Hey, I have a animtion that i loop for 50 frames using the retime node. I then want to instance that loop onto points and randomize the timing of the loop using the retimeinstance. Is there some way that solaris can access the cache in a loop.

My animation is from frame 1 - 50 and the shot starts a 1001. I dont want to have to cache 1500 frames just to randomize a loop in the instance?

also it seems impossible to use time scale when your cache starts at 1001.

hi there, did you figure out how to do it? have the same question

Looping is best handled using Value Clips in USD. Use the Geo Clip Sequence LOP in H20 to (relatively) easily create a value clip with looping animation. Then reference this value clip looping animation as a prototype to use in an Instancer LOP. This will give you a point instancer with all identically timed looping animations. Then use a Retime Instances node to assign different offsets in the animation to each instance.

If your shot goes from 1000-1500, you should be fine to create a looping animation of length 550, then make sure all your offsets generated by the retime instances LOP are in the range (1000, 1050). Of course with value clips, generating a loop that is 1500 or 15000 frames long should be no problem, and won't affect the size of the USD much at all.