Working with Notch Blocks

This article will discuss the basics of working with Notch Blocks inside PIXERA. This will not be an extensive tutorial about designing scenes in Notch, but will include an overview of the key techniques, so you can communicate your project's needs with Notch artists and implement their creations.

This article shows the process with Notch 2026.1 and later. If you're using Notch 0.923, you will see differences in the UI shown, but there should not be any difference in Notch Block compatibility with PIXERA. You can download the sample Notch Block made in this article and the project file here:

Notch Block
Project File

Licensing

• PIXERA Creator, Director and Server Licenses all support Notch Block playback. PIXERA Player does not.
• If you want to export your own Blocks from the example projects provided, or your own projects, you will need an active Notch RFX license. 
• To add Notch Blocks to a PIXERA timeline, you will need an active playback license present. Free watermarked playback licenses (perfect for testing, or for use on your PIXERA Director) are available from Notch.
• All license types require a Codemeter USB dongle.
• You will need to have the Codemeter runtime installed. Available here, and is installed as part of a standard Notch install. 
• Depending on your project, you'll either need Playback Leasing (live music or other touring shows) or a Fixed Install (static shows like museum installs or interactive exhibits) license.
• Fixed install licenses are available at several resolution options - this refers to the resolution the Notch Block is running at, and is not tied to the resolution of any PIXERA outputs. 

Further information on Notch licenses can be found here.

Let's begin!

Preparing a Notch Block

Create Scene

For this example project, we will create a simple Dot Matrix IMAG effect. In the Nodegraph, ‘Image 2D’ is the canvas our video feed will appear on, ‘Video Loader’ is the video input that PIXERA will be able to interact with and is connected to the Image 2D's Video Node input and ‘Colour Correction’ and ‘Dot Matrix’ are post-processing effects applied to the Video Loader. 

Here's what this effect looks like in the workspace:

Alpha Channel

Notch Blocks do support an alpha channel, but it must be enabled before exporting a block. Click on the Root Node (Notch Logo) in the Nodegraph, and set the Composite Blend Mode to ‘Blend with Alpha Channel’.

Expose Parameters

Now we need to decide which parameters of the block we'd like control over once it's imported into PIXERA. Click on a Node, choose a parameter in the Properties Panel, click the downward-facing arrow and choose ‘[RFX] Expose to Block/Standalone’.

Here, we will expose:

• Video Loader: 'Video'
• Colour Correction: ‘Brightness’ and ‘Contrast’
• Dot Matrix: 'Resolution

Once complete, this will create a new Node called ‘Exposed → Block’. You can click on this to view and edit the chosen parameters in the Properties Panel. These can be grouped and renamed using the options available with each parameter's dropdown arrow. It's worth checking through all exposed parameters and grouping/renaming them for organizational purposes and clarity for the PIXERA operator/show programmer. 

If you have exposed multiple parameters with the same name (for example ‘Rotation’ on some 3D object), they will all work as expected, but there will be no indication of what they control until the operator tries each one manually. They also cannot be renamed in PIXERA.

Here you can also define a range you want to limit values to. Here on the Dot Matrix ‘Resolution’ we have set the minimum to 10 and the maximum to 60.

For reference, these exposed values, as set up in Notch Builder, will appear in PIXERA like this:

Discrete Values/Quantisation?

If you want to limit the possible values instead of just the range, you can use Notch's modifiers. Seen here, a Value Modifier with its ‘Value’ property outputting 0-60 (by default, it's 0-1, but you can just click on the value, type 60 and press enter to increase the range or ALT + drag the slider), connected to a Quantise Modifier with its ‘Quantise Scale’ property set to 5 and ‘Modifier Operation’ set to ‘Add’, connected to the Dot Matrix Resolution parameter.

 

 

When designing a Notch block with multiple Notch Compositions (each with a different look) where some or all need a video input, you can choose whether to have one combined input or separate ones. Copying and pasting a video loader (or any node for that matter), with an exposed property, from one Notch Composition to another will give you the following prompt:

• Yes - Will lead to your Notch Block having a PIXERA video input for each copy of that video loader.
• No - Will lead to your Notch Block having one PIXERA video input, that feeds all these video loaders wherever they are in your compositions.

This step requires some prior planning about how you intend to feed content into your Notch Block, what kind of flexibility you need and a sensible naming scheme to make things easy.

Now you're ready to export a block! Simply click ‘Project’ in the top menu and select ‘Compile Block for Media Server’. Add your desired file name and file path in the dialogue that appears.

How to Use Notch Blocks in PIXERA

As mentioned earlier - to add a Notch Block to a timeline you will need a playback license connected. In the case where you're working with a Director machine and a number of clients, all of these will require a Notch playback license. For preview on the director, a free (watermarked) license will suffice, but any server that's outputting Notch content will need a paid license suitable for the output resolution.

Importing

Notch Blocks can be imported into the Resources panel in the Compositing tab either by drag and drop, or by clicking the VR button, then ‘Notch’.

Now you have your Notch Block in the resource browser, clicking on it will bring up a number of settings in the inspector:

1. Resource Name
    
2. Create Compositing Layer Screen Aligned: This is checked by default and it ensures the perspective always matches the screen. You can change the initial value for your PIXERA projects in Settings > Initial Values > Resources > Create Compositing Layer Screen Aligned. When checked before adding the resource to a screen, the Notch Block will take over all screens in the layer's screen group. Turning this setting off allows a Notch Block to act like any other compositing resource in the workspace. 
    
3. Output Resolution: This is the resolution at which the Notch block will render its texture. Note, your Notch Playback license is for the resolution the Notch Block is rendering. You can set this to FHD for the Notch Block and play it back on a UHD output, albeit with the reduced quality that comes with scaling up content. 
    
4. Input Resolution: This sets the resolution of image and video inputs applied to the Notch Block. Note, this will force the Resource to this resolution. Adding content with a 4:3 aspect ratio and a 16:9 set resolution for example, will result in some distortion/stretching of the image. Similarly, applying an 8k texture will certainly have an impact on the performance of the Block/Server.
    
5. FPS: Here you can set the desired output frame rate of the Notch Block. Note, this is the frame rate of the Block's own rendering. PIXERA will still take this output and conform it to the output refresh rate, by the same mechanism PIXERA allows mixed framerate resources on a timeline. By default, this is set to use the refresh rate of the output.
    
6. Max Update Time: This determines the update frequency of value changes and other messages between PIXERA and the Notch Block.
    
7. Color Space: The standard colour space properties for every compositing resource.

For this example, we will first un-check the box for Create Compositing Layer Screen Aligned, and drag the Notch Block resource onto an FHD screen in the workspace.

Render Properties

Depending on the size and content of your Notch Block, they can take some time to load and appear on the timeline. Note, Notch blocks must be added as their own new layer either by dragging onto a screen or an empty space on the layer header area of the timeline. They cannot be added to normal layers. 

Now that we have a Notch layer, we can explore some more useful settings. First click on the Notch Layer header, and click the Setup tab in the Inspector.

In the Render Properties section, you will find a checkbox ‘Do Not Render in Preview’. This will stop you from seeing the Notch Block on a screen in the workspace, but it will still appear on the output. This is useful for optimising server performance in the case where a Manager also has outputs assigned, as a Notch Block is rendered once for the output and a second time for the preview in the workspace. While the workspace is rendered at a lower resolution, it still takes up server resources.

On the layer header, you also have a dedicated button for keeping this Notch Layer permanently loaded and rendering. This is the same as the Preload Effects Permanently button in The Preload and Timings section of the layer settings. If you need to reload or otherwise refresh the Notch block for some reason, toggling the Mute Layer icon on and off will force the Block to re-initialise and PIXERA will need to reload the content of the Notch Block into VRAM again, even if Preload Effect Permanently is enabled. If you do need to hide a Notch Block, it's recommended to turn the opacity down to zero, so you don't have to wait for the loading time when you need it again.

Working with the Notch Block

Unfurling the layer with the triangle in the top left corner gives you access to the usual layer properties, but also the control groups we exposed while creating the Notch Block. Here you can see ‘Control’ and ‘Inputs’ we set up earlier. These can be interacted with, keyframed etc. the same as any other layer property.

Opening up ‘Inputs’ you will see ‘Video Input’ and that it has a Sampler icon, similar to effects like MaskRGB. This is the ‘Video’ property we exposed on the Video Loader node. Here we can add Content, Live Input Resources  etc. Let's add a live input resource to see this in action:

You can see the block's controls as they appear as the layer's nodes in the timeline and as sliders in the Fx section of the Layer's inspector.

Here you can see the minimum value we set in Notch in action.

Pixera 26.1  R 1 | 13th July 2026 | C.L. and B.C.