RaceRender 3 Basics With RaceRender, you can easily create high-quality videos with custom data overlays, multi-camera picture-in-picture, split-screen, camera-switching, and more! Unlike common video editing software, RaceRender is a video+data processor that is designed to easily and efficiently mix multiple concurrent video/audio sources, data visualizations, and other overlay graphics. It was originally created to produce fast-paced motorsports video from multiple cameras and data systems without requiring expensive video processing or overlay hardware, and it has since evolved to serve a wide variety of other purposes as well. Display Objects & Input Files RaceRender focuses on providing a high degree of configurability in a user-friendly visual interface. It is primarily designed around Display Objects, which are individual components that produce an image and/or audio, usually based on content from an Input File. For example, if you want to include a video file, then a Video Display Object is used to play it on the screen (with audio) in the position and size of your choosing, along with some other adjustment options. Or, if you have a data Input File, such as a GPS or other datalog, then you might have a Gauge, Bar Graph, 2D Graph, or another type, to visualize a selected data channel. Display Objects can be placed anywhere on the screen and set to any size, up to the size of the entire screen. To move a display object, simply click on it in the preview area of the Main screen and drag it to the desired position. Position and size can also be adjusted in the Display Object Properties box. Once you have configured a Display Object to your liking, most can be exported into a file to share with other users, computers, or projects. In addition to video and audio, there are also Display Objects to display simple user-created text and shapes, and a selection of highly-configurable data visualizations (gauges, graphs, numbers, maps, etc.). Most Display Objects use an associated Input File (video, audio, image, or data) and then generate an image and/or audio based on the type of Display Object and its individual parameters. A single Input File can be used by any number of Display Objects. The Input File has its own settings that will apply to all Display Objects that use it, and then there are additional settings that can be configured within each individual Display Object. Video+Data Overlays RaceRender enables you to place a variety of customizable data overlays onto your video, supplied by data from a wide range of data systems, GPS loggers, GPS-enabled video cameras, and even certain smartphone apps. It supports common implementations of CSV, NMEA, GPX, TCX, FIT, and certain other file formats. Many data products can export into at least one of those formats. For more information, please see How To: Add a Data Overlay. Once you have your data in a compatible format, just add it to your project as an Input File, either during the initial project setup on the New Project Menu, or at any time on the Main screen. A menu of available data overlay template options will be displayed, after which you can choose to edit the Display Objects to your liking, as well as add more visualizations. The Preview Screen Can Be Your Workspace RaceRender offers more than just one way to get the job done. Although your project's Display Objects are listed to the right and can be fully configured there, it tends to be more intuitive to control them directly from the preview area of the Main screen. Click on one to highlight and select it in the Display Object list, click and drag to move it, double-click it to open its Display Object Properties box, or right-click it to display a list of other options. You can also drag & drop Input Files and exported Display Object Style files from Windows Explorer directly into RaceRender. Timeline Functionality Most of the Timeline View is based on Display Objects: Once you have a Display Object in your project, you can choose to make changes to it that take effect at specific times. This allows your project to dynamically switch which input is being used, show/hide/change text titles and captions, change video window sizes and positions, and much more. Each Display Object is given its own timeline track, in which you can create segments that start at times of your choosing. Whether you choose to use Timeline Segments or not, the project's entire timeline can be viewed graphically. A Timeline Segment is a new instance of the Display Object that takes effect at the specified time in the project. Its parameters are automatically inherited from the segment that came before it, until you make a change. Once a change is made during a segment, those changes will only be applied during that same segment, and any following segments until additional changes are made. Please see the Timeline View and Display Object Properties box documentation for more information. Input Files are a separate concept, so their timing is also handled separately: The project's Input Files are shown and configured from the Input File list on the Main screen. From there, you can go to the Trim Tool to select the start and end times within the input file, the Synchronization Tool to align it with the timing of the other Input Files, the Configuration screen, and more. If you want to join several video or audio clips together in a sequence, the Join function is an easy way to do that.