Documentation

What is DeltaSketch? — TL;DR

DeltaSketch is a real-time visual processing application for Windows that transforms any camera, webcam, video file, or image into creative output through configurable effect pipelines. You can:

• Capture stop-motion animations frame by frame from any camera input with live preview
• Create time-lapse videos at configurable intervals with automatic frame capture
• Apply GPU-accelerated effects — kaleidoscope, oil painting, warp, infinity mirror, and custom GLSL compute shaders
• Generate GIFs from captured frame sequences with one-click export
• Trace real-world subjects using camera overlay with adjustable opacity
• Export as image sequences (PNG) or video (AVI/WEBM via FFmpeg)

All features are available during a 14-day free trial. Requires Windows 10/11 and OpenGL 3.3 (4.3 recommended for GPU compute features).

DeltaSketch is a real-time visual processing tool for Windows. It takes live camera feeds, images, or video files as inputs, passes them through chains of effects called pipelines, and displays the results in floating output windows. Frames can be captured at any time to build stop-motion sequences or time-lapses, then exported as an image sequence or video.

Control Panel

The Control Panel is the main sidebar. It has three tabs: Input, Pipeline, and Output.

Inputs

Inputs are the media sources that feed into pipelines.

Adding an Input

Open the Input tab and click one of the three buttons at the top:

After adding, the new input is automatically selected.

The Input List

All inputs appear in a scrollable list. Click an item to select it and expand its controls. Hover over any item to see a drag handle cursor — you can drag an input directly onto an Output window to assign it as that output's source.

Special Inputs

Input Controls

• Camera — Start/Stop, resolution selector, live FPS readout.
• Image — File path display; Export button to save a processed copy.
• Video — Play/Pause/Stop, frame scrubber, speed presets (0.25× – 2×), loop toggle, seek to start/end. Video transport controls also appear in the Output window footer when a video input is active.

Removing an Input

Select an input, then click the ✕ button that appears to its right. Special inputs (Last Capture, Timeline) cannot be removed.

Pipelines

A pipeline is an ordered chain of effects applied to an input source.

Creating a Pipeline

Selecting an Input Source

Inside the pipeline tab, use the Input Source dropdown to choose which input (or another pipeline's output) feeds this pipeline.

Pipelines can be chained: set a pipeline's input source to another pipeline's name to build multi-stage processing graphs.

The Effect Chain

Effects are listed in top-to-bottom processing order.

• Add Effect — Use the effect picker to append an effect.
• Reorder — Drag effects up or down with the arrow buttons.
• Enable / Disable — Toggle the checkbox on each effect without removing it.
• Remove — Click the ✕ on an effect row.
• Undo / Redo — Effect parameter changes are fully undoable within a session.

Presets

Select a preset from the Preset dropdown to instantly replace the effect chain with a curated starting configuration.

Processing Quality

The quality slider (0.1 – 1.0) scales the resolution at which effects run, trading image fidelity for performance.

Performance Monitor

Click the FPS counter in the bottom-right of the Control Panel to open the Performance Monitor. It shows per-effect timing and overall pipeline latency.

Removing a Pipeline

Click the ✕ next to a pipeline in the list. At least one pipeline must remain. Outputs and child pipelines that referenced the deleted pipeline are automatically reset.

Effects

Effects are the processing nodes inside a pipeline. Each effect exposes its own set of parameters.

Common built-in effects include:

Outputs

Output windows display the processed result of a pipeline or a raw input.

Creating an Output

In the Output tab click New Output. Outputs can also be created automatically via New from Current in the Pipeline tab.

Assigning a Source

Drag an Input or Pipeline from the Control Panel onto an Output window — the window border highlights as a drop target. Alternatively, use the source selector in the Output window's top bar.

Output Settings

Select an output in the Output tab to expand its settings:

Arranging Outputs

Use the buttons in the Output tab under Arrange:

• Row — Stack all windows horizontally.
• Column — Stack all windows vertically.
• Grid — Tile windows in a balanced grid.

Display Helpers

• Stretch — Toggle stretch on all outputs simultaneously.
• Tab Bars — Show or hide ImGui dock tab bars across all Output windows.

Fullscreen

Double-click an Output window title bar to toggle fullscreen mode for that window.

Capture

The Capture system saves frames for export or timeline playback.

Capture Tab

Access capture controls through the Capture button in an Output window's top bar.

Sequence Capture

Manually trigger individual frame captures. Frames appear in the Sequence list with thumbnails. Each frame can be individually enabled or disabled for timeline playback.

Timeline Capture

Record a sequence of frames at a defined interval or on every pipeline execution. The timeline scrubber lets you preview and step through captured frames.

Non-Destructive Pipeline Preview

Apply a different pipeline to captured frames without modifying the originals. Results are cached per-frame and can be baked to disk.

Recording Modes

Export

Export the captured sequence as:

• An image sequence (PNG).
• A video (via FFmpeg — AVI, WEBM, etc.).

Frame numbering can be sequential (1, 2, 3 …) or timestamp-based.

Projects

DeltaSketch saves and loads complete sessions as project files (.dsk). Projects store pipeline configurations, input sources, output layout, and capture sequences.

Use File → Save Project / File → Open Project to manage sessions.

Keyboard/Mouse Shortcuts

Some buttons have a context menu (via right-click) which allow to bind a hotkey to that action. For example, you could bind Ctrl+Space to the "Capture Frame" button etc.