Working with Projects

Visibox saves your Project as you work, so there is nothing to remember to do. It also writes backups as it goes, so a damaged Project file can be restored. Undo and redo let you step back through your changes.

On Macs, the Project data file and its media live inside one self-contained Project file (.vsbx) that you can move between computers or drives. On Windows, the data file (.vsbp) and the media sit together in a folder. To move a Windows Project, copy the whole folder.

Mac and Windows Projects are interchangeable. A Project made on one platform opens on the other.

Saving

There is no Save command, because there is nothing to save. Visibox writes every change to disk as you make it, in a way that cannot leave a half-finished file behind if the power goes out.

That also means there is no recovered-Project prompt after a crash. Other software offers you one because it saves on a timer and the last few minutes are at risk. Visibox reopens the Project exactly as you left it, because the file on disk was already up to date.

If a save ever does fail, Visibox tells you rather than carrying on quietly. The usual cause is a full disk, which gets a message of its own.

Taking a change back

No Save command also means no “revert to last saved”, so undo is how you take something back. Visibox remembers your last forty changes, and each one is a step you can walk back with ⌘Z and forward again with ⇧⌘Z. The Edit menu names the step it is about to undo, so the row reads Undo New Song or Undo Move Clip rather than just Undo. Try a setting you are unsure of: you can always walk it back.

Backups

While a Project is open, Visibox writes a complete copy of it every five minutes, as long as something has changed. It keeps the twenty most recent and deletes the rest. They live in a Backups folder inside the Project, alongside the media.

What the backups are for

They are insurance against a damaged Project file, and Visibox uses them for you. If the Project file will not open, Visibox notices as it tries and offers you a button: Open Latest Backup. Take it. Visibox puts that backup in place of the damaged file and opens it.

That is the whole of it. Backups are a safety net against a damaged file, not a version history: Visibox offers you the newest one and nothing else. To take a change back, use undo instead. Leave the rest of the Project’s folder alone, because moving files around in there is the reliable way to break a Project.

note

The backups are copies of the Project’s settings and arrangement, not of your media. The media files themselves live in the Project and are not duplicated, which is why twenty backups take up almost no space. It also means a backup cannot bring back media you deleted from the Project.

Setting Up Your Project

Visibox is not video editing software, but it takes enough of the edge off your media that you do not have to prepare files before you use them. It was built to add ambient, atmospheric visuals behind a live performance, though people use it for plenty of other things.

Here is how a show goes together.

Gather your visuals

Start by collecting the video and images you want on screen. These formats play natively:

Video:

• MP4 / MPEG4 (mp4, m4v, mpeg, mpg, mpv, m4p)
• QuickTime (mov, qt)
• Ogg (ogv)
• WebM (webm)

The container is not the whole story: a few codecs need converting even inside these containers. HEVC (H.265) video is the common one. On the systems that cannot play it directly, Visibox keeps your original file and prepares a playable copy in the background. See HEVC proxies.

Video conversion: Visibox tries to convert anything else into a native format on import. If it cannot, it tells you.

Images:

• JPEG (jpg, jpeg, pjpeg, pjp)
• PNG (png, apng)
• WebP (webp)
• GIF (gif)
• BMP (bmp)
• SVG (svg)

Animated GIF files are converted to video, which cuts their size and gives you more control over playback.

Mixed resolutions and aspect ratios are fine. Visibox makes them work.

Creating a new Project

Launch Visibox and choose File > New Project (⇧⌘N). Every Clip you add is stored with the Project.

danger

Do not rearrange files

On Macs, the Project data file and media files are kept in a self-contained Project package file (.vsbx) that can be moved from one computer or drive to another. The package contents are not easily accessible, but they hold all of the media you add.

On Windows, the data file (.vsbp) and media files are stored together in a folder. Do not rearrange the files in it, especially those in the “Files” subfolder. Use Visibox’s Clean Up Unused Files… to delete media you no longer need. Do not delete or move files with Finder or File Explorer. That will break your Project.

To move a Windows Project to another computer or drive, copy the entire folder.

Add a Background Clip

With nothing playing, the Output window shows black. A Background Clip replaces that black with whatever you choose, so the audience never sees a blank screen between Songs.

A Background Clip can be any kind of Clip:

• A video or an image, in any of the formats listed above. Animated GIFs are converted to video on import, the same as anywhere else.
• A camera, so a live feed fills the gaps between Songs.
• A visualizer, which reacts to the room and never repeats.
• A color, for a flat wash behind everything.

Setting one

Project > Add Background Clip opens a submenu with a row per type:

• Image or Video… opens a file dialog.
• Camera lists every connected camera and video input.
• Visualizer lists your Visualizer presets.
• Color lists the preset color swatches.

Once a Background Clip is set, the row reads Replace Background Clip and does the same job.

Two shortcuts do the same thing without the menu:

• Click the Background Clip thumbnail in the Control Bar at the top of the Controller window. The thumbnail shows at a glance whether a Background Clip is set and whether it is playing, and clicking it lets you add, replace, or remove one mid-show.
• Drag an image or video from your desktop onto the Output window.

Adjusting and removing it

Project > Edit Background… opens the Background Clip’s own settings: the same playback, fit, transform, and effect controls any Clip has.

Project > Remove Background Clip… takes it away and puts the black screen back.

The Background Clip belongs to the Project as a whole. You cannot set a different one per Song. If your Clips fade in and out, they cross-fade to and from the Background Clip.

For the menu rows themselves, see the Project Menu reference.