# Difference between Save Animation, Save Screenshot and Export Scene
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/difference-between-save-animation-save-screenshot-and-export-scene/16583
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [May 7, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/difference-between-save-animation-save-screenshot-and-export-scene/16583 "2025-05-07T18:07:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/wascott)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/difference-between-save-animation-save-screenshot-and-export-scene/16583/1 "2025-05-07T18:07:12Z")
Could someone clarify what the difference is between Save Animation (i.e., create a movie), Save Screenshot (grab a snapshot of the screen) and Export Scene? My question is, what is Export Scene compared to the other two?
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2025, 6:17pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/difference-between-save-animation-save-screenshot-and-export-scene/16583/2 "2025-05-07T18:17:52Z")
- Save Screenshot saves the currently active view or all views at the currently loaded timestep
- Save Animation saves a single file containing a movie or a series of 2D image files
- Export Scene may export all the geometry, coloring, background colors, and possibly other elements in the current scene to a 3D file format that can contain those elements and _which can be loaded into other programs for 3D viewing_. Examples of formats are Alembic and glTF.
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### Author:  [@wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/wascott)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2025, 7:40pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/difference-between-save-animation-save-screenshot-and-export-scene/16583/3 "2025-05-07T19:40:52Z")
thanks. Instead of arm waving when giving tutorials, I will cut and paste that right into the text.
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### Author:  [@wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/wascott)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2025, 8:35pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/difference-between-save-animation-save-screenshot-and-export-scene/16583/4 "2025-05-07T20:35:24Z")
Could you show me how to create a file that I can upload into a web browser, that I can then rotate? I know we used to have this, but can’t find it. I think it was a vrml or something. So - Open can.exo, paint by Displ, export scene, open in web browser, spin.
Thanks
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### Author:  [@wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/wascott)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2025, 8:36pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/difference-between-save-animation-save-screenshot-and-export-scene/16583/5 "2025-05-07T20:36:34Z")
Another example is webgl. I can’t figure out how to create this.
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### Author:  [@Francois\_Mazen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Francois_Mazen)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2025, 7:10am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/difference-between-save-animation-save-screenshot-and-export-scene/16583/6 "2025-05-09T07:10:17Z")
Maybe you are looking to export your scene to Glance for a light web based visualization?
[https://www.kitware.com//exporting-paraview-scenes-to-paraview-glance/](https://www.kitware.com//exporting-paraview-scenes-to-paraview-glance/)
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2025, 7:06am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/difference-between-save-animation-save-screenshot-and-export-scene/16583/7 "2025-05-12T07:06:26Z")
Please note the panel has been improved since and its now all automatic in the nightly.
- select “vtkjs” format
- check “export to glance”
- open the .html file in a browser
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### Author:  [@vavo01](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/vavo01)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2025, 7:13am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/difference-between-save-animation-save-screenshot-and-export-scene/16583/8 "2025-05-14T07:13:06Z")
@mwestphal
I’ve tested the last nightly build for windows and got following error message when exporting to glance
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2025, 7:23am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/difference-between-save-animation-save-screenshot-and-export-scene/16583/9 "2025-05-20T07:23:42Z")
FYI @Louis_Gombert