How does the Timeline work?

Understand how to use the Timeline in the Editor

The Timeline is where you adjust the timing of your objects, determine when they appear and disappear, or add animations to your objects.

When you select an object on the Stage, the corresponding object layer is highlighted on the Timeline:



The moment an object appears on the Stage corresponds with the moment the red playhead moves over the objects within the Timeline.

You can add animations to the selected object by clicking the 'Add animation' button. Per animation effect that you add, an additional sub-timeline is added for that specific effect. You can hide these sub-timelines using the small arrow left of the object name:



The lines on the Timeline also represent object layers: when two objects visually overlap each other on the Stage, the object higher on the Timeline will be in front of the object lower on the Timeline.



You can drag objects to higher or lower layers by clicking and dragging their name upwards or downwards.
You can also change the order of an object on the Stage using the right-click menu.



By default, your content is organized in one Clip. You can add additional Clips for easier management of content in your Timeline: locking Clips, deleting entire Clips, inserting time, etc.

Once you’ve synchronized your objects, you can preview your animation by clicking the Play button. Click the fast-forward or rewind buttons to move forward or backward on the Timeline. Or click them twice to go all the way left or right, to the beginning of the end of your content.



You can also collapse and expand the Timeline view: When you collapse the Timeline view, you will just see the Clips you have created. When you expand the Timeline view, you see all the objects and animations contained in your Clips. These buttons are found on the left side of the Editor, directly above the Timeline. The view you selected changes color from gray to blue:



You can also zoom in on the Timeline: the horizontal bar lets you zoom the Timeline.



Note that the length of the Timeline is adjusted automatically: adding objects at the end or extending the right edges of objects makes it longer: your video will end at the right edge of the rightmost object.

Updated on: 30/04/2024