Oscillator Use - Pan and Scroll

Support
1

Hi Everybody!

I’ve much appreciated the education I’ve been able to get from all your answers here! I have another question, I wanted to see if someone had any idea!

I’ve learned to create a zoom and scale effect using the sawtooth oscillator. I know that a draw effect will require me to animate the image. But I’m considering developing a pan across an image; either left to right, or top to bottom to create a continuous “scrolling” effect. Are there any recommendations regarding which oscillator to use?

Thanks!

2

Youre on the right track.

The sawtooth it the easy way. If you need a more detailed approach, the custom oscillator give you a lot of flexibility in terms of different timings and curves. I get a lot of mileage out of it when mapping lasers to video and the video team gets cute with ease in/out and compound moves.

Hope that helps.

3

Hi David!

Firstly, just to help with terminology a bit, because it’ll make the manual and future discussions much easier to follow :slightly_smiling_face:

In Liberation there are three main node types:

  • Creator nodes (cyan) - these generate content, like Circle, Dot, Line, SVG etc.
  • Operator nodes (blue) - these modify content, things like Scale, Rotate, Translate, Trim, Randomise etc.
  • Oscillator nodes (red) - these animate parameters on the other nodes over time.

So in your case, I think the key thing you’re looking for is actually the Translate operator node. That’s what moves content left/right or up/down.

Then you can attach a Sawtooth oscillator to the Translate X or Y parameter. That will create a continuous movement across the screen. For example:

  • Sawtooth on Translate X = scroll left/right
  • Sawtooth on Translate Y = scroll up/down

Because a sawtooth ramps continuously then jumps back to the start, it works really well for scrolling effects.

If you want smoother back-and-forth movement instead, a sine wave oscillator is often nicer.

One thing I’m slightly unsure about is whether you’re trying to:

  • move the entire graphic across the zone
  • reveal it progressively like a draw effect
  • or create an infinitely repeating tiled scroll

Those are slightly different setups, but Translate + Sawtooth is definitely the right starting point for a pan.

Hope that helps!

Seb

4

Thanks Seb,

I am attempting to move a graphic across an entire zone; in this case, without drawing the line as I go (I think this requires a series of animated SVG’s for imported images?).

The translate/sawtooth does the trick, but I’m not sure how to generate the illusion that the graphic is constantly in motion (i.e. from a single still motion image of a geometrical cityscape). I’ve thought of looping or overlapping images on the timeline, but I’m not sure if there’s a simpler way? I guess this would be closest to your third option (the infinitely repeating tiled scroll).

Thanks!

IMG_0819.HEIC
IMG_0819.HEIC3024×4032 1.72 MB

5

The trick is to use an image (or combination of images) that can create a tiling pattern, and then use a sawtooth oscillator that moves it the distance of the tile width.

Here’s an example clip to show you how it’s done, I thought that would be easier than explaining :blush:

infinitescroll.cpdk (4.0 KB)

All the best

Seb

6

Thanks Seb. Is there any way to timestamp a particular action (such as a pan or translate action, or re-scaling) such that it occurs at a particular point in the image sequence relative to its duration or are all settings globally applied?

7

Yes! All oscillators have a delay count parameter, which is the number of beats before the oscillator starts. You can also change the repeat count if you only want an action to happen once.

TOP TIP! Enable an empty timeline, pause playback, move the playhead back to the beginning, then hit the RETRIGGER CLIP button. You can then move the playhead through the timeline to preview the clip at any point in its animation.

All the best,

Seb