Video layers and timeline video

#Timeline Video

The Timeline Video lives on the Background layer. It is one video that runs under the whole ad, so scene cuts change the copy, graphics and particles on top while the footage keeps rolling underneath. That is what makes a multi-scene ad feel like one film rather than a slideshow.

Three ways to add one

1. Drop a video file on the canvas while the Background, a Vector or a Gradient layer is selected. It becomes the plate. (Dropped on a selected Media layer, the video becomes that layer's own clip instead.) Files up to 200 MB are accepted.
2. Pick one in the Library with the Video filter while the Background is selected. It keeps a history of your plates, including Live Frame recordings, so switching back to an earlier take is one click. (Picked with a Media layer selected, the video becomes that layer's own clip instead.)
3. Generate Video, under Generate Image on the Background. It animates the ad's own scene images (up to nine of them, without the text), or the Background's image if it has one, into a clip. The length is set from your timeline, between 4 and 15 seconds, and the clip comes in silent. Generating uses credits.

The timeline fits itself to the video

When a plate goes on, Wildfield rescales the scene lengths so the ad runs exactly as long as the video. Every scene keeps its share of the time, and its Hold and animation timing scale with it. If that would make any scene shorter than 0.1 seconds or longer than 30 seconds, the fit is skipped and the scene lengths stay as they were.

Framing it per scene

Position and Scale on the Background frame the plate for the scene you are on, so one scene can sit wide on the footage and the next can punch in on a detail. Scale runs from 10% to 500% while a plate is on. At 100% and above, panning stops at the video's edges so it always covers the frame. Below 100%, the video shrinks into a picture-in-picture and the scene's background colour or gradient shows around it.

What sits over it

• Media layers with stills are hidden on the canvas while the plate plays. They stay in the project, and they come back when you remove the plate.
• Media layers with video, Vectors, particles, gradients and all the copy play on top of the plate as normal.
• Covered: if a scene still has an old per-scene background clip from an earlier version, that clip covers the plate on that scene, and the help card says so. Remove that clip to let the plate show through.

Across the cuts

With Video Trim off, the plate keeps time across the whole ad: scene 2 picks up exactly where scene 1 left off. If the timeline is longer than the video, the video loops. To cut scenes from different moments of the take instead, turn on Video Trim.

Sound

A video you upload keeps its own sound, which plays in the preview and is mixed into the video export. Generated plates are silent. Music, voice and sound effects are set in Sound mode (see Sound design).

Removing it

Remove takes the plate off the whole ad, and every scene goes back to its own background. The video stays in the Library's Video filter, so you can put it back later.

Export

The preview, PNG stills, the video render and the HTML export all come from the same build of the composition, so the plate lands on the same frame everywhere. A PNG of a scene shows the frame that scene opens on. See Export for formats.

#Video Trim

Video Trim turns the plate from one continuous take into a set of cuts. With it on, every scene chooses where in the video it starts, and plays from there for its own length. Scenes can use moments in any order, reuse the same moment, or skip the slow parts of the take.

How the handles work

When you switch Video Trim on, each scene's start is set in sequence through the take, so nothing jumps at first. Then, on the scene you are editing:

• The left ball is where this scene starts in the video.
• The span between the balls is this scene's length. Dragging either ball cuts the scene longer or shorter, so trimming also retimes the scene. A scene can be at least 0.1 seconds and at most 30 seconds, and never longer than the video left after its start.
• Drag the fill between the balls to slide the window through the take without changing the length.
• Click the empty rail to grab the nearer ball.
• Reset puts the start back at the beginning.

While you drag, the video seeks live and the scene bar at the bottom of the screen follows, so you see the new timing as you cut. When paused, the canvas shows the frame this scene starts on.

Tips

• Trim scene lengths here, not in the scene bar, when a scene must match a moment in the footage: the handles keep the cut and the length together.
• Scenes play their windows in scene order. If you put windows out of order, the export writes a separate clip for each scene so every cut lands exactly.

Worked example

A 9:16 story ad cut from one 40 second behind-the-scenes clip.

1. Drop the clip on the Background. The timeline fits to 40 seconds.
2. Turn on Video Trim.
3. On scene 1, drag the fill to the moment the product is picked up and drag the right ball until the scene is 3 seconds long.
4. On scene 2, slide the window to the close-up at 22 seconds and make it 4 seconds.
5. On scene 3, slide to the final smile at 35 seconds, 3 seconds long, and add the CTA over it.
6. The ad now runs 10 seconds, using only the three best moments of the take.

#Clip trim

A Media layer can hold its own video: load one into its slot from the cloud or this computer, or drop a video on the canvas while the layer is selected. Unlike the plate, that clip belongs to one layer in one scene. It sits wherever you place it, scales, crops, masks and animates like any other layer, and plays over the background and the plate.

Trimming the clip

The Trim control under the video uses the same two balls as Video Trim. The left ball is where the clip starts and the right ball where it ends. Drag a ball to cut, drag the fill to slide the window, and the scene bar follows live. Trimming a clip also sets the scene's length to match, up to 30 seconds. Reset plays the whole clip again and sets the scene back to the clip's full length.

Good to know

• When paused, the canvas shows a still of the clip. Press Play to see it move. Playback and export use the real video, which loops if the scene outlasts the clip.
• Clips on Media layers play without sound. For audio, use the plate or Sound mode.
• Clips on Media layers keep playing over a Timeline Video, while stills on Media layers are hidden under it.

Worked example

A 1:1 app ad with a phone screen recording framed over a brand gradient.

1. Set the Background to a gradient in the brand colours.
2. Add a Media layer and load the screen recording.
3. In Trim, drag the left ball past the loading screen and the right ball to the end of the key interaction. The scene now matches the clip.
4. Scale the layer to 70% and add 3D Transform with a slight Spin Y, so the recording sits like a tilted phone screen (see 3D Transform).
5. Add the headline and CTA in Layout.