Is this how to create a new clip?

[lukeo25]

I keep getting a console log error that says cannot create _parent for this.

project.timeline.layers[0].frames[0].addClip(“myClip”);

Can someone please show me my error?

Luke

[Jovanny]

Are you trying to add an existing WickClip? or are you trying to add it from the library?
Meamwhile, few things to try…

• since myClip should be a symbol, try not to use " "
• instead of layers, frames, etc… try with _children[0]._children[0]

[lukeo25]

Hi Jovanny,
I am trying to add a fresh new clip without cloning or pulling an asset onto the canvas. I want to fill it with assets that I create programmatically.
I’ll try what you suggest.
Thanks.

[Hamzah_Alani]

Try replacing “addClip” with “addChild,” and inside the parenthesis you want to have an object (a clip).

Take a look at this code below, it uses a clone of an object from another frame, and with the “addChild” function it adds that clip to another frame.

@Hamzah_Al_Ani

Jovanny helped turn this code into an easy to use function.
Here’s the code with some comments on the side:

/*
The first function will go to a frame, create a clone of an object, 
set it to clone1, add it to the children array of the frame it wants 
it to go to, then in that frame clones it to make clone2, then it
removes clone1 from the other frame, and removes the other object from the 
array of the frame it was added to, keeping only clone2.

The second function will just return the frame with the most 
children (or objects/ paths) in a specific layer.
*/
window.cloneClipHere = function(FromFrame, ToLayer, childIndex) { // First function
    let clone2 = null;
    let cDel = null;
    let toFrame = project.timeline.getChildren('Layer')[ToLayer-1].activeFrame; // Refer to the active frame of the layer where the clone should go to
    let clone1 = FromFrame._children[childIndex].clone(); // Set clone1 to the clone of the wanted object
    toFrame.addChild(clone1); // Add the object to the frame
    clone2 = toFrame._children[toFrame._children.length-1].clone(); // Set clone2 to a clone of that object (found at the end of the children array)
    cDelFromFrame = FromFrame._children[FromFrame._children.length-1];  // Set cDelFromFrame to clone1
    FromFrame.removeClip(cDelFromFrame); // Remove clone1 that we made from that frame
    cDelToFrame = toFrame._children[toFrame._children.length-2]; // Here we subtract by 2, because subtracting by one would set it to clone2. This refers to the child added in line 6
    toFrame.removeClip(cDelToFrame); // Remove it
    return clone2; // Keep and return clone 2
};

window.getFrameWithMoreClips = function(FromLayer) { // Start of another function
    let frameArray = project.timeline.getChildren('Layer')[FromLayer-1].frames; // Set frameArray to an array of all the frames on the wanted layer
    let maxFrame = null; // Let the maxFrame equal to null
    let maxCount = 0; // Let the maxCount equal zero 
    for (let frame of frameArray) {
        if(maxFrame === null) { // If maxFrame is null (which it is by default)
            maxFrame = frame; // By default, let the first frame it encounters the maxFrame
            maxCount = frame._children.length;  // Set the count to the number of children in that frame
        }else {
            if(frame._children.length > maxCount) { // If the frame has more children than the maximum count
                maxCount = frame._children.length; // Set the maximum to that frames total children
                maxFrame = frame; // Set the maximum frame to that frame
            }
        }
    }
    return maxFrame; // Returned the frame with the most children in that layer
};

^ I found the addChild code by playing around with the editor, Jovanny used it to make these two functions above, and I added in the comments to make them easier to understand. You might only need to read the first function to understand how to add a clip to a frame from code.

In order to create the clip that you want to add, rather than making a clone in another frame and adding it in, you’ll need to define all properties of the clip.
To get an idea of how a clip is defined inside a wick project, I suggest trying this:

1. Make a new empty wick project
2. Create a clip that’s similar to what you want
3. Save the wick file
4. Change the wick file’s format to zip and look inside
5. Look for the clip inside the json file