Blender

When the K-Pipe plugin is loaded in Blender, several UI extensions are added to the interface. Most notably the K-Pipe menu at the top bar. Make sure to launch Blender with the K-Pipe launcher.

Shots in the Sequencer

In an edit task, the Sequencer's sidebar has a K-Pipe tab with the shot tools. Storyboard and animatic tasks get the storyboard tools there instead. Which tasks get which tools is set per project in kpipe-blender.toml ([editing] tasks, [storyboard] tasks).

The Sequencer's Add menu (Shift+A) has a K-Pipe submenu: - Workfile Sequence links the sequencer of another workfile layer of your task (e.g. sq010) as a scene strip at the playhead. It doesn't need a publish: the layer's newest saved workfile is linked, following Latest (see Workfile Sequence below). - Empty Slot puts a new empty shot slot of 1 second at the playhead.

The sidebar panels:

• Shots: mark scene strips, movie strips or image sequences as shots, or add shot slots, then name them and Set them once their name is final.
• Create Slot covers the selected strips. If the active strip is a shot, the slot takes over its name, and its local frames if its media has them (otherwise it starts at the shot's local in). That strip becomes a plain strip again.
• Shot slots sit on the Shots channel and belong to one shot. Empty, they show an empty video at opacity 0 and mark a range over the strips below. They can also show the shot's media (see Shot Slot below). Either way their trims show as local in/out points.
• Other strips, such as metas and color strips, can't be shots. Tags on them are ignored, e.g. the color range strips of older files. Range strips of older files become empty shot slots when the file is opened. Each row shows the shot's status marks and length. The filter above the list shows only one sequence's shots.
• Sequence Markers: where sequences begin (see below).
• Load and Manage: load published media into the edit (see below) and manage everything loaded.
• Active Shot: the selected shot's name, sequence (from its position, read only) and media frames: which frames of its media the strip shows, retiming included. Scene strips show their scene's frames, shot slots and loaded renders the shot's local frames, and image sequences their file numbers. ≈ marks retimes Blender doesn't let K-Pipe read exactly. Below that, for set shots:
• Production Data (foldable, shots in Kitsu only): what Kitsu stores, read only. The local range, the edit range (global in/out) and the conform flag of the last turnover.
• Turnover (foldable): the shot's State (open, blocking, locked, final) and the Change that differs in the edit, e.g. Head extended 5f, with · for review if the next turnover applies it flagged for review. A red line says when the state (or a sequence lock) blocks the change: the next turnover applies it only once the state is stepped back. A shot not in Kitsu yet shows New shot.
• State buttons (under Set / Unmark, shots in Kitsu only): one button per neighbouring state, named after it, e.g. ◀ Blocking and ▶ Final for a locked shot. They write to Kitsu straight away and need write access.
• Duplicate names (e.g. after a cut): Split keeps the name on the first part and names the later parts as new shots, Merge puts one shot slot over all parts.
• Shot Slot (under Active Shot, for shot slots): what the slot shows.
• Empty: the empty video, the slot only marks a range.
• Edit Media: a shot video published from this edit by Publish Shots, without burn-ins (<task>_shots_clean, layer sq010_sh020). Only the version is chosen. Works before the shot is in Kitsu, once it's set.
• Shot Media: anything published to the shot in Kitsu that the Shot Media load pipeline offers. Choose product, layer and version.
• Load applies the choice, nothing changes before. The status line says what the slot shows and whether a newer version is out.
• The slot keeps its range and shows the same local frames whatever it shows. Media shorter than the slot keeps the slot's range: Blender holds the media's first or last frame there, and the shot gets a warning.
• Loaded media is listed in Manage like any other. Removing it there empties the slot, the shot stays.
• Workfile Sequence (when the active strip is a linked sequence): its workfile layer and version, sequences and shots.
• The version button switches to another saved version. Latest (📌) follows the layer: the strip moves to its newest saved workfile whenever you open this file. A refresh button appears when a newer version is saved: with Latest it updates now, with a fixed version it switches to the newest one.
• Fit extends a strip that hides shots of its sequence.
• The sequences are linked, so change their shots in their own workfile, then save it.
• Linked Shots (main edit only, under Shots): the shots of the linked sequence files, read only. Change them in their sequence file.

Sequences

A shot belongs to the sequence of its position:

1. The last sequence marker at or before the shot's first frame.
2. Before the first marker: the sequence set at the top of Sequence Markers.
3. Otherwise the task layer's name. A sequence file saved as layer sq010 doesn't need any markers.

In Sequence Markers: - Add puts a sequence marker at the current frame. - Use Selected turns an existing timeline marker into one. Other markers, such as storyboard frames, don't count. - Changing a marker's sequence also renames the marker if it was named after its sequence. - Remove (X) keeps the timeline marker; it just no longer starts a sequence.

Set stores the sequence on the shot, so moving a marker later only moves the drafts. A set shot that ends up behind another sequence's marker gets a warning. Unset and Set it again to move it, if it isn't in Kitsu yet.

Linked sequence files keep their own sequences. The main edit's markers don't change them.

Loading media

The Sequencer has the same Load and Manage panels as the 3D viewport. Load offers the load pipelines meant for the Sequencer, e.g. Shot Media: shot videos and reviews (*_shots, *_review). Pick Current for the edit's own media, where the layer is the shot (sq010_sh020), or Shot for media published on a shot.

• Placement: a new strip starts at the playhead with its full length, on the channel named Media. To show a shot's media at its place in the edit, use a shot slot (Shot Slot).
• Versions: switch them in Manage. The strip keeps its cut. If the new media is shorter, the cut gets shorter too.
• Publishing: renders of the Sequencer mute shot slots showing media, so a publish shows the edit itself, not media published from it earlier. Slots inside linked sequence files can't be muted from the main edit.
• Manage lists everything loaded in this file, in every editor, folded by product type.

Colors and marks

Shot strips are colored by their state:

Color	Meaning
Strip's own color	Draft: the name isn't final yet
Yellow	Set: named, not in Kitsu yet
Green	In the pipeline (in Kitsu)
Red	An error, e.g. the same shot name twice

Marks at the right end of a strip show what else needs attention. In the main edit a linked sequence's strip shows the marks of all its shots.

Mark	Meaning
!	An error, or the shot's timing can't be read reliably (e.g. a retimed sequence strip)
⇄	A turnover would change the shot in Kitsu
⚑	The last turnover flagged the shot for review

Turn both off with K-Pipe Shot Status in the Sequencer's Overlays menu. The setting is saved with the file. A linked sequence shows the colors its file had when it was saved; the marks are always current.