Aphelion Editor is a node-based video compositor designed for real-time editing, visual effects, and motion graphics work. The application is built around a flexible graph system where you connect nodes to define your video pipeline, preview the results instantly, and export from any viewer in the workspace. It’s structured as a full desktop suite, including a node graph, timeline, media pool, property inspector, and a float32 RGB viewport for accurate color work.
The editor supports 77 built-in nodes, covering input/output, color correction, filters, compositing, transforms, keying, roto, tracking, timing, distortions, stylization, and math operations. Real-time playback is achieved through proxy decoding, frame caching, and prefetching, allowing smooth interaction even with complex graphs. The compositing tools include chroma keying, matte refinement, spill suppression, bezier roto shapes, point and planar tracking, corner pinning, and merge/dissolve operations.
Projects are stored as .aph JSON files with autosave once a path is set. You can export either MP4 or PNG sequences directly from the active viewer. The editor also supports a plugin system via the sibling aphelion_sdk, allowing third-party nodes to be added, enabled, disabled, or reloaded through the Preferences panel.
The application is written for Python 3.11+, with a clean architecture split into UI, core logic, rendering, plugins, and packaging tools. Exporting and tracking run off the UI thread to keep the interface responsive. The editor includes a command-line interface for launching, building, packaging, and generating installers, with full documentation available in the /docs directory.
Aphelion Editor is currently at version 0.1.0, actively developed, and structured for future expansion in both built-in features and plugin capabilities.