How to Use the Timeline: Timing, Reveals and Keyframes
Line up every reveal with the word the narrator says, pick how each part appears, and resize the timeline to fit.
- You need
- A finished video in Interlace
- Time
- 4 minutes
- You end with
- Each part of a scene appears on the right word
The timeline sits under the scene strip at the bottom of the editor. It shows the scene on screen second by second: every word of the narration at the moment it is spoken, and a bar for each part of the picture from the moment it starts to appear. Timing a reveal is a matter of dragging a bar to the right word.
Before you start, you need a finished video. If you do not have one yet, make your first video. Our example is scene 1 of a safety video, "Hazard communication policy".
Step 1
Find the timeline
The timeline covers the scene that is selected in the strip above it. Regions counts the parts of the scene. Each part has its own row, with its name and whether it is text or an illustration.
Step 2
Read the narration row
The Narration row places every word where the narrator says it, against the seconds on the ruler. It is the reference for everything below it: a bar that starts under "product" appears when the narrator says "product".
Step 3
Play the scene or the whole video
The play button on the left plays the scene (or press Space). Play video plays everything from the start (Shift + Space). The orange line is the playhead. Next to them are the mute, captions and caption language buttons and the time.
Step 4
Select a part
Click a bar to select that part. It gets a dark outline, a handle at each end, and the Scene tab on the left opens the Reveal region settings for it.
Step 5
Drag an edge to retime it
Drag the start or the end of the bar. The edges snap to the words in the narration row, so the part starts appearing exactly on the word you want, and finishes by the word you pick. Drag the middle of the bar to move it without changing its length.
Step 6
Choose how the part appears
In Reveal region, each tile under Animation is a short clip of the effect on a sample picture. Point at a tile to play it, then click one, such as Fade, Sketch, Rise or Pop. Direction opens a list of where the effect starts, for example Left to right or Top to bottom; point at a direction to play it in the tile. Below are the Easing and the exact Delay (s) and Duration (s) if you prefer numbers to dragging.
Step 7
Set how a Sketch part draws
With Sketch, the part draws itself on, line by line and then the colour, and Direction becomes Drawing order. The Drawing field says how the rest of the video draws, and Change in Video opens the Video tab, where that is set for every scene. Two settings are for this part only. Hand is As video or No hand (when the video draws without a hand, Add hand gives this part one). Pace is As video, Quick, Steady or Slow.
Step 8
Resize the timeline
Drag the bar at the top edge of the timeline to make it taller or shorter. At its top right, Fit timeline fits the whole scene into view and Collapse timeline folds it away when you want more room for the canvas.
Keyframes on videos built from layers
Some videos are built from separate layers instead of one drawing. On those, the timeline shows a row for each layer, and you can animate a layer with keyframes. Move the playhead, select a layer and use Add / remove keyframe at playhead. A keyframe can hold Position X, Position Y, Scale, Rotate and Opacity, and the layer moves smoothly from one keyframe to the next.
What to do next
- Change what each part covers. Timing is when; Layout mode is what.
- Set the cuts between scenes. Set the transitions between scenes.
- Let the chat do it. Select a part and ask. Edit the video with the chat and Select.
Ready to build yours?
Bring a document or a script and ship a finished video.