Clips and audio
Drop a video on the canvas and choose Open in Warpstead: you get a Clip node with play, position, volume and mute. It reads mp4, mov, mkv, webm, avi, wmv, m4v, flv, mts and ogg, through the video support built into Windows. HDR video is shown converted to SDR, and the node says so.
HEVC (H.265) video needs Microsoft’s HEVC Video Extensions; if they’re missing, the node offers a button to install them. If a file can’t be read, the node says why and has a Copy diagnostics button.
Audio files (wav, mp3, m4a, aac, flac) become Audio nodes, with a waveform.
Making a sequence
Drag a clip next to another one, at the same height: when you let go they join into a Sequence. Drag more clips in to add them, drag them along the row to reorder, Alt + drag to take one out. The sequence takes its format (shape, size, frame rate) from the first clip.
A sequence has rows for video (V), audio (A) and titles (T), a ruler, zoom for the timeline, and a monitor with play controls. Drag the handle to make the node longer, or Fit to monitor.
Full screen works as for programs: double-click the header or Shift + scroll up; to come back, Shift + scroll down, Esc, or double-click the transport bar.
Keys
With the pointer over the sequence, or with it selected:
| Keys | |
|---|---|
| Space | play / pause |
| ← → | one frame |
| Shift ← → | ten frames |
| ↑ ↓ | previous / next cut |
| Home End | start / end |
| S or Ctrl B | cut at the playhead |
| Q / W | trim the clip under the playhead before / after it, closing the gap |
| Ctrl D | duplicate the selected clip |
| T | add a title at the playhead |
| Alt + drag | take a clip out of the sequence |
| right-click a clip | the clip’s commands |
The same play and frame keys work on a single Clip or Audio node.
Cutting and speed
Right-click a clip for its commands:
- Speed… from 0.25× to 4×. The audio keeps its pitch, and the clips after it move to make room.
- Freeze frame holds one frame, silent.
- Duplicate.
- Detach audio separates the clip’s sound into its own piece on the audio row; undo puts it back.
Fades and transitions
Every cut has a transition button, and so do the start and the end of the sequence. Choose none, cross-dissolve, to black or from black, with its length in seconds or frames. A cross-dissolve needs some extra footage beyond the cut on both clips; if there isn’t any, the menu says so. At the start and end of the sequence the same button gives an opening or closing fade.
For audio: fade in, fade out, volume in dB (up to +6 dB) and trimming the start and end.
Formats for every platform
A sequence can be 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 or 4:5, with a short side of 720, 1080 or 2160 pixels, at 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94 or 60 frames per second. There are presets for YouTube, Shorts, TikTok, Reels, Stories, X, LinkedIn and the Instagram and Facebook feeds.
A sequence can have more than one format switched on: one export then makes one file per format.
For vertical formats the monitor can show the safe zones of Reels, Stories, TikTok and Shorts, or a common zone that’s safe on all of them. The Reels and Stories zones come from Meta’s own figures; TikTok and Shorts from third-party measurements, and for Shorts, where sources disagree, Warpstead uses the more cautious one.
Reframing
When the shape changes, drag the picture in the monitor to choose what stays in frame, and use Zoom, Fill or Fit. Moving the picture at a point in time adds a keyframe; keyframes can hold or move smoothly to the next one, and can be removed.
Titles
Press T, or drag a Title node over the sequence. A new title lasts three seconds, with a short fade in and out.
Styles: Title, Lower third, Caption. Fonts: Segoe UI, Bahnschrift, Georgia, Impact, Consolas, in regular, semibold or bold, up to 64 pt. Color white, black, yellow or any other; alignment; background none, shadow or box; fade in and out. Drag a title in the monitor to move it, double-click it to edit the text.
Exporting
Wire the Video output of the sequence to the Video to export input of a Folder node. The folder’s bottom bar becomes an export bar.
- Export (or Export N files when the sequence has several formats).
- Encoding H.264 or HEVC (without HEVC support Warpstead uses H.264 and tells you), long side, and quality High, Medium or Low.
- The progress shows in the bar; Stop keeps the files already finished.
One export runs at a time. If something goes wrong (disk full, a missing file, no H.264 encoder on some editions of Windows that need the Media Feature Pack) the bar explains what to do.