Introduction
The Video Sequencer allows you to place images, videos, sounds, and scenes on a timeline and combine them into a new video. This section only describes its UI; to read more about its usage, see the Video Editing section.
Editor Layout
The Video Sequencer is composed of multiple regions. They are described in more detail in the next sections. Figure 1 shows the combined Sequencer & Preview view type:
Figure 1: The Video Sequencer Editor shown in the Sequencer & Preview view type.
- Header
Contains menus and buttons for interacting with the editor. The header changes slightly depending on the selected view type (see below).
- Preview
Shows the output of the Sequencer at the time of the Playhead.
- Sequencer
Shows a timeline for managing the montage of strips.
- Sidebar
Shows the properties of the active strip. It’s divided into panels and tabs. Toggle on or off with N.
- Toolbar
Shows a list of tools. Toggle on or off with T.
View Types
The Video Sequencer has three view types which can be changed using the View Type selector (see figure 1; top left).
Figure 2: Three view types for the Video Sequence Editor
- Sequencer
View timeline and strip properties.
- Preview
View preview window and preview properties.
- Sequencer & Preview
Combined view of preview and timeline and their properties.
Tip
Rather than having one Video Sequencer in the Sequencer & Preview mode, it can be more useful to have one in the Sequencer mode and another in the Preview mode, the reason being that Sequencer & Preview lacks most of the Preview tools. Blender’s default Video Editing workspace offers this layout.
Performance
Playback performance can be improved in several ways.
The method with the most impact is to allow the Video Sequencer to cache generated frames. There are two levels of cache: a memory cache, which is enabled by default (and can be enlarged if RAM allows), and a disk cache, which is slower but has more capacity. Both of these can be configured in the Preferences.
Another way to improve performance is by using Strip Proxies. These are copies of source images and videos with a lower resolution and/or quality, making them faster to load than the originals.