Animatic duration rules

crowmaki commented

2026-10-06 03:55:53 +00:00

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Part of #1

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How is each Shot's duration in the Animatic decided? Options include derived from its line range, set by hand, or taken from the circled Take's Rendition length. What audio plays underneath when no Performance exists? How do overlapping segmented Shots with handles play back without repeating dialogue?

Part of #1 ## Question How is each Shot's duration in the Animatic decided? Options include derived from its line range, set by hand, or taken from the circled Take's Rendition length. What audio plays underneath when no Performance exists? How do overlapping segmented Shots with handles play back without repeating dialogue?

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2026-10-06 03:55:53 +00:00

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Edit package layout #19

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Wayfinder: AI Studio end-to-end slice spec #1

crowmaki commented

2026-10-06 06:28:22 +00:00

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From "Dailies review and circling" (#7): the Animatic plays a Shot's only circled Take; with several, the Pinned take if set, else the most recently circled. Only circled Takes can be pinned.

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2026-10-06 06:30:29 +00:00

crowmaki commented

2026-10-06 07:32:26 +00:00

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Sequence. The Animatic is a per-Scene Cut over Lines. Each Line plays from exactly one covering Shot, and neighbouring Lines on the same Shot merge into one event. Nothing repeats. Cut points fall only on Line boundaries; finer cuts (mid-line, J/L) are the editor's job in Resolve.
Time lives on Lines. A Line's duration comes from, in priority order:
- the Performance;
- a manual override on the Line;
- a text estimate: dialogue at 2.5 words/s plus 0.5 s per parenthetical, action at 1.5 words/s with a 1 s minimum. Both rates are per Project.
An event's length is the sum of its Lines.
Take events. Each Take has Line marks: where each covered Line starts in the Rendition, plus where the last one ends. A Take event plays the Take between its marks, so the Animatic's timing follows circled Takes.
- With a Performance, the default marks come from the Performance's Line timings.
- Without one, the default marks spread the Rendition's length, minus head and tail handles, across the Lines in proportion to their durations.
- Marks can be nudged in the Dailies details panel.
- An event plays the final Rendition if there is one, otherwise the draft. Promotion keeps the timing.
Audio. Take events play the Take's own audio. Board events play the Performance slice for their Lines. Without a Performance they play silence, with captions for dialogue (cue and text). Action-Line captions are available but off by default. No TTS in the slice.
Shot length. A Shot's length is derived from its Lines plus head and tail handles (Shot fields), rounded to H3's frame step. A per-Shot override is clamped to 2–15 s.
- Past 15 s, queuing is blocked and the app offers a split into segmented Shots at a Line boundary, in the same Setup. Each new Shot gets its own handles, and Cut overrides carry over.
- A single Line, or a simultaneous group, longer than 15 s blocks queuing. Seamless continuation is the future Take-extension work (out of scope).
Storing the Cut. Only the user's overrides are stored. By default a Line plays from the first covering Setup in Setup order, which is user-orderable with the master first by convention, then from the earliest Shot in that Setup.
- An override whose Shot was deleted, or no longer covers the Line, falls back to the default and is flagged "reassigned".
- Reassigning is an undoable authored edit (ADR-0003).
- The Cut is edited on the Animatic surface, in a Line lane.
Edge Lines.
- Uncovered Lines get a grey "no coverage" slate plus captions, held for their durations. Neighbouring uncovered Lines merge.
- Transitions and shot directions have zero duration and are shown as timeline markers.
- A dual-dialogue simultaneous group is one span lasting as long as its longest Line. A Shot covers it whole and the Cut assigns it as a unit. Captions stack both speakers.
Panels. A Board's Panels are spread evenly across the Shot's whole nominal span (handles included), so a slice shows the matching Panel. Anchoring Panels to Lines is later polish.
Scope. The Cut is per Scene. The player has a "play from here" that runs on through later Scenes in script order and skips omitted Scenes. Per-Scene vs whole-film export is decided in "Edit package layout".

New ticket: "Marking Lines in a Performance" (graduated from the fog on Performance and Shot timing).

## Resolution 1. **Sequence.** The Animatic is a per-Scene **Cut** over Lines. Each Line plays from exactly one covering Shot, and neighbouring Lines on the same Shot merge into one event. Nothing repeats. Cut points fall only on Line boundaries; finer cuts (mid-line, J/L) are the editor's job in Resolve. 2. **Time lives on Lines.** A Line's duration comes from, in priority order: - the Performance; - a manual override on the Line; - a text estimate: dialogue at 2.5 words/s plus 0.5 s per parenthetical, action at 1.5 words/s with a 1 s minimum. Both rates are per Project. An event's length is the sum of its Lines. 3. **Take events.** Each Take has **Line marks**: where each covered Line starts in the Rendition, plus where the last one ends. A Take event plays the Take between its marks, so the Animatic's timing follows circled Takes. - With a Performance, the default marks come from the Performance's Line timings. - Without one, the default marks spread the Rendition's length, minus head and tail handles, across the Lines in proportion to their durations. - Marks can be nudged in the Dailies details panel. - An event plays the final Rendition if there is one, otherwise the draft. Promotion keeps the timing. 4. **Audio.** Take events play the Take's own audio. Board events play the Performance slice for their Lines. Without a Performance they play silence, with captions for dialogue (cue and text). Action-Line captions are available but off by default. No TTS in the slice. 5. **Shot length.** A Shot's length is derived from its Lines plus head and tail handles (Shot fields), rounded to H3's frame step. A per-Shot override is clamped to 2–15 s. - Past 15 s, queuing is blocked and the app offers a split into segmented Shots at a Line boundary, in the same Setup. Each new Shot gets its own handles, and Cut overrides carry over. - A single Line, or a simultaneous group, longer than 15 s blocks queuing. Seamless continuation is the future Take-extension work (out of scope). 6. **Storing the Cut.** Only the user's overrides are stored. By default a Line plays from the first covering Setup in **Setup order**, which is user-orderable with the master first by convention, then from the earliest Shot in that Setup. - An override whose Shot was deleted, or no longer covers the Line, falls back to the default and is flagged "reassigned". - Reassigning is an undoable authored edit (ADR-0003). - The Cut is edited on the Animatic surface, in a Line lane. 7. **Edge Lines.** - Uncovered Lines get a grey "no coverage" slate plus captions, held for their durations. Neighbouring uncovered Lines merge. - Transitions and shot directions have zero duration and are shown as timeline markers. - A dual-dialogue simultaneous group is one span lasting as long as its longest Line. A Shot covers it whole and the Cut assigns it as a unit. Captions stack both speakers. 8. **Panels.** A Board's Panels are spread evenly across the Shot's whole nominal span (handles included), so a slice shows the matching Panel. Anchoring Panels to Lines is later polish. 9. **Scope.** The Cut is per Scene. The player has a "play from here" that runs on through later Scenes in script order and skips omitted Scenes. Per-Scene vs whole-film export is decided in "Edit package layout". New ticket: "Marking Lines in a Performance" (graduated from the fog on Performance and Shot timing).

crowmaki closed this issue

2026-10-06 07:32:26 +00:00

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2026-10-06 07:32:31 +00:00

Marking Lines in a Performance #23

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.studio schema #11

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Edit package layout #19

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