Video, audio, and image clips

Media clips let you include video and audio in a video ad, or video in an animated GIF. Each clip has a media asset source that is a video, audio, or image file.

Video and image clips must be placed in a video or audio track. Each video track corresponds to a video container for displaying the clips in that track, and can be styled and animated on the stage like other elements.

In the timeline, video clips display a thumbnail of the first frame, and audio clips display the audio waveform.

The position of a clip in the timeline determines when it starts playing, and its length represents its duration.

Recommendations for track and clip arrangement

• Place clips in the same track when you want a double-sided transition between them.
• Place clips in separate tracks if you want them to be playing at the same time.
• Place video clips in separate tracks if you want them to appear in different video containers.

Add clips

You can add clips to new or existing tracks:

• New tracks: When you create new video or audio tracks by adding assets, the tracks are automatically populated with clips of those assets.
• Existing tracks: Add a clip to an existing track by dragging the source asset for the clip from the Library or your file system onto the destination track. Only one clip can be added at a time.

By default, the duration of a new clip is set to the full length of the source. New image clips are 1 second long.

If you drag a new clip over an existing clip, you will overwrite the previous clip.

Clip sources

Clip sources can be one of the following asset types:

• Video
• Audio (in video ads only)
• Image

Multiple clips can have the same source.

If a clip source becomes invalid because the source asset is deleted from the Library, the clip is marked with a broken media icon until the source asset is imported again.

Select clips

You must select clips in the timeline or the Outliner, as they can't be selected on the stage. There are several ways to select clips:

• Click a clip in the timeline or the Outliner to select it.
• Ctrl+click to add another clip to the current selection of clips.
• Click and drag a rectangular selection marquee on the timeline to select all the clips within the rectangle.
• Ctrl+click and drag (Windows) or ⌘+click and drag (Mac) a marquee on the timeline to switch whether clips are selected or not. Clips inside the rectangle that aren't currently selected will be selected, while clips that are already selected will be deselected.

A selection can contain both clips and keyframes.

Copy and paste clips

You can copy a clip and paste it to another track of the same type or to another video document.

Use any of the following methods to copy and paste clips:

• Select the clip to copy, press Control+C (Windows) or ⌘+C (Mac), then click the new position on the destination track in the timeline. Press Control+V (Windows) or ⌘+V (Mac) to paste.

• Right-click the clip to copy. Select Copy from the pop-up menu, then right-click the new position on the destination track in the timeline and select Paste from the pop-up menu.

• Alt+click and drag (Windows) or Option+click and drag (Mac) a clip on the timeline to duplicate it at the ending position. This method doesn't work across tracks or documents. Linked clips are automatically included as well. This method doesn't work across tracks or documents.

You can't copy and paste clips from multiple tracks, or a mix of clips and keyframes.

Pasting a clip over another clip will overwrite the latter clip.

Overwritten clips

What happens to an overwritten clip depends on the extent of overwrite:

• If a clip is completely overwritten by another: The overwritten clip is removed from the track.
• If the middle part of a clip is overwritten: The overwritten clip is split and the in point and out point of the resulting clips are adjusted to make room for the new clip.
• If only the beginning or end of a clip is overwritten: The overwritten clip's duration and its in point or out point will be adjusted to make room for the new clip.

Variant bindings for overwritten clips are automatically deleted, and overwritten transitions are deleted or trimmed.

Rename clips

Clips are created with a generic ID that may make them difficult to distinguish in the Outliner or Dynamic panel's list of variant bindings. To rename a clip:

1. Select the clip you want to rename.
2. In the Properties panel, enter the new ID.

Edit clip sources

To use a different asset for a clip, change the clip's source.

1. Select the clip whose source you want to change.
2. In the Properties panel, click the button in the Source field.
3. Select an asset from the Library or browse for a different one. Asset source files must be in the assets subfolder for your project.

The in point and out point of the clip remain the same unless they fall outside the new source's duration, in which case they're adjusted to fit.

You can't change the source of a frame hold clip, and a linked video clip's source can only be changed to another video asset that contains audio..

Change clip timing

You can move or trim a clip to adjust its timing in the following ways:

• Change when the clip starts and stops playing within the video document timeline (start time, end time, and duration)
• Specify which part of the source media that the clip plays (in point and out point)

You can see the start time, end time, in point, out point, and duration for a clip in the Properties panel.

Move clips

To change the start time of a clip, drag it along the timeline until it's positioned at the start time that you want. The duration of the clip remains the same.

If timeline snapping is enabled, you can easily align clips with other clips, transitions, keyframes, or the playhead.

You can also move clips to other tracks of the appropriate media type.

Trim clips

If you don't want to use a media asset in full from start to end, you can trim the clip by changing its in point or its out point. The in point and out point are the points within the source media where the clip starts and stops playing.

Trim the start of a clip: Drag the left edge of a clip on the timeline to adjust its in point. This also changes the clip's start time, so you may need to move the clip back to its original start time. The in point can't extend beyond the start of the source.

Trim the end of a clip: Drag the right edge of a clip on the timeline to adjust its out point. This also changes the duration of the clip, which must be at least 1 frame. The out point can't extend beyond the end of the source.

The trimmed parts of clips are called clip handles, and are necessary for double-sided transitions.

Split and join clips

Split clips

You can split a clip into two separate clips. To split a clip, use one of the following methods:

• With the selection tool:
  1. Click the Selection tool above the timeline.
  2. Right-click the clip on the timeline at the point where you want to split it.
  3. Select Split from the pop-up menu.
• With the razor tool:
  1. Click the Razor tool above the timeline. The cursor turns into scissors when hovering over a clip.
  2. Click the clip on the timeline at the point where you want to split it.
  3. When you're done splitting clips, click the Selection tool to be able to take other actions in media clips.

The split clip becomes two adjacent clips, with the first clip's out point matching the second clip's in point. Any variant bindings for the split clip are lost.

A clip is automatically split if you overwrite the middle part of the clip with a shorter clip.

Join clips

Join two clips to make them a single clip. You can only join media clips that meet the following conditions:

• The two clips are adjacent to each other on the same track
• The clips have the same source
• The clips represent adjacent portions of the same asset source (the out point of the first clip matches the in point of the second clip)

To join clips:

1. Select the two clips that you want to join.
2. Right-click the selection.
3. Select Join from the pop-up menu.

Any transitions at the join point are lost.

Delete clips

Deleting a clip removes it from the timeline, but the source asset remains in the Library. Use one of the following methods to delete a clip:

• Right-click the clip in the timeline, then select Delete.
• Select the clip, then press the Delete key.

Any variant bindings and linked clips for deleted clips are also deleted.

Linked clips

An audio clip and a video clip can be linked to keep them synchronized. When you move, trim, delete, or edit the source of a linked clip, the same changes are applied to the other linked clip unless the other clip is in a locked or hidden track.

Linked clips are indicated by a link symbol in the timeline.

Link clips together

If you import a video asset that contains audio, the generated video and audio clips are automatically linked. You can also manually link a video clip and an audio clip, even if they don't use the same source, have different durations, or aren't on adjacent tracks.

To link clips:

1. Select both the audio clip and the video clip that you want to link.
2. Right-click either clip and select Link from the pop-up menu.

Unlink clips

If you no longer want a pair of clips to be linked, you can unlink the clips. To unlink clips:

1. Right-click either of the linked clips that you want to unlink.
2. Select Unlink from the pop-up menu.

Clips are also automatically unlinked if you delete, wrap, or group the track containing one of the linked clips, or delete one of the linked clips.

Scale video clips

The size at which video clips are displayed is determined by the dimensions of the container video tracks. For each video track, you can set how clips are scaled if they have different dimensions than the video container.

In the Properties panel for the video track, select one of the following options in the Scaling dropdown:

• Resize to fit - The clip is scaled to fit within the video container without cropping or stretching. Clips with different proportions than the video container are centered within the container with gaps along the sides or along the top and bottom.
• Crop to fill - The clip is scaled to completely fill the video container. Clips with different proportions than the video container are centered and cropped either vertically or horizontally.
• Stretch to fill - The full clip is displayed at the video container's dimensions, even if the proportions differ.

Video frame holds

Frame holds apply to video clips only and let you display a particular frame for a longer duration.

To add a frame hold:

1. Right-click the video clip at the frame that you want to hold.
2. Select Insert frame hold from the pop-up menu.

The video clip splits into three clips, with the frame hold clip in the middle (designated by a symbol ). By default, the frame hold clip is 3 seconds long, but the duration is adjustable just like for any clip. If the added 3 seconds causes an overlap with another clip on the track, the other clip is overwritten.

If the video clip is linked to an audio clip, the audio clip is split at the same point, and a gap with the same duration as the frame hold is added to the audio track.

Frame hold clips can't be converted to any other kind of clip, and you can't change the source of a frame hold clip.