Enabling Cache on Every Rig In a Scene

When a scene contains several character rigs, Harmony has to render the OpenGL preview of all character rigs from scratch every time a change is made to the scene. This can be especially burdening when working on a scene with an usually high amount of character rigs, as Harmony may require as much as a second each time the preview image is updated.

In such cases, it can be very useful to cache the scene's character rigs separately. Harmony will store a cache of each character, and use this cache to generate the preview image in the Camera view. When the user needs to edit, manipulate or animate a character, they can temporarily disable caching for that character, and re-enable it when they're done. Harmony will only need to update the preview image for that character, and will keep using the cached images of the other rigs in the scene to generate the preview image in the Camera view.

Caching every rig in a scene is easy, as it can done by simply enabling caching on the composite those rigs are connected to. When caching is enabled on a composite, instead of caching its entire output image, it will cache each of the input image that is sent to it individually. Hence, when caching is enabled on a composite to which several character rigs are connected, the composite will cache each character rig separately.

  1. Add the Node Caching toolbar to your workspace by doing one of the following:
    • In the top menu, select Windows > Toolbars > Node Caching.
    • Right-click on any existing toolbar in your workspace and select Node Caching.

  2. In the Node view, select the composite to which the scene's character rigs are connected.

  3. In the Node Caching toolbar, click on Toggle Node's Cache button.

    Each of the composite's input ports will have an arc over them to indicate that they are cached individually.

  1. In the Node view, locate the composite to which the scene's character rigs are connected.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Click on the Layer Properties button near the left edge of the composite to open its layer properties dialog.

    • Add the Layer Properties view to your workspace, then select the composite to display its properties in this view.

  3. In the top-right corner the composite's layer properties, check on the Cached checkbox.

    Each of the composite's input ports will have an arc over them to indicate that they are cached individually.