Export
The Export button at the top right lists everything Cue can write: a video, the frame at the playhead, the voiceover, stems, the audio mix, captions and timelines for other editors. Files go to the project's export folder unless you pick another place.
Video presets
Choose Video to open the export window. Pick a preset, then the whole timeline or just the part between your in and out points, and where to save.
| Preset | Format |
|---|---|
| Web & YouTube | H.264 MP4, high quality, full size |
| Smaller file | HEVC MP4, standard quality, full size |
| Quick review | H.264 MP4, draft quality, half size |
| Master | ProRes MOV, for further editing |
| Animated GIF | 15 fps, up to 720 px wide, for short clips |
| Sound only | AAC (.m4a) of the full mix |
The window shows the size, frame rate and length before you start. H.264 and HEVC use the Mac's hardware encoder. When the export finishes, Cue shows the file in Finder.
GIF and sound only
- Animated GIF suits short clips: mark in and out around the moment first.
- Sound only saves the full mix, with ducking. It defaults to
.m4a; change the extension in the save dialog to.mp3,.wavor.flacfor those formats.
Variants
The Variants tab of the export window makes other versions of the edit in one go, without changing your timeline. Each combination is exported as its own video.
| Frame shape | Size |
|---|---|
| Vertical 9:16 | 1080×1920 |
| Square 1:1 | 1080×1080 |
| Portrait 4:5 | 1080×1350 |
| Wide 16:9 | 1920×1080 |
- In another frame shape, pictures that filled the old frame fill the new one with a centre crop. Titles keep their place relative to the frame.
- Shorter cuts of 15, 30 or 60 seconds end at the last cut before that length (or at the length itself if that cut is too early), and the ending fades out.
- Also save each as a project keeps every variant as a project next to this one, to fine-tune later.
make_variants.Frames, captions and stems
| Export menu item | What you get |
|---|---|
| Frame at the playhead | A PNG of exactly what the viewer shows. |
| Voiceover track | The voiceover track as one WAV, full length. |
| Line stems | One WAV per script line, plus durations.json, in the stems folder. Useful for handing narration to another tool. |
| Audio mix | A WAV of every audible track, with ducking. |
| Captions | An SRT and a VTT file made from the caption clips. |
Export settings
The Export section of the project settings holds the defaults the export uses:
- The video file name (
{name}is the project name), codec (H.264, HEVC or ProRes), size, quality and hardware encoding. - The stems folder and stem names (
{id}and{index}are the line's id and number), and the captions and voiceover file names. - Normalise loudness for the exported mix.
Exports always use the original media, never the playback copies.
Timelines for other editors
File → Export Timeline (or the Export menu) writes the edit for another editor, linking the original media:
| Format | Opens in | Carries |
|---|---|---|
| OpenTimelineIO .otio | DaVinci Resolve, Premiere (plug-in), Kdenlive, Avid | Tracks, cuts, speed, titles, markers, nested sequences, adjustment layers, and Cue's clip settings |
| FCPXML 1.10 .fcpxml | Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve | Tracks as lanes, cuts, speed, volume, titles, markers, nested sequences as compound clips |
| MLT XML .mlt | Shotcut | Tracks, cuts, speed, volume, titles, mute and hide, nested sequences, adjustment layers as colour filters |
| CMX3600 .edl | Almost any editor | The main video track and two audio tracks |
Importing a timeline
- Export OpenTimelineIO from the other editor (Resolve, Premiere with the plug-in, Kdenlive and others).
- In Cue, choose File → Import Timeline (OTIO)… (⇧⌘I).
- The timeline comes in as new tracks, with nested sequences and adjustment layers rebuilt. Media is linked where it is.
See also Projects and history for where projects and exports are kept.