Editing 360 degree video in Video by Zaweba

A 360 degree camera records everything around it, and the file it makes looks like a stretched world map when opened in an ordinary editor. Video by Zaweba understands that kind of footage, so you can cut it, look around it while you work, and export a file that players recognise as 360 video.

This article covers setting a project up for it, checking your shots in VR view and getting a clean export.

Setting the project up

360 handling is chosen in Project settings. There are three layouts. One picture is the everyday kind, sometimes called mono, where a single image wraps right round the viewer. The other two are 3D: top-bottom, where the left and right eye images are stacked one above the other, and side-by-side, where they sit next to each other.

Pick the layout your camera recorded. If you are not sure, open a clip and look at the frame. Two near-identical images stacked or paired means 3D; one wide image means mono. Setting the wrong layout gives a confusing preview and an export that players show incorrectly, so it is worth a moment to get right before you start.

Looking round with VR view

Choose View > VR view to see the shot as a viewer would. Drag to turn and look in any direction, and use the mouse wheel to zoom. This is where 360 editing differs most from flat video. In an ordinary edit, what matters is in the frame. In a 360 edit, the viewer can look anywhere, so you need to check what is behind the camera, above it and at the seams.

Use VR view to decide where the viewer will be facing at the start of each shot. If two shots cut together and the interesting thing jumps from in front to behind, people will miss it. Watching the cut in VR view lets you see that problem before anyone else does.

Editing habits that suit 360

Hold shots longer than you would in flat video. Viewers need time to look round, and quick cutting in 360 tends to disorientate. Keep the camera still where you can, because movement that is fine on a flat screen can be uncomfortable in a headset.

Be careful with titles and overlays. Something placed for a flat frame may land in an odd spot once wrapped round a sphere. Check every graphic in VR view and adjust its position until it sits where a viewer naturally looks.

Transitions should be gentle. A simple dissolve usually works well; anything that slides or zooms across the frame can behave strangely once the picture is wrapped.

Exporting so players know it is 360

When you export to MP4 or MOV, Video by Zaweba writes the Spherical Video V1 box into the file. That is the marker many players and video sites read to know the file should be shown as a sphere rather than a flat rectangle. Without it, a 360 video tends to appear as a strange distorted map.

So for 360 work, export to MP4 or MOV. After exporting, open the file in a 360-capable player, or upload it privately to the site you plan to use, and confirm it plays as a sphere before you share it.

Making VR view a habit

The rest of the editor works as usual on 360 footage: trimming, sound, colour and the mixer are all there. What changes is how you check your work. Get into the habit of opening VR view for every cut, and you will catch the moments where a viewer would be looking the wrong way.