Cinematic clips
A cinematic clip is a short video of one CS2 item at its exact float, pattern seed, stickers and charm, cut between named camera shots. You put it together in the Cinematic tab of the studio, we render it on our GPU, and you get an MP4. Signed in with an email address, you get one free render every 24 hours.
Examples
Three clips made in the Cinematic tab:
Make a clip
Open the Cinematic tab in the studio. It runs top to bottom in seven steps, and they open in order: pick a skin and the Shots step opens under it; pick a shot and the Sequence, Backdrop, Video and Render steps open. The Agent and gloves step opens with them when the clip has an Agent shot or a first-person shot. A step that is still closed shows its number and title, and one line saying what opens it.
-
Skin
The clip is of the item on the studio's stage. Change skin picks another one, and Edit sets its float, pattern seed, StatTrak counter, stickers, charm and name tag with the same controls as the Studio tab.
-
Shots
Every shot has a looping preview. Click shots in the order they should play; the same shot can go in twice. A shot that needs something the item lacks, such as a charm, is marked. The shots below lists all 43.
-
Sequence
The picked shots in play order, each with its hold: how many seconds it lasts at normal speed, from 2 to 8 inside the shot's own range. Each shot also has a speed: Normal, Slow motion at half speed, or Super slow motion at quarter speed. Slow motion plays the whole shot slower, the camera and everything moving in it, so the shot stays on screen twice as long, and Super slow motion four times as long: a 4-second hold in slow motion is 8 seconds on screen. A slowed shot shows both lengths. Move a shot earlier or later, remove it, or set one hold or one speed for every shot. Between shots goes one transition: Cut, Dip to black or Crossfade, and a dip or a crossfade lasts 0.25 to 1.5 seconds. The step shows the clip's total length on screen, and the 30-second limit on a free render counts that length.
-
Agent and gloves
Who holds the item, for a clip with Agent shots or first-person shots. Pick one agent and one pair of gloves for the whole clip. The agent films the Agent shots and lends its sleeves to the first-person shots, and the gloves are worn in both. Change opens the list: the agents by picture, filtered by Counter-Terrorist or Terrorist, and the gloves by picture, filtered by glove type, each with a search. Default is the first agent in its own gloves; in the first-person shots it is the plain arms. The agent's own keeps the gloves the agent comes with.
-
Backdrop
Maps are 360-degree panoramas captured in CS2 maps, such as Dust II at night and Mocha. Plain are solid colours and gradients, such as black, white and ember. Backdrop angle set to Vary per shot turns the item and the camera to a new heading for every shot, at least 100 degrees from the one before, so each shot has a new stretch of the backdrop behind it. Fixed keeps one heading for the whole clip.
-
Video
Resolution, frame rate, quality (how finely the video is compressed; higher quality makes a larger file), film grain (off, light or heavy), letterbox (full frame, 2:1 or 2.39:1), depth of field and vignette. The step shows the frame count. A free render is at most 1080p and 30 seconds; see Free renders.
-
Render
Press Render. Signed out, the tab first asks for your email address. The tab then shows the clip's place in the queue and an estimate of when it will be ready, then the shot and frame it is rendering, then plays the finished clip.
The shots
The Shots step offers 43 shots in eight groups, listed here as the tab groups them. Hold is the range the Sequence step offers for that shot.
Reveal
| Shot | What happens | Needs | Hold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reveal from black | Opens on black; one hard light finds the finish, then the room fades up behind the item. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
| Pull-back reveal | Starts on a macro of the receiver and pulls straight back until the whole item is in frame. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
| Tilt-up reveal | Opens on the ground in front of the item and tilts up to find it, rising as it goes. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
Hero
| Shot | What happens | Needs | Hold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low hero push | Level with the item from the playside three-quarter on a long lens, pushing slowly in. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
| Down the barrel | From just past the muzzle (a knife's tip) the camera looks back along the item as focus racks from the tip to the body. | Any item | 3 to 6 s |
| Whip-pan in | The camera whips in from the side with a streak of motion blur and lands on the item. | Any item | 3 to 6 s |
| Handheld drift | The hero three-quarter as if hand-held: a slow drift with the small sway and roll of an operator. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
Detail
| Shot | What happens | Needs | Hold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Receiver macro | A short macro track along the receiver, where the stickers and the charm sit, on a very shallow focus. | Any item | 2 to 6 s |
| Playside macro pass | A tight lens crosses the whole playside end to end, close enough to read the pattern and the wear. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
| Backside macro pass | The same pass along the backside, the side the player does not see in hand. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
| Rack focus | Looking down the item, focus pulls from the charm to the finish behind it, or from the near end to the middle. | Any item | 3 to 6 s |
| Charm close-up | A macro on the charm as it swings back against the gun, the receiver soft behind it. | A charm | 2 to 6 s |
| Sticker tour | Moves from sticker to sticker along the playside, settling on each one. | Stickers | 3 to 8 s |
| Scope pass | A macro track along the scope from the eyepiece to the objective. | A scope | 3 to 6 s |
Motion
| Shot | What happens | Needs | Hold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slow orbit | The camera circles the item, 90 to 210 degrees at about 29 degrees a second. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
| Turntable spin | The camera holds and the item turns on a showroom turntable; a charm swings out as it starts. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
| Low tracking shot | Level with the item on a long lens, the camera tracks along its length and pans to keep it in frame. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
| Speed-ramp spin | The item spins fast enough to blur, then slows to a crawl on its playside. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
Light
| Shot | What happens | Needs | Hold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light sweep | The room goes dark and one hard light passes across the finish while the camera holds. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
| Rim-light silhouette | The item is a dark shape edged by a light from behind, until the light comes round and the room fills in. | Any item | 4 to 8 s |
Wide
| Shot | What happens | Needs | Hold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wide establishing | The whole item in its scene, with one slow push, pull, arc or crane. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
| Grazing view | Low and just off the item's length, so the flank goes mirror-bright while the top stays matte. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
| Overhead crane down | Starts looking straight down on the item and cranes down to its three-quarter. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
| Top-down spin | Straight down on the item while the frame turns around it, sinking slowly. | Any item | 3 to 8 s |
First person
| Shot | What happens | Needs | Hold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inspect, player's view | The first-person inspect as the player sees it. | First-person data for the weapon | 3 to 8 s |
| Inspect, orbiting camera | The camera circles the hands and the weapon from the playside while the inspect plays. | First-person data for the weapon | 3 to 8 s |
| Inspect, low angle | From below the hands, looking up past the weapon as it turns. | First-person data for the weapon | 3 to 8 s |
| Inspect, hands macro | Close on the hand and the finish as they turn, on a shallow focus. | First-person data for the weapon | 3 to 8 s |
| Inspect pull-out | Starts at the player's eye and pulls back and up over the shoulder to show the arms in the scene. | First-person data for the weapon | 3 to 8 s |
| Slow-motion inspect | The inspect at half speed from a low three-quarter on the playside. | First-person data for the weapon | 4 to 8 s |
| Reload, player's view | The reload as the player sees it: magazine out, magazine in, bolt. | First-person data for the weapon | 2 to 6 s |
| Reload, side view | The reload from beside the weapon, so the magazine drop reads. | First-person data for the weapon | 2 to 6 s |
| Draw, player's view | The weapon comes up into the hands, the way a round starts. | First-person data for the weapon | 2 to 4 s |
| Fire, player's view | A string of shots with muzzle flashes; a knife swings instead. | First-person data for the weapon | 2 to 5 s |
Agent
| Shot | What happens | Needs | Hold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agent side profile | The whole agent square from the side on a long lens while it looks the weapon over. | An Agent performance for the weapon | 3 to 8 s |
| Over the shoulder | From above the agent's shoulder, looking down onto the weapon as it turns it. | An Agent performance for the weapon | 3 to 8 s |
| Waist-up, following the weapon | Waist up from the three-quarter; the camera follows the weapon as the agent turns it. | An Agent performance for the weapon | 3 to 8 s |
| The look | From past the weapon back at the agent's face; the focus pulls from the gun to the eyes. | An Agent performance for the weapon | 3 to 8 s |
| Low wide hero | Low and wide on the three-quarter, looking up at the whole agent and pushing in. | An Agent performance for the weapon | 3 to 8 s |
| Slow orbit round the agent | A slow arc round the front of the agent at chest height while it handles the weapon. | An Agent performance for the weapon | 4 to 8 s |
| Hands close-up | Close on the hands and the weapon from the three-quarter as the agent turns it. | An Agent performance for the weapon | 3 to 6 s |
| Knife flip | Close on the hands as the agent flips the knife. Knives only. | A knife, for the flip | 3 to 6 s |
| Slow-motion knife flip | The flip at half speed, close on the hands. Knives only. | A knife, for the flip | 4 to 8 s |
A shot picked for an item that lacks what it needs still renders, as another shot: a charm, sticker or scope shot as a Receiver macro, a first-person or Agent shot as a Low hero push, and a knife flip on a gun as the agent looking the gun over. A clip takes first-person shots or Agent shots: with both picked, the first-person shots render as Low hero pushes.
Agent shots film the agent and gloves picked in the Agent and gloves step, and first-person shots wear that agent's sleeves and the same gloves. First-person shots use the field of view set in the studio's first-person view.
Free renders
Anyone can put a clip together in the tab. To render it, sign in with your email address: press Render while signed out, and we email you a sign-in link. Open the link to sign in. The first sign-in asks you to accept the Terms.
| Limit | Free render |
|---|---|
| Per email address | 1 render every 24 hours, rolling: the next one opens 24 hours after the last one was requested |
| Per network | 3 renders in 24 hours from one IP address, whichever email addresses sign in there |
| Resolution | 720p, 1080p, 1080x1920 vertical or 1080x1080 square |
| Frame rate | 24, 30 or 60 fps |
| Length | up to 30 seconds on screen, with slow motion counted at its slowed length |
| Format | H.264 in an MP4 file |
| Watermark | the Inspekt logo, small, in the bottom-right corner |
| Queue | up to 10 renders waiting, rendered one clip at a time |
| Kept for | 1 hour after the clip is ready |
An account on Lens or any paid plan may start 3 renders in 24 hours instead of 1, and the per-network limit does not apply to it. The other limits above are the same.
The Video step also shows 1440p and 4K, with a lock. They are not offered for free renders yet. After a render, the tab shows when your next one opens.
The queue
Every render waits its turn in one queue, and the renderer works through it one clip at a time. While yours waits, the tab shows its place and an estimate of when it will be ready. The queue holds 10 waiting renders. When it is full, the tab says so and your render stays unused: try again in a few minutes.
When it is ready
The clip plays in the tab with a Download button, and we email you its link. The file is deleted one hour after it is ready, and the tab and the email both give the time, so download it within the hour. Until then the link plays for anyone you send it to.
Failed and cancelled renders
- A render that fails on our side is given back, and you can render again straight away.
- Cancel a render while it waits in the queue and it is given back.
- Cancel a render after it has started and it counts as your render.
Frequently asked
Why do I have to sign in?
The free allowance is one render per email address every 24 hours, so each render belongs to an address. It is also the address we send the finished clip's link to.
Why is the clip deleted after an hour?
Finished clips take space on our server, so each one is kept for the hour after it is ready: time to watch it in the tab and download it. After the hour the link answers 404, and the same clip takes a new render.
Can I use a clip in my own videos?
Read the Terms, which you accept when you sign in, and the Acceptable Use Policy before you publish a clip. Section 11 of the Terms covers game content: Counter-Strike 2's finishes, item names and imagery belong to Valve, and what you do with a render you do at your own initiative and risk.
How do I get more renders?
Email hello@inspekt.gg with what you are making and how many clips you need.