# Source Animator



## SligStorm (May 31, 2018)

So I have been thinking about this idea for a while but thought of a pretty simplistic way it could work. Currently sources are either Visible/Hidden but what if you could set an animation for when a source becomes visible? Like the webcam for instance. You could set an animation of a zoom in to fit your scaled resolution on screen (Would sort of come out of a tiny pixel wherever you have it on the screen and whatever speed you set it to do the animation at would fit to where you wanted it to be when finished). There's quite a few options that could be possible. Even including lower thirds. That also goes into my grouped sources idea too but that's something else, mainly just involved having folders that sources could be put in which would make lower third management a lot easier.

Currently we have to create an entire animation and export it with After Effects or some other animation program. But I feel as if while After Effects could animate the background for the lower third, a timed delay could load in the text on time with the animation which means the text could be dynamically edited within OBS.

Such an example of a complex design could be: Multiple lines of colored rectangles placed on the screen all with a timed delay after they become "Visible" and they are set to move in from the top of the scene to move to the position they are placed in one after the other by corresponding to their start delay time. Then followed by text triggering in too after a delay. If this was done via a folder/grouping method as soon as the main source was triggered all the others could trigger too with their timed animation delays so it would all load in exactly on time laid out how you'd want.

So essentially the overall design would be a parent/group source system with child sources inside. You could press a hot key to make it visible and they would all trigger their timed animation with specified delay start times, animation speeds etc. Then when it's all up on the screen the same system could be set for a "Hidden" source animation so you could set what happens when you don't want them there anymore too.

Personally I think this would be so much more professional looking than just making things pop in and out when you do or don't want them seen. The potential work arounds aren't the most efficient as currently you would have to use Studio mode and enable "Duplicate Sources" and then transition in an effect. It has gotten pretty messy for me before when I'm trying to be quick and I'm messing with a ton of different transitions for each popped in source.

Finally, as I mentioned about having lowerthirds show up in the most efficient in-software way, currently there's not even a proper way to trigger an outro source animation with a workaround that I know of. I've tried having an animation play and then trigger another source ontop of it in the same place while simultaneously hiding the other one so that it looks seamless in and out but there's a slight moment where it's not there. I still think using that as a method in general is quite clunky considering a potential alternative though as I mentioned above.

What are your thoughts on this? Would this be possible to implement?
I've seen a long list of improvements to OBS over time and I feel this is one of the main features that lets it down on a professional standpoint. With it, it would be almost perfect for every situation!

Here's a brief list of ideas for features:
Fade In/Out
Slide In/Out (From Multiple Directions)
Wipe In/Out (From Multiple Directions)
Zoom In/Out (It would appear/disapear from a small spec from the center of where the source was placed)

And with the grouped Parent/Child system this would be super useful.




(I know group sources wouldn't be a must for this animation system to work as long as there was a hotkey to trigger all of the sources you wanted to make visible or invisible, just thought it would make it more organized for if you wanted to create multiple layers)

For Studio Mode have a toggle option so you can see the animation play on both the preview and program, or just have it pop in on the preview but only play the animation on the program after transitioning it.

Also perhaps there is a plugin or something out there that does this that I don't know about, if so please let me know thanks.


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## MacTartan (Jun 2, 2018)

I've been working on a control deck app for mobile with the kind of features that you're describing.  OBS is a great piece of software, and, as if that wasn't enough, they added scripting and some really good documentation!  Although I've been looking at it from a deck perspective, you could also code these features to be triggered by hotkeys.  Check out UP Deck's resource page for more details : https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/up-deck.665/ 

I'm sure most of the features you would like are achievable with scripting - it's a really powerful and quick way to extend OBS.  My favourite OBS web page : https://obsproject.com/docs/genindex.html

Quick demo animating some rectangles, text and an image in OBS studio;
https://youtu.be/Y16fbhooAtM


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## SligStorm (Jun 2, 2018)

MacTartan said:


> I've been working on a control deck app for mobile with the kind of features that you're describing.  OBS is a great piece of software, and, as if that wasn't enough, they added scripting and some really good documentation!  Although I've been looking at it from a deck perspective, you could also code these features to be triggered by hotkeys.  Check out UP Deck's resource page for more details : https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/up-deck.665/
> 
> I'm sure most of the features you would like are achievable with scripting - it's a really powerful and quick way to extend OBS.  My favourite OBS web page : https://obsproject.com/docs/genindex.html
> 
> ...



Hi, is there any way to use just Windows with you application and not an external mobile app? I'd like to configure it within a desktop app and then use windows hot-keys to trigger the actions as I use a programmable keyboard for OBS.

Thanks.


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## MacTartan (Jun 3, 2018)

I'm currently updating the mobile and desktop apps, so had a play with hotkeys - there may be a fairly quick way to get it to work by using the mobile app to program the buttons and then fire those actions with hotkeys.  I don't have time right now to create a full desktop app matching the functionality of the mobile app, but it's something I'd like to eventually do.  I'll let you know when it's ready if you want to give it a try


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## MacTartan (Jun 3, 2018)

Just got it working - next mobile and desktop app updates will allow you to trigger any deck button using OBS hotkeys.  When a client connects, it copies all the current button data to the desktop, so using hotkeys doesn't introduce any lag - just runs the local copy of the button actions.

I'm just finishing work on backup / restore - so you can have multiple deck configs and load them as required.  When that's finished, I'll get the update live  :)


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## SligStorm (Jun 10, 2018)

MacTartan said:


> Just got it working - next mobile and desktop app updates will allow you to trigger any deck button using OBS hotkeys.  When a client connects, it copies all the current button data to the desktop, so using hotkeys doesn't introduce any lag - just runs the local copy of the button actions.
> 
> I'm just finishing work on backup / restore - so you can have multiple deck configs and load them as required.  When that's finished, I'll get the update live  :)



Awesome! I look forward to trying it!
I love the custom made transition effects that are possible with UPDeck as well like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyotY77ck64
Thanks!


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## MacTartan (Jun 15, 2018)

Thanks, SligStorm - just updated everything to v1.4.  The hotkeys seem to work well (only thing they don't support yet is the toggle button function, but I'll have a look at that for a future update!)


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