Skip to main content
Canvas

Scenery’s Canvas gives you a multiplayer video whiteboard space to storyboard, ideate, and get your ideas out in a single view.

Updated over a year ago

Within the Canvas you can get a live view of teammates as they brainstorm, create notes and annotations, and view all your scenes in one place. This is also a great place to organize your thoughts and ideas before starting an edit in the Timeline.

How to navigate the canvas

On a mac, If you’re using a mouse,

hold down option & scroll in order to expand the Scene or assets on the canvas horizontally.

On a mac, If you’re using a mouse,

hold down control & scroll in order to focus in on where your cursor lies.

On a mac, If you’re using a trackpad,

hold down option & pinch in order to expand the Scene or assets on the canvas horizontally.

On a mac, If you’re using a trackpad,

hold down control & pinch in order to focus in on where your cursor lies.


On a windows, If you’re using a mouse, hold down Alt & scroll in order to expand the Scene or assets on the canvas horizontally.

On a Windows, If you’re using a mouse, hold down Ctrl & scroll in order to focus in on where your cursor lies.

On a mac, If you’re using a trackpad,

hold down Alt & pinch in order to expand the Scene or assets on the canvas horizontally.

On a mac, If you’re using a trackpad,

hold down Ctrl & pinch in order to focus in on where your cursor lies.

💡 Pro Tip #1: If you’d like to zoom into a certain area of the canvas, use Scenery’s Zoom tool or select shortcut key [z]. From here, marquee select the area you’d like to zoom into.

💡 Pro Tip #2: If you’d like to see all your content on your canvas, use Scenery’s shortcut key [shift + z] that will all you to Zoom to fit all.

💡 Pro Tip #3: For those that have two monitors, throw scenery into two web browsers. Have the canvas mode open in one monitor, while timeline mode is opened in the other

Adding media to canvas

There are many ways to get your media out on your canvas. It all depends on what the purpose is. The following describe some of the most common workflows when getting media to your canvas.

  1. Import media to your media library, preview the source and mark ranges to then drag onto your canvas

  2. Take already annotated media from your media library, select the previously marked range, and drag the range onto the canvas

  3. Simply take assets that exist on your desktop or from you recent downloads and drag directly onto the canvas. The clips will automatically be vertically arranged for you.

  4. Select a single clip or multiple clips from your media library and simply drag the full source of media clips onto the canvas.

💡 Note: When dragging multiple clips, they will automatically be arranged on the canvas

Arranging Media

Once your media is laid out on your canvas you can begin to arrange it in groups and clusters for your own organization. The following describe some of the most common workflows when arranging media to your canvas.

  1. If you have various clips scattered onto your canvas, hold down shift and select the various clips you’d like to arrange or marquee select the multiple clips. From here, right-click and click arrange.

  2. If you’ve decided to drag the full source of your media onto the canvas, you can begin to trim down the media by hovering over the edge of the clip and drag to the left or right. You can also remove certain section of the main clip to create sub-clips by highlighting a range [r] or setting in and out points using shortcut keys [i] & [o]. From here, drag away from original source media or hold down [option + drag] to create a duplicate just of the sub-clip. You will begin to see multiple clips appear on the canvas.

💡 Organization tip: How you organize your Canvas is up to you. One common route is to organize by type, such as brand assets, b-roll, audio clips, etc. Once your Canvas is organized to your liking, you can always duplicate it. This will streamline the workflow for your next project.

Example of an organized canvas:

Adding notes to canvas

Labeling your arranged or grouped media is another way to keep you organized when planning out your edit. Add notes to your canvas while collaborating with others on your team or if you’re trying to keep yourself organized.

Grouping media

Storyboard your media. Once your media is arranged the way you like it, you can begin to test how your video might look when combining clips. Explore the unique aspect of the canvas, by dragging one clip next to, on top of, or below another clip.

From here, you can playback what to the few clips might look like next to one another.

Duplicate for comparisons. Feel free to duplicate these clips by selecting [Command + D] or [Option + Drag]. Now you can test out another order and compare the two groups side by side.

Ultimately, grouping media lets you get a sense for what your video might look like before you actually commit to the edit and add the bells and whistles.

Creating scenes

💡 Note: A “Scene” in Scenery acts like a sequence in other video tools. Every Scene contains a timeline, where you will ultimately create and export your video. You can have multiple scenes within a project and also rename a scene.

To create a Scene on the canvas, select “Add Scene” on the left-hand tool bar or click shortcut key [n]. Simply, select a spot on the canvas and a new Scene will appear.

Within the Canvas, you can begin to add groups and clips to your Scenes, but ultimately the timeline is the dedicated space for you to make your refined and final edits.

Scenes created on the canvas will also be available in the timeline. The beauty of have both a Canvas and a Timeline is that you can jump between both views throughout the entire creative process — the decision is up to you.

Viewing all scenes

Having a Canvas gives you a one-of-a-kind place to view all of your Scenes at once. Unlike other editors, you can get a quick glance at all of the versions of your project that are in progress in a single view.

Within the Canvas, you can:

  1. Preview various dimensions of your Scene in one view, by quickly hovering and scanning from one Scene to the next

  2. Take one version of a Scene, quickly duplicate this Scene, make a slight adjustment and compare this version to the original

Did this answer your question?