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Exporting image sequences

Exporting image sequences

Besides exporting an effect as code, the editor can render it frame by frame into a sequence of PNG images — for a video editor, a sprite sheet, or an engine that plays image sequences.

The images show exactly what the preview shows: the same renderer, the same bloom and the same background. Nothing that belongs to the editor itself — the grid, gizmos, the render frame — ever ends up in them.

Opening the panel

Press Export Image Sequence on the preview toolbar, or choose Windows → Export Images. The Export Images panel opens as a tab next to the other panels and always works with the effect that is currently open.

Render frame

The render frame is the rectangle of the scene that becomes the image. It lives in one of the preview's planar views — Front, Back, Top, Bottom, Left or Right — so switch the preview to one of them first; in the perspective view the panel asks you to.

  • Use current view places the frame in the view the preview shows now.
  • If the frame belongs to another planar view, the panel says so and offers Switch to … view.
  • Show render frame draws the frame in the preview. It is only a guide and is never part of the images.

You can shape the frame directly in the preview:

  • Click the frame's edge to start editing it.
  • Drag one of the eight handles to resize it. The frame keeps the aspect of the output size; hold Shift to resize from the centre.
  • Drag inside the frame to move it.
  • Press Esc to put the frame back where it was.

Or type exact values in the panel: Center A and Center B are the frame's centre along the two axes of its view, Half width and Half height its half-extents.

Output

  • Width and Height — the size of each image in pixels (up to 16384).
  • Transparent background — the images get an alpha channel instead of the preview's background, ready for compositing. Bloom adds light that a transparent image cannot carry, so a transparent render goes without bloom; the panel warns about it.
  • Include scene objects — also render the pictures and image sequences placed in the Preview Scene. Videos are never exported, since a video cannot be stepped frame by frame; the panel warns when the scene has one.

Time range

  • Follow preview range — render exactly the range the timeline preview uses (see Timeline preview). Turn it off to set Start and End (in seconds) yourself.
  • Frames — how many images the range gives. Frames follow the effect's own frame rate.

Destination

  • Folder — where the images go. It is remembered for the next export.
  • File prefix — the start of every file name, frame_ by default. Files are numbered after it with enough leading zeros to sort correctly: frame_000.png, frame_001.png, …

If the folder already holds images with the same prefix, the editor asks before replacing them. Other files in the folder are never touched.

Rendering

Press Export. The render runs in the background with its progress shown in the panel; Cancel stops it. While it runs you can keep working — even open another effect — and the panel shows which effect is being rendered.

The images appear in the folder only once the whole sequence has rendered. If the render fails or is cancelled, the folder stays exactly as it was: you never get a half-written sequence that looks like a shorter complete one.

Saved with the effect

The frame, output size, time range, transparency and prefix are saved with each effect, so every effect remembers its own export setup. Changing them is part of the effect's undo history like any other edit.