What are Step buttons in the Automator?
Usually, (sets of) functions in the Automator would be triggered using the 'On Cue' functionality. For certain Cue Blocks, however, it can be handy to separate certain functions into their own 'Step' button that will appear next to the Block trigger.
These Steps can be particularly useful to create separate functions for Clips (preview, play, pause,...), for Lower Thirds (take them in and out), and more.
Where and how can I configure Step buttons?
Adding Steps
To add Step buttons to a Block (Clip, Lower Third,...), go to the Automation configuration of that Block, then select the 'Steps' tab. Next, click 'Add Step button' to create a new button.
You can then add Automations to this button in the same way that you can for normal triggers. Simply choose which device should be triggered, which function on that device and so on.
More advanced Step options
Colors
To more easily recognise or differentiate the Step buttons that you create, you can assign a color to each of them.
In the example below we have a clear 'IN' button in green and an 'OUT' button in red.
Visibility Conditions
Visibility Conditions on Steps allow you to show a Step button only if certain conditions are met. Click 'Add Visibility Condition' to configure the condition(s).
You could, for example, use 'Label' fields on a Block to configure when a Step button should be visible.
Step button examples
Clips (vMix example)
Under the 'On Cue' options, we can add all functions needed to send our Clip to the List inputs in vMix and put our Clip in preview.
We can then create separate Step buttons to give us extra control over when we want to actually do our play and pause functions.
We can add a first Step called ‘PLAY’ to create a ‘PLAY’ button next to the Clip Block. Here we can add functions to set the position of the clip at the start, then do a ‘CutDirect’ (with a 40ms delay) to cut the clip to the live (program) when ‘PLAY’ is clicked. We can also add a vMix ‘Play’ function with a 40ms delay.
In a similar way, we can add a ‘STOP’ button as well. Here a ‘Pause’ function is all we would need.
Lower Thirds or Straps (Viz Flowics and SingularLive example)
Under the 'On Cue' options, we can add all functions needed to send our lower third info (title, subtitle,...) to Viz Flowics or SingularLive for example. This can be done using the 'Update Control' function on Viz Flowics, or the 'UpdateField' function on SingularLive.
We can then create separate Step buttons to give us more control over when we want to actually bring our lower thirds in ('IN') and when to take them out again ('OUT').
The above illustrates a simple example of how Step buttons could be used. If you want to trigger a Lower Third, as well as automatically bring it in and out with a single click, then the functions used in the example could also be combined under the 'On Cue' options.