Posterize Time

Snaps upstream time to discrete steps for a stop-motion / on-twos look.

Category: Time Menu path: Time > Posterize Time

Ports

Port	Type	Direction	Description
in	imageRgba16f	input	Upstream animated content.
out	imageRgba16f	output	The same content but sampled at floor(comp_frame / step) * step — every step frames it advances, otherwise holds.

Parameters

Param	Type	Default	Description
step	scalar	4	Frames per held sample. 1 = no effect (every frame). 2 = on twos. 12 = held for half a second at 24fps. Clamped to a minimum of 1.

Expose Channels

Port	Type	Overrides
step_in	scalar	step

How It Works

Re-evaluates upstream at floor(comp_frame / step) * step. So at 24fps with step=4:

• frames 0, 1, 2, 3 all show the content of frame 0
• frames 4, 5, 6, 7 all show the content of frame 4
• frames 8, 9, 10, 11 all show the content of frame 8
• ...

The classic stop-motion / animation-on-twos look in 2D motion design.

Usage Examples

Stop motion

Smooth animated content → PosterizeTime(step=2) → Output. Animation-on-twos, the most-used setting.

Choppy / held-frame look

step=8 (or higher) for very deliberate, intentional holds. Gives a hand-drawn / illustrated feel.

Animated step

Time → Math → PosterizeTime.step_in. Step changes over time — ramp from step=1 (smooth) to step=8 (choppy) for a "winding down" effect, or vice versa for "powering up".

Tips

• step is in frames, not seconds. At 24 fps, step=24 = held for 1 second; at 60 fps, the same step=24 = ~0.4 s.
• The held frame is the first frame of each step bucket — step=4 shows frame 0, then frame 4, then 8, etc. (not frame 3, 7, 11). Offset with TimeShift if you need to align differently.
• For animated content with simulations or video, performance can be slow without a FileCache upstream — see the "SLOW" chip.

Related Nodes

• Time Shift — offset upstream time.
• Freeze Frame — pin to a single frame.
• Loop — cycle upstream time.
• FileCache — bake upstream to disk for fast time-warp reads.