Studio and assembly

How the section works#

At the top of the section is the Studio and Assembly switch.

1. Left — the project menu. “Studio and assembly” is the last item of the “Production” group.
2. Top — the episode and runtime. “150.0s / ~600s” shows how much of the episode’s target length you already have; the warning icon tells you if the film is shorter than the target or shots have no video. Preview build opens the latest finished splice.
3. Below the header — “Latest build”. The most recently stitched MP4: Watch and Download.
4. Center — scenes and clips. Each clip is one shot’s video with its duration and number.
5. Right — “Versions” and “Splices”. “Storyboard Studio” is the current state of the storyboard; below it are the episode’s assemblies and the history of stitched films.

01Studio: the whole episode#

Studio shows the episode as one film: a large player, the shot strip along the time at the bottom, and on the right the selected shot, its video versions, tasks and the assistant. This way you watch the episode straight through and switch a shot’s version on the spot, without opening the shot.

02Create an assembly#

Click Create assembly. An assembly copies the order of scenes and shots from the storyboard; after that you can change it without touching the Storyboard. Until an assembly exists, the section shows “Storyboard Studio” — the order as on the storyboard.

A clip uses the shot’s current video version. Regenerate the video or pick another version in the shot, and the assembly picks it up at the next stitch.

03Arrange scenes and shots#

Scenes and clips are dragged: a scene by the handle left of its title, a clip to another place or another scene. Changes are saved automatically.

• The eye on a clip — turns the clip off: it stays in place but is left out of the splice and the runtime.
• Click the image — previews the shot, with arrows to move to its neighbors.
• The scene header collapses and expands the scene.

04Stitch the film#

You can stitch the whole episode, one scene or selected clips:

• Merge episode — the button at the bottom of the screen;
• Stitch in the scene header;
• selected clips — click a clip’s caption, Cmd-click for more, Shift-click for a range. A “Selected: 2” panel appears at the bottom with “Unmute”, “Mute” and “Stitch” buttons.

Before stitching, a confirmation window opens:

• “When video is missing” — what to put in place of shots without video: the animatic or the shot image. With no boxes checked, such shots are skipped.
• “Overlap” — “No overlap” cuts end to end, “For transitions” adds a short dissolve at transition shots, “For all frames” between all clips.
• “Show shot numbers on video” — labels for internal review and edits.

The stitch is queued; the shots’ sound, built on their timelines, is mixed into the film.

05Watch and download#

The finished film appears in the “Latest build” card and in Preview build: the player and parameters — resolution, number of shots, duration, overlap mode, file size.

All earlier splices are kept on the “Splices” tab — each one can be watched and downloaded.

06Several assemblies#

The “Versions” tab lists all of the episode’s assemblies. You can keep, for example, a director’s cut and a short one for the client. The “⋯” menu on an assembly: “Rename”, “Duplicate”, “Delete”. A duplicate is handy for trying a different order without breaking the working one.

What’s next#

Download the episode MP4 or export the whole project with the “Export project” button in the header.