Animating videos

Video animation plays videos as part of an animation. With it you can:

• Start a video at any moment: it begins at the moment of the animation you pick.
• Play any part of the file: any range, forward or backwards.
• Set how fast it plays: at its normal speed, faster, or slower, steadily or speeding up and slowing down with easing.

It works on videos only. While a video has a Video Animation block in the current sequence, that sequence drives its playback. See How the video plays.

Creating it

Adds a block that plays the selected videos.

• Operation:
  1. Select one or more videos on the board.
  2. In Animation mode, choose Video Animation in the Actions panel.
• Result: a block starts at the playhead and plays the video's clip, from Tst to Ten in the video's Controls, at its normal speed, so it lasts as long as the clip. The block is selected, and the playhead moves to its end.

With several videos

• Videos with the same clip times share one block, even if they use different files.
• Each different clip range gets its own block, all starting at the playhead.
• To play the videos of one block one after another, turn on Stagger shapes and set Ref to End. See Stagger and easing.

The video animation block in the Timeline panel

In the Timeline panel, video blocks appear in purple ().

1. Blocks that play one video use circular handles.
2. Blocks that play several videos use square handles.
3. Staggered blocks show a marker where each later video starts.

On the board

• Playback changes the video's time, not its place, so the block has no indicator or handles on the board. You set it in the Attributes panel.
• Moving the playhead shows each animated video at the frame for that moment.

Attributes

A video block's settings are in the Video Animation section of the Attributes panel.

Timing

• Time: when the block starts and ends, in seconds. Each time is outlined while the playhead sits on it.
• Duration: the block's total length, including staggered videos and block pauses.
  • Changing it keeps the part of the video the block plays, so the video plays faster or slower.
• Speed: seconds of video played per second of animation, on average. Easing changes the speed within the block.
  • 1 plays the video at its normal speed, 2 twice as fast, and 0.5 at half speed.
  • Changing it changes the block's duration.

Play

• Play: two values, the time in the video at the start of the block and at its end, in seconds.
  • They start as the video's clip. From then on the block plays only this part of the file, whatever clip the video's Controls set.
  • An end before the start plays the video backwards.
  • Maintain speed, in the Timeline panel header, decides what changes with the range:
    • On: the duration follows the new range.
    • Off: the duration stays and the speed changes.

Stagger and easing

• Stagger shapes: when a block plays several videos, starts them one after another. See Stagger shapes.
• Reordering panel: with Stagger shapes on, sets the order in which the videos start. See Stagger shapes.
• Easing: how the playback speeds up and slows down. Linear is the default, as for audio, because only Linear plays the video with its sound while you work. See Easing.

Before and after the block

• Before the first block: the video shows the frame at that block's Play start, stopped.
• After a block ends: the video stays on the frame at its Play end.
• Several blocks on one video: they play different parts of the file one after another. Timing edits in the Timeline panel keep them from overlapping, and if two do overlap, the one that starts later controls the picture.

How the video plays

• The animation takes over: while a video has a video animation in the current sequence, clicks, its player bar, and the playback buttons in its Controls don't play it.
• Linear and forward: the video plays normally, with its sound, at the block's speed. The video's volume applies.
• Other easing or backwards: the video jumps from frame to frame to follow the curve, without sound.
• During pauses: in a block pause or at a pause marker, the video stops and goes silent.

In exports

• Every frame matches: video and GIF exports draw the right frame for every moment, whatever the easing.
• Sound follows the picture: a video export combines the sound of video blocks and Audio shapes. A video block's sound uses the video's volume and follows the picture, also through easing or backwards play.
• Some videos export silent: the export takes each video's sound from its file, so these have none:
  • Videos from YouTube or other sites: the board keeps only their link, and the site plays them, so there is no file to read the sound from.
  • Videos made from GIFs: a GIF has no sound.

Actions

With a video block selected, the Actions panel offers these block actions:

• Delete: removes the block. See Block actions.
• Cut, Copy, and Paste: move or copy the block to another time or sequence. See Cut, copy, and paste blocks.
• Reassign: changes which videos the block plays. See Block actions.
• Create Block Pause: holds the video on its frame for a moment, without sound. See Block pauses.