The cut's camera
Every cut keeps its own camera and hold, and sets what its figs do.
Every cut keeps the camera you framed when you pressed Cut!, and playback uses that camera for the cut.
The cut’s page
A cut’s page opens in the Camera window when you press Cut!, on tablets and phones. Tap a cut’s thumbnail in the band under the frame to open it again. Its heading reads, for example, Cut 2 of 5 · 1s.
- Move: what the camera does during the hold. Still keeps the framing. Wiggle sways either side of it. Spin rotates all the way around. A short hold gets part of the rotation. Path moves the camera along a line you draw on the map (below). The same chips are on the Clip card’s Camera row and set the selected cut there too. A new cut starts with the move of the cut before it.
- Hold: how long the cut stays on screen. The chip reads Hold: 1s. Each tap steps up: ½s, 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, then back to ½s. With music that has a tempo , the steps are beats: 1, 2, 4, 8.
- Doing: figs in the cut that have moves get a row of name chips. Tap a name and that fig performs its moves while this cut plays. The stage shows it at once. New cuts keep the same figs performing. A fig with a move that starts on a tap is on the row too, and the cut starts the move. Tap the name of a fig that falls over and a line under the row gives the length of the fall, for example Fall duration is approximately 1.2 s. A new 1s hold lengthens to fit the fall.
- + Sound and + Story: see Sound in a clip and Words in a clip .
- Re-cut replaces the cut with the scene as it looks now. The hold, camera move, sound, and words stay. Duplicate adds a copy after the cut. Delete asks once (Really delete?), then removes the cut.
Path: a camera move you draw
Select Path on a cut’s Move row, or Draw the path on its page. The Camera window closes and the map opens large. Drag along the ground to draw the path. The camera moves along it. Then tap what the camera looks at: a fig, and the camera follows that fig while it moves, or a spot on the ground. The Camera window returns on the cut’s page, which now reads Path drawn · follows Tree (or looks at a spot) with two rows:
- Height: Low, Eye, High or Bird. Eye is the default.
- Speed: Whole cut fits the path to the cut’s hold. Slow, Normal and Fast move along it at a set pace. A camera that reaches the end early stays there and keeps looking at the focus.
Draw the path again replaces the path. Play, the video and the living GIF all follow the path with a soft start and stop. With no cut yet, Path on the Clip card’s Camera row draws the path first, and the first Cut! uses it.
The path of the cut you are on stays drawn on the map as a dotted coral line: a square where the camera starts, a ring on what it looks at. It shows on the Animate tab, where the path is drawn, and on the corner map while the Camera is open.
A plain Video in a scene has Path too. See The Camera .
Blank cuts and the Board
A clip made from an idea’s shots (see Ideas ) starts with one blank cut per shot, numbered, showing the shot’s drawing on a paper card. A blank cut’s page reads Not recorded yet. Frame the shot and capture. and has only Delete. Press Cut! on a ringed blank and it is filled in place, keeping its number and hold. With no blank ringed, the first blank is filled. Blank cuts do not play, record or export, and the shoot face counts them: 1 of 3 shot.
When the ringed cut’s shot has a drawing, a Board toggle appears beside Ghost on the shoot face. When on, the drawing shows faintly over the frame so you can frame the scene against it. It is on by default and does not appear in a capture.
Then: a pose change inside a cut
Figs in the cut with saved poses get a Then row. It changes a pose partway through the hold. Tap a name to set that fig’s next saved pose. Tap again to reach the rest pose, then off. The chip after the names sets the moment: after ½ s, after 1 s, or after 2 s. The change plays in the window and in every export. The cut’s sound sheet’s When row can play the sound With the pose change.
When a sound plays
A cut’s sound plays as the cut begins. To move it, open the cut’s sound sheet and select from When: At the start, After ½ s, After 1 s, or After 2 s. When a fig you tapped on the Doing row falls over, When adds When it hits the ground, so a thud plays as the fig hits the ground. Exports keep the timing.
Talking
Figs in the cut with two or more skins get a Talking row. Paint one skin with the mouth shut and another with the mouth open. Tap the fig’s name to select the open-mouth skin. Tap again for the next skin, and once more to stop. While the cut’s sound or the narration is loud, the fig shows the open-mouth skin. Music does not count. The skins belong to the fig. The Talking choice belongs to the cut.