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Field presets

The metadata fields in the detail panel are not fixed. A shot selects file carries its own list of them, copied from a field preset when it was created, and you can shape presets to suit whatever discipline you work in.

How it works

A preset is a cookie cutter and a shot selects file is the cookie. When you choose File › New Selects, ShotWork copies the chosen preset's fields into the new file, and from then on the file owns them. Editing a preset later changes only files made after the edit. Editing a file's fields never changes the preset. Nothing crosses between the two unless you ask, in the Fields window; see Edit the fields.

Every shot has seven fields the rest of ShotWork runs on, and no preset can add, remove or rename them: Name, In point, Out point, Tags, Rating, Notes and Restricted. A preset defines everything else.

The preset ShotWork ships, VFX / animation, adds eight fields:

Field Kind Notes
Project text hidden on restricted shots
Company text hidden on restricted shots; carries logos
Year number
Role text
Assets list
Skills list each value can carry a logo
Software list each value can carry a logo, so an overlay can print every package
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With more than one preset, File › New Selects asks which one to start from; with only one, it is used without asking. A shot selects file from another computer opens with its own fields, even where its preset is missing.

A preset's name in the Fields window says what state it is in: (built-in) for the one ShotWork ships, (customized) once you have changed it, and an asterisk while it has unsaved changes.

What this means when you…

  • …open an old shot selects file: it has the fields it was saved with, whatever the presets say today.
  • …add a field to a preset: new files get it. An existing file gets it when you bring the preset's changes into that file; see Edit the fields.
  • …set up a second discipline: build the preset once, or set one file up the way you want and save its fields as a preset.
  • …filter the shot list: a term can look in any field by its id, as in software:maya. See Filter the list.
  • …export shots: a file name can use any field by its id in braces, such as {project}. See Export shots.
  • …build an overlay template: the editor offers a tile for every field in any of your presets, because templates are shared by every file.
  • …give logos to two fields: a logo belongs to the value, so the same name in two fields shows the same logo.
Where presets are kept

Built-in presets are part of ShotWork and are never written to disk. Each preset you make or customize is one JSON file, named by its id, in the presets folder of ShotWork's app data. Customizing a built-in writes a file with the built-in's id, and Revert to Default deletes it. A preset file that cannot be read is skipped. A shot selects file keeps its own copy of its fields, so it never depends on these files.