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Changelog

See what's new in PopCut

0.5.3 — 2026-08-18

M4A audio exports

Export a compact, publishing-ready M4A from any composition while retaining lossless WAV delivery.

Features:

  • The Export menu now offers audio-only M4A alongside the existing lossless WAV master.

Improvements:

  • M4A uses 256 kbps AAC and the renderer's seam-safe parallel encoder, keeping long-programme delivery fast without introducing splice clicks or timing drift.
  • The Exports tab labels audio files as M4A or WAV and downloads them with the composition-derived filename and correct extension.
0.5.2 — 2026-08-18

Fast remote export checks

Export quality checks now run away from the production editor, finish much faster on long episodes, and no longer hold the browser request open.

Improvements:

  • Loudness, clipping, dead-air, and black-frame checks now run on a dedicated Modal GPU worker instead of consuming the production editor server.
  • The checker reads each export once and analyzes audio and GPU-decoded video together. On the 75-minute episode 381 export, repeat scans finished in 3 minutes 11 seconds to 3 minutes 39 seconds instead of a projected 31 minutes.
  • Manual checks start in the background, so the page is never tied to one long browser request. It polls lightweight status updates and refreshes when results land.

Fixes:

  • Five editors checking the same export now share one in-flight worker instead of launching five duplicate scans. Different exports can still scale independently, up to a bounded concurrency limit.
  • Abnormal checks have a hard remote deadline and never fall back to a long local ffmpeg run that can pin the production CPU.
0.5.1 — 2026-08-18

Studio-switched episode uploads

Upload one finished studio MP4 with its synchronized audio and bring it straight into the library.

Features:

  • New Episode now asks what source package you received: raw multicam + multitrack audio, or one studio-switched MP4.
  • Studio-switched uploads preserve the original MP4 as the full-quality master, generate a lightweight proxy that keeps its embedded audio, and open directly on the timeline.
  • Studio uploads can include a second Dropbox folder of ads, pickups, and outro media. Original filenames are preserved so OTIO imports relink those assets automatically.

Improvements:

  • Upload progress and library status now reflect the selected source package instead of reporting missing speaker stems or AI cuts that a finished studio master does not need.
0.5.0 — 2026-08-18

Edit together, live

Multiple people can now open and edit the same composition at once. See who is present, follow each other's transcript cursors and playheads, and watch changes arrive without taking over the project.

Features:

  • Multiple editors can work in the same composition at the same time. There is no takeover step and edits merge live.
  • The editor header shows who has the composition open, with a full collaborator list on click.
  • Collaborator markers appear on transcript words and at each person's playhead, including play, pause, seek, and stop updates.

Improvements:

  • Composition history records collaborative edits with the editor who made them and stays authoritative after the realtime cutover.
  • A visible connection banner distinguishes initial loading from reconnecting. Edits wait for the shared composition to reconnect instead of silently diverging.
  • Play, pause, stop, and scrubbing respond faster through audio priming, earlier media warmup, bounded remote reads, and cancellation of stale preview decoders.
  • Live playback media is prioritized over thumbnail backfills and other background work, which reduces cold-start contention on long episodes.

Fixes:

  • Older projects are migrated into the shared document format automatically during deployment, including projects created before composition rows existed.
  • An older browser tab can no longer overwrite a composition after it has moved to live collaboration.
Technical details:
  • Realtime documents stay in PopCut's existing PostgreSQL database. The service is capacity-gated, health-checked, and tested with concurrent browser sessions before promotion.
0.4.19 — 2026-08-18

Fast cloud export, 14 Mbps delivery, and composition workflows

Start a GPU-backed Fast export on demand, create a composition from selected clips, and inspect exactly what changed as work moves through production.

Features:

  • Fast export can start an on-demand cloud GPU worker for the full render and tear it down when the job finishes.
  • Create a new composition from selected timeline clips. PopCut carries their stack layout across and gives the new composition a useful title.
  • Production-board stage history links back to the affected composition and can show a detailed before-and-after diff.
  • Requests is available from the main navigation so producers can see and submit PopCut feature requests and bug reports where they work.

Improvements:

  • Final video delivery is now 14 Mbps for a sharper master without changing edit timing or audio.
  • Copying and pasting between compositions preserves the vertical stack and keeps audio on its source lanes.
  • The left menu is now for navigation; project actions such as rename, episode number, history, and delete live together in Tools.
  • Leaving the editor flushes pending work instead of showing a routine browser 'Leave site?' warning. Navigation starts immediately while cleanup finishes behind it.

Fixes:

  • New timeline tracks honor the layer the edit requested, including pasted audio and selection-based compositions.
0.4.18 — 2026-08-15

Mastered speaker stems, faster exports, and composition history

Replace speaker media with mastered stems without flattening the edit, restore one composition without touching its siblings, and get long exports through the finish line faster.

Features:

  • Master speaker audio in place. PopCut can swap clips onto mastered stems while preserving trims, fades, positions, links, and the ability to return to the original media.
  • Project history can be filtered and restored by composition, so fixing one cut does not roll back every alternate version in the project.
  • Position one caption, then apply that position to every caption on the same track.

Improvements:

  • Episode exports complete substantially faster through parallel audio encoding, a compact stem-mixing graph, warmed render images, and smarter final uploads.
  • Newly queued exports appear immediately, with clearer stage progress and failure details.
  • Publishing from the production board now keeps distribution targets, thumbnails, and status in sync.
  • Read-only editor tabs refresh instead of remaining a stale copy, while stale whole-project saves are rejected.

Fixes:

  • Large image-heavy previews no longer freeze from retained decoder resources, and remote images load without poisoning the compositor canvas.
  • Long and overlay-heavy exports handle source seeking, sparse overlays, large filter graphs, mastered stereo stems, and stalled jobs more safely.
  • Multipart recordings keep continuous cameras aligned when only the audio arrives in separate parts.
0.4.17 — 2026-08-11

A rebuilt timeline and the production board

The timeline interaction layer has been rebuilt for long-form work, while the production board brings status, checks, distribution, and reel quality into one place.

Features:

  • The rebuilt timeline handles long episodes with smoother scrolling, clearer selections, dependable drag behavior, and the same undoable editing operations underneath.
  • The production board shows composition thumbnails, workflow checks, distribution details, target platforms, and a direct Open in editor action.
  • Measure reel quality from Tools to get a full analysis and store its score on the production board.
  • Upload media and transcribe individual assets from the media panel. Existing transcripts are reused when the same source appears again.
  • Link clips from the timeline context menu so a selection moves and trims together.

Improvements:

  • Cross-composition paste preserves roles: multicam returns to Main and speaker audio returns to the matching named lane.
  • Transcript timing is derived from the active composition, including uploaded and mixed-source edits.
  • Composition links use short URLs, and each composition keeps its own distribution type and publishing details.

Fixes:

  • Deleting a composition no longer switches into it first, caption success messages no longer look like warnings, and hidden tooltips now escape clipped panels.
Technical details:
  • The timeline cutover was verified against the editor operation suite, a real Premiere import, a golden export, and an adversarial interaction audit.
0.4.16 — 2026-07-05

Chapters, precise timeline tools, and faster cut review

A production-sized editing update: generate chapters, move whole sections with track select, restore cuts from the transcript, and review AI edits without fighting playback.

Features:

  • Generate, edit, and export episode chapters from inside PopCut.
  • Track Select Forward and Backward select everything on either side of a clip across tracks, ready to move as one block. Use T and Shift+T.
  • Insert space at the playhead from Tools when a section needs breathing room.
  • Undo an edit without rewinding your work: right-click a timeline join to Un-cut, or right-click struck transcript words and choose Restore this cut.

Improvements:

  • Trimming a linked clip trims the full linked group, and close-gap keeps vertically linked material together.
  • AI cut review supports an ignored state, clearer completion rules, and more dependable playback when skipping across proposed cuts.
  • Transcript strikethrough follows the timeline's real edit windows, so it stays accurate after manual edits and restored cuts.

Fixes:

  • Ruler clicks seek once, rolling joins tolerate frame rounding, and trim handles no longer snap when precision matters.
  • Playback no longer leaks already-buffered audio after a cut is applied while playing.
0.4.15 — 2026-06-19

Audio-only exports and a cleaner exports tab

Export just the finished audio, download completed files from PopCut, and see only the exports that belong to the project you have open.

Features:

  • Audio-only export creates a clean finished audio file without rendering video.
  • Completed video and audio exports have direct download links in the Exports tab.

Improvements:

  • The Exports tab is scoped to the open project, so unrelated episodes no longer crowd the list.
  • Exports remain associated with the right project and identify mastered-audio results correctly.

Fixes:

  • Premiere imports use proxy timing correctly and no longer inherit invalid source offsets.
  • Duplicating a project no longer shares its composition rows with the original.
  • Uploads retry transient storage failures, and expiring thumbnail links refresh when a project opens.
0.4.14 — 2026-05-28

Editable episode names and dependable restore points

Episode cards finally say which episode is which, every history row restores to the moment it describes, and everyday timeline actions are less surprising.

Features:

  • Episode names now appear directly on library cards. Use the pencil beside a card to change its title and episode number without opening the editor.

Improvements:

  • Every row in Project history & restore is now a real restore point. Restoring an edit returns to that exact moment instead of an older periodic snapshot.
  • Scenes are called compositions consistently across the editor, dialogs, and help text.

Fixes:

  • Restoring a newly created project no longer produces an empty copy. Restore now happens safely in place.
  • The X shortcut performs a ripple delete immediately instead of only switching tools.
  • The library no longer shows duplicate episode cards, and titles update as soon as they are saved.
0.4.13 — 2026-05-27

Distribution info, shared asset library, gentler audio

Title, description, and thumbnail for distribution land in one dialog. A shared library for elements you reuse across projects. And episode audio is now a little quieter and easier on the ears.

Features:

  • Distribution dialog. The Tools menu now has a single Save dialog for the episode's title, description, and thumbnail. Drag an image straight onto the thumbnail drop area.
  • Shared asset library. Save any element on a project's timeline into a workspace-shared library, then drag it onto any other project's timeline. Trim and timing come with it.
  • Bundles. Save a multi-element selection, like a sponsor read with its lower-third, or an intro stinger with its music bed, as one bundle. Drop it onto a new timeline and the layout is preserved.
  • Thumbnails for saved assets, with right-click rename. Updates live as you save.
  • Tools menu: Evaluate mastered audio. Generates a loudness report you can scan before publishing.
  • The mastered audio track now draws a real waveform, like the host tracks.
  • Close gap here is now a right-click action on any visible gap.

Improvements:

  • Episode audio sounds a little quieter and easier on the ears at typical podcast listening volumes.
  • Close-gap shortcut (g) now acts on the track and position under the cursor instead of closing every gap at the playhead at once.
  • Dragging a group of clips keeps the layout. Audio tracks no longer drift up or down a row when you drag a selection across multiple tracks.
  • Snap radius is capped at one second, so dragging a clip across a long gap doesn't pull it to a far-away anchor.
  • Audio clips can overlap while dragging, and snap back when you release them onto an open spot. Shuffling sponsor reads and music beds feels less restrictive.
  • Editor header menu items no longer have trailing dots. Project menu reads cleaner.
  • Older projects now show video thumbnails on the assets panel instead of blank cards.
  • In-progress runs: "N files visible" instead of the misleading "stable N/3".
  • You can re-upload an episode after a pipeline run finishes, fails, or times out. No more stuck rows.
  • Pop editor is now PopCut everywhere: branding, header, and link previews.

Fixes:

  • Dragging a clip to the very start of the timeline no longer gets stuck. Bundles also drop onto the right tracks.
  • Library: rewritten How the Library works copy in plainer language. Rename dialog has proper padding now.
  • Distribution dialog: just one Save button now, and the episode lookup works correctly.
  • Import: fails loudly when an episode is missing a camera angle, instead of quietly importing a broken project.
0.4.12 — 2026-05-26

Premiere import, download proxies, tighter auto-cam defaults

Drop a Premiere export into a Pop scene with one click. Download all the proxies for an episode as a zip. And auto-cam ships with tighter defaults.

Features:

  • Premiere importer. Tools menu has a new entry that turns a Premiere export into a Pop scene on the current project.
  • Download proxies button on every library row. Grabs a zip of the episode's proxies, handy for offline editing in your preferred editor.
  • Clips page: project picker. When you open a clip in the editor, you'll be asked which project to add it to (or whether to create a new one).
  • Auto-cam: hold-wide-when-the-same-person-keeps-talking knob. Keeps the wide shot when the same person talks through an AI cut.

Improvements:

  • Library page updates instantly when a new episode finishes prep. No more hard reloads.
  • Auto-cam defaults are tighter now: 4 seconds of wide before a cut, 2.5 seconds of close-up after. Gives a clearer rhythm at the cut.
  • Auto-cam: cut-join rules are saved with profiles. The "good" profile is now the default.
  • Auto-cam: dead cut-join knobs cleared out. The cut-join setting is now a single rule.
  • Transcript words on each host's audio track are filtered by speaker. Chandler's track only shows Chandler's words.
  • Wheel-zoom speed is a profile preference now. Preview no longer flashes black when you scroll a long way.
  • Opening a project no longer drags the playhead back to where you left it last session. Library cards show timestamps.

Fixes:

  • Apply cuts is now safer. Autosave pauses while it runs, and the page reloads cleanly afterward so nothing stale sticks around.
0.4.11 — 2026-05-25

Approve+Watch, auto-cam at cuts, start a new episode from the library

A new approve-but-keep-watching state in review. Auto-cam knobs that control how the camera behaves around AI cuts. And a button to start a fresh episode from the library.

Features:

  • Approve+Watch in the review screen. A new purple state. The cut is approved, but it stays in the queue so you can hear it in context on the next pass. Replaces the old Skip button.
  • Watch all button. Set every cut in the current group to Approve+Watch in one click.
  • Start a new episode from the library. Paste a Dropbox URL and the pipeline kicks off, with a visible in-progress list while it runs.
  • Auto-cam: force a camera change at every AI cut. Three new knobs control how long to hold the wide before the cut, how long to hold the close-up after, and the minimum gap between wide cuts.

Improvements:

  • Auto-cam: a real cut now always splits the angle. No more multicam clips that quietly span a gap in the source.
  • Review screen: search bar in the cut list, clearer error message when the apply step fails, and Approve+Watch now shows up as approved instead of a half-state.
  • Transcript stats row collapses into a single hover tooltip. Less chrome.
  • Editor header: the old Exit project button is replaced with explicit Projects, Library, and Docs entries.
  • If you go straight to the editor on a project that hasn't been reviewed yet, you'll be routed to the review screen automatically. You can't accidentally skip the review step.

Fixes:

  • Opening a deleted project now bounces you back to the projects page instead of stranding you on a phantom project.
0.4.10 — 2026-05-22

One project per episode, per-scene settings, auto-cam history

An episode is one project with many scenes. Clips, verticals, and alternate cuts all live as scenes under the same roof. Each scene has its own stage, lock, and settings.

Features:

  • An episode is now one project. Opening a clip from that episode in the editor adds it as a new scene to the existing project instead of starting a new one.
  • When you click Open in editor from the library, you'll be asked whether to add to the existing project or start fresh.
  • Each scene has its own stage badge (draft, rough cut, ready). The project-level badge is gone.
  • Per-scene edit lock. Locking one scene doesn't stop another producer from working on a different scene of the same episode.
  • Per-scene canvas size. The vertical clip and the wide cut can live side by side without fighting over a single setting.
  • Per-scene multicam framing. Scale and position tweaks on an angle apply only within the scene, not across the whole project.
  • Auto-cam history. Each scene keeps a list of past auto-cam runs with the settings and outcome, so you can re-run with last time's settings as the starting point. You can also save a configuration as a profile to share across scenes.
  • Auto-cam: one smart Re-run button. No separate Undo step. Re-run does both.
  • Auto-cam: plain-language prompt that adjusts the knobs. Type "cut faster on Lauren" and the settings move.
  • Auto-cam: optional knobs for producers who want a longer hold on the wide shot.
  • Timeline tool shortcuts and a Select tool button on the timeline toolbar.
  • Invite is owner-only now and asks for the new account's role at invite time.
  • Tools menu: Review AI cuts entry. The review screen only opens automatically on the main scene; for clips or alt scenes, you can pull it up from the menu.

Improvements:

  • Fewer black frames when the network hiccups during playback.

Fixes:

  • Typing in the title content field no longer loses focus or drops characters mid-keystroke.
  • Preview no longer stutters or shows the wrong camera while a fetch is happening in the background.
0.4.9 — 2026-05-21

Custom shortcuts, Help panel, more predictable auto-cam

Customize keyboard shortcuts that sync across your devices. A Help panel that answers questions from the docs. Auto-cam now picks angles in a more predictable way.

Features:

  • Custom keyboard shortcuts. Set any binding you want in your profile, and it follows you to every device you sign in on.
  • Help panel inside the editor. Click Help in the sidebar to ask a question. The answer is grounded in the docs with links to the full pages.
  • Auto-cam now picks camera angles in a more predictable, repeatable way. Running it twice on the same episode gives you the same result.
  • The session-locked banner now tells you whether your session just expired or there's an outage, and what to do about it.

Fixes:

  • Editor no longer crashes with a No active scene error when you first open a project.
  • Preview no longer shows a black first frame on some projects.
  • Empty scene lists don't get autosaved, as a safeguard against accidental data loss.
  • Skip review now sticks, so the next time you open the project you don't get bounced back to the review screen.
0.4.8 — 2026-05-20

Roles and stages, new title style, caption knobs

Every account has a role and every project has a stage. Titles get a full redesign with letters that pop in one by one. Caption presets are tweakable before you insert.

Features:

  • Roles and workflow stages. Every account has a role (editor, reviewer, intern, viewer, owner). Every project has a stage (draft, rough cut completed, ready to publish). The header badge shows the current stage and lets the right role move it forward, or back.
  • Stage checklist. Promoting a project to ready to publish opens a checklist before the stage actually changes.
  • Project list shows stage badges and lets you filter by stage.
  • Titles redesigned. Each title is now a single text element with letters that pop in one by one. Title controls live in the Text tab next to the rest of the text styling.
  • New default title style with the CapCut block look, plus a font picker in the Text panel.
  • Title animations export correctly now, and the default is 30 percent faster. You can also adjust the animation speed yourself.
  • Captions: tweakable size, outline, and background padding on each preset before you insert or apply to all.

Improvements:

  • Captions: the pink outline is thinner. It was overpowering at high resolutions.
  • Project list loads much faster. Thumbnails are way smaller, and duration shows up without having to crack open the whole project.
  • Scene stats: a little more buffer before flagging a clip as too short, so reasonable cuts don't trip the warning.

Fixes:

  • Multicam framing: scale tweaks now actually show up on the preview.
0.4.7 — 2026-05-19

Auto-cam dialog, captions, rolling edit, history search

An auto-cam dialog with live stats. Captions with style presets and outlines. A new Rolling Edit tool. Plain-language search across your project history.

Features:

  • Auto-cam configurator dialog. Live stats at the top show how many too-short clips or same-angle flickers the current settings would produce, with examples in tooltips. Run with one click.
  • Auto-cam advanced options. Set how much of each camera you want and write a custom prompt. Default chunk size bumped from 200 to 800 words.
  • Auto-cam Undo button. Resets the timeline so you can try different settings.
  • Stats popover with clickable rows. Click a problem cluster to jump the playhead to the spot.
  • Captions. Generate per-word captions from the episode transcript with style presets, an apply-to-all button, and an adjustable outline. The outline scales so it looks the same on portrait and landscape.
  • Rolling Edit tool. Press N to grab the cut between two adjacent clips and slide it without changing the total length.
  • Project history. Readable labels, group-by-time (minute, hour, day), and a plain-language search bar.
  • Motion presets on images, text, and stickers (slow zoom and fade). Stacked one per row so labels never get cut off.
  • Multicam Split-on-switch vs Replace-whole-clip toggle. Choose whether changing an angle splits the multicam at the playhead or replaces the whole clip.

Improvements:

  • Bookmarks now stay glued to the spot they describe through cuts, moves, and ripple edits.
  • The transcript stays editable in the library and transcript views.
  • Big timeline performance pass. Long episodes feel snappier when zooming and scrolling. Multicam switches between angles faster too.

Fixes:

  • Click-to-seek on the timeline ruler no longer jumps to the wrong spot. The playhead follows the click immediately.
  • The timeline stops yanking your view around when you click near the edges.
0.4.6 — 2026-05-18

Razor tool, fades on clips, clip review in the editor

Split and ripple-delete tools on the timeline. Fades you set in review are now drawn right on the clip. And the clip-selector review now lives inside the editor.

Features:

  • Razor-blade tools on the timeline. Pick Split or Ripple-Delete from the toolbar to slice a clip at the cursor or remove a section and close the gap.
  • Fades you set in review now show as a curve drawn right on the clip in the timeline. Editing the fade in the Properties panel redraws it live.
  • Per-clip fade controls in the Properties panel.
  • Clip-selector review now lives inside the editor at /library/N/clips. Vote and comment on AI-generated clip candidates without leaving PopCut. Open in editor drops you into a vertical scene.
  • Library now shows a status pill for each episode. The Open button stays disabled until prep finishes.

Improvements:

  • Clip resize handles are always visible now and wider, so they're easier to grab.
  • The main video track no longer snaps to the very beginning. You can drag the start of the main track wherever you want, like any other clip.
  • Library page is much faster. Clip cards no longer auto-play every preview at once. Tap a card to play.
  • Switching projects no longer re-downloads the same library data.
0.4.5 — 2026-05-17

Per-cut fades, fades in the export, import a slice of an episode

Set the fade length and shape on each cut. Fades carry through to the final export. And you can now import just a portion of an episode.

Features:

  • You can now set how long each cut's fade is, and what shape the fade takes, right in the review sidebar.
  • Fades you set in review now carry through to the export. What you hear in review is what you get in the final.
  • Import just a slice of an episode. Use the range pickers or one of the preset chips (first 10 min, last 10 min, etc.) in the import dialog.
  • 16x zoom level in review for fine-grained edits.

Improvements:

  • Review waveforms load almost instantly now.
  • Review screen polish. Accept is the main button. The Done step shows a full-screen overlay while it runs. Easy nav through every group, and a 10-second padding around each cut keeps your ear in the right spot.
  • Snap is off by default in review. The cut list scrolls and has a sidebar layout toggle.
  • Wheel-zoom in review is steadier. A single notch no longer blows past several zoom levels.
  • Right-click a cut to toggle approve. Single-click no longer un-approves by accident.
  • Default fade shape sounds more natural at typical fade lengths.
  • Library: the Open in editor button is now labeled Review, since import drops you in the review screen first.
0.4.4 — 2026-05-16

AI cut review screen

A dedicated screen for walking through the AI's proposed cuts. Hear each one in context, drag the edges, fade the boundaries, and approve or reject.

Features:

  • AI cut review screen. After import, the editor opens to a review screen with the proposed cuts grouped by context. Walk through each group, hear the cut in place, and approve or reject.
  • Each cut shows the host waveforms with the transcript words sitting on top, the playhead, and the cut itself as a red band.
  • Draggable trim handles on the red cut bands. Drag either edge to tighten or loosen the cut without leaving the group.
  • Audible fades at cut boundaries. Right-click a cut band to turn the fade on or off, pick a shape, and see the curve drawn on the band.
  • Preview cut button on each bookmark. Plays just the cut transition so you can hear what survives.
  • Spacebar plays and pauses. Click anywhere on a waveform to seek. Playback automatically snaps back to the current group and pauses when it runs off the end.
  • Loop button so you can hear a cut on repeat while tweaking the edges.
  • Scene stats popover in the header. Click the bar-chart icon for word, filler, and laugh counts at a glance.

Improvements:

  • Cuts are approved by default. Playback skips them automatically, so what you hear is the edited version.
  • Approved cuts dim out so the ones still needing review are easy to spot.
0.4.3 — 2026-05-15

AI cuts and camera picks land in the editor

Episodes now arrive with the AI's proposed cuts as bookmarks and the AI's camera picks ready to apply with one click.

Features:

  • Episodes now come in with the AI's proposed cuts as bookmarks on the timeline, plus the AI's camera picks ready to apply.
  • Edits sidebar. Browse every AI-proposed cut with severity badges, and see the matching words tinted in the transcript.
  • Auto-cam. One click in the Tools menu turns the AI's camera picks into actual angle changes on the timeline.
  • Help and FAQ inside the editor. Click the ? icon or go to /docs.

Improvements:

  • Playback is smoother and gentler when switching between projects.
  • Bookmarks move along with the clips around them, so they always stay glued to the right moment when you cut or shift things.
  • Drag-selecting words in the transcript now works across the spaces between them, so your selection doesn't break when you sweep across a row.
0.4.2 — 2026-05-14

Per-host audio tracks, export fixes

Each host gets their own audio track on the timeline. Multicam framing tweaks now stick. A round of export fixes for text and image overlays.

Features:

  • When you open an episode for review, each host now gets their own audio track on the timeline.
  • Multicam framing sticks. Adjust the scale or position of an angle and it stays that way across re-imports and on every clip that uses that angle.

Fixes:

  • Exports no longer run past the end of the project.
  • Image overlays now show up correctly in exports, including JPGs. Animated text size, letter spacing, and line height animate in the export too.
  • Text in exports now matches what you see in the preview. No more double-rendering or mismatched sizes.
  • Long export queues no longer push the exports list off the screen.
  • Media links refresh automatically when you open a project, so they never expire mid-session.
0.4.1 — 2026-05-13

PopCut goes live

The first day of PopCut as an online editor. Episodes show up in your library on their own, the transcript lives next to the timeline, and exports run on our servers.

Features:

  • Library page. Episodes show up automatically once they're prepped, with all the cameras, audio, and thumbnails already in place. No uploading.
  • Multicam editing. Episodes with two or more cameras come in as one multicam clip with all the angles grouped together. Switch angles in the inspector and the clip splits at the playhead.
  • Server-side export. Exports now run on our servers instead of your browser. Use the Server Render button in the Export popover.
  • Exports tab. See every export you've made on a project, with play, download, and delete.
  • Transcript view. Open the Transcript tab on any project to read the episode, click a word to seek there, or drag-select a range.
  • Cut from the transcript. Select a range of words and press Delete to remove them. The transcript and the underlying clips both get cut, and everything after slides back to close the gap. Undo brings it back.
  • Scenes panel. Add, rename, and duplicate scenes on a project. Switching scenes loads the matching timeline.
  • Words appear above each host's audio clip, sitting right on top of the waveform.
  • Transcript settings dropdown with a Show deleted words toggle and a Restore all deleted words button.

Improvements:

  • Transcript and timeline stay in sync. The transcript scrolls along as the episode plays, and clicking a word seeks both views.
  • Timeline tracks have more vertical room and bigger gaps between them. Waveforms are easier to read.
0.3.0 — 2026-04-15

Masks, animation & more

This release adds masks, a graph editor for keyframe curves, volume and speed controls, preview zoom, canvas backgrounds, stickers, and a lot more.

Features:

  • Added a brand page with downloadable brand assets. Assets are also accessible directly from the header logo context menu.
  • Scale now has separate width and height controls. You can stretch or squash elements independently on each axis.
  • Volume control for audio and video elements.
  • Speed control for video and audio clips. Includes a maintain pitch option so audio doesn't chipmunk or deepen when you change the rate.
  • Masks. Hide or reveal parts of any video or image layer. Choose from split, rectangle, ellipse, star, heart, diamond, and cinematic bars. Adjust position, size, rotation, feather, and stroke in the properties panel, or drag the handles in the preview.
  • Canvas backgrounds are back. Set a blur, solid color, or gradient as the canvas background from the new Background tab in the settings panel.
  • Custom canvas size. Instead of being locked to a handful of presets, you can now enter any width and height you want.
  • Preview zoom and panning. Zoom into the canvas to work on fine details, and pan around to navigate when zoomed in.
  • Stickers panel now has content. Browse and add country flags and shapes.
  • You can now import transcript files to generate captions instead of running auto-transcription.
  • Graph editor for keyframe curves. Shape the easing between keyframes by dragging bezier handles.
  • Multiple selected timeline clips move and resize together.
  • Position X and Y can now be animated independently.
  • Keyframes can be copied and pasted between elements.
  • Timeline clips can expand to show a lane for each animated property. Right-click a clip -> "Expand keyframes" to see all properties in their own rows.

Improvements:

  • Added a changelog link to the footer.
  • Playback performance is dramatically better. The editor used to slow to a crawl during playback, and audio would stutter when interacting with elements mid-play. Both are fixed.
  • More vertical space between timeline tracks. Selection outlines on adjacent tracks no longer overlap each other.
  • Holding Shift or Ctrl while drag-selecting in the timeline now adds to your existing selection instead of replacing it. Matches how Shift/Ctrl+click already worked.
  • Timeline track rows now highlight when they contain a selected element, making it easier to see which tracks are active at a glance.
  • System fonts (Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, and others) now appear in the font picker alongside Google Fonts.
  • Your projects can disappear if your disk runs low on space. OpenCut now asks the browser to protect them.
  • The properties panel has been redesigned with a tabbed layout.
  • Audio waveforms have gotten an upgrade. The old ones were inaccurate, prone to crashing, and not very useful. The new ones are RMS-based, properly scaled, and only render what's visible so they don't slow things down.
  • The timeline now opens scrolled to the bottom, so your main video track is visible right away instead of being hidden above the fold.
  • The settings panel has been redesigned with a cleaner layout and better organization.
  • You can now select multiple assets in the assets panel. Useful for deleting several at once.
  • If your browser doesn't support GPU-accelerated rendering, the editor now shows a notice explaining why and suggests switching to another browser.

Fixes:

  • Sponsor logos now correctly invert in dark mode.
  • Media asset cards in the grid view were larger than their thumbnails, leaving empty space around each item. Cards now size to their content.
  • Project thumbnails now generate correctly even when the timeline is empty. If you set a background color or gradient with no clips, the thumbnail reflects that instead of staying blank.
  • Clicking a selected element no longer keeps the rest of the selection.
  • Track labels on the left side of the timeline were misaligned with the tracks on the right.
  • Clicking in the empty space below timeline tracks now seeks the playhead.
  • Timeline vertical scroll now works anywhere in the panel, not just over the track labels. The header no longer scrolls with the tracks.
  • MP4 exports with audio failed on Firefox. The export now completes successfully regardless of browser.
  • Snap guides in the preview panel didn't show when moving a full-canvas element to the center of the frame.
  • The rotation handle could float above the editor UI when an element was near the top of the canvas. It now clips to the preview area.
  • Images with a blur effect at 0% intensity would disappear completely when a blurred background was also active. Now 0% blur correctly renders the image unchanged.
  • Section titles in the properties panel showed the wrong text color when the section wasn't collapsible. Non-collapsible titles now use the correct muted style.
  • Blur looked pixelated at higher intensities instead of producing a real blur. Both the canvas background blur and the blur effect are now fixed.
  • Auto-generated captions were sometimes inaccurate. The underlying issue has been fixed.
  • Text element handles no longer shift position as you type.
  • The rotation handle drifted further and further from the element as the canvas size got smaller. On a 100x100 project it was almost off-screen. The gap is now a fixed size regardless of canvas dimensions or zoom.
Technical details:
  • Ripple editing now has a proper algorithmic foundation. The old inline approach was replaced with a diff-based system in src/lib/ripple/: track snapshots before and after an operation are compared as interval sets, vacated intervals are computed (accounting for elements moved to other tracks), and the result is a list of explicit RippleAdjustment values applied in a separate pass. Composable, testable, and independent of the command that triggered it.
  • Time is now represented as MediaTime, an integer tick count at 120,000 ticks per second, defined in rust/crates/time. Previously, floating-point seconds were used throughout, which accumulated rounding errors and made frame alignment imprecise. 120,000 was chosen because it divides evenly by every standard frame rate denominator, including drop-frame rates: 23.976 maps to 5,005 ticks/frame, 29.97 to 4,004, 30 to 4,000. FrameRate is a rational {numerator, denominator} type rather than a float. All time arithmetic, frame snapping, and timecode formatting are implemented in Rust and exposed via WASM.
  • Track ordering is now enforced at the type level. SceneTracks replaces a flat track array with three explicit fields: overlay, main (a singleton VideoTrack), and audio. The type makes it structurally impossible to mix track kinds or misplace a track.
  • The WebGL renderer has been replaced with a Rust/wgpu compositor compiled to WASM. The rust/ crate tree covers compositing (rust/crates/compositor), effects (rust/crates/effects), masks with JFA-based feathering (rust/crates/masks), GPU context (rust/crates/gpu), and time (rust/crates/time). WASM bindings live in rust/wasm/ and are consumed from TypeScript through src/lib/wasm/. The old GLSL shaders and WebGL utilities are gone.
  • src/types/ and src/constants/ have been dissolved. All types and constants now live alongside the code that owns them inside src/lib/. The packages/env and packages/ui internal packages were also folded into the web app, with icons at src/components/icons/ and env at src/lib/env/.
  • The web app can now deploy to Cloudflare Workers via OpenNext. wrangler.jsonc and apps/web/open-next.config.ts are included for anyone self-hosting.
  • apps/desktop/ is a new GPUI + Rust app. It is early: there is a main.rs and a working build setup, but no features yet.
  • 16 new storage migration steps were added (v9 through v25), covering the schema changes accumulated during this release cycle.
0.2.0 — 2026-03-01

Motion & effects

This release adds the foundation for motion and effects, alongside many improvements & fixes.

Features:

  • Keyframe animation system for animating element properties over time.
  • Entirely new efects system. Effects can be applied per-clip or added as standalone elements on the timeline (with our first effect: Blur!)
  • Added a changelog page to the site.
  • Ripple editing mode.

Improvements:

  • New text elements no longer have a black background by default.
  • Selection outline in the preview is now dashed.
  • Clips sitting next to each other on the timeline now have a small gap between them so selected clips are always clearly visible.
  • Press Escape to deselect the current element.

Fixes:

  • Fixed an issue where click-and-drag selection on one timeline track could accidentally select items from the track below.
  • Audio could flicker or cut out at the start of playback when certain elements were selected. The scheduler now recovers from timing slips without losing audio.
  • Dragging a clip onto the timeline and pressing Ctrl+Z now removes both the clip and the track it created in one step, instead of requiring two undos.
  • A few values in the properties panel were previously showing incorrect values. This has been fixed.
  • Timeline trim handles now sit outside the clip instead of inside them, so the clip's visible area accurately represents where it starts and ends.
  • Clips being dragged on the timeline now render on top of other clips instead of underneath them.
  • Undoing a trim-from-start operation now correctly restores the clip to its original position and length, instead of stretching it to the right.
  • Resizing a clip on the timeline would deselect it when the mouse was released. The clip now stays selected after a resize.
  • Resizing a clip could extend it past another clip on the same track, causing an overlap. The resize now stops at the next clip's edge.
  • Dragging a clip to a different track would deselect it on drop. The clip stays selected after moving.
  • Finishing a resize or drag with the mouse over empty track space would deselect the clip.
0.1.0 — 2026-02-23

Editor foundation

This first release focuses on making editing faster, clearer, and more reliable for day-to-day use.

Features:

  • Rebuilt the properties panel from scratch. Number inputs now support math expressions and click-drag scrubbing instead of just typing values in.
  • The properties panel went from a flat list of basic text styles to organized sections: transform, blending, typography, spacing, and background controls. Text elements finally have position, scale, and rotation.
  • New color picker with eyedropper, opacity control, and multiple color formats.
  • Bookmarks now support notes, color labels, and optional duration to plan scenes more clearly.
  • Move, scale, and rotate elements directly in the preview panel.
  • Blend modes (Multiply, Screen, Overlay, etc). Only available on text elements for now.
  • Paste images, videos, or audio from your clipboard straight into the editor.
  • Hold Shift while moving or resizing to temporarily turn off snapping.

Improvements:

  • Expanded font selection from 7 to over 1,000.
  • Fonts load much faster.
  • All asset panel tabs now share a consistent layout.
  • Text rendering properly supports multiple lines, line height, and letter spacing.
  • Better contrast in the dark theme.

Fixes:

  • Fixed undo/redo for drag-and-drop so dropped items are reliably undoable.