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Preview Scene

Preview Scene

The Preview Scene panel lists everything shown in the 3D preview besides the effect you are editing. Alongside particle effects, you can place pictures, videos and image sequences into the preview and use them as reference or backdrop — a concept sketch to match, a character the effect has to line up with, or a filmed plate the effect is meant to sit on top of.

These objects are part of the preview only. They are never exported and never become part of the effect — they exist purely to help you author it.

Adding an object

The Preview Scene panel keeps its buttons in the panel's title bar, to the right of the tab. From left to right:

  • Add current particles — the effect you are editing.
  • Add particles from project — another effect from the same project.
  • Add picture — a still image.
  • Add video — a video clip.
  • Add image sequence — a numbered series of images played as a clip.

Adding a picture, video or sequence creates it immediately at a default size and opens the file picker so you can point it at a file straight away.

Supported files

  • Picture — PNG and JPEG.
  • Video — MP4, AVI, MOV, MKV, WebM and WMV. Video is decoded by the system's media backend, so which of these actually play depends on the codecs installed on your machine.
  • Image sequence — any image format your system supports (PNG, JPEG, BMP and others).

How an image sequence is found

Pick any one file of the sequence and the rest is detected for you: the editor takes the trailing number off the file name and gathers every other file in the same folder with the same name and extension, differing only by that number. explosion_001.png therefore picks up explosion_002.png, explosion_003.png and so on, ordered numerically.

You can also type a folder path instead, in which case every supported image in that folder is used.

If the file you picked has no trailing number, the sequence is just that one image.

The object list

Each row in the Preview Scene panel shows an eye button, a type icon, and the object's file path.

  • Click the eye to show or hide the object. Hiding leaves it in the scene — useful for flipping a reference on and off while you work.
  • Click a row to select the object and open its properties.
  • Right-click for Make visible / Make invisible and Delete. The Delete key does the same as the menu entry.
  • Drag rows to reorder them.

Properties

Select an object to edit its properties.

All three types share:

  • Center — the object's position, as x and y.
  • Size — its width and height, as x and y.
  • Rotation — the rotation angle, in degrees.

Picture additionally has Frame type and, under it, the Image path to the file.

Video additionally has:

  • Video path — the clip to play.
  • Loop — whether playback repeats.

Until you type a size yourself, a video adopts the clip's own resolution as soon as it starts decoding, so it appears at its native proportions. Editing either size field stops that and keeps your value.

Image sequence additionally has:

  • Path — the sequence (see above).
  • FPS — playback rate, between 1 and 120.
  • Loop — whether playback repeats.

Moving objects in the preview

Click an object in the preview to select it. When objects overlap, clicking the same spot again steps to the next one underneath, so you can reach something that is completely covered. Moving the mouse starts the cycle over.

Once an object is selected you can move it two ways.

Dragging the object itself

Press anywhere inside the object's rectangle and drag. The object follows the cursor, and the exact point you grabbed stays under the pointer for the whole drag — so it moves with the pointer rather than jumping to it.

The cursor tells you which of the two is on offer: an open hand over the selected object means you can grab it and drag, and it closes while you do. Over an object that is not selected you get the usual pointing hand, since clicking there selects rather than moves.

The motion happens in the object's own plane. Whichever way the object is turned, dragging slides it across its own surface and never pushes it forwards or backwards out of that surface. If you have rotated an object to face a particular direction, dragging it keeps it facing that way.

Press Esc during a drag to cancel it and put the object back where it started. A whole drag counts as a single step for Undo. Clicking without dragging just selects, and changes nothing.

Using the gizmo

The gizmo gives you precise, constrained movement — dragging one arrow moves along that axis only, and dragging a square moves within one plane.

  • Q — Move
  • W — Rotate
  • Tab — show or hide the gizmo
  • Z / X / C / V — switch the gizmo between World, Local, Screen and Work space
  • Esc — cancel the drag in progress

Pictures, videos and sequences can be moved and rotated, but not scaled — use the Size property to resize them.

Press F1 in the preview for the full list of preview shortcuts.

Playback along the timeline

Videos and image sequences follow the preview's playhead, exactly like the effects around them: scrub the timeline and they scrub with it, so you can line an effect up against a specific frame of reference footage. Each one honours its own Loop setting, and a sequence plays at its own FPS.

Position and rotation are not animated — a picture, video or sequence stays where you put it for the whole timeline. Only the displayed frame changes over time. Pictures have no time dimension at all.