Visual rules
Open the dockable Rules pane from the Window menu to edit ordered rules across the composition; optionally filter to the selected object, which also lists rules on other objects that change it. The left sidebar lists object rules with search, summaries and status. Select a rule to edit it on the right. Rules have Trigger (WHEN), Conditions (IF) and Actions (THEN) sections, preserving the When → Condition → Then → Action → Target order. Options and Timing stay collapsed until needed. Each rule has an editable name; Active / Paused, Duplicate and Delete live in the rule list. Less-used commands remain in the overflow menu.
Choose + New rule to create and open a rule immediately on the selected editable object, or the first editable scene object when none is selected. Edit When, Only if and Then in the main editor. New rules start with a data condition; if no data field exists, one is created with the rule. New rules are named Rule #1, Rule #2, and so on across the template. Use Target above When to move a rule to another editable object or group. The selector uses the same object/group list as action targets. Conditions and actions are preserved; implicit self actions follow the owner, applying to every member when the owner is a group. Explicit action targets stay unchanged. A group rule runs once for data/playout events, and pointer events on any member can trigger it. Each action's Target still chooses what that action changes. Undo restores the previous owner or removes a newly created rule.
The rule list holds each rule's Active checkbox, Duplicate and Delete controls. Drag the divider between the list and settings to resize them; the split is saved locally with the UI layout. The divider also supports arrow keys, Home/End and double-click to reset.
Template lanes, entry and exit timing, shared elements and make-room behavior are authored in the Transitions pane. Rules can issue Take, Update, Out and Clear commands to those lanes.
Conditions
A data rule's comparison sits on the When row, so the rule reads like a
sentence — When Name is not empty — and Only if holds only extra conditions (Always when
there are none). A comparison checks a field against a value or, through the value menu,
another field — for example Home score Greater than Away score. Operators cover equality,
numeric comparison (Greater than, At least, Less than, At most, Between), text
(Contains, Starts with, Ends with, Is one of a comma-separated list), emptiness, and
Changed / Increased / Decreased. Equality treats 5 and "5", and true and "true",
as the same value; Aa makes text comparisons ignore letter case. + Add condition adds more
conditions, combined with and or or. Inside a runtime collection prototype, a condition on
the collection's field reads that row's own item, so each row can colour itself.
Mouse position
Choose Mouse X or Mouse Y in a comparison to use the pointer's position in composition pixels, measured from the composition's top-left corner. They are available as the primary When condition, an Only if condition, or a comparison operand. Values become available when the pointer enters the preview and update as it moves; mouse conditions are false before entry and after leaving. Change operators require an earlier known position. Use Preview & Export or interactive exported playback to try them. They are virtual Rules inputs, not data fields or OGraf GDD controls, and non-real-time playback has no live mouse input.
Triggers
Beside Data condition, a rule can start from the mouse. While hovered is a state: its changes hold while the pointer is over the object and undo themselves when it leaves. Mouse enters, Mouse leaves, Mouse pressed, Mouse released, Clicked and Double-clicked happen once, and their changes stay until another rule changes them. A rule can also start from playout: Played in (the first step is reached), Step reached (a chosen step or any step), Taken out, or Custom action ran. On these triggers, + Add condition adds an only if guard, and after N fr delays the actions.
Actions
Choose Show object, Hide object or, on event triggers, Toggle object visibility; a rule can also set bindable visual, effect or exposed shader properties; trigger a custom action or shader-animation action; play a Sound Event; or start an audio/video/live Media Cue. Show/hide/toggle and property actions change the rule's own object by default; choose another object in the target menu to build tabs, reveal panels, or winner highlights. The target menu tags each entry object or group: a group (made with Edit → Group) applies the action to every object in it. fade N fr fades visibility and over N fr animates numeric and colour property values instead of switching them. Object actions are numbered in authored order, with Move up, Move down, Duplicate and Remove controls. Later actions writing the same property win. Media and custom actions can overlap; their numbers do not imply that one waits for the previous action to finish.
Conditional size and position
A property action offers Position X, Position Y,
Width and Height in pixels. These set the object's actual position or dimensions while the
rule holds, so changing a panel's height also resizes its masking and clipping geometry. Use
Move horizontally or Move vertically for an offset added to the animation instead.
Coordinates must be finite numbers; sizes must also be zero or more. Older templates whose rules
use x, y, width or height already use this behavior without re-authoring. Auto layout,
modifiers, masks and crops continue to operate on the resulting geometry. Explicit shared-element
values controlled by Transitions keep priority over a rule targeting the same channel.
Playout actions
In Then, choose Take, Update, Out or Clear from the Playout section, then choose a Lane. Configure the lane and its templates in Transitions first. These actions use the same transition planner as Preview & Export and exported packages; entry/exit timing, make-room resizing, shared elements and Take out with dependencies stay in Transitions.
| Action | Target and result |
|---|---|
| Take | Choose a template in the lane. It goes on air through its configured transition. |
| Update | Update the current on-air template. An optional template selection guards the update; it does not switch templates. |
| Out | Animate the lane and its dependent lanes out through their own Take out transitions. |
| Clear | Remove the lane and its dependents immediately, without an Out animation. |
Open the action's Data options to choose custom field values. Take otherwise uses the target template's retained values or defaults. Update otherwise copies the triggering template's current effective data, matching the target's field keys; custom values merge with retained target data. Choosing custom data with no fields applies no data patch. An Update on an Off lane has no on-air template to change. Out and Clear preserve editorial data while resetting dependent activation intent, so taking the parent in again does not restore its dependents.
Data-condition and hover playout actions issue a command once when the rule starts matching, without automatically undoing the command when it stops. Use a separate rule for an Out or Clear. Event rules can delay these commands through Timing. Test them in Preview & Export; Try on canvas only simulates visual object actions. A template with an active playout rule requires coordinated set preview/export, rather than a standalone template package.
State and events
Data-condition and While hovered rules are states: their results hold while the condition holds and revert when it stops, so a hover highlight needs one rule. Every other trigger, and conditions that watch for a change, are events: their results stay until a later rule replaces them. When a state rule starts matching, it takes back the properties and visibility an earlier event set on the same object. Rules run after ordinary bindings, in authored order; when two matching state rules set the same property on one object, the later one wins and the earlier row shows Overridden. Hidden rule results participate in Auto layout's Collapse hidden spacing.
Trying rules
The selected data rule shows Matched or Not matched for the current test values. The editor header's preview icon opens Preview & Export. An event object's overflow menu also offers Try on canvas for its show/hide and property actions; the list options menu's Reset canvas test clears those results. Pointer rules run in the OGraf Preview and exported real-time graphic, where click/tap uses the object's rectangular bounds and hover applies to mouse or pen; Studio's editing canvas keeps clicks for selecting and editing. If both click and double-click rules exist on the same object, a single-click action waits briefly so a double-click fires only the double-click rule. Playout triggers, delays, and transitions also replay exactly in non-real-time scheduled rendering; pointer events do not, so use a playout custom action for a deterministic or remote trigger.