Sequence
The multi-track timeline — tracks, the razor, ripple and lift delete, mark in and out, markers, snapping, zoom, and sequence export.
Reference
- Panel
- Sequence
- Workspace
- Edit
Sequence is the timeline along the bottom of the editor. It carries the cut: video and audio tracks, the clips on them, the transitions between them, the playhead, and the marked range.
Like the canvas timeline it is a bar rather than a panel — it cannot float, and it fills the bottom column with its own toolbar, ruler and tracks.
Tracks
A new sequence has four tracks: V1 and V2 for video, A1 and A2 for audio. Video tracks are drawn above the audio tracks, with the highest-numbered video track at the top and V1 immediately above A1 — so the stacking on screen matches the compositing order, with V1 at the bottom of the pile.
In the + menu. Adds a video track, named V followed by the number of video tracks that now exist.
In the + menu. Adds an audio track, named the same way with an A.
On a track header. Enabled only while the track is empty — clear the clips off it first. The last remaining track of its kind cannot be deleted.
There is no upper limit on track count.
Track headers
The padlock. A locked track is drawn at half opacity and refuses everything: drops, clip drags, trims, the razor, cutting all tracks, and ripple shifts. It turns orange while locked.
An eye on a video track, a speaker on an audio track. A muted video track is hidden from the program monitor; a muted audio track is silent. It turns red while muted, and export honours it.
Track names are fixed and cannot be edited. There is no solo control.
The toolbar
The toolbar runs left to right across the top of the panel. Most controls are icons; the names below are the tooltips they carry.
Editing mode
Chooses between the arrow (select) and the scissors (razor).
Pulls edits to nearby landmarks. See Snapping below.
Treats a clip's video and audio as one. Selecting, splitting, moving or deleting either takes both. Break the link on one clip with Unlink Audio/Video in its context menu.
Draws the keyframe band across each clip. See Rubber bands below.
Transport
Four buttons — jump to the start, step back one frame, play or pause, and step forward one frame — followed by the timecode readout.
Timecode is minutes, seconds and frames, written MM:SS:FF. There is no hours field:
past 59 minutes the minutes field keeps counting. A fractional frame rate is rounded for
display.
Zoom
Divides the zoom by 1.6. Disabled at the 0.25 floor.
Multiplies the zoom by 1.6. Disabled at the 24 ceiling.
Sets the zoom so the sequence fills the visible width, within the same limits.
Pinching over the tracks zooms as well, with a small dead-band so a pinch that is really a scroll does not creep the zoom.
Cutting
There are two different cuts, and they are not interchangeable.
With the razor selected, tapping a clip splits it at the point you tapped, not at the playhead, and splits that clip only. Its linked partner splits with it while Linked selection is on. The razor does not snap, and it refuses locked tracks.
Splits every unlocked track at the playhead in one action. This is the playhead-wide cut.
On a clip. Splits that clip at the playhead.
Deleting
Removes the selected clips and leaves the gap. Nothing else moves. Appears only while something is selected. The same action is Delete in a clip's context menu.
Removes the selected clips and closes the gap, shifting every later clip left by exactly the removed duration. Appears only while something is selected. The same action is Ripple Delete in a clip's context menu.
Ripple delete shifts one track, not the whole sequence
A ripple delete closes the gap on the removed clip's own track only. Other tracks are not touched. Ripple-deleting a clip on V1 does not shift A1, so a sequence whose picture and sound are on separate tracks will drift out of sync unless the audio is linked to the clip and comes out with it. Keep Linked selection on, or cut both tracks together.
Both forms skip locked tracks.
Mark in and out
Sets the range's start at the playhead. Setting an in point past the existing out point clears the out point.
Sets the range's end at the playhead. Setting an out point before the existing in point clears the in point.
Discards both. Appears only while a complete range exists.
The marked range is shown as a tinted band in the ruler. It appears only once both ends are set and the out point is genuinely after the in point — a lone in point draws nothing.
Playback respects the range: it starts at the in point and stops at the out point.
Marking a range also reveals Open in Canvas, which bakes the range into a new shot — see Baking a range into a shot below.
Baking a range into a shot
Renders the marked range down to a single flattened clip, wraps it in a new shot, and opens that shot in the drawing workspace. Appears only while a complete range is marked.
This is how you draw on top of a cut. The range is rendered to a movie, that movie becomes a layer named Edit Selection in a new shot called Nest followed by its number, and the shot takes the sequence's frame size and frame rate and the range's length. Back on the timeline, the range is replaced by one clip pointing at the new shot.
A progress veil reads "Baking selection…" while it works.
Once the bake is done the nest clip is an ordinary shot clip, so everything on the round trip applies: what you draw in the canvas appears in the cut as soon as the shot is saved.
Two details are worth knowing before you use it:
- Only unlocked video tracks are baked. Audio stays on the timeline untouched, and the bake itself is silent. Lock a video track to keep it out of the bake.
- The range's original clips are replaced, not preserved. They are removed from the timeline and they are not rebuilt inside the new shot — the shot contains the flattened movie and nothing else.
A bake is one undo step, and undo is the only way back
The clips in the baked range cannot be recovered from inside the new shot. Undo restores them to the timeline, but only until the undo stack is exhausted. Bake late, and only over a range you are finished cutting.
Markers
In the + menu. Drops a marker at the playhead, drawn as a small green dot at the top of the ruler.
Markers act as snap targets. They carry no name, and once placed they cannot be renamed, moved or removed — place them deliberately.
Snapping
Snapping pulls an edit to the nearest landmark within roughly ten points on screen. Because the threshold is measured in points and converted to frames, the pull feels the same at every zoom.
The landmarks are: frame zero, the playhead, every clip's head and tail, every marker, and the in and out points. A yellow guide marks the snap while a drag is live.
Snapping applies to ruler scrubbing, clip drags, trims, and drops from the Media panel. It does not apply to the razor.
Working with clips
| Gesture | Result |
|---|---|
| Tap | Selects the clip, and its linked partner while Linked selection is on. Tapping the same clip again deselects. |
| Double-tap | Opens the shot in the canvas. Shot clips only. |
| Drag | Moves the clip along its track and between tracks of the same kind. Snaps. Clips cannot be dragged before frame zero. |
| Drag a trim handle | Trims the head or tail. The handles appear on a selected clip while the select tool is active. |
A drag onto a new position overwrites what is already there. A trim stops at the neighbouring clip and at the end of the available media — a still has no such limit and can be stretched freely.
Roll, slip and slide edits are not available, and clips cannot be marquee-selected: a multi-clip selection comes from linked partners.
Clip context menu
| Item | Result |
|---|---|
| Split at Playhead | Splits the clip at the playhead. |
| Speed | 0.25×, 0.5×, Normal (1×), 2× or 4×. |
| Add Keyframe at Playhead | Opacity, Volume (audio only), Scale or Rotation. |
| Add Transition at Nearest Cut | One of twelve transitions, listed below. |
| Disable / Enable | Takes the clip out of the render without removing it. |
| Unlink Audio/Video | Breaks the link with its partner. Linked clips only. |
| Open Shot in Canvas | Opens the shot in the drawing workspace. Shot clips only. |
| Delete | Removes the clip, leaving the gap. |
| Ripple Delete | Removes the clip and closes the gap on its track. |
The transitions are Cross Dissolve, Dip to Black, Dip to White, Wipe Left, Wipe Right, Wipe Up, Wipe Down, Push Left, Push Right, Slide Left, Slide Right and Iris. A transition's own context menu offers Remove Transition.
A transition is placed at whichever of the clip's two ends is nearer the playhead, centred on that cut, and lasts one second. Neither the duration nor the alignment can be changed afterwards — remove the transition and add it again at a different playhead position.
Rubber bands
With Show keyframe rubber bands on, each clip carries a white line across it: opacity on a video clip, volume on an audio clip. Keyframes appear on the line as yellow diamonds.
The band is inert until the property has keyframes — add the first from the clip's Add Keyframe at Playhead menu or from the Clip Inspector. After that, drag a diamond to move it in time and value, and double-tap one to remove it. Removing the last keyframe drops the channel and the clip returns to its static value.
Scrubbing
Drag anywhere in the ruler to move the playhead; it snaps like everything else. The playhead itself is not draggable — it is drawn over the tracks and does not take touches. During playback the view follows the playhead; while scrubbing it deliberately does not, so the timeline stays where you put it.
Undo
Steps back through the edit history. Disabled when there is nothing to undo.
Steps forward again. Disabled when there is nothing to redo, and cleared by any new edit.
The editor keeps its own undo stack, entirely separate from the canvas's stroke history, 64 steps deep. A drag — trimming a clip, moving a keyframe — is one step, not one step per frame of movement. Moving the playhead and marking a range are not undoable at all.
Because a step captures the whole document, and the playhead and the marked range live in it, undo also restores the playhead and the range to where they were.
Exporting the sequence
The Export button in the tab's top bar renders the whole sequence. It is disabled while the sequence is empty, and it pauses playback before opening.
Reference
- Menu
- Export
MP4 (H.264) or MOV (HEVC).
Mixes the audio tracks into the file. With it off, or when no track has audible audio, the file is silent.
The sequence's frame size. Shown, not chosen.
The sequence's length and frame rate. Shown, not chosen.
Starts the render. Progress is reported as a percentage; Cancel stops it. When it finishes, the file is handed to the share sheet, from where it can be saved to Files or Photos, or sent on.
Resolution and frame rate come from the sequence and are not adjustable at export. A muted track is skipped, and a disabled clip is not rendered.
To render a single shot instead, with a choice of size and format, use the canvas's own export — see Rendering.