Compositions

A composition is a finished animation of the project: a set of effects arranged over time within layouts, with its own duration and frame rate. A project can contain any number of compositions, and each one turns into a separate cue file on export, which is then played back by Light Stream Player.

All compositions in the same project work with the same fixtures, devices, and layouts: fixtures are placed once in the Mapping window, and compositions only light them up differently. Each composition keeps only its own timeline effects and its own settings — duration, frame rate, looping, and color filtering.

The "Compositions" Window

The list of the project's compositions is located in the Compositions window. By default it occupies the left part of the screen and shares space with the Fixtures and 3D Objects windows — they are switched with tabs at the top. If the window was closed, you can bring it back via the Window → Compositions menu.

Compositions are shown as cards. Each card shows:

a thumbnail — what the composition is currently drawing on the Mapping field; during playback the thumbnail is live;
the composition's name;
the duration in the format hours:minutes:seconds:frames; a composition with infinity enabled shows the ∞ sign instead of a duration.

Additionally, the card can show two more lines — how many playlists and how many calendar events use this composition. They are enabled by right-clicking an empty spot in the window and choosing Show usage in playlists and Show usage in events. Both lines are off by default.

The composition that is currently playing is highlighted in orange, while simply selected ones get a light fill. Several compositions can be selected at once; clicking an empty spot in the window clears the selection.

There are two buttons at the bottom of the window: Create Composition on the left, Delete Composition on the right.

Creating a Composition

A new project already has five empty compositions — Composition001…Composition005. The Atom 3D effect is added to the first one, so that something is visible on the mapping right away.

To add another composition:

Click the Create Composition button (a plus in a frame) in the bottom-left corner of the Compositions window. The Create Composition item in the right-click menu on an empty spot in the window does the same thing.
The composition appears at the end of the list, is immediately selected, and opens in the Timeline.
Give it a clear name and add effects — see Добавление эффекта в композицию.

A new composition is empty, and its duration is 1 minute. The frame rate is taken from the last composition in the list, so that all compositions in the project are calculated the same way; if the project didn't have any compositions yet, the Project Frame Rate value set in the project creation window is used (40 by default).

If the project has no compositions left, a Create Composition button appears in the middle of the Mapping window — it does exactly the same thing.

Opening and Playback

A single click just selects the card. To open a composition, click it twice: its effects will appear on the Timeline, the picture — on the Mapping field and in the 3D View window, and its parameters — in the Properties window. An opened composition starts playing immediately, and its card turns orange.

Playback can be controlled:

with the Space key — starts and stops the opened composition;
with the Start and Stop items in the right-click menu on the card;
with the playback buttons on the Timeline panel — see Таймлайн.

Only one composition plays at a time: switching to another one stops the previous one, and the new one starts from the beginning.

Renaming

The composition's name becomes the name of the exported cue file and is shown in the Light Stream Player interface, so it's worth giving compositions meaningful names from the start.

Select the composition and press F2, or choose Rename in the right-click menu, enter the new name, and press Enter.

Name restrictions:

length — up to 40 characters;
composition names in the project do not repeat: if you enter a name that's already taken, the program will add a three-digit number to it;
characters forbidden in Windows file names (\ / : * ? " < > | and other special characters) are not accepted.

Copying and Order

Copy and Paste in the right-click menu create a copy of the composition with all its effects and settings. The copy is placed at the end of the list and gets a unique name.

The order of compositions in the list is changed by dragging a card to a new place. Compositions are shown in the same order in the Export window, so it's convenient to arrange the list the way the show is meant to be presented.

A composition can also be sent to a playlist by dragging — the playlist accepts a card dragged from the Compositions window.

Duration and Frame Rate

The composition's duration is set in the Set Duration window. It can be opened in two ways: by right-clicking the card and choosing Set Duration, or by clicking the duration value in the Properties window of the selected composition.

The window has four time fields — Hours, Minutes, Sec, Frames — and a Frames Per Second field. Click OK to apply.

A few notes:

the frame rate is set separately for each composition, but it's not worth changing it without a reason: the higher it is, the smoother the animation and the larger the resulting cue file;
if the duration is reduced, the effects on the timeline stay in place — whatever falls outside the new boundary simply won't play and won't be included in the export;
when Infinity is enabled, the duration is not used, and the composition plays until it is stopped.

Composition Properties

When a composition is selected, its parameters are shown in the Properties window.

Parameter	What it does
Name	The composition's name; the same as renaming with F2
Duration	The current duration; clicking the value opens the Set Duration window
Infinity	The composition plays without a time limit. While it is enabled, the Loop parameter is unavailable
Loop	When it reaches the end, the composition starts over
Comments	A free-form note for the composition, saved together with the project
Color Filtering: Red, Green, Blue, White	Sliders from 0 to 1 that limit the contribution of the corresponding fixture channels for this composition. A value of 1 means the channel is output in full, 0 means the channel is off. Useful for dimming the whole composition without touching its effects

For more details, see Настройки композиций.

Deleting

Select a composition (or several) and press Delete, the Delete Composition button in the bottom-right corner of the window, or the Delete item in the right-click menu.

The program will ask for confirmation and show the names of the compositions being deleted. If a composition is used in playlists, the same window will list which ones — it will disappear from there too. An accidental deletion can be undone with Ctrl+Z.

Triggering a Composition by an External Signal

A composition can be bound to an external signal so it can be triggered without a mouse. Right-click the card → Trigger, then choose the source: OSC, MIDI, or DMX. After that, an incoming command will trigger exactly this composition.

Compositions and Export

All compositions of the project are listed in the Export window. The checkbox to the left of the name indicates whether the composition will be included in the export: uncheck it for draft compositions so as not to spend rendering time on them. The checkbox state is saved together with the project.

Each checked composition is exported as a separate cue file named after the composition and, if enabled, with a GIF preview. For details, see Экспорт композиций, Настройки GIF превью, and Импорт cue в Player.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Keys
Open composition	Double-click the card
Rename	F2
Start / stop	Space
Delete	Delete or Backspace
Undo / redo action	Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z