Cuelists

A cuelist is an ordered list of images, videos and live sources that plays on a surface. You build and play cuelists on the Cue tab.

The Cue tab has three parts:

• The sidebar, with Cuelists at the top and the Asset Browser below.
• The open cuelist, its cues listed in the center.
• The Preview, beside the list: a 3D view of the whole show, with what each projector puts on each surface. Drag to look around, and double-click to fit the whole show. The floating Preview card shows the same view on other tabs, and is hidden here.

Drag the divider between the list and the Preview to resize them. The « and » buttons on the divider fold one side away so the other fills the pane; click the » or « at the edge of the title row to bring it back. L folds and unfolds the list. In a narrow window, such as a phone's, the list and the Preview stack vertically and the Preview folds to its title. Moonshine remembers the open cuelist, the splits and what's folded on each device.

Click a cue to select it, and use Up and Down to move the selection. A component (.tox) or web page cue has its own Parameters in its menu: see A cue's own parameters. For a video device, an NDI source or a Spout sender, Parameters holds the input's own settings, which every cue of that input shares.

A cuelist has two views of the same cues: the list on this tab, and the timeline, drawn to scale in the panel along the bottom of the window. See The timeline.

In the sidebar, each row shows how many cues the cuelist has. A green dot marks the cuelist on air. An amber broken-link mark means the cuelist is on no surface: it can't play until you wire it to a surface's Material (see Transport controls).

Create a cuelist

1. In the Cuelists header, click + (New Cuelist).
2. The new cuelist is added at the bottom of the list and opens, named with the next free number, such as Cuelist 3.

Give it a meaningful name, since you'll pick it by name in the scene graph.

Every new project starts with an empty cuelist named Default Cuelist.

Choose which cuelist you are editing

Click a cuelist row. It highlights, and the center pane switches to it. The number at the right of each row counts its cues; gaps aren't counted.

Your selection is local

The cuelist you have open is your choice on this device, so another operator can edit a different one at the same time. After a reload you return to the same cuelist, or to the project's first cuelist if yours was deleted. What's playing is shared by everyone. See Transport controls.

Rename

Double-click the cuelist's name, or right-click the row and choose Rename. Type the new name and press Enter, or press Esc to keep the old one.

Delete

Hover a cuelist row and click the trash icon, or right-click the row and choose Delete. Confirm in the prompt that appears beside the pointer. You can't undo deleting a cuelist.

Delete is available only while the project has more than one cuelist, here and on a cuelist's node in the scene graph.

Start a cuelist from the top

Right-click a row and choose Start Cuelist. The cuelist goes on air from the start of its first cue, whatever it was doing: a playing cuelist restarts, and a paused one starts over. Start Cuelist is also the first item on a cuelist's node menu in the scene graph.

Moonshine won't start the cuelist if it isn't wired to a surface's Material, if it has no cues (which would take the show off air), if its first cue is still uploading, or while someone else is editing playback. It tells you which. To have one cuelist start another when it ends, wire them in the scene graph: see One cuelist after another.

Duplicate

Right-click a row and choose Duplicate. The copy is added at the bottom of the list, with copy added to its name. It has the same cues, lengths, transitions and loop mode, and leads into the same next cuelist if the original has one. The copy starts stopped at its first cue and isn't wired to a surface.

Add media to a cuelist

The Asset Browser on this tab lists the project's images, videos and live sources. 3D models are hidden here. If the browser is empty, upload media first: see Uploading media.

To add media:

• Drag a file or source from the Asset Browser onto the cuelist. A dashed outline shows where it will drop. You can also drop media onto the timeline in the bottom panel.
• Drag a folder to add every image, video and source directly inside it. Files in its subfolders aren't included.

• Click or tap a file or source to open its action bar:

  • Add to cuelist (Add on a touch screen) adds it to the end of the cuelist open on the Cue tab, and a note tells you which cue it became.
  • Add next, after the selected cue (Add next) appears when a cue is selected. It adds the file right after that cue and selects the new cue, so pressing it again builds a sequence in order.
  • Preview shows the file full screen, Delete asks before deleting, and More opens the file's full menu. Rename is there too.

  With a mouse, the bar shows small icons; hover one for its name. Click elsewhere or press Esc to close it. On a phone or tablet, the bar is how you add media, because touch browsers can't drag from the sidebar.

• Right-click a file or source (press and hold on a touch screen) and choose Add to Cuelist or Add Next, or press Add to Cuelist in its properties on the Assets tab.

New cues go at the end of the list unless you use Add next. You can add the same file more than once; each cue has its own length and transition.

An empty cuelist reads No cues yet. If no cuelist is open, the tab reads No cuelist open: open one from the sidebar (click » at the top left if the sidebar is folded).

Reorder items

Drag a row up or down to move it. You can also drag a cue's node in the scene graph, or a clip on the timeline.

Reordering while the cuelist plays doesn't change what's on air. The current cue keeps playing from where it was, and its highlight moves with it. What plays next follows the new order.

Removing the cue on air puts the next one on air

If you remove the cue that's playing, the cue that moves into its place goes on air immediately, part-way through.

Set how long each item stays up

Each row has a length box, in seconds, near its right edge. Click it and type a value, or use its arrows to step by whole seconds.

A new video starts at	Its own length
A new image starts at	5 seconds
A new live source starts at	60 seconds
Lowest value the box steps to	1 second

The length is what moves the cuelist forward. When a cue's length runs out, the cuelist moves to the next cue and plays that cue's transition. This applies to videos too: a video starts at its own length, so it plays through once, but a three-minute clip set to 60 seconds is cut off after a minute.

If you trim a clip on the timeline to play part of its file, that part appears in small print after its name, such as 5–25 s. Its length box then changes where the clip stops in its file; where it starts stays the same.

A video added before Moonshine has read its length starts at 60 seconds. This can happen when you add a clip your browser can't play (HAP or ProRes, for example) right after uploading it. Set its length by hand, or remove the cue and add it again once the Assets tab shows the clip's duration.

Length changes take effect immediately, even while the cuelist is playing.

A cue's menu

To open a cue's menu, right-click its row, press and hold it on a touch screen, or click the ⋮ button at its right. From the keyboard, press Tab to reach a control in the row, then press the menu key or Shift+F10.

Choose	What happens
Play	Puts the cue on air now, as a double-click or Enter does
Edit Asset	Opens the Assets tab on the folder that holds the cue's media or source, with it selected so its properties are beside it. A live source's settings are there. On a phone, its properties open over the list. Grayed out and marked not in library when the media has been removed from the project
Parameters	For a component (.tox) or a web page with parameters, the cue's own values. For a video device, an NDI source or a Spout sender, the input's settings from Settings → Project → Video: Active, and for a video device Resolution, Deinterlace and the rest. These belong to the input, so a change affects every cue that uses it. They open beside the menu and stay open while you edit; press Esc, click elsewhere or choose another item to close them. On a phone they open in a panel at the bottom of the screen, with Close. See A cue's own parameters
Loop	Makes the cue play again each time it ends. See Loop modes
Remove from Cuelist	Takes the cue out of the cuelist. The media stays in the project. Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac) puts it back

While another operator is editing playback, the list is locked. The menu still opens, but Play, Loop and Remove from Cuelist are marked locked.

Remove an item

Choose Remove from Cuelist from the cue's menu. Undo puts it back.

Loop modes

The loop button is in the transport bar under the cuelist, with the current mode named beside it. While the timeline is open, the button moves to the timeline's top row, and its tooltip names the mode. Jump to sits next to it. Each click moves to the next mode:

Label	What it does
No loop	Plays through the list once and stops at the end. Next does nothing on the last cue; Previous on the first cue replays it.
Loop all	Starts the whole list again after the last cue. Next on the last cue wraps to the first, and Previous on the first wraps to the last.
Loop one	Repeats the current cue until you change the mode. Next and Previous replay it from the start.

The loop mode belongs to the cuelist, so everyone on the show shares it, and it's saved with the project.

A single cue can also loop on its own. Open the cue's menu, choose Loop, check Loop and set Times: how many times it plays in all, or 0 to loop until you uncheck it. The cue plays again from its start each time it ends, then the cuelist moves on. If you uncheck Loop while the cue is looping, the current pass finishes first. A looping cue shows ↻ with its count in the list and on its clip. Loop one repeats whichever cue is playing, regardless of that cue's own setting.

On the timeline, whatever will loop is bracketed in cyan: a [ where the loop starts and a ] with ↻ where it goes back.

Brackets	What loops
From the very start to the end, top to bottom of the timeline	Loop all: the whole cuelist plays again from its start
Around the cue playing, top to bottom	Loop one: that cue plays again from its start. The brackets move with the show to the next cue it plays
Around a cue, on its row only	That cue's own Loop. While it plays, its ] counts the plays, ↻ 2 of 3 (2 of ∞ if it loops until unchecked). On its last play it turns into a green →, because the show will play on past it

The brackets only show what will loop. You can't drag them, and they aren't markers.

The timeline

The timeline shows the open cuelist against time: where each cue starts and how long the whole cuelist runs. The header shows the cuelist's name and its length, such as 3 cues · 1:35, and the clock in the transport bar counts from the start of the cuelist.

The cuelist's name in the header is also a drag handle, marked by a row of dots. Drag it into the scene graph beside the timeline: onto a surface's Material node to put the cuelist on that surface, or onto empty canvas to add a node for it. This works the same as dragging its row from the Cuelists sidebar.

Each cue starts where the one before it ends, so you don't set start times directly. Change a cue's length and every cue after it moves. To start a cue later, leave a gap before it: empty time that plays black. Transitions don't move anything. A five-second dissolve into a cue happens at the point where that cue starts.

Edit it by hand

The Timeline drawer in the bottom panel draws the open cuelist to scale: a ruler across the top, each cue as a clip as wide as its length, and a line at the playhead. You can build and edit the cuelist here with the mouse, and the list follows. Open another cuelist in the sidebar and the drawer switches to it. To open or close the drawer, click the Timeline pill in the status bar or press T.

On a clip	Meaning
A thumbnail and a name	The clip's media
A region at its left edge, a curve in it	The transition into the clip, as wide as it lasts, with the shape of its easing. Hover it for its name. In a cuelist that doesn't loop, the first clip's start and the last clip's end show their fade in and fade out
A dashed clip named Missing media	The media has been removed from the project
muted after the name	The clip's sound is muted

Clips on a row never overlap, but they don't have to touch. Drop a clip or media on empty time and it stays where you drop it, with a gap before it, drawn as a dashed outline. A gap on the cuelist's own row plays black. If you drop a clip onto another clip instead, the row is reordered: the clip goes in where the white line shows, and the clips close up behind it. While you drag, clips snap to the edges of other clips, the playhead and markers. To layer one picture over another, use a lane.

In the list, a gap is a slim row with its length and a × that closes it. Gaps have no number, and Next and Previous skip them.

To	Do this
Select	Click a clip. Shift-click selects every clip from the last one you clicked to this one, Ctrl-click (Cmd-click on a Mac) adds or removes one, and Shift-drag on empty space draws a selection box
Move a clip	Drag it; a white line shows where it will land. On empty time it lands exactly there and leaves a gap behind, so the clips after it keep their places. Onto another clip, it goes into the cut the line shows (it passes a neighbor once its start crosses that neighbor's middle), and the row closes up behind it. Dragging one of several selected clips moves them all
Change a clip's length	Drag its right edge. A clip is at least one second long, and a video can't be longer than its file
Start a video later in its file	Drag the top half of its left edge to the right. The clip starts later in its file and its end stays where it was, so the clip gets shorter and the clips after it move up. Drag back to the left to start earlier, as far as the start of the file. The edge reads Trim when you hover it
Slide the film under a clip	Drag the lower half of either edge, where it reads Slip. The clip keeps its place and length, and plays a different part of its file. It can't go past either end of the file
Copy a clip	Start dragging it, then hold Alt or press C: the original stays and the copy goes where you drop it. Or right-click it and choose Duplicate to put a copy right after it
Remove a clip	Select it and press Del or Backspace, or right-click it and choose Remove. Its time becomes a gap, so the clips after it stay where they are
Close a gap	Select it and press Del, or right-click it and choose Remove. The clips after it move up. Drag a gap's right edge to make it shorter or longer
Add media	Drag a file from the Asset Browser or the Assets tab onto the timeline. On empty time it lands where you drop it; on a clip it goes in at the cut the white line shows. A video comes in at its own length, an image at 5 seconds and a live source at 60
Change a clip's transition	Right-click it and choose Transition…. To change only its length, drag the small square at its inner end (see On the timeline)
Start a clip playing	Right-click it and choose Trigger
Adjust a clip's media or source	Right-click it and choose Edit Asset to open the Assets tab with it selected, as from a cue's menu
Set a clip's own parameters	Right-click a component or web page clip and choose Parameters, as from a cue's menu
Make another cuelist	Right-click empty space or a clip and choose New Cuelist. The new cuelist opens here and in the list

Only videos can be trimmed: images, live sources and clips with missing media have no left edge to drag. A video's edges appear once Moonshine has read its length. Hover a clip to see which part of its file it plays.

Markers are flags on the ruler. To add one, double-click the ruler, or right-click a clip, empty time or the ruler and choose Add Marker. Drag a marker to move it, double-click it to remove it, and right-click it to Rename it. A marker without a name shows its time. A plain marker doesn't affect playback.

A hold marker loops the show until you release it. Right-click a marker and turn on Hold; the marker turns cyan with ↻. When the playhead reaches it, the show cuts back to the previous marker (or the start) and plays that stretch again, on every lane, until you release it.

While the show holds, Exit Hold appears on the transport. Press it, or a control mapped to Exit Hold (a MIDI or OSC Advance), and the current pass finishes and the show plays on through the marker. The marker turns green with → until the playhead passes it, then becomes a cyan ↻ hold again, so the show holds there the next time it arrives.

To look around	Do this
Zoom	Use the zoom out, zoom in and fit buttons at the right of the header, as in the scene graph. Or roll the mouse wheel to zoom about the pointer, drag with the middle button, or press + and -. 0 fits the whole timeline
Move along	Drag on empty space below the clips or after the last one, or scroll sideways
See another cuelist	Click it in the sidebar

Each cuelist opens at the zoom and position you left it at on this device. The first time, it's fitted to the panel.

Seeking. Click the ruler to move playback to that point, or drag along it to scrub. The clip at that point goes on air there immediately, with no transition. A paused timeline stays paused and shows that frame, so dragging steps through the pictures. If you drag while the cuelist plays, it pauses until you let go, then plays on from there. A single click while it plays moves playback and keeps playing. Home and End go to the start and end, and the arrow keys step one frame, or ten with Shift. Clicking empty space below the clips only deselects; it doesn't move playback. To play a clip from its beginning, right-click it and choose Trigger, or double-click its row in the list.

Seeking puts this cuelist on air

If another cuelist is playing, clicking this one's ruler takes the other off air. This cuelist goes on air in its place, paused at the point you clicked, and Play runs it. A seek never starts playback by itself. The cuelist must be connected to a Material node in the scene graph first; if it isn't, Moonshine tells you and nothing changes.

When you scrub back and forth across a cut, the clip you left stays ready, and the next clip loads once the playhead rests for half a second.

To undo an edit made on the timeline, press Ctrl+Z; to redo it, press Ctrl+Shift+Z (Cmd+Z and Cmd+Shift+Z on a Mac). In the list, only Remove from Cuelist can be undone. Moonshine refuses an undo, with a message, if the cuelist has changed since then in the list or by someone else.

If another operator is editing playback, a padlock with their initial appears at the right of the timeline's header, the clips are dimmed, and you can't drag anything. Click the padlock to request access. See Locks.

The bottom panel has drawers for the scene graph, the timeline and your pinned controls, and shows the open ones side by side. See The bottom panel.

Jump to a marker

Jump to, the button to the right of the loop button, takes the show straight to a marker. Its menu lists Start, then every marker in time order, by name with its time beside it, or by time if it has no name. Hold markers show ↻ before their name. Choose one and the show goes there immediately, with the jump transition described below. In a cuelist that isn't on air, a jump works like a seek: there's no transition, and the cuelist goes on air as it does when you click the ruler (see Seeking above). A cuelist with no markers offers only Start.

The button beside it sets the jump transition, which controls how a jump looks. Choose Cut for an instant change, Dissolve for a crossfade, or any of the wipes and shapes a cue's transition can use except Movie Matte. Each runs at its usual length, shown beside it in the menu. Like the loop mode, the jump transition belongs to the cuelist: everyone on the show shares it, it's saved with the project, and every jump in that cuelist uses it. A new cuelist jumps with a cut.

In a narrow timeline drawer, both buttons move into the ⋯ menu at the right of its top row, as Jump to and Jump transition. They're disabled while someone else is editing playback.

Lanes

A cuelist can have up to four lanes: its own row of cues, the Base, and up to three lanes above it, the newest on top. A lane runs under the same playhead as the base and lets you layer a logo, a lower third or a camera over the show. Lane clips can be movies, stills and live inputs (NDI, Spout, a video device). Components and web pages go on the base only; Moonshine tells you if you drop one on a lane.

On the outputs, each lane is laid over the lanes below it at its opacity, and the base over black. Where a clip is transparent (its own alpha, or the bars around a clip that doesn't fill the canvas) and where a lane has empty time, the lanes below show through. Empty time on the base is black.

A lane clip comes in with its own transition, or the cuelist's default, when the show plays into it from the clip beside it. After a seek or a jump, it appears at once. After a gap, before a gap and at the lane's end it cuts, unless you give the clip a fade, which fades to and from transparent so the lanes below show through.

Lanes above the base play no sound. In a show across several servers, every server plays the same lane clips on the same frame. To keep a picture's transparency, see Alpha is for lanes.

To	Do this
Add a lane	Click + Lane in the timeline's header, or right-click empty space and choose Add Lane. At four lanes, the button is replaced by 4 lanes, the maximum
Put a clip on a lane	Drop media on the lane's row, or drag a clip there from another lane
Start a clip later	Drop it where it should start, as on the base. It lands where you drop it, and the empty time before it becomes a gap. Drag a gap's right edge to move the clips after it, or select the gap and press Del to close it
Remove a clip	As on the base: the clips after it stay where they are, and its time is left empty
Put the lanes in another order	Drag a lane by its name (the handle with a row of dots) onto another lane: onto the top half to place it above, or the bottom half to place it below. Or click its name and press Alt+Up or Alt+Down. Higher lanes are laid over lower ones, and the Base always stays at the bottom. Ctrl+Z restores the previous order
Rename a lane	Double-click its name, or right-click it and choose Rename…
Set its opacity	Drag the small slider beside its name
Mute a lane	Click M beside its name. The lane is left out, and its opacity is kept
Remove a lane	Click × beside its name, or right-click it and choose Remove Lane, then Remove. Moonshine asks first and tells you how many clips will go with it; Cancel or Esc keeps the lane. Ctrl+Z brings a removed lane back

In the list on the Cue tab, each lane clip appears as a small row under the cue it starts during. The row shows the clip's lane, picture, name, start time and length, with a thin bar that fills as it plays. A clip that starts during a gap appears under the gap. A muted lane's clips are dimmed. You edit lanes on the timeline.

Put it on a surface

A cuelist reaches a projector through the scene graph. Drag its row onto a surface's Material node, or right-click the Material node and choose Set Cuelist. It plays cue by cue: Next, Previous and double-clicking a row each start a clip from its beginning.

When someone else is editing

Playback on the Cue tab can be locked. If another operator is editing playback, the cuelist controls are read-only for you and a lock indicator appears in the panel header. See Locks.

Next steps

• Transport controls: start playback, and connect a cuelist to a surface so it reaches a projector.
• Transitions: choose how each cue arrives on screen.
• Putting media on a surface: the wiring side of the same job.
• Transmission control board: take cuelists on air from a Transmission board.