Time

The current frame number, time, delta time, and wall-clock values.

What it does

Time is a clock wired into other nodes. It has no inputs and reports where the graph is in playback and in the real world, every frame. Frame, Time and Delta track the timeline being played or rendered: the current frame number, the elapsed time, and how much time passed since the last frame. Hour, Minute, Second, Day of Week and Day of Year read the computer's wall clock instead.

Nothing here is visible on its own. Every output is a number for an Expression, a parameter wire or a Gradient, not a layer.

When to use it

Gotchas

Delta is the gap since the previous frame, so it is the output to multiply speeds by for motion that holds pace regardless of playback frame rate.

Worked example

  1. Add a Time node.

  2. Wire its Time output into a rotation or offset parameter on another node to animate it over playback.

  3. Wire Hour and Minute into an Expression to build a live clock display, or into a colour Gradient to shift a look across the day.

See also

MIDI Input · OSC Input · Console · Numbers, signals & audio