This page provides information on how to use the video editor in Enscape.


Overview

Enscape has a built-in video editor which allows for simple video creation directly in the Enscape viewport which can then be used for project presentation, for example.

To access the Enscape Video Editor, you must have Enscape running, as the button to enable it is located in the Enscape viewport User Interface (UI) itself.


Location of the Enscape Video Editor button



Alternatively, you can use the [V] key to open the Enscape Video Editor.

Once clicked, Enscape will display the Video Editor UI in the directly in the Enscape viewport, and the Enscape viewport area will be resized to allow for its inclusion.


The Enscape Video Editor UI


General Options

The Video Editor’s options located to the left side of the Enscape viewport are, from the top down, as follows:

Video Editor

  • X – Closes the Video Editor’s UI.

Video Path – Clicking on the 3 line icon adjacent will reveal 3 options:

  • New video path –  If a video path exists in a project, then you will be prompted if you would like to delete it, so that a new camera path can be created. If no camera path exists this option is redundant.
  • Save path to file… – This will open a ‘Save Path’ dialog to allow the current camera path to be saved for re-use in the same or in other projects.
  • Load path from file… – Opens the ‘Load Path’ dialog to allow a previously created camera path to be loaded into the project. Any camera path can be loaded into any project, although you may need to re-edit the keyframes.

General

  • Show Gridlines – Displays a 3×3 grid over the viewport to help framing, camera position, and composition.

Timeline

  • Total Duration – Allows you to adjust the total length of a video. This only becomes available once 2 or more keyframes have been created.

Movement

  • Ease In/Out – When checked the speed the camera travels in to / out of a keyframe is slowed down / sped up, respectively. This is globally applied and is enabled by default.
  • Shaky Camera – When checked this will apply a jittering movement to the camera along it’s path, as if the camera is being carried, rather than mounted on a camera dolly.


Video Editor Options


Keyframe Creation

At the bottom of the Video Editor UI you will see a basic ‘dope sheet’. This area provides a visual overview of the created keyframes and if a Keyframe Override is applied. The area also provides some functions for keyframe creation and selection and these are in addition to being able to use the [K] key to insert a keyframe, although the [K] key only allows for apending subsequent keyframes and not prepending them. For this purpose the gray and orange + buttons at either end of the the timeline allow for this.


Keyframe 'Dope Sheet'



Here, we show the creation of a video path and how we would add additional keyframes before the first keyframe by using the left side ‘add keyframe’ (+) button.




There are a couple of ways to add additional keyframes to an already created camera path.

The first is to hover the mouse over the camera path, whereby a camera will appear next to the mouse pointer. Left click to place the camera, upon which the viewport will display the view from that newly placed camera, as well as highlight its associated keyframe in the dope sheet.
You can then enable a Keyframe Override or simply click the ‘Exit Keyframe’ button to jump out from the camera and see the entire camera path again.




The second way to add additional keyframes is by clicking in between keyframes in the dope sheet itself. This will add the keyframe at the last position the camera was located ‘outside’ of the video path (in other words, your current position in the Enscape viewport). Enscape will place you in that newly created keyframe’s camera position, and you can then move to position the camera where you want it to be using the navigation controls, remembering to click the Update button to apply the change to the camera path.

This method interpolates the newly added keyframe to allow the transition between keyframes which subsequently adjusts the Timestamp accordingly.




It is possible to insert more than one keyframe at the same Timestamp and you can see this indicated in the dope sheet as a double diamond. If this is done and you would like to set a different Timestamp for one of the keyframes, use the Next / Previous Keyframe buttons to select the keyframe you want to move and then adjust the Timestamp Keyframe Override value.


More than one keyframe at the same Timestamp position


Keyframe Override


Under the Keyframe section, by default you are asked to create at least two keyframes.
Once you have created two keyframes, you will then be prompted to click on any of the keyframes to allow you to edit that keyframes options.
For the sake of illustrating this, we will only set 3 keyframes, and we have clicked on the first keyframe.

You can see the orange arrow at the bottom of the adjacent screenshot which represents the first keyframe in the timeline. The start and end keyframes are always arrows. In between keyframes always use a diamond shape to represent the keyframe. When a keyframe is selected it will be shown highlighted in orange.

From the top down we can see:

Keyframe – For example, if we have set 3 keyframes this will additionally provide the information (1/3) indicating we are currently editing keyframe 1 of a set of 3 keyframes. If (2/3) was shown, we would be editing keyframe 2. Hovering over the two adjacent icons will turn them orange, and these icons represent the following actions:

  • Arrow icon – Exit Keyframe Override options.
  • Bin icon – Delete the current keyframe.


Camera

  • Update – *IMPORTANT – after making any changes, you need to click this button to update changes made to the camera position at that keyframe.


Keyframe Override Options



Keyframe Overrides

  • Timestamp  – When checked this will override the selected keyframe’s position in the timeline. Format is hours:minutes:seconds. The option is not available for the first keyframe of a video path.
  • Time of Day – When checked, will override the time of day for that keyframe to create, for example, sun studies. Format is hour:minutes:seconds.
  • Focal Point – When checked the keyframe’s camera focal point can be overridden via a slider or numerical input. Format is meters.
  • Field of View – When checked the keyframe’s camera field of view can be overridden via a slider or numerical input. Format is degrees.

The four icons below these options are, from left to right:

  • Play from the currently selected keyframe
  • Stop playback and return to selected keyframe
  • Skip to previous keyframe
  • Skip to next keyframe


Delete Keyframe button



The following screenshot illustrates how you can use the Time of Day Override and how an applied override is indicated in the dope sheet.


If you want to extend the length of a video, add a keyframe before the last keyframe, enable the Timestamp Override on that second to last keyframe and then delete the last keyframe. This will retain the Timestamp Override on the now final keyframe, allowing you to adjust the overall length of your video.



Export Video

Once you have finished setting up your camera and keyframes and the various options available to you, it can be exported as either MP4 or a series of PNG still image files, depending on the Compression Quality set in Enscape’s Visual  Settings Output tab, or in the dialog that opens when you click the Export button at the bottom right of the Video Editor UI. It is not possible to pause the export process once it has begun, but you can press [ESC] to stop the export.

The Export dialog allows you to override the settings that are made in the Enscape Visual Settings – Output tab.

The dialog will allow to override the Resolution, including the Aspect Ratio if Resolution is set to Custom.

Compression Quality settings Email, Web, Bluray, Maximum, will export MP4 (MPEG-4  (mp4v)) endcoded files. Lossless will export a series of uncompressed .png files, and this can end up taking a lot of space, so wherever you choose to store such an export, check you have enough space before hand.
Frames per Second is also defined in both the Visual Settings Output tab as well as the Export dialog, under the FPS drop-down menu, where you can choose from 25fps, 30fps, 60fps and 120fps.


Video Export button


Video Export dialog window