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Install Shotwork

Installing Shotwork is two things: getting the application onto your machine, and letting it fetch the two pieces of video software it works through.

Packaged installers do not exist yet

Shotwork is not yet built into a .exe or a .dmg. Until it is, the only way to run it is from source, which is the first section below. This page will be rewritten around the installer when there is one; the component downloads in the second half will not change.

Run from source

  1. Install Python 3.11 or newer. On the installer's first screen, turn on Add python.exe to PATH before choosing Install Now.
  2. Get the Shotwork source folder onto your machine.
  3. Open a terminal in that folder. In File Explorer, click the address bar, type cmd, and press Enter.

  4. Create a virtual environment. This is a private copy of Python for this one project, so its libraries cannot collide with anything else you have installed:

    python -m venv .venv

  5. Install Shotwork and everything it depends on into that environment:

    .venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install -e .

    This prints a long list of packages and ends with Successfully installed .... It takes a few minutes the first time.

  6. Run it:

    .venv\Scripts\python.exe -m shotwork.app
  1. Install Python 3.11 or newer.
  2. Get the Shotwork source folder onto your machine.
  3. Open Terminal and cd to that folder.

  4. Create a virtual environment, a private copy of Python for this one project:

    python3 -m venv .venv

  5. Install Shotwork and its dependencies into it:

    .venv/bin/python -m pip install -e .

  6. Run it:

    .venv/bin/python -m shotwork.app

Tip

-e installs in editable mode, meaning the installed copy points at the source folder rather than copying it. Pulling a newer version of the source is then all you need; there is no reinstall step.

The two components

Shotwork does not bundle the software that decodes and encodes video, and it does not download anything without being told to. Both components are fetched from their official source, once, the first time you need them.

Component What it does When Shotwork asks
libmpv Plays video in the viewer The first time you open a video
ffmpeg Thumbnails, previews, exports, and music analysis The first time one of those runs

Each opens its own dialog, titled Download ffmpeg or Download libmpv, naming the exact URL it will fetch from and linking that component's license. Choose Download to proceed, or Cancel to decline and go without the feature that needed it.

The component download dialog, naming the component, the exact URL it will fetch from, and a link to that component's license, with Download and Cancel buttons.

Nothing downloads until you choose Download. The source URL and the license are named in the dialog

The component is unpacked into Shotwork's own application data folder and remembered, so the dialog does not come back.

Note

If you already have ffmpeg installed and on your PATH, Shotwork finds and uses it instead of downloading a second copy. Neither component is ever installed system-wide by Shotwork.

Why these are downloads and not part of Shotwork

Both are separately licensed projects. Fetching them at your request, from their own official builds, keeps Shotwork's licensing clean and lets you see exactly what you are getting and under what terms. The alternative, bundling them, would put Shotwork in the business of redistributing someone else's binaries.

Where Shotwork keeps its files

Holds Windows macOS
Settings, hotkeys, the library, downloaded components, caches %LOCALAPPDATA%\Shotwork ~/Library/Application Support/Shotwork

Your shot lists, reels and video files are not in there. Those live wherever you saved them.

Setting the SHOTWORK_DATA_DIR environment variable moves that whole folder, which is useful for keeping a test setup away from your real one.