?)

Without double checking the code my memory is, yes, it’ll let you explore it without the license.

-C