Export Options Explained

Kinetix now offers two distinct ways to export your animations: Offline Render and Realtime Record. Understanding the difference is key to getting the best results for your needs.

1. Offline Render (High Quality)

This is the default and recommended mode for final production.

How it works

The engine pauses the timeline and advances it frame-by-frame (e.g., exactly 1/60th of a second). For each frame, it takes a high-resolution snapshot and sends it to a background worker for encoding.

Pros

• Perfect Smoothness: Guarantees a stable 60 FPS (or 30 FPS) regardless of your computer’s speed.
• No Lag Artifacts: If your animation is heavy and lags during playback, the offline render will still be silky smooth because it doesn’t care about real-time performance.
• High Quality: Uses 2-pass encoding (conceptually) or high-bitrate settings.

Cons

• Slower: Takes longer than the actual video duration to render (usually 1.5x - 2x realtime).

2. Realtime Record (Fast)

This mode captures the canvas exactly as you see it during playback.

How it works

The engine plays the animation at normal speed, and we capture the stream using the browser’s MediaRecorder API or a MediaStreamTrackProcessor.

Pros

• Fast: Exports exactly efficiently as the video duration (1x speed).
• Instant Feedback: Good for quick “draft” shares to Discord or Slack.

Cons

• Performance Dependent: If your computer lags during playback, the exported video will lag too.
• Variable Framerate: Browsers might drop frames if the system is busy.

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Formats: WebM vs MP4 vs MOV

WebM

• Engine: Native Browser Stack / webm-muxer.
• Pros: Fastest to encode, open source, works great on web.
• Cons: Not supported natively on iOS or QuickTime.

MP4 (H.264)

• Engine: MediaBunny.
• Pros: Universally compatible (Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android, Social Media).
• Cons: Slower to encode than WebM.

MOV

• Engine: MediaBunny.
• Pros: Preferred for video editing workflows (Final Cut, Premiere).
• Cons: Larger file sizes.

Recommendation

• For Final Polish: Use Offline Render + MP4.
• For Quick Drafts: Use Realtime Record + WebM.