# Compositor Time Node Cap

Trying to set the end of my Time node to a big number but blender won't let me stopping at 32,767. After some suspicious poking it turns out that is also 2^15-1. Is this a bug in Blender or a limitation in the language Blender was written in? Any workarounds in the meantime <edit>like with a script or something<edit>?

Specs: Blender 2.80.74 2015 MacBook Pro (buy necessity not by choice)

This is not a bug, it's simply the current limit because the underlying data type is short. You can retrieve the upper and lower limit for the property through

bpy.context.scene.node_tree.nodes["Time"].bl_rna.properties["frame_end"].hard_max


and

bpy.context.scene.node_tree.nodes["Time"].bl_rna.properties["frame_end"].hard_min


which are 32767 and -32768 respectively.

The reason for this is because Blender uses two variables custom1 and custom2 of type short declared in DNA_node_types.h for various node properties. This includes the start and end frame of the Time node as can be seen in static void def_time(StructRNA *srna) from rna_nodetree.c.

• So is there a way to bypass this by replacing the time node with a script (if so how) or am I SOL? – jHinman Oct 21 '19 at 22:35
• That depends on what your actual goal is. There may be otherways to accomplish it, without using the Time node. Writing a patch for a larger range would make sense though, since it should be able to cover the same range as the actual animation. Perhaps this could be discussed on devtalk or rightclickselect. – Robert Gützkow Oct 21 '19 at 23:00
• This basically youtube.com/watch?v=-ldLJ3e8jQw – jHinman Oct 21 '19 at 23:06

I went through the tutorial you provided and came up with a workaround.

Import your movie, delete the audio track and add the Speed Control effect strip. Set the end frame of your original strip to the resolution of your final image, in this case its 200.

Render the sequence. You will get 200 .png files

In the compositing workspace, import the image files as image strip and set up the node group as instructed in the video you provided.

Duplicate the node group and make a new copy of it. In the duplicated node group, change the offset to 1 and plug both node groups into an Alpha Over node. Control the Alpha Over Fac with the Translate node from the tutorial.

Hit F12 to render a single image. Open the said image from an Image Sequence node and plug the image output to the first Image slot of the previous Alpha Over node.

Change the Current Frame to 2. You should see a preview of your second render in the Viewer node. As of right now, there is only one image in the Image node. Change it to an Image Sequence and set the Offset to -1. This will allow compositing using the rendered images. Set Frames to the resolution of your final image. Render the sequence.

OPTIONAL. Save the final .exr to whichever format you prefer using a File Output node.