HitFilm’s setup can be changed from the Options window, which can be found in the File menu. The options windows contains multiple tabs. Each tab contains controls and options for a specific aspect of the software.
General
This tab contains options that pertain to general usage of the software.
- Maximum Undo: HitFilm tracks all of your actions, so that you can undo mistakes or go back if you change your mind. This free you to experiment without worry, since you can revert to earlier settings at any time. Maximum Undo defines the total number of history states that will be logged by HitFilm. Logging more actions will require more memory. Find out more about using your action history.
- Plane/Image Default Duration: Unlike videos, planes and images do not have a specific duration. This setting determines their initial duration when you add them to a timeline.
- Composite Shot Default Duration: When creating a new composite shot this is used as the default duration, unless the composite shot is based on existing media.
- Timeline Default Duration: When starting a new project, this is used as the default duration for the editor timeline.
- Audio Waveforms: The editor timeline displays a waveform for audio clips. For information on the different waveform types, see Mixing audio.
- Default Color Bit Depth: Higher bit depth creates higher fidelity images but will increase rendering times, especially on less powerful hardware.
- Default Antialiasing Mode: Antialiasing is used to create perceptibly higher quality edge detail. HitFilm supports multiple antialiasing types depending on the capabilities of your hardware. Higher numbers can give higher quality results, and may increase processing times.
- Default Reflection Map Size: The quality of 3D model reflections can be controlled using the resolution of the reflection maps. Larger reflection maps will create higher quality reflections at the cost of performance. The default setting of 512 pixels looks good in most circumstances other than close-ups.
- Default Shadow Map Size: The quality of shadows can be controlled using the resolution of the shadow maps. Larger shadow maps will create smoother edges on shadows, at the cost of performance.
- Default Maximum 3D Model Map Size: The quality of 3D model textures is dependent on the resolution of the texture maps. Larger texture maps will create higher quality reflections, but will also impact performance. Some hardware may not be capable of handling very high resolution maps.
- Display Motion Path: The motion path provides an indication of the movement of a layer across multiple keyframes. This setting adjusts the detail visible in the motion path.
- Include Screen Layout When Saving Projects: When activated, your interface layout is stored in the project file. The layout in a project file will override the default workspace layout.
- Use Relative Paths in Saved Projects: Projects can include absolute or relative references to media file paths. When using relative paths, media is located relative to the project file itself. As long as the folder structure relative to the project file is maintained this makes it easy to transfer to a different computer or to use cloud storage.
- Close All Media Files When Application is not Active: Some of HitFilm’s media libraries are able to ‘lock’ media files, preventing any changes to the source files while you are working in HitFilm. This option forces all media to be closed and unlocked when you switch to a different application, so that you can make external changes to your media. When you switch back to HitFilm after making external changes, your media will be updated to reflect the changes. Note that this may impact performance when switching back to HitFilm.
- Play Audio When Scrubbing Timeline: HitFilm can play audio as you manually move the playhead around your timeline.
- Use Logarithmic Waveform Scaling: Logarithmic waveforms more accurately depict the logarithmic nature of the db scale, and often make waveforms easier to read.
- Show Help Links: Question mark icons in the corner of panels provide quick access to relevant pages in the user guide. These can be turned off to save space if you wish.
- Hide Full Screen Preview When Application is not Active: The full screen preview allows you to view HitFilm’s video output full screen on a second display. Enabling this option means that when HitFilm is not the active application, the second display will cease showing the video output, and return to the desktop.
- Enable High DPI Scaling (set display scaling to 125% or greater): Windows only. If you are using a high DPI display on a Windows machine, this option controls whether your desktop scaling settings are applied to the HitFilm interface or not. NOTE: HitFilm must be restarted before any change to this setting will take effect.
- Use Full Data Range When Decoding 10/12-bit Files: Processing 10-bit or 12-bit files at their native color depth offers improved quality, but may slow performance.
Quality Profile
You can set up four Quality Profiles in HitFilm, for use with video playback and paused images in the software. Each profile can store a separate set of viewer option settings, so you can quickly switch between Final, Draft, Quick, and Fastest. You can then independently assign playback and pause in the software to use any of these profiles. This allows you to use lower quality settings for playback than when viewing the paused image during editing, which ensures smooth playback while still giving you a quality image to work with while editing. You can edit all four of the profiles if you want to customize the specific settings used for each one.
The options for each profile can be edited by opening the File menu, clicking the Options button, and then selecting the Quality Profiles tab. These profiles are used for both Playback Quality and Paused Quality. The defaults are listed below, but you can customize all four profiles however you prefer.In this tab, there are 6 options you can turn on or off for each of the four profiles. The defaults are listed below, but you can customize all four profiles however you prefer.
- 2D Effects: Toggles rendering of 2D effects on and off. By default, this option is enabled in Final, Draft, and Quick modes.
- Lights: Toggles rendering of 3D Lights on and off. By default, this option is enabled in Final and Draft modes.
- Shadows: Toggles rendering of 3D Shadows on and off. By default, this option is enabled in Final and Draft modes.
- Reflections: Toggles rendering of Reflections on and off. By default, this option is only enabled in Final mode.
- Motion Blur: Toggles rendering of Motion blur on and off. By default, this option is only enabled in Final mode.
- Depth of Field: Toggles rendering of Depth of Field on and off. By default, this option is only enabled in Final mode.
Prompts & Warnings
HitFilm will notify you in certain situations. You can turn these alerts on and off according to your preference.
- Prompt when media doesn’t match timeline: Adding a clip to an empty editor timeline will give you the option of matching the editor project settings to those of the media. When this option is disabled, the editor project settings will be automatically updated to match the first clip that is added, without an alert being displayed.
- Prompt when adding timelines to the export queue: When a timeline is added to the Export queue, HitFilm will ask if you want to continue editing, or export immediately.
- Confirm automatically adding 3D cameras to 2D shots: If a 3D layer is added to a 2D composite shot, HitFilm will ask whether you want to add a 3D camera. When this option is disabled, a camera will automatically be added when necessary, without a prompt being displayed.
- Confirm removal last camera from 3D shots: Displays a notification when the last 3D camera is being removed from a composite shot, as this will also remove 3D layers from the timeline.
- Show warning on launch if GPU is unsupported: HitFilm will check your hardware to confirm whether the GPU meets the requirements for the software to function properly. If the hardware is below the minimum requirements, a warning will notify you.
- Show warning for oversized particle textures: Large texture sources can impact performance of particle based effect, including the Particle Simulator, Gunfire, and Quick 3D effects.
Cache
Caching is used to improve performance while you’re using HitFilm.
RAM Preview is one form of caching, used to temporarily render a section of your timeline into memory for real-time playback. You can set the amount of your system RAM allocated to RAM previews here. Higher values will allow more frames to be previewed.
- The Low button sets it to 25% of your installed RAM.
- The High button sets it to 75% of your installed RAM.
You can also manually enter any value up to 100% of your installed RAM. However, setting the maximum above 75% could begin to negatively impact the RAM preview performance, since some RAM is also required for the operating system and running other software.
For full details on using RAM preview, see Introducing the Viewer.
Media
HitFilm automatically stores background cache files of imported media, to improve media performance.
- Database: Specifies the location of the cache database.
- Cache: Specifies the location of the cache files.
- Keep Unused Files: Old cache files will be automatically deleted after a specified number of days.
- Delete All Files: Removes all cache files immediately, regardless of how old they are.
HitFilm must be restarted before changes to the Cache settings will take effect.
Proxy
The proxy system enables background rendering of composite shots and media files. This enables real time playback even of complex visual effects shots. For details see Proxying.
- Media Directory: The location for storing proxy files.
- Use Proxies For Export: When exporting your final render, HitFilm can use your proxies to reduce overall rendering time.
- Limit Proxy Folder Size: Specifies the maximum size of the proxy folder. Enabling this option will add the following settings:
- Maximum Size: Sets the maximum size of proxy storage, in MB.
- Usage: Displays the percentage of your allocated proxy storage which is being used.
- Delete All Proxies: Removes all proxies from the current proxy folder destination. Note that this cannot be undone.
Auto Save
When Auto Save is enabled, HitFilm automatically saves your project at regular intervals, in case of power failure or other system failure.
- Enable Project Auto Saving: Toggles auto saving on or off. By default it is on.
- Auto Save Frequency: You can change the frequency and storage location for auto saving, or turn it off entirely. Note that large project files can take a few second to save, so may cause momentary pauses during auto saving.
- Auto Save Project Path: Sets the location where the auto saved version of the project will be stored. Auto saves are stored separately to your main project file so that they do not interfere with your master project. Auto saves are only created if the project has been changed since the last manual save. Each auto save will create a new project file. Once you manually save your project any prior auto saves will be cleared and the auto save frequency will begin again.
If the software does not close normally, such as during a power cut, the next time you start the software you will be given the option to recover the most recent auto-save.
Shortcuts
Many of HitFilm’s tools and features can be controlled using keyboard shortcuts. As you become familiar with the software you will find that using shortcuts substantially speeds up your workflow.
The default shortcuts can be edited here to suit your preferences.
To change an assigned shortcut key, click in the shortcut column for the command and then press the desired key combination.
You can use the search box at the top of the window to quickly find a specific shortcut. For a complete list of the default keyboard shortcuts, please see the Keyboard Shortcuts page.
Activation
The activation section of the Options window displays details about your software’s activation status.
This is where you can find your hardware ID, which you may need if you contact HitFilm technical support.
You can also choose to activate or deactivate the software from here. See Installation & Activation for more information.