using the replicator to preload a bunch of images

Use case - you need to preload a bunch of high-res images and then randomly load them into a movie-file-in TOP. (if you just load them straight from a Folder DAT, there might be some lag)

  • Create your Folder DAT as usual, I like to connect a select DAT to this, to trim the irrelevant rows and columns.
  • Make a CHOP thing that can be used to select a number, like a COUNT, call it "index" (we'll use it later)
  • Make a Base Comp (call it something like "images") and inside this, create an IN DAT. Go back up a level and connect your Select DAT to the Base Comp. The Replicator creates a lot (depending on your folder) of nodes, so we use it to keep things tidy.
  • Back inside "images", attach a null to the IN and label it "files"
  • Create a Replicator comp (not attaching it to anything yet)
  • drag over or type in "files" into the Template DAT Table field
  • Create a MovieFileIN TOP, name it "file0" <-that's a zero
  • In this MovieFileIn's file field, do the usual op('images'....) BUT now we have [me.digits] instead of [0,0] eg - op('images'[me.digits,0] The me.digits is using the numbers in the node's name to access the row of the table
  • Back to the Replicator, type in "file" for the Operator Prefix, this is what the created nodes will be called
  • Drag your File0 node onto the Master Operator field
  • You should now have however many images that were in your folder preloaded as movie-ins. called file1,file2,file3,etc.
  • Go up a level, outside of the Base comp.
  • Create a Select Top, this will be accessing the Base comp's "file" nodes.
  • In the expression field type -
    "images/file" + str( int( op('index')[0])))
  • the " " is specifying the images/file part as a string. The + is appending the next part to the string. We are converting the int value of the "index" to a string. Basically we have a path to file1, file6 whatever the index specifies.

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