User Manual

Inspector

The Inspector is a piece of UI that lets users edit an asset. It is dynamically generated from that asset’s parameters.

The Inspector for a VisComp preset

Editing simple parameters

Editing parameters for numbers, a color and a vector

Numbers, colors and vectors can all be directly edited in the Inspector. Some parameters can be assigned a slider, in which case they will have a minimum and maximum value.

Editing nested assets

These two parameters use nested assets – ctrl is already set, effect is currently empty

Some assets can use other assets, like a VisComp that uses an effect. You can click ‘pick’ to browse for suitable assets to use, ‘x’ in order to remove the currently selected asset, and the arrow sign to edit it in a new tab. This is a very powerful feature, as you can share the same asset across multiple other assets: this effect can be used for any number of VisComps. You can even edit it it directly from within the page where it’s linked in. It will have its own save button. Be wary! That save button will only apply to the nested asset you’re editing. It will NOT save the container asset.

A nested asset’s parameters unfolded

But with great power comes great responsibility: since the same asset can be used by several other assets, any change to it will affect every other asset that is using it. If I edit the Effect on my VisComp to make it a bit stronger, then that change will apply to every other VisComp that is using that effect.

This might be the desired effect. If it isn’t, and you want to use that asset as a starting point, you can click the clone icon to clone the asset and link it in. Just be sure to click the master save button in order to save that asset in.

Parent type properties

In certain cases, an asset type will have a parent type. A parent type is essentially a more basic version of that type. As an example, Comp.CubeSwapper is a VisComp. Its parent is VisComp.

You can see the properties from the parent under the first divider.

Own type properties

These are under the second divider.

Saving

In case you haven’t guessed how to do it, saving is done by clicking the save button. The clean up button lets you remove unused properties. If your VisComp’s type definition has a property named foobar, then you decide to set that value to 1 in an asset, when you remove foobar from the type definition it will still be present in the asset’s data. Clicking clean up makes sure that your asset only has properties that are defined in its type definition. You can view the asset in the javascript console by clicking the view ( console ) button.

Animation

If the asset you are editing can be animated, you can create a new animation, edit it, or remove it.

Animated properties will be highlighted in purple in the Inspector, and it won’t be possible to edit them.

The color parameter is animated and cannot be edited from within the Inspector