Rendering
Exporting a shot to a still, a movie or a PNG sequence — every format and option, which options apply to which format, and the size limits.
Reference
- Menu
- File ▸ Export
Export renders the open shot through its shot camera and hands the finished file to the share sheet, from where it can be saved to Files or Photos, or sent on.
The render reuses the same layer-compositing path the on-canvas preview draws with, and resolves the camera's field of view against the same author-space size the live view last drew at. The framing you approve while looking through the shot camera is the framing the file comes out with — the free viewport camera plays no part.
Opening the export panel
File ▸ Export offers three items:
| Item | Opens the panel at |
|---|---|
| Image (PNG/JPEG)… | PNG Image |
| Video (MP4/MOV)… | Video (MP4) |
| Image Sequence… | PNG Sequence |
The three menu items only seed the panel — the Format picker inside it exposes all five formats, so any item can reach any format. The same three items appear in the system File menu and in the focus-mode toolbar.
The panel opens over a dimmed canvas. Tapping outside it dismisses it.
Formats
A single frame, lossless, with optional transparency.
A single frame, smaller, at a quality you choose. No transparency.
An H.264 movie.
An HEVC movie — smaller for the same quality, or better quality for the same size.
A folder of numbered PNG frames, with optional transparency.
Options
Not every option applies to every format. The panel hides the ones that do not, so what you see depends on the format selected.
The five formats above. Applies to every format.
The frame size before scaling, chosen from the shot resolution presets. When the shot's own resolution is a custom size, an extra row offers it as Shot followed by its dimensions, so a custom shot can always render at its native size. Applies to every format. Seeded from the open shot.
½×, 1× or 2×, applied to the chosen resolution. The resulting pixel size is shown live beside the picker. Applies to every format.
Which frames to render: Full Timeline (the whole shot), Work Range (the timeline's marked in and out points), or Current Frame (the playhead alone). Movies and PNG Sequence only — a still is always one frame, and for a still this option is both hidden and ignored. Seeded from the shot: a shot with more than one frame opens on Full Timeline, a single-frame shot on Current Frame.
The frame rate of the rendered file, in steps of 1. Movies and PNG Sequence only. Seeded from the shot's own frame rate.
JPEG compression quality. JPEG Image only.
Renders the background as transparent rather than the canvas colour. PNG Image and PNG Sequence only — the two formats that carry an alpha channel. JPEG and both movie formats have no transparency and do not show this option.
A summary line above the button states what you are about to get: for a still, one frame and its pixel size; otherwise the frame count, the frame rate and the pixel size.
Which options appear
| Option | PNG Image | JPEG Image | Video (MP4) | Video (MOV · HEVC) | PNG Sequence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Format | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Resolution | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Scale | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Range | — | — | ● | ● | ● |
| FPS | — | — | ● | ● | ● |
| Quality | — | ● | — | — | — |
| Transparent background | ● | — | — | — | ● |
Output size
The pixel size is the chosen resolution multiplied by the scale, then adjusted twice.
A hard ceiling of 4096 pixels applies to the longer side. Anything larger is scaled down proportionally — a 4K resolution at 2× asks for 7680 × 4320 and renders at 4096 × 2304. The readout beside the Scale picker always shows the real size, so the clamp is visible before you commit.
Dimensions are then rounded down to even numbers, because H.264 and HEVC require it. The readout accounts for this too.
Rendering
The Export button starts the render. Progress is reported as a percentage over a dimmed canvas, with the current phase named beneath it: "Preparing…", then "Rendering frame…" or "Frame N of M" as the frames are drawn, then "Finalizing movie…" for a movie, and "Done". Cancel stops a render while frames are still being drawn.
If a render fails, the panel reports the reason and offers Close. On success the file is handed to the share sheet. The shot's name names the file.
Exporting a sequence instead
This panel exports one shot. To render a whole cut — several shots, imported video and audio, transitions and effects, assembled on a timeline — use the editor's own export, which offers MP4 and MOV with an audio toggle and renders at the sequence's resolution and frame rate. See Sequence.
Sharing projects, shots and brushes
Rendering produces a picture or a movie. To hand the editable work to someone else — a whole project, a single shot, or a brush — use the import and export actions on the Home and Shots screens and in the brush list instead. The containers, what travels inside them, and their limits are covered under File formats.