How to edit 360 video for free on Windows

You can edit 360 degree video for free with Video by Zaweba. Set the project up as 360 in the project settings, look round the picture with View > VR view, use the group of 360 degree effects where you need them, and export to MP4 or MOV, which carry the Spherical Video V1 box so players know to treat the file as a sphere. It runs offline on Windows, and the app is free software with no account to make.

360 footage looks odd in an ordinary editor. The whole sphere is unwrapped into a wide flat picture, stretched at the top and bottom, and an ordinary blur can leave a visible seam where the left and right edges meet. The steps below keep you working with the picture as a sphere rather than a strange rectangle.

Footage and project settings

A 360 camera's footage, already stitched into a single picture by the camera's own software, is the usual starting point. Video by Zaweba's project settings handle one picture (mono 360) and also 3D 360 laid out top and bottom or side by side, so choose the layout that matches your camera. If you are not sure, the frame itself usually tells you: two stacked copies of the scene mean top and bottom, two side by side copies mean side by side.

Cutting and looking round

Create a project and open the project settings. Set it to 360 and pick the right picture layout. Import your clips and lay them on the timeline as you would any other footage, then trim and split them in the normal way. Cutting 360 video is no different from cutting flat video; it is only the viewing and the effects that change.

Open View > VR view to look round. Drag on the picture to turn your head and use the mouse wheel to zoom. Check each cut from the direction the viewer is likely to be facing, because a cut that looks fine in the flat view can be jarring if the interesting thing jumps from in front of the viewer to behind them.

Use the 360 degree effects when you need them. The group includes rotate sphere, which turns the whole picture so the important part faces forward at the start of a clip. It also has 360 to flat view, which gives an ordinary framed shot from part of the sphere, and flat picture into 360, which places an ordinary image or clip into the sphere. There are blur, glow and sharpen versions made for 360 pictures as well, so no seam shows where the two edges of the picture join.

When the edit is done, export to MP4 or MOV. Both carry the Spherical Video V1 box, the piece of metadata that tells video sites and players this is a 360 file to be looked round rather than a very wide flat video.

Making 360 cuts comfortable

Use rotate sphere at the start of clips. In 360 video you can't frame a shot, but you can choose where the viewer starts looking. Lining up the subject at the front of each clip makes a sequence of cuts feel deliberate.

Hold shots longer than usual. People need a moment to find their bearings after a cut in a 360 film, so short punchy edits that work in a flat video tend to feel disorienting.

Think about sound as well. Video by Zaweba can mix 360 degree sound using first-order AmbiX, with a 360 panner on every track. MP4 and MOV exports then carry four sound channels with the spatial audio box, and the preview plays a stereo version that turns as you look round in VR view. Sound that follows the picture makes 360 footage far more convincing.

Check the export in a 360 player before uploading. If a player shows the flat unwrapped picture, the file has lost its metadata somewhere along the way, so export again straight from Video by Zaweba rather than passing it through another converter.

Making flat videos from 360 footage

Plenty of people shoot 360 so they can choose the framing later. The 360 to flat view effect is the tool for that: put it on a 360 clip and you get a normal framed shot from part of the sphere. Keyframe its settings and the view can pan to follow the action, which is a handy way to make a regular video from one 360 recording.

Everything here happens on your own PC, so long 360 files stay where they are, with no upload while you edit and nothing to sign up for.