Beetle Video Editor — Documentation

Installation

Beetle is a native Windows app. Download the installer, run it, and you're editing in under two minutes. This page covers the install path end-to-end — system requirements, the SmartScreen warning you'll see on first run, where the install puts your files, and how to verify the SHA-256 hash of the installer before running it.

What you need

Beetle runs on any reasonably modern Windows machine. You don't need a recent GPU to install or open the app — hardware-accelerated effects and GPU export are runtime options that fall back to a software renderer automatically if no supported GPU is present.

Step 1 — download

Sign in with Google or X (Twitter) and the download starts automatically. The installer is around 700 MB and is named Beetle-Setup.exe. The downloaded file is code-signed by mooned.dev studio's EV certificate so Windows recognizes the publisher.

Step 2 — run the installer

Double-click the installer. Windows will show a User Account Control prompt — click Yes. On the first run after a fresh build, Windows SmartScreen will pop a blue warning that says "Windows protected your PC". This is normal for new installers; click More info → Run anyway. The SmartScreen warning goes away after enough users run the same signed build.

Step 3 — first launch

Beetle opens with an empty project and a quick tour overlay. The tour takes about 90 seconds and walks you through the timeline, the effects panel, the asset browser, and the render queue. You can dismiss the tour and bring it back any time from Help → Show tour.

Where files go

• App: C:\Program Files\Beetle\
• User data: %AppData%\Beetle\ (settings, plugins, logs, render cache)
• Projects default folder: Documents\Beetle\

Your first comp

A comp is just a composition — a self-contained timeline with its own resolution, frame rate, and duration. Think of it as a scene. This walkthrough builds a 10-second logo reveal: drop the logo on the timeline, animate scale and opacity, and render it out as MP4.

1. New project → Beetle creates a default comp at 1920×1080 / 30 fps / 10 s.
2. Import media → drag your logo file (PNG with transparency works best) into the asset browser.
3. Drop on timeline → drag the logo from the asset browser onto Layer 1 of the timeline. The logo appears in the preview at full size.
4. Move & scale → select the layer and press S to toggle scale. Drag in the preview to scale down to ~60%.
5. Animate → move the playhead to 0:00, click the stopwatch next to Opacity to add a keyframe at 0%. Move the playhead to 1:00 and set Opacity to 100%. Beetle interpolates between the two keyframes.
6. Preview → press Space to play the comp back in real time. The software renderer runs the preview; the GPU kicks in for the final render.
7. Render → Ctrl+Shift+E to open Render. Pick MP4 / H.264, 1080p, 30 fps. Click Render. The file lands in Documents\Beetle\Exports\.

That's the full loop. Every other feature in Beetle is a more powerful version of one of those seven steps: layers, transforms, keyframes, expressions, render.

Interface overview

The Beetle window is split into four regions. Each is resizable and dockable — drag the divider to resize, drag a region header to undock it as a floating panel.

Everything else — render queue, plugin manager, expression editor, color scopes — is a panel you can open from Window → Panels or by pressing F9–F12.

Comps & timelines

A comp is the unit of editing. The project panel lists every comp; the timeline shows the active comp. You can nest comps: drag a comp from the project panel onto a layer to use it as a pre-comp, exactly like an asset.

Layer types

• Video / image — any video, image, or image sequence on disk.
• Audio — any audio file. Volume, pan, fade, EQ, and keyframe automation are per-clip.
• Text — paragraph, point, or path text. Fonts come from your system; missing-fonts are flagged in red.
• Shape — vector primitives (rect, ellipse, star, path). Strokes and fills are independent.
• Pre-comp — another comp used as a layer. Updates to the source comp reflect everywhere it's used.
• Adjustment — applies effects to everything beneath it. Faster than nesting comps when you want a single grade or LUT.
• Null — an empty layer used as a parenting target or expression driver.

Keyframes & expressions

Every numeric, color, position, and array property on every layer is keyframable. The graph editor shows the timing curve. For procedural motion, add an expression: any JavaScript snippet that returns a value. The expression editor has autocomplete, syntax highlighting, and live error reporting.

Built-in helpers include wiggle(freq, amp), loopIn(type), loopOut(type), time, index, value, thisLayer, thisComp, thisProperty. See the FAQ expression section for worked examples.

Screen & webcam

Beetle has native screen and webcam capture built in — no extra software needed. File → New → Screen capture opens a recorder panel; New → Webcam clip adds a webcam feed as a video source.

Screen capture options

• Full screen, window, or custom region (drag to draw)
• System audio + microphone audio (per-track)
• Webcam picture-in-picture overlay
• Cursor captured, hidden, or highlighted (with click ring)
• 30 / 60 fps; H.264 hardware encode when available, software fallback otherwise

Recordings land in the asset browser as live sources — drag onto a layer to use. The screen-capture audio track is automatically separated from the system audio so you can adjust voice and app audio independently.

Voice-over

Press Ctrl+Shift+R from any comp to start a voice-over session. Beetle listens to the default microphone, shows a live waveform, and drops a new audio layer at the playhead when you stop. The session is local-only — your microphone audio never leaves your machine.

Built-in cleanup

• Noise reduction (spectral subtraction, no third-party model)
• De-esser (sibilance control)
• Compressor with sensible defaults for spoken voice
• Auto-ducking — lowers music under the voice track when the voice is present

Render & export

Ctrl+Shift+E opens the Render panel. Pick a comp (or a selection of comps from the project panel), pick a format, and click Render. Beetle adds the jobs to the render queue and the editor stays responsive while rendering continues in the background.

Output formats

Token costs

Local render at 1080p is always free. 4K+, premium effects, and the optional cloud-render queue spend tokens. Costs are shown in the Render panel before you start; nothing renders without your confirmation.

Queue state is checkpointed every few seconds — if the editor crashes mid-render, the next launch picks up at the last completed frame.

Sharing network (earn tokens)

The sharing network lets you opt-in to spend idle GPU and CPU on cloud-render and AI-assist jobs for other members. Beetle credits your account with tokens when a job runs on your machine. It is the only way to earn tokens in the app — there is no other income path.

How it works

1. You opt in from Settings → Sharing network. The default is off.
2. When your machine has been idle for 90 seconds and is on AC power, Beetle downloads a small work unit (typically 1–5 MB) from the coordinator.
3. The work unit runs inside a sandboxed process. It cannot read your files, send network traffic outside the Beetle coordinator, or modify system state.
4. When the work unit completes, Beetle uploads the result, the coordinator verifies it, and your account is credited with tokens. Credits show up in the dashboard within ~10 seconds of the work unit finishing.

Earnings

Earnings depend on your hardware and the time your machine is available. Typical range: 4–10 tokens/hour for a mid-range GPU (RTX 3060 / RX 6700). A monthly cap protects you from runaway credit (default cap: 15,000 tokens/month, adjustable in Settings).

Sandboxing

Work units run in a separate, low-privilege process. The process cannot:

• Read or write any file outside %AppData%\Beetle\Sandbox\
• Make network requests other than the single upload to the coordinator
• Access your webcam, microphone, clipboard, or any USB / Bluetooth device
• Spawn child processes or load dynamic libraries not signed by mooned.dev

If anything looks wrong, the work unit is killed and the incident is logged. You can revoke sharing at any time from Settings or by killing the beetle-shared process from Task Manager.

See the pricing page for typical earnings, or the FAQ sharing-network section for the questions users ask most.

Account & licenses

One account works across every Beetle install you sign into. The first install you sign into becomes the primary machine. You can sign into a second machine at any time — it becomes a secondary machine linked to the same account.

Machines

• One primary machine per account (the first one you sign into).
• Unlimited secondary machines — same dashboard, same token balance, same render queue access.
• Manage machines from Settings → Devices. Unlink a machine to remove it; render jobs running on that machine finish first.

Sign-in methods

Sign in with Google or X (Twitter). Email + password is disabled by project rule — Beetle never stores a password. You can link both providers to the same account from Settings → Sign-in methods so signing in with either one opens the same dashboard.

License

Every install is licensed for personal and commercial work. You can charge clients for rendered output, sell the work you produce, or use Beetle in agency work. The full text is on the License (EULA) page.

Data export & deletion

• Download my data (Settings → Privacy) returns a JSON archive of every field tied to your account.
• Delete account schedules a hard delete within 30 days. You can cancel by signing back in during the window.

Tokens & pricing

Tokens are pure virtual in-app currency that only buys engine features inside Beetle — render time, premium effects, AI assist, stock asset packs, and the optional cloud-render queue. Tokens never buy real-world goods, services, or other currencies.

Free monthly grant

Every account gets 500 tokens per month for free. Unused grant tokens roll over for 90 days. The grant is enough for most hobby projects — the typical 1080p / 30 fps / 5-min render costs 80–150 tokens.

Earning

Opt into the sharing network to earn tokens by running sandboxed work units on your idle hardware. Typical: 4–10 tokens/hour, capped at 15,000/month by default.

Buying

Token packs are available in-app and on the pricing page. Card (Visa, Mastercard, AmEx), bank transfer in supported regions, BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC. Purchased tokens never expire.

Refunds

Unused purchased tokens can be refunded within 14 days of purchase. Spent tokens are non-refundable. Full policy on the Refund page.

Troubleshooting

The editor is slow or unresponsive

1. Update your GPU driver (NVIDIA / AMD / Intel — most stability issues are driver-side).
2. Close other GPU-heavy apps (browsers with hardware accel, other editors, games).
3. Try a smaller comp or lower preview quality in Settings → Editor preferences.

A render fails or produces a corrupt file

Open the render queue, right-click the failed job, and choose Show log. The log shows the frame that failed and the error. If the error mentions a codec, try a different output format. If it mentions a specific effect, disable the effect and re-render to isolate.

I can't sign in

If Google or X returns an "auth/credential-already-in-use" error, the email you used to sign in with the new provider is already tied to a different account. Sign in with that other account in another tab, then email support@mooned.dev and the team can merge the two accounts and link the providers in one go.

SmartScreen blocks the installer

This is normal for new installers. Click More info → Run anyway. The SmartScreen warning disappears after enough users run the same signed build. We sign every release with an EV code-signing certificate; SHA-256 hashes are on the release page.

Legal pointers

Beetle is a paid product that ships a free tier. The legal pages describe the terms you accept by installing, what we do (and don't do) with your data, the rules for refunds, and the license you accept by using the editor.