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Glossary
Plain definitions of the words used in these docs, in alphabetical order.
A
Acceleration
How quickly a drone changes its speed, in metres per second per second (m/s²). See Flight limits and separation.
Adjust clip
A colour clip that changes the hue, saturation and lightness of selected slots for a stretch of time, without changing the original. See Colours Manipulator.
Airburst smoke
A pyro product that bursts into a cloud of smoke in the air. It is used in daytime shows. See Pyro and fireworks.
Algorithm Bypass
A clip on the Launch Pad that switches off chosen limits for a stretch of time, so drones play your animation as designed. See Algorithm Bypass.
Altitude
Height. In the Safety tab, it means the height of the highest slot above the origin, not above the ground.
Audio element
The soundtrack of a show. It plays with the playhead and can go into a rendered video. A show has one Audio element, with one or more clips. See Audio.
B
Bake
The step where the Celestium servers turn your design into final flight paths and colours for every drone. Each bake is stored as a numbered version. See Baking and playback.
Bake engine
The part of Celestium that runs a bake on the server.
Bake mode
The read-only player in the editor for one baked version. You leave it with Exit.
Bake version
One stored result of a bake, numbered v1, v2, v3 and so on. New bakes never replace older ones.
Bounding box
The smallest box that holds all the slots or drone positions. It gives you the width, depth and height of a formation or show.
C
Catalog
See Pyro catalog.
Channel
One row on the timeline for one kind of action on an element. The kinds are Transform, Effects, Colors, Pyro, Drones, Waypoints and Audio. A channel holds clips or keyframes. See Timeline.
Charge
One unit of a pyro product loaded on a drone. Each charge fires once.
Checks tab
A tab in the bottom panel, available in Bake mode, with charts of the baked show over time. See Safety checks.
Clip
A block on the timeline that makes something happen for a stretch of time, such as flying to a formation or showing a colour. You can move and resize most clips.
Colour clip
A clip on a Colors channel that lights drones, such as Solid, Gradient or Sparks. See Colours.
Colour effect
A clip that changes light that is already there, such as Reveal, Fade, Pulse, Chase or Shine. See Colour effects.
D
Dashboard
The page that lists your shows. See The Shows dashboard.
Drone number
The number of a drone on the launch grid. It names its .fsp file and appears in the Pyro report.
Drones channel
The channel on a Launch Pad that holds the Takeoff, Track, Return and Algorithm Bypass clips. It tells the fleet where to fly and when.
Drones view
The view mode that shows the drones themselves. The others are Wireframe and Slots. Bake mode always starts in this view.
E
Element
Anything in your show that appears in the Hierarchy panel, such as a shape, a text or a Launch Pad.
Environment
The settings for where the show takes place: the origin, the map and the ground. See Show and Environment.
Exit
The button that leaves Bake mode. It appears in the top bar and in the banner.
F
Formation
The picture the drones make in the sky, built from slots.
Formation Group
The container that holds the elements of one formation. A Track clip flies drones to a Formation Group, and they fill the slots of everything inside it. See Formations and groups.
FPS
Frames per second: how many times per second something is stored or drawn.
FSF
The file format for sharing one Formation Group between shows (.fsf). See Share formations.
FSP
The flight file format of Celestium (.fsp). There is one file per drone, holding its positions, colours and pyro cues. See Export FSP flight files.
G
Gerb
A firework that sprays a stream of sparks downward from the drone for a few seconds. See Pyro and fireworks.
Gizmo
The handles in the viewport that you drag to move, rotate or scale the selection.
Group
Short for Formation Group.
H
Heading
The direction something faces, as a rotation around the vertical axis.
Hierarchy panel
The list on the left of the editor that shows all elements of your show. See Hierarchy panel.
I
Ignite clip
A clip on a Pyro channel that fires a pyro product. See Pyro and fireworks.
Ignition
The moment a pyro charge fires.
K
Keyframe
A saved value at one moment on the timeline, such as a position. The app moves smoothly between keyframes to make an animation. See Transforms and keyframes.
L
Launch grid
The pattern of positions the drones start from and return to.
Launch Pad
The element that holds your drones: how many there are, where they stand, what they carry, and their flight limits. See Launch Pad.
LED
The light on a drone. Drones stay dark unless a colour clip lights them.
Loadout
See Pyro loadout.
M
Min separation
The closest distance allowed between the centres of two drones in flight. The default is 2 m. See Flight limits and separation.
Motion effect
A clip that adds ready-made movement to an element, such as a wiggle or a wave. See Motion effects.
O
Origin
The real-world point the show is built around, given as latitude and longitude. You set it in the Environment.
Override Constraints
A section in the Properties panel of a Takeoff, Track or Return clip that sets different limits from that clip until the next drone clip.
P
Path
An element that plays an imported animation, where each slot follows its own recorded flight. See Animated paths.
Playhead
The marker on the timeline that shows the current moment of the show.
Point cloud
An element made of points you can edit by hand. See Point clouds.
Preview
The quick simulation shown while you edit. Drones fly straight lines and can pass through each other. Only a bake shows the real routes.
Project menu
The menu that opens when you click the show name at the top left of the editor. It holds rename, import, export and delete.
Properties panel
The panel on the right of the editor that shows the settings of the selected element or clip. See Properties panel.
Pyro
Fireworks and smoke effects carried by drones. See Pyro and fireworks.
Pyro catalog
The list of pyro products available in a show. Open it from the top bar. See Pyro and fireworks.
Pyro channel
In a drone's loadout, one of its three pyro outputs: CH 1, CH 2 or CH 3. On the timeline, Pyro is also a kind of channel that holds Ignite clips.
Pyro loadout
The list on the Launch Pad that says which product each drone carries on each pyro channel.
Pyro report
A printable document for pyro technicians, with stock, placement and firing times. See Pyro report.
R
Render
To make a video file from a baked show. See Render a video.
Return clip
A clip on the Drones channel that flies the drones back to their launch grid positions.
Routing
The work of finding a safe path for each drone, keeping drones apart and within the limits. Routing happens during the bake.
S
Safety pre-check
The live estimate that compares your design with the flight limits while you work. You see it on the Safety button and the Safety tab. See Safety checks.
Separation
The distance between two drones. See Min separation.
Show
Your whole project. Show is also the top element in the Hierarchy panel, which holds your formations.
Slot
One point of a shape that a drone will fly to. A formation with 200 slots needs 200 drones to be complete.
Spacing
The distance between neighbouring positions on the launch grid. The Launch Pad shows it in the Grid section.
Spline
A line or curve you draw, which drones are spread along or inside. See Splines.
Statistics panel
The panel on the right in Bake mode, with measured values for the baked show. See Baking and playback.
T
Takeoff clip
A clip on the Drones channel that sends the drones from the launch grid to their first formation. By default the drones leave in waves. See Drone events.
Timeline
The panel at the bottom of the editor where you place everything in time. See Timeline.
Track clip
A clip on the Drones channel that flies the drones to a Formation Group. You drag the group onto the clip. See Drone events.
Transform
The position, rotation and scale of an element.
Transition
The flight between one formation and the next.
Trim
To keep only part of something. In the export dialogs, it means choosing a start and end time.
V
Viewport
The large 3D view in the middle of the editor. See Viewport and navigation.
W
Workspace
The personal or team space that your shows belong to. See Sign in and workspaces.