Assets & folders
Drag media in, organize it with folders and bins, and let the project bundle keep everything self-contained and verified.
Scene, Library, Actions
Chapter Studio's left panel has three modes, and the split matters. Scene lists the objects authored into the current segment. Library holds the chapter's media and folders to import from. Actions holds the behaviors you can schedule. The rule underneath: being in the Library never means an asset is in the scene. Placing creates an object that exists; scheduling creates an action that occurs.
Importing
Bring media in with File ▸ Import ▸ Files… (⌘I) or From Photos… (⌘⇧I), or drag files from Finder into the Library. Chapter Vision accepts:
| Kind | Formats | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Video | .mp4, .mov, .m4v, .aivu, .hevc | Video panels in the scene; 360°/180° skybox backdrops |
| 3D models | .usdz | Props, set pieces, characters; USDZ scene backdrops |
| Images | Common image formats | Pictures and textures in the scene |
| Audio | Common audio formats | Narration, music, ambience on named channels |
On the headset, Chapter Vision imports from Photos and Files instead. The result is the same, and imported media syncs back to the Mac automatically during a live session.
When you import a video, an Add as… sheet asks what it should become: a video panel in the scene, an immersive video, or a segment backdrop. Chapter Studio inspects the file, recommends an answer and explains its reasoning in a sentence, but you decide; nothing is written until you press Add.
The Library: bins and browsing
The Library groups into In this chapter (everything imported into the bundle, with list and grid views, search and a kind filter) and Elsewhere on your Mac: folders you can browse without leaving the app. Nothing in a browsed folder is part of the chapter until you import it. Grant a folder once with File ▸ Add Browser Location… and it stays browsable across launches.
Bins are how you organize chapter media, and they're labels, never storage. Filing an asset into a bin moves no file, an asset can sit in several bins, and deleting a bin never deletes media (the confirmation says so). File assets from a row's context menu with Add to Bin, and reorder within a bin by dragging. The Library also opens as its own window from the Window menu when you want a big grid on a second display.
Scene Assets and Backdrops
The sidebar has two sections:
- Scene Assets holds everything that lives inside the scene: models, video panels, images, audio. New imports land here.
- Backdrops is for media that wraps around the scene as a segment's immersive environment: 360°/180° videos and USDZ environments.
To promote a video or USDZ, right-click it and choose Mark as Backdrop. It moves to the Backdrops section and becomes available in every segment's backdrop picker. The reverse command moves it back to Scene Assets. Only videos and USDZ models can be backdrops.
Folders
As a project grows, group assets into folders. Folders are purely organizational; they never affect playback or where files sit on disk.
- Create: use the +folder button in a section header, or right-click an asset and choose Folder → New folder…. The per-asset route is the smoothest: it creates the folder and files the asset in one move.
- Move: right-click an asset → Folder → Move to an existing folder, or Remove from folder to send it back to the section's root.
- Rename / remove: right-click the folder's own row. Removing a folder never deletes the assets inside; they return to the root of their section.
Note. Folders are scoped per section: a "Props" folder under Scene Assets is independent of a "Props" folder under Backdrops. Assets appear at their section's root first, then grouped under their folders.
Everyday asset housekeeping
Each asset's context menu covers the essentials:
- Duplicate makes a second copy to place or configure independently.
- Hide / Show toggles an asset out of the scene without removing it, which is useful for staging alternatives while you decide.
- Remove takes the asset out of the project.
Watch out. Removing an asset that actions still reference leaves those actions pointing at nothing. Check the asset's clips on the timeline before removing it, or hide it instead if you might change your mind.
Inside the bundle: copies and checksums
When you import a file, Chapter Vision copies it into the project bundle's
assets/ folder. It never references the original in place. That's why a
.chapterscript bundle is fully portable: everything the chapter needs travels with
it.
On every save, the project walks its assets/ folder and records each file in the
chapter's asset manifest with its path, size, and a SHA-256 fingerprint. Players use those
fingerprints to know exactly which files they already have and which have changed, so a
connected headset re-downloads only what's new, and never plays a stale copy of a video you just
edited.
Tip. Since imports are copies, you can reorganize or archive your source media freely once it's in the project. And because the manifest fingerprints every file, duplicating a bundle for backup is always safe — the copy is complete by construction.