Variables#

A variable is a named value the movie refers to instead of hard-coding it. Declare quote once, write {{quote}} wherever the text belongs, and the movie becomes a template you can render again and again with different content.

The Editor separates the two halves of that idea: the values live in a panel you use while designing, and the schema — what a variable is called, what type it holds, how it is presented to whoever fills it in — lives in a dedicated editor.

The Variables panel#

The Variables tab lists the movie's inputs with their current values:

The values here are the defaults: what the movie uses in the preview, and what a render uses for any variable the caller does not override. The grey {{ name }} on the right of each row is the reference to copy into a field.

Using a variable in a field#

Any property can take its value from a variable instead of a fixed value. Click the fx button next to the field and write the reference:

{{quote}}

The field then shows the expression rather than a value, and the canvas shows the resolved result. The same mechanism accepts expressions, so a field can compute rather than just substitute.

When a reference does not produce what you expect, the Inspector panel shows the resolved value of every variable at the current playhead position — including inside a repeated scene, where the values change from one copy to the next.

The schema editor#

Open full editor in the Variables panel opens the schema — the template's public input contract, which is what somebody filling in your template actually sees:

The list on the left holds every variable, with how many places in the movie use it and what type it holds. Selecting one opens its definition:

Two tabs next to Schema definition show the consequences of what you just declared: Data form previews the form a consumer will see, and JSON preview shows the resulting schema.

The schema editor works on a draft. Nothing changes in the document until you click Save changes, and the whole edit lands as a single undo step.

Renaming and deleting safely#

Renaming a variable in the schema editor rewrites every {{ }} reference to it in the same step, so the movie keeps working. Deleting one that is still referenced is blocked, with the usages listed — the count next to each variable in the list is what that check is counting.

See also#

• Repeating scenes — arrays of objects, one copy per item.
• Variables tutorial
• Expressions tutorial