The picture at the top of DOTV's editing bay is not "roughly what you will get" — it is the finished film: subtitle positions, transition progress and picture scaling all match, so if the preview is right, the export is right. This section covers how big the output is, what the box on the picture is, and exporting — exporting costs no credits.
The size is set once and then left alone: dragging clips around the timeline will not change it. To change the frame, disconnect all the wires and start again from a video at the resolution you want.
The output size takes the resolution of the first clip on the timeline. It is fixed the first time you open the bay and does not follow any other clip after that — wiring more video in later will not change it.
So when you mix footage of different resolutions, the other clips fit inside that frame proportionally, with black bars at the sides or the top and bottom. To make one clip fill it, use the box on the picture to scale it up (that is the next section).
One exception: laying out a comparison like "the original and the previz side by side" hands over a ratio (two 16:9 pictures side by side give 32:9, each taking half the frame with no black bars — see the overlay clips in 7.3) — that document is the one the Agent built, so the output size follows what it gives.
With a clip selected and playback paused, a draggable box appears on the picture. It means two different things, switched by the Crop button in the toolbar:
| State | What the box is | Dragging it |
|---|---|---|
| Crop off (the default) | Where this clip sits in the finished frame | Drag a corner to scale proportionally (the opposite corner stays put), drag inside to move it |
| Crop on | The part of the source picture that stays | Drag the corners to mark the area, ↑ to confirm, × to cancel |
The two run in order: first crop a piece out of the source picture, then decide where in the finished frame that piece goes and how big it is. ⌘Z undoes either.
The box does not appear during playback — a box chasing a moving picture is no use to anyone.
Fullscreen preview fills the screen with the picture and the toolbar under it; the title bar and the timeline stay behind. Esc exits.
While it exports, do not close the tab and do not close the editing bay — export happens in this page, so closing it interrupts it. The longer the film the slower it goes; give a few-minute film some time.
Exporting finishes on this machine: no queue, no credits, though longer films take time. The title bar shows the progress and which clip is being processed.
With nothing on the timeline, Export is grayed out.