[ANSWERED] Countdown timer confusion

eamon

Hi all

Happy New Year.

I am currently trying to utilise Michel Weber's most excellent time actor. I have downloaded this from the Add-ons page. I cannot seem to make it work for my purposes.

I have a feeling that I am doing something wrong yet I cannot see it.

I am looking to use the timer countdown to send a separate signal to a presenter that their time is up or to show them how much they have left. I am intending to send an NDI of their powerpoint and then overlay the time clock etc.

When I enter the time in seconds on the left, the resulting time is skewey and makes no sense to any reference I can see. Regardless of the time I insert, the resulting display makes little sense.

I am uploading a screen capture of my actions so people can hopefully see where I am going wrong.

Any advice appreciated.

Link Ver 2

eamon

DusX

@eamon

The screen image is hidden secure in google docs.

eamon

In the immortal words of Homer, "Doh!"

Sorry about that.

Here is Ver 2 of the link with access rights for anyone.

I have updated the original post too.

Thank you L.

eamon

Link Ver 2

Woland

@eamon

This should do what you want I think: actors-user-countdown-hms-2025-01-08-4.0.8.izz

eamon

@woland

Hi.

Thank you very much. This is fantastic. I was not expecting someone to gift me a complete file with a working timer. I just could not figure what I was doing wrong here.

Very much appreciated and thank you again.

eamon

Woland

@eamon said:

I was not expecting someone to gift me a complete file with a working timer. I just could not figure what I was doing wrong here.

It was faster for me to make it than to try to re-familiarize myself with how all of the guts of Michel's (fantastic) User Actor worked. Plus now I have a countdown User Actor. :)

DusX

@Michel Perhaps you know if this behaves as expected? If not, I would like to determine what has changed.

eamon

@woland

Some of us work on different planes...!

Your quick whip up is testimony to your skills in this arena. I have no knowledge of javascript and the layout inside the actor would be greater than what I could have achieved or even in my thought process.

A countdown actor for all. I have been playing with the time code comparotor and colour actors to flash red etc at certain timings. It is working out excellent so far. Far greater than I could have managed.

Thanks again. It is still very much appreciated.

eamon

eamon

Hi all

I am not sure if this qualifies as thread necormancy but I would like to add something to this thread.

I have been working away and expanding somewhat on @Woland excellent timer actor.

My tinkering is probably rudimentary to some but so far it works for my intentions.

My main intention is to use this as a time clock/timer being sent to a comfort monitor in order for the presenter to keep an eye to the time and give him warnings when necessary etc. I have one foot in academia and the one in death by powerpoints...

I have modded the original file it to be now 3no. scenes of different colour texts. In each scene, there is a master text colour; Scene 1 is White, 2nd scene is green and the final scene is black. This being the default colour for the text from the start which then steps through a yellow & red traffic light system as it counts down and hits certain time based targets. When the timer hits certain times, it changes respectively to a different colour indicating a warning to the presenter. We all have preferences for what we want here and it would also depend on what colour the background of the slide may be etc.

The text is designed to flash in the final 'X' seconds near the end. The flash time being controlled by the hertz of a wave generator in the timer flash actor. The flashing stops and full intensity and master colour is restored when the timer concludes.

With a few smart keyboard presses, you can have a fully functioning traffic light style countdown clock.

I am uploading it here, so that if others wish, they can have use of it.

All of this would not have been possible without the Timer actor from Woland. Many thanks here again.

My only issue is that I am trying to use this with an ndi feed from a powerpoint laptop. Typically enough, the background changes and washes out the countdown timer. I have tried different layers, blend modes but all to no avail. I am looking to have the text to be always in the foreground and to be always accessible? Can anyone point me in the direction of how to manage this? It is probably something basic but I cannot find a suitable solution. I have tried background, alpha masks (in isadora only) etc and all to no joy.

Answers on a post card.

eamon

timer-with-colour.izz

Woland

@eamon

We'd love it if you'd care to upload this to the TroikaTronix Add-Ons Page (link in my signature) because neat example files like this eventually get buried in the forum.

eamon

@woland

I will glady upload it to the pantheon of the Add On's page.

I will put some more notes into it so others can understand it better.

Is there a way to have the timer text in the foreground regardless of the changing background? I cannot seem to find a suitable solution here.

I will upload through your signature later on tonight when I add in some comments.

thanks again.

eamon

Woland

@eamon said:

Is there a way to have the timer text in the foreground regardless of the changing background? I cannot seem to find a suitable solution here.

Send it to a projector with 'layer' set to '10' and 'blend' set to 'transparent'. That'll make the timer draw on the very top layer over anything else.

eamon

@woland

Thanks for the tip.

I have cleaned up the file and added some notes etc. I am trying to login in to the Add-ons page but everything I do seems to boot me off.

I have some random distinct memory of there being a thing with the addons page and wordpress. I have searched but I cannot find anything that shines a light here.

Can you advise please?

eamon

Woland

@eamon said:

I am trying to login in to the Add-ons page but everything I do seems to boot me off.

The login for the Add-Ons Page is separate from the forum. Are you trying to log in with your forum account?

eamon

@woland

Hi. I have tried a few different logins and account set ups here.

I am not 100% sure what I am doing wrong tbh?

I am going to upload the file in its finished format for the time being here.

I will try again but I cannot see where I am going wrong.

Thanks as ever for all the help. I would not have go this far without it.

Eamon

countdown-timer-with-colour-final.izz