How to Export a Movie
If you need to create a video file, you can export your scene as a QuickTime movie.
By default, Harmony will export your entire scene in your scene's actual resolution. You can also choose to export only a specific frame range in your scene, or to export in a smaller resolution, which can be useful if you need to save on time or disk space. If you have specific requirements for the quality of your exported video files, you also have access to the codecs and compression settings made available by QuiickTime's interface.
How to export a QuickTime Movie
- From the top menu, select File > Export > Movie.
The Export to QuickTime Movie dialog box opens.
- Click Browse and select a folder in which to save your movie and give it a file name for the export.
- Click OK.
- From the Export Range section, decide whether you want to export the entire scene (All) or a specific frame range. If you decide on the latter, enter the frame range.
- In the Resolution section, select one of the following from the menu:
- A preferred resolution ratio.
- Custom: Enables the Width and Height fields so you can enter a specific size.
- In the Options section, click Movie Options.
Parameter Description Video Enables the customization of the video settings, filters and size. Settings: Opens the Standard Video Compression Settings dialog box.
Filter: Opens the Choose Video Filter dialog box, where you can select from a range of filters to apply to your video export.
Size: Opens the Export Size Settings dialog box. The size settings are overridden by the Harmony's scene settings.
Sound Enables the customization of the sound settings.
Settings: Opens the Sound Settings dialog box (see below).
Prepare for Internet Streaming Enables the customization of the Internet streaming options.
- In the Video section, click Settings.
The Standard Video Compression Settings dialog box opens.
- From the Compression Type menu, select a codec. The availability of certain compression settings depends on the Compression Type selected. For example, Animation is the default compression type and as a result the Data Rate option is greyed out.
- In the Motion section, choose a Frame Rate from the list.
By default, it is set to match the frames-per-second (fps) of your Harmony project. If you choose a lower frame rate, your export playback will be faster than your actual project. The reverse is also true for a higher frame rate.
- If you want keyframes inserted, select the Every option and set the number per frame.
This is the option is recommended by QuickTime. For further details, refer to the QuickTime documentation.
- In the Quality section, use the slider to choose a quality setting. Remember that the better the quality of the export, the larger the file.
- From the Data Rate section, either choose to allow the program to automatically select the most optimal bit rate, or enter a Restricted rate to save space and allow for faster downloading at a cost to the quality of the export.
- In the same section, from the Optimized For menu, select the intended viewing method for the export.
- Click OK.
- From the Movie Settings dialog box, click Sound Settings.
The Sound Settings dialog box opens.
- From the Compressor menu, select a compression type. The default setting is None. This exports your audio as is without performing any lossy compression or conversion, preserving its fidelity. Other compressors can be used if you need your movie's audio track to be exported in a specific format, or if disk space or download speed is critical, but they may impact the quality of your movie's soundtrack negatively.
- From the Rate menu, select a rate. It is best to export your audio at a rate that matches the rate of your original sound files. For example, if your file has an audio sample rate of 48 kHz and you choose a conversion rate of 22.05 kHz, the sound will play at the same speed, but higher frequencies will be missing, making it sound muffled. For reference, the standard sound quality is 44.1 kHz for films, and 48 kHz for DVD. Lower rates are liable to impact the quality of your movie's soundtrack negatively, but they can be useful if disk space or download speed is critical.
- Select the Size of your audio's encoding. Also known as Bit Depth, this determines the amount of precision used to record each wavelength in the soundtrack. The standard size is 16-bit. If you choose 8-bit, the amount of disk space your sound track requires is halved, but the audio will sound muffled.
- Select whether to Use the Mono or Stereo channel mode. Stereo sound has a separate sound track for the left and the right speakers, allowing to make the origin of each sound realistically match the origin of their corresponding action. If you choose Mono, your sound track may use less disk space, but both the left and right channels will be merged into a single track.
- Click OK.
- In the Export to QuickTime Movie dialog box, click OK.
A progress bar appears.
- Browse to the location on your computer where you saved your QuickTime video and double-click on it to view the export.
How to set the depth to Millions of Colours + to export a QuickTime movie with transparency
- In the Standard Video Compression Settings dialog box, select Millions of Colors+ from the Depth menu.
