Scenes and Looks

A scene is an input that is made of other inputs. It holds layers, and each layer shows one other input at a position, size, rotation and crop that you choose. A scene behaves like any other input: put it on Preview, take it to Program, add it to an overlay, or use it as a layer in another scene.

A layer has no kind of its own. It always shows a source input, and everything about the layer (name, position, crop, fit, opacity, looks, visible, locked, audio) belongs to the layer, not to the source. A scene can be a layer of another scene. Studio refuses a scene that would contain itself and tells you so.

Create a scene

On macOS a scene with no layers shows an empty card: "Empty scene", a menu Add a source and the hint "or drag an input tile here".

Where you edit a scene

You can edit a scene in place on the Preview monitor, or in its own Scene Editor window, one window per scene.

Work on the canvas

The canvas is 1920 by 1080. Pointer actions are the same idea on both platforms:

Dragging sends changes live, one update per frame, and counts as one undo step when you let go. While snapping, guide lines show: canvas edges and centre (cyan), other layers (pink) and safe areas (yellow) on macOS; magenta guide lines on Windows. On macOS snapping pulls within 6 px.

On macOS, badges sit on the canvas: CROP while in crop mode and LIVE while Edit Live is on. On Windows, the LIVE badge shows above the canvas when the scene is on air with Edit Live on. With Edit Live off, the caption above the canvas reads "On air. Edits wait in Preview for the next take." (see Edit Live). On air means on Program, on an overlay, in the running stinger, or inside any of those scenes.

You can also drag an input tile from the Inputs panel onto the canvas to add it as a layer where you drop it ("Add as a layer").

The layer list

Right-click menus

Layer settings

Select one or more layers to change them together. A field that differs across the selection reads Mixed. Sliders update live while you drag and commit on release. On macOS the number beside a slider follows the drag as you move it, and you can click it and type a value instead. Typed numbers apply on Return. On macOS every inspector row ends on the same right edge, the unit of a number (px, %, s, dB, ms) sits inside its field (in a row of several boxes, such as Position or Crop, only the last box shows it), and a long label wraps to two lines instead of being cut short. On macOS every number field also drags: drag left or right to change the value (hold Shift to move ten times as fast, Option for a tenth as fast), or click without dragging to type it; one drag is one undo step. On Windows drag a number's label the same way (Shift for ten times as fast, Alt for a tenth); the box beside it still types, and one drag is one undo step. Windows Settings and timer number boxes do not drag yet.

Tilt X and Tilt Y (in degrees) turn a layer in 3D, in perspective. Rotation stays the flat turn in the picture. Reset Rotation in the layer's Rotation menu sets all three back to zero. It does not touch a corner pin.

Corner pin

Corner pin drags each of a layer's four corners to wherever you like, so a layer can sit flat on a tilted screen, a wall or a sign. Tilt turns the whole layer in 3D; corner pin moves the corners one by one. Use either, or both.

To pin a layer, select one unlocked layer and turn on Corner Pin in the Scene Editor toolbar, in the layer's right-click menu, or with Edit on canvas in the inspector. The canvas shows a handle on each corner and a small bar under the picture reads "Drag a corner. Arrows nudge, Tab picks the next." with Reset and Done.

The inspector shows the same four corners as numbers, in per cent of the layer's own box (100% is the far edge, and a value past it is fine). A layer with no pin shows the corners of its own box.

Reset Corner Pin takes the pin off, so the picture fills its box again. It is in the layer's right-click menu (under Rotation), in the inspector, and in the bar over the canvas (Reset), and it is one undo step. It greys out while the layer has no pin. Under External Control the same action is Reset Corner Pin.

Hero looks

Looks are finishing touches on a layer. Each look is a switch. Turning one on starts from a tasteful preset (the hero values), and its fields appear below the switch.

Blend modes

Blend sets how a layer mixes with what is under it in the scene. It is in the layer's Blend picker (macOS: Fit and Appearance; Windows: Look).

Changing a blend is one undo step, and with several layers selected it applies to all of them.

Enter and Exit

A layer can come in when it goes on air (Enter) and go out when it is hidden or removed while its scene stays on air (Exit). Both are layer settings, so each layer has its own.

Once an effect is set you also choose its length, 0 to 5000 ms (starts at 500 ms), and its curve.

How they play:

• With the take. When a scene goes on air, its layers' entrances start with the take and run beside the bus transition, so choose lengths that fit. A layer you show or add while its scene is already on air enters when the change reaches air (at once with Edit Live on, on the next take with it off).
• A layer already on air does not enter again. If the scene that was on air already showed the same layer, it does not enter, so Morph moves it and a shared lower third stays put.
• Exit plays when you hide or delete a layer in a scene that stays on air. The layer leaves from where it last stood. A scene that goes off air takes all its layers with the bus transition, with no separate exits. With Edit Live off the hide or delete waits in the draft, Preview shows the layer gone straight away and Program plays the exit on the take.
• Preview always shows the finished picture, without animation.
• Undo treats an Enter or Exit change as one step. Undoing a delete brings the layer back and it enters again.
• A timeline clip's own layer has no Enter or Exit. The setting belongs to the layer of the scene, wherever you edit it.

Enter and Exit can also be set from a control surface, see External Control.

Templates

A template fills the scene from a preset arrangement. Menu entries: Side by Side, Side by Side 65/35, Picture in Picture in each of the four corners, Grid 2 x 2 (four slots), Floating Card and Studio Floor (three slots). Most use two slots. On Windows the names are in sentence case.

The scene first uses the sources it already has (back layer first), then other inputs in order, then other scenes, until the slots are full. Templates are disabled when the show has no other input. Floating Card and Studio Floor are laid out to show off the hero looks. You can undo a template.

Edit Live

A scene is on air when it is on Program, on an overlay, in a running stinger, or nested inside any of those. What you do to a scene on air depends on the Edit Live switch. It is one switch for the whole of Studio, it starts off at every launch, and it works the same on both platforms.

• Edit Live off (the default): Program keeps showing the scene as it is. Your edits go into a draft that waits in Preview and in the Scene Editor, which show the draft. The edits go on air at the next take of the scene, or all at once if you turn Edit Live on. Nothing is refused, so you can build the next look of a scene while the old one is live.
• Edit Live on: every change shows on air as soon as you make it. The The LIVE badge shows (see Work on canvas).

Morph transition

Morph is a transition effect, not a layer property. When both the old and the new scene use the same source, Morph moves those shared layers from where they are to where they will be. With nothing shared it fades. It runs on a screen's Take too, with the same pairing of shared layers as on Program (see Screens and mix). A new show has Quick Play and the second transition button set to Morph. See Transitions.

Plans

Scene layers are a plan feature. If your plan does not include it, or you reach the layer cap for one scene, Studio shows the standard plan message instead of adding the layer. See Plans and limits. Blend modes, Enter and Exit are layer edits, so they need the same feature.