Video & image export
Render your graph to a movie file or a sequence of frames — MP4, WebM, MOV, or PNG/TIFF/EXR stills.
When your piece is ready to leave DNA, the Video target renders it frame by frame and writes either a single video file or a numbered image sequence. Pick a resolution, a frame range, a quality preset, and a format — DNA cooks each frame, renders it, and hands it to the encoder.
You drive all of this from the Export panel (the Video tab). Choose your settings, watch the validation bar at the bottom, and press Export.
Video files
For a finished, shareable movie, choose one of the video formats. DNA encodes through FFmpeg, so it needs FFmpeg available on your system — if it's missing, the panel tells you before you start.
| Format | Codec | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| MP4 | H.264 | The universal default — plays everywhere |
| MP4 / MOV | H.265 (HEVC) | Smaller files at the same quality; great for high-resolution delivery |
| MOV | ProRes 4444 / 422 | Editing & finishing — high quality; ProRes 4444 keeps transparency |
| WebM | VP9 | Web delivery, and a format that keeps transparency |
| MOV | HAP / HAP Alpha / HAP Q | VJ and live tools (Resolume, VDMX, TouchDesigner) — fast to play back, GPU-friendly |
Need a transparent background? Use WebM (VP9), MOV (ProRes 4444), or MOV (HAP Alpha). MP4 (H.264) is always opaque — it has no alpha channel.
HAP files are larger than MP4 but designed to decode on the graphics card, so they scrub and layer smoothly in live software. HAP, HAP Alpha, and HAP Q trade size for quality; they're a fixed quality, so the quality presets below don't change them.
Image sequences
For maximum quality, or to take frames into another app for compositing and grading, render a sequence — one file per frame, named frame_0000, frame_0001, and so on.
PNG — lossless, 8-bit, with colour tagging so other apps read it correctly.
TIFF — lossless too; handy for apps that prefer TIFF.
EXR — half-float, linear frames that carry your full dynamic range. This is the one to use when you'll grade or composite later, since the colour is left scene-referred for the receiving app to manage.
Sequences don't need FFmpeg installed — DNA writes them directly. They're also the safest way to render a very long or very heavy job, since each frame is its own file.
Quality
Video formats expose a quality preset that trades file size against fidelity:
Draft — smallest files, quick checks.
Preview — good enough to review.
High — the default; visually clean.
Production — top quality for final delivery.
Image sequences (PNG/TIFF/EXR) are always lossless, so quality presets don't apply to them.
Resolution & frame range
Set the output resolution (default 1920×1080) and the frame range to render (the first and last frame). Everything in between is cooked and rendered in order. The default range and frame rate come from your project, so most of the time you can leave them alone.
HDR on 8-bit formats. MP4, WebM, PNG, and TIFF are 8-bit, so they can't hold a true HDR signal. If your project is in an HDR colour space (PQ/HLG), DNA tags these files as standard sRGB and warns you once, rather than mislabelling the file. To preserve full dynamic range, render an EXR sequence instead.
See also
Exporting — all the ways to get work out of DNA
Audio export — rendering sound to a file
The player — playing back your exported pieces
Colour management — how colour is handled end to end
The render node — what gets captured each frame
Time & playback — frames, rate, and ranges