Video editing

Workspace and media import #

Media Bay is the left rail, the viewport shows the composite, and Inspector describes the selected visual object. The timeline shares project tracks and transport. Use the Settings Dock or Float control to change the editor's host mode. Save Workspace records a named panel layout; the workspace selector restores it.

Import from Videos or choose Import Video... in a video track's menu. Media clips, still images and image sequences become timeline objects. Shader and generator clips use their own sources. The Media Pool lists external project files; generator clips do not appear as external files.

In the Arranger, open the empty-area clip menu and choose Solid Colour Clip or Gradient Clip. When creation finishes, select the clip and adjust Fill for a solid clip, or Color A, Color B, and Angle for a gradient in Clip Properties. New generator clips are four beats long by default.

With an image-sequence clip selected, open the Video Settings panel and choose Sequence FPS... to enter a rate from 1 to 240 fps. The action is hidden for other clip types and disabled during a video job; OK runs the helper-backed reopen/retime, while Cancel leaves the clip unchanged. Check the job result before treating the new rate as applied.

Select a video or generator layer before changing its Inspector controls or graph. A graph opened with no eligible layer shows a selection prompt. The Video Editor's clip selection and the arranger's selection are related views of the project, so check the selected track and clip before applying an edit.

Draft: you can also drop one supported video or still-image file onto an Arranger track at the desired beat, or onto the new-track row. The drop position follows timeline snapping. Import requires the video helper and readable media; native file-drop behavior remains unverified. This draft does not establish importing several dropped files as a batch.

The reviewed Viewer hint directs users to Open GL Viewport, which opens a separate floating rendering window. Docked viewport behavior and native presentation have not been verified in this draft.

With a Shader clip selected, open the Shader section in Inspector and choose Edit Shader. For GLSL, use Compile to validate and apply the source, or Auto to validate after you stop typing. This status does not report GPU compile or link errors. Slang requires offline compilation; SPIR-V is imported binary content and is read-only in this editor. Import applies to the selected clip. Declared boolean, color, point2D and numeric inputs appear as controls in the Shader section; image, audio, audioFFT and event inputs do not have controls there. Draft: native editing and rendered output remain unverified.

Download video from a URL #

Draft: these controls and gates have source review. Native downloads, decoding and platform behavior remain unverified.

Open Video Browser and choose Videos. The URL row is available when URL Media Download is active and your system's yt-dlp is detected. Paste a video URL and choose Get. The button changes to Stop while a download is running.

Downloads use the fixed DonutStudio Downloads folder inside the Videos library, rather than the folder currently being browsed. After a successful download, the browser opens that folder. Go to... > DonutStudio Downloads returns to it. Follow the URL field's reminder to download only content you have the rights to use.

Read the Viewer scopes #

Draft: source-reviewed controls; native walkthrough not yet verified.

Use the Scopes control in the Video Editor Viewer workspace to show its waveform, vectorscope and histogram. Keep the GL viewport open to feed the scopes.

If the panel says Open the GL viewport to feed the scopes, open that viewport first. Waiting for scope data means the viewport is present but no usable scope data has arrived. Hiding the Scopes panel stops its polling.

Relinking missing media #

Open Media Pool, select a missing or replaced file and choose Relink. Locate Folder scans a chosen folder for matching filenames. Reveal opens the selected file in the system file manager. Refresh rescans the pool.

Relinking selects replacement media; it does not make two different files interchangeable. Check duration, frame rate, trim and the visual content after replacement. A missing external source and a failed render dependency need different repairs.

Proxies and render cache #

Settings contains Use Proxies, Proxy Res and Render Cache. Proxy Res ranges from 10 to 100 percent of the source resolution and starts at 50 percent. When proxies are enabled, changing the resolution requests matching preview media.

Watch the generation status. Cancel stops the active proxy work, and Retry is available for a failed job. Proxy resolution changes preview workload; the export resolution still comes from the Export dialog. Retain the original media for final output.

Render Cache and proxies serve different work. A proxy replaces expensive source decoding for preview. A render cache retains processed results. If a job fails, inspect the job's reported cause before changing canvas size or relinking a valid source.

Moving, trimming and splitting clips #

Use Pointer for ordinary selection and movement. Drag a clip edge to trim it. Knife splits a clip at the clicked position; Eraser removes a clip. Time Select chooses a beat range. Snap Timeline Edits controls grid snapping.

In the Video Editor, choose Pen and click an empty area of a regular track to create a MIDI clip. A click makes a one-beat clip unless Time Select has a range; dragging sets the end, with timeline snapping unless Alt is held. The new clip is selected. Pen cannot create a clip on a group track.

The Video menu contains Ripple Trim, Roll Edit, Slip Edit and Slide Edit. Ripple changes the occupied duration and moves following material. Roll changes the shared boundary of neighboring clips. Slip changes the source portion while preserving the timeline span. Slide moves the clip while adjusting neighboring boundaries.

Track menus provide Select Video Clips on Track, Import Video..., mute, solo, move, rename, duplicate and Add Video Track. Use the layer stack's order, visibility and lock controls when arranging the composite. Check both track state and layer visibility if a clip is absent from the viewport.

With the Video Editor focused and no text or code editor active, press J to shuttle backward, K to stop, or L to shuttle forward. When shuttling, K parks the playhead at its current position. Repeated J or L presses double shuttle speed up to 8×; switching direction starts at 1×. From stopped playback, L starts at 1×, while L during normal 1× playback enters forward shuttle at 2×.

Canvas, transform and compositing #

Use Settings > Resolution to set the project canvas before framing a shot. Choose a preset or Custom... for exact dimensions. Fit Canvas fits the viewport view; the selected clip's Fit controls change the clip itself. Fit keeps the whole source visible, Fill covers the canvas and crops overflow, Fit W or Fit H matches one dimension, 100% uses source pixels, and Center resets position without changing scale.

Parameters includes Scale, Position X, Position Y, Rotation, crop and Opacity. Z-Order determines composition order. Visible toggles the clip's participation. Blend selects Normal, Add, Multiply, Screen or another supported blend mode. Rectangle and Ellipse masks can isolate an area.

Visibility, Z-Order and Blend are static controls. Continuous transform, crop, opacity and supported effect values have keyframe controls. Canvas Colour supplies the background. Use the viewport's direct manipulation together with Inspector values when positioning layers.

In the viewport, use the mouse wheel to zoom around the pointer, drag with the middle mouse button to pan, and double-click to fit the composite in view. These controls change the view rather than the clip geometry.

Keyframes and curves #

Draft: source-reviewed instructions. Native key editing, keyboard focus and playback remain unverified.

Select the intended visual clip before editing its animation. Use its parameter keyframe control or Auto-Key to set eligible values at the playhead. Check the selected owner before changing a stored key.

Keys and Curves show stored animation. In Keys, the reviewed keyboard handler supports Delete or Backspace to delete selected keys, and Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V or Command+C/Command+V for copying and pasting. Give Keys keyboard focus before using these shortcuts. Native shortcut behavior still needs verification.

Toolbar buttons for adding, navigating, copying, deleting or scaling keys are not part of these instructions. Curves filters and view controls still need a native walkthrough.

Apply a modulation preset #

Select a generator clip, then open Modulation Presets in the Mod Sources rail. Choose an installed preset, or choose Browse for preset file to open a local JSON modulation preset. The menu lists the presets available on your installation.

Applying a preset replaces the selected clip’s existing modulation routes. This edit is recorded in Undo history. User-authored modulation routes require Pro; applying a preset does not establish that its live visual output has been verified.

These instructions were checked against the current controls and source. The installed native workflow remains unverified in this draft.

Learn a modulation note range #

Draft: this workflow has source review; native selection, range updates and modulation playback remain unverified. Mod Matrix editing requires Pro.

Select the MIDI notes you want in Piano Roll. In the Video Editor Mods panel, click the editable route's ... button and choose Learn selection. This sets the range to the lowest and highest usable selected pitches. When those notes all share a track, it also selects that source track.

Choose a note-based source when using a learned note range. Select at least one note first and check the updated range; without usable selected notes, the range stays unchanged. Complex graph-owned routes show a Patch Bay editing notice instead of these controls. Edit their Param Sink node in Patch Bay.

Effects, text and transitions #

Open FX and click + Add Effect. Each rack slot exposes the selected effect's parameters; the up/down buttons change processing order and X removes it. The rack allows eight effect slots per clip. Adjustment layers can apply a look across the composite.

The rack contains 37 effect families. Color controls include brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, exposure, gamma, color wheels and keyers. Filter families include blur, sharpen, glow, bloom, halation, denoise and directional blur. Geometric families include kaleidoscope, mirror, tile, warp, displacement, RGB Shift, polar swirl, pixelation and lens distortion. Feedback Trail retains prior-frame image history.

With a clip selected, use LUT > Load... in Clip Properties to choose a 3D .cube LUT, or use the adjacent X to clear it. The helper supports 3D LUT sizes 2 to 129; 1D LUTs are unsupported. Check the Viewer after rendering: selecting a file records its path but does not prove that the LUT loaded successfully.

Text controls create titles and captions. Generate Subtitles asks for language, transcription model and styling; it needs a selected source-media clip. A model or helper that is unavailable can block that operation.

Select the intended clip and open Transition. Types are None, Fade, Dissolve, Wipe Left, Wipe Right, Wipe Up and Wipe Down. Check the transition at its timeline boundary, especially after trimming or retiming either side.

Retiming and beat warp #

Retiming and beat-warp controls belong to the built-in Video Editor and have Free use paths. Select a video clip and use Detect Beats in the Video toolbar to analyse its source audio. Detection and Stretch to BPM are separate actions. Stretch to BPM maps the clip to project tempo. Beat Markers opens a dialog with a read-only source-time and beat table. Draft: analysis and retiming are source-reviewed; native playback, export and undo remain unverified.

Edit markers on the Arranger clip. Drag an existing marker in its top marker band to warp it. Double-click an empty position in that band to add a marker. Command/Ctrl-drag in the clip body creates or grabs a marker and warps it. Alt-click a marker in the top band deletes it; Alt-click an empty position in that band adds one. Tap Beat Markers drops markers at the playhead on the selected clip; turn tapping off to use the resulting warp.

Speed Ramp has Enabled, Maintain Pitch and an interpolation choice of Linear, Ease In, Ease Out, Ease In Out or Hold. The selected clip's Retime option chooses Nearest, Frame Blend or Speed Warp for preview. Export has a separate Slow Motion choice of Nearest frame, Motion interpolation or Speed Warp.

Speed Warp uses RIFE. Preview and export have separate inference backend and model requirements, so a working preview does not prove export is available. Its presence in a menu does not prove that a particular GPU, model or platform can run it. Use the reported error when explicitly selected Speed Warp is unavailable. Automatic interpolation may fall back to Frame Blend or nearest frames; that fallback is not proof of motion interpolation. Native preview and export remain unverified for this manual edition.

Open Speed Ramp from the Video toolbar for the selected clip. Choose a preset or double-click an empty place in its curve to add a speed point. Drag a point to change its time and speed. Right-click a point to remove it when more than two points remain. Select a point before changing its interpolation. Native curve editing and audio rerendering remain unverified.

Set the selected clip's Retime choice in its properties. Speed Warp retiming and the separate Optical Flow graph node have different execution paths. Selecting Speed Warp does not verify that the separate graph operation is available.

Stabilize a video clip #

Draft: source-reviewed controls; native walkthrough not yet verified.

Select a regular video clip and open its Clip Properties in the Video Editor Inspector. Turn Stabilize On to start analysis and rendering. Image sequences and alpha-bearing sources are not supported by this stabilization route; the helper rejects alpha-bearing sources because it cannot preserve their alpha.

Adjust Strength from 0 to 1. Finishing a slider drag requests a new render when stabilization is enabled. Strength is a clip setting, not an animated keyframe control.

Watch the status beside Strength for Preparing, Analyzing, Rendering or a diagnostic. Wait for Ready before checking the result. Turn stabilization Off to return the timeline to the source. Processing requires an available compatible video helper; a visible control does not prove that helper is ready.

Video recording and multicam #

Choose Record Video on a track, select its video source, arm it and use the project record transport. Video track headers provide Arm/Disarm Video Recording and Clear Video Recording Assignment. Piano Roll is a built-in source; camera sources appear when the platform helper can enumerate them.

Camera enumeration uses the platform's capture backend and depends on installed devices, drivers and operating-system permissions. The source model includes a screen kind, but this draft does not describe a working general desktop-capture workflow because the camera enumerator does not supply it.

Multicam arms beat-snapped angle switching. Number keys 1 through 9 cut to the corresponding video track at the playhead; a video track menu also offers Cut to Multicam Angle. Prepare the tracks and timing before making live angle choices.

Draft: the separate piano-roll recording controls are described from source. Visible controls, encoded output, timing and captured audio remain unverified.

If the piano-roll video recording button is available in the bottom bar, open its controls and choose 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1. Record starts direct capture. With Only while playing enabled, Arm prepares capture for transport playback; the button changes to Stop during capture. A capture owned by the shared Record control must be stopped there.

The recorder writes an MP4 under Exports/Recordings and attempts to place the finished recording on the retained destination track. Audio capture can fail separately, so inspect the file and imported clip before treating the take as complete.

Export controls and Free/Pro choices #

Open Save / Export and choose video export. An active arranger time selection limits the exported beat range; otherwise export covers the timeline. The video export combines the visual timeline with the master audio mix.

Resolution defaults to Project canvas and offers landscape, portrait and square presets up to 3840 x 2160. Frame Rate accepts a preset or typed value and updates the project frame rate. Codec offers H.264, H.265 / HEVC, VP9 and ProRes 422 HQ. Common delivery codecs are Free; ProRes 422 HQ requires Pro.

Encoder offers Auto, hardware if available, or Software. Auto tries an available hardware encoder and falls back to software when it cannot open. H.264 and HEVC have NVENC and macOS VideoToolbox routes; availability depends on the helper build, hardware and driver. VP9 and ProRes use software here.

Slow Motion appears when Retiming & Beat Warp is enabled. Video Finishing exposes Master Format, Loudness and interchange controls. ProRes 4444, ProRes 4444 XQ and DPX 10-bit frames require Pro. Loudness offers Off, -14, -16 or -23 LUFS and only reduces level. Export EDL and Export FCPXML write editorial interchange files.

Export... starts the job. Watch its progress and encoder result. Cancel requests cancellation. A selectable format does not prove that its encoder is installed or that the project's advanced visual operations are admitted on this machine.

Draft limitation: the reviewed export path can report a successful CPU fallback while omitting effects or compositing. CPU compositing fallback is separate from selecting a software encoder. Inspect the export result and the actual file before relying on the completed job. This edition has no native preview/export comparison for that route.

HDR images and movies #

HDR images writes linear float32 image arrays beside an SDR reference video, with an explicit color interpretation. It cannot recover highlights already clipped by an SDR source or effect. Use an opaque canvas. Render 3D data outputs share the passes bundle.

HDR movie offers Off, SDR BT.709, Rec.2020 PQ or Rec.2020 HLG. PQ and HLG accept opaque Render 3D layers in linear color and use 10-bit HEVC software encoding. Mixed video sources, transitions and overlays are unsupported in this route. Peak nits ranges from 400 to 10000. The live preview remains SDR.

Do not judge HDR delivery from an SDR viewport alone. This manual edition has no native output or display acceptance for these routes. Missing dependencies, unsupported render combinations and encoder failures remain reported limits.

• Visual Graph and 3D
• Current download availability