Quickest way to link 2 timelines (so that they play together)?

[illtellyoulater]

Hi everyone,
just a simple question: what is the quickest way to link 2 timelines in Smode, so that when I press play on first timeline, the second timeline also plays? And so that when I click stop or reset on first timeline, the second timeline also stops or resets?
Thanks!

[alex]

Hi Illtellyoulater

The easyest thing is to create your subtimeline in the scene or a compo,
select the main timeline and set the cursor position to the wanted start time,
then drag and drop your compo/scene into your main timeline.

This will create a transport block with the size of your subtimeline starting from the current position cursor

Hoping this will helps.
Best regards

[illtellyoulater]

Hi @alex thanks a lot for your detailed answer!

The solution you described is working, but I found a problem with it.
In my case the second timeline must have a different speed parameter than the first.
And if I drag the compo with the second timeline inside the main timeline I see that the second timeline speed parameter is ignored and the second timeline will play at the speed of the first timeline.
Is this correct, or am I doing something wrong?

Anyway, I tried with another approach.
I did NOT move the compo with the second timeline inside the first timeline but I simply linked the two timelines by using Links so that when Play, Pause or Reset are pressed in the first timeline, they're also executed on the second timeline.

With this approach everything work as expected and I can successfully use a different speed for the second timeline.
However I am having problems when exporting the video.
If you want to take a look at it, I created another forum post:

Exporting (to video) timelines with animated speed, not possible?

Hi. I have a main compo which includes a timeline (with speed=1) and a second compo. This second compo contains another timeline (with speed animated by a noise function oscillating from -1 to 1). Also, I linked together the Play, Reset, and Pause buttons of both timelines, so that I can control the two timelines just by pressing play button on the main compo timeline. Now everything runs exactly as expected, but the problem is when I try exporting a video. In fact it seems that the second co…

Thanks a lot for your help.

[illtellyoulater]

Hi again @alex, I modified my previous post in this thread to explain a problem with your approach for linking timelines.
Please take a look at it.
Thanks a lot.

[zackheimbegner]

If you have access to a Control Device (MIDI or otherwise), here is my recommendation.
- Create however many Scenes in your Project as you want Main Timelines.
- Add a Main Timeline to each Scene
- Add your content to the timelines in each respective Scene
- Using the Learn functionality, link your Play button on each Main Timeline to a single Button press
- Repeat for Stop, Pause, Etc.
I have attached a visual of how I would set it up in my Smode Project. In my example, the Lower Thirds would play on in one Main Timeline, and the Clock Animation would Occur in another Timeline. Both Timelines would be Played with a single MIDI command I created.

[illtellyoulater]

Hi @zackheimbegner.
I don't understand how using a Control Device could work when exporting a video.
If you're talking about using a Control Device to trigger multiple timelines in a live performance, then yes it would work nice, but when exporting a video, how can I send that initial MIDI message?
I hope you understand my point.
Thanks!

[zackheimbegner]

Hi @illtellyoulater,

When I read your post, I approached it from a Live Output headspace.
I do not have an answer on how a MIDI command could send multiple timelines to the Render Que, but I am happy to throw some time/energy at a possible solution when I have spare time.