Sidebar
The sidebar of the Preview can be toggled with the menu: or with the shortcut N.
Video Sequence Editor with two sidebars: Preview and Sequencer. shows the sidebar of the Preview, but also the sidebar of the sequencer. In the Preview sidebar, the View tab is active and all panels are expanded. Safe Areas are enabled and an Annotation is added.
Video Sequence Editor with two sidebars: Preview and Sequencer.
Tool
Reference
- Editor
Video Sequencer
- View Type
Preview
- Panel
Displays information about the active tool.
View
View Settings
Reference
- Editor
Video Sequencer
- View Type
Preview
- Panel
- Proxy Render Size
Size to display proxies at in the preview region. Using a smaller preview size will increase speed.
- No Display
Disables the preview.
- Scene Size
Matches proxy size to the final render resolution.
- 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%
Proxies are sized to be the selected percent of the original input.
- Use Proxies
Use optimized files for faster scrubbing when available. Proxies limit the visual accuracy of the preview by reducing the preview resolution and using compressed copies of the input.
- Prefetch Frames
Automatically fill the cache with frames after the current frame in the background. Use this to achieve a more consistent playback speed. This feature currently doesn’t support rendering Scene strips.
- Channel
Selects the channel to show in the preview.
Channel 0 is the compositing result of all strips. Channel 1 is the current frame’s image from the strip in channel 1 only (channel 1 is at the bottom of the stack). The display of these modes is either the composite (channel 0) or the frame from the strip (channels 1 through n).
- Show Overexposed
Shows overexposed (bright white) areas using a zebra pattern. The threshold can be adjust with the slider.
2D Cursor
Reference
- Editor
Video Sequencer
- View Type
Preview
- Panel
The 2D cursor is the white-red circle with a cross-hair that is shown in the main region. It can be used by setting the Pivot Point to 2D Cursor to transform all strips in relation to the location of the 2D cursor.
The visibility of the 2D cursor can be controlled with the 2D Cursor overlay option.
- Location X, Y
The location of the 2D cursor relative to the center of the main region. The edge of the image will be 0.5 away, so (0.5, 0.5) will be the top right corner.
The 2D cursor’s location can also be set with Cursor tool or by Shift-RMB.
Frame Overlay
Reference
- Editor
Video Sequencer
- View Type
Preview
- Panel
Option to enable the overlay. It can be used for comparing the current frame to a reference frame.
- Set Overlay Region
Selects the rectangular bounds for the overlay region. This area can be defined by pressing O key over the preview.
- Frame Offset
The slider controls the offset of the reference frame relative to current frame.
- Overlay Type
It describes the way the reference frame should be displayed.
- Rectangle
Which means the rectangle area of reference frame will be displayed on top of current frame.
- Reference
Only the reference frame is displayed in the preview region.
- Current
Only the current frame is displayed in the preview region.
Tip
It is possible to have several Sequence Editors opened and they can use different overlay types. So it is possible to have current and reference frames displayed in different editor spaces.
- Overlay Lock
It’s still possible to lock the reference frame to its current position.
Safe Areas
Reference
- Editor
Video Sequencer
- View Type
Preview
- Panel
Shows guides used to position elements to ensure that the most important parts of the video can be seen across all screens.
See also
Scene Strip Display
Reference
- Editor
Video Sequencer
- View Type
Preview
- Panel
It allows you to control how the images of Scene Strips are displayed in the preview.
- Shading
Method for rendering the viewport. See the 3D Viewport’s view3d-viewport-shading options.
- Override Scene Settings
Use the Workbench render settings from the sequencer scene, not the Workbench render settings from the source scene. This option is only available, if Solid shading is activate.
Annotations
Reference
- Editor
Video Sequencer
- View Type
Preview
- Panel
Allows you to use Annotations in the Sequencer.
Metadata
Reference
- Editor
Video Sequencer
- View Type
Preview
- Panel
Lists information that has been encoded in the currently displayed movie or image strip; note that this is the strip under the playhead, not the active (selected) strip. Note, this metadata is readonly and cannot be edited in Blender. Metadata can include the filename, the date created, the camera model etc. The metadata from saved from a Blender render is also displayed in the appropriate fields (camera, time, etc…; see Rendered Output for a full list. Some other graphic program also store some metadata, however, only the text stored in the header field “Comments” can be read
Some of this metadata can also be made visible in the Preview with the Metadata overlay.
Tip
To edit a files metadata you can use an external program such as exiftool. For example, the command to change the “Comments” field is:
exiftool --comments="My new comment" name-of-file.png
Note
The metadata will only be displayed for the image/ movie strip and not from strips processed by any effect strip. For example, adding an effect strip (eg. Glow) will hide the metadata from view. Of course, the metadata isn’t removed from the file. Hiding the effect strip will display it again.