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Basic Features

This chapter covers the main window, panels, timeline tools, viewer, export, and project settings.

Main Window Overview

Oak main window

The Oak main window with the footage manager, node editor, param editor, sequence viewer, timeline, and audio meter.

The default layout is divided into:

  • Upper-left: tabs for the Footage Manager, Node Editor, and Param Editor.
  • Upper-right: the sequence viewer (e.g. Sequence 1) for previewing the active sequence.
  • Lower-left: Project and History panels.
  • Bottom center: the Timeline showing tracks and clips.
  • Right side: the Audio Meter showing real-time volume.

Main Panels

Panel Purpose
Footage Manager / Project Manage project footage, sequences, and folders.
Node Editor Organize effects and compositing relationships as a node graph.
Param Editor Adjust parameters for the selected node, with keyframe support.
Sequence Viewer Preview the current sequence.
Footage Viewer Preview original footage.
Timeline The core non-linear editing surface for arranging clips.
Audio Meter Display the master output volume.
Scopes Histogram / waveform / vectorscope monitoring (hidden by default; see :doc:`histogram`).
Task Manager Monitor background tasks such as export and proxy generation.

Toolbar

The left toolbar provides the main timeline tools (some shortcuts can be customized in Edit > Preferences > Keyboard):

Tool Shortcut Purpose
Pointer V Select, move, and trim clips.
Edit Y Beam-pointer style editing selection.
Ripple B Move a clip while automatically shifting following clips.
Rolling N Trim adjacent in/out points simultaneously.
Razor / Blade C Split a clip at the playhead or click position.
Slip   Change a clip's internal media start without changing its timeline position or length.
Slide   Move a clip while its neighbors expand/contract to keep the overall length.
Hand   Pan the timeline view.
Zoom   Drag to zoom the timeline horizontally.
Transition T Add a transition at an overlap between two clips.
Add A Add generated clips (solid, title, shape, tone, etc.).
Record   Record audio directly onto the timeline.
Track Select   Select all clips on a track after the clicked point.

Snapping

  • Toggle snapping from the toolbar or Tools > Snapping.
  • Snapping targets include clip edges, playhead, markers, keyframes, and work-area boundaries.

Timeline Operations

Operation Description / Shortcut
Move a clip Drag with the Pointer tool; hold Alt for fine adjustment.
Trim in/out Drag the clip edge; Ripple/Rolling tools affect neighboring clips.
Split / Razor Press C and click, or press ; to split at the playhead.
Delete Delete for a regular delete; ' for a ripple delete.
Copy / Paste Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V; dependencies are preserved.
Undo / Redo Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z
Marker M adds a marker at the playhead.
In / Out points I / O to set; Shift+I / Shift+O to jump.
Zoom timeline = / -; track height Ctrl+= / Ctrl+-.
Jump to cut ↑ / ↓
Nudge clip Alt+← / Alt+→

Param Editor

Param Editor

The Param Editor showing a Transform node's position, rotation, scale, and anchor; the OCIO LUT node lets you load a LUT file.

  • Selecting a node or timeline clip lists its parameters in the Param Editor.
  • A small circle next to a parameter enables keyframing; when lit, changes at the current frame are recorded as keyframes.
  • Color parameters (shown highlighted in yellow) open the color picker when clicked.
  • File parameters (such as LUT file) open a file chooser when clicked.

Viewer

The Sequence Viewer and Footage Viewer share the same playback controls:

  • Space: play / pause
  • Shift+Space: play in-to-out
  • ← / →: previous / next frame
  • Home / End: jump to start / end
  • J / K / L: Shuttle controls (rewind / stop / fast-forward)
  • The right-click menu sets fullscreen, playback resolution, safe margins, color-management sampling, etc.

Work Area

  • I / O set the work-area in/out points.
  • Export can be limited to the work area.
  • Shift+I / Shift+O jump to the in/out points.

Export

Open File > Export to bring up the Export dialog:

  • Range: Entire sequence or In to Out.
  • Format: MP4 / MOV / MKV / WebM / WAV / MP3 / PNG sequence / OpenEXR, etc.
  • Video codec: H.264 / H.265 / ProRes / DNxHD / VP9 / AV1 / lossless PNG, etc.
  • Audio codec: AAC / PCM / MP3 / FLAC / Ogg Vorbis, etc.
  • Subtitles: embed into the container or export as an SRT sidecar.
  • Run in Background: sends the export job to the Task Manager so you can keep working.

Preferences and Project Properties

Preferences (Edit > Preferences) contain several tabs:

  • General: language, auto-scroll behavior, auto-recovery, default still length.
  • Appearance: UI style, color tags, marker colors.
  • Audio: audio backend, input/output devices, recording format, sample rate, channel layout.
  • Timeline / Playback / Project / Node behavior: various interaction toggles.
  • Rendering: graphics backend (OpenGL / experimental Vulkan), Use glFinish.
  • Disk: disk cache location, proxy preset (width/height/CRF/encoding preset).
  • Keyboard: customizable shortcuts.

Project Properties (Sequence > Project Properties) mainly set:

  • Color Management: OpenColorIO config file, default input color space, reference space.
  • Disk Cache: default location / same directory as project / custom path.

Known Limitations

  • The sequence-wide cache menu is currently hidden; auto-cache is still a stub or temporarily disabled.
  • The Vulkan backend is marked experimental.
  • Headless export mode is not fully implemented.