Graphic size and timing

A graphic is drawn fresh at a size you choose, and it has an animation timeline of its own. The Size and Timeline sections of the Graphic sub-tab set both, so you can make a graphic sharp at any size and decide whether its outro follows the end of the clip.

Where: Clip tab ▸ Graphic ▸ SizeClip tab ▸ Graphic ▸ Timeline
Agent tools: set_graphicadd_graphic_clipset_videotrim_starttrim_endroll

Width and Height

Width and Height are the size the graphic draws at, in whole pixels from 1 to 8192 a side. The graphic’s code lays itself out at that size, so text and shapes stay sharp.

The Size section starts collapsed, and its header shows the size, for example 1920 × 1080. With several graphic clips selected, a change applies to all of them, and a row shows mixed when they differ.

A new graphic takes the size its module, the code that draws it, asks for, or the canvas’s size if it doesn’t ask.

The graphic is drawn at this size and then placed on the canvas like any other layer. Scaling the clip in the Picture sub-tab scales that finished picture. To make a graphic bigger and keep it crisp, raise Width and Height rather than the scale.

Changing the canvas size never changes a graphic’s size. Make Vertical Version is the one exception.

Fit to Canvas

Fit to Canvas in the Size section sets the size to the canvas’s, then centres the clip at scale 1. It works on every selected graphic clip, as one undo step called Fit Graphic to Canvas.

A graphic can’t be larger than 8192 pixels a side, so on a bigger canvas Frame Job tells you why and leaves the clip as it was.

The graphic’s own timeline

A graphic counts its own frames from its first frame, separately from the project’s timeline. The Timeline section shows where the clip sits on that count. It appears only when one clip is selected, it starts collapsed, and its header shows the length.

Row	What it shows	What you can do
In	The graphic frame the clip’s first frame shows.	Nothing directly. Trimming the front, rolling the cut before the clip and splitting all move it.
Length	How long the graphic’s own timeline runs.	Type a timecode to pin it.
Follow Clip	Whether the graphic’s timeline ends when the clip ends.	Tick or untick it.

Follow Clip

Follow Clip is on for a new clip. The graphic’s timeline ends with the clip, so when you lengthen the clip its outro moves to the new end. Most graphics want this.

Unticking Follow Clip pins Length at its current value. Ticking it again hands the length back to the clip.

Length

Typing in Length pins it, which unticks Follow Clip, and is one undo step called Graphic Length. A pinned graphic keeps its pace however long the clip gets, so the animation doesn’t stretch and its outro stays at the same point.

The value snaps to a frame and can’t be less than one frame. Typing the value the field already shows changes nothing, so untick Follow Clip to pin the length as it stands.

Length shorter or longer than the clip

When Length is pinned shorter than the clip, the graphic keeps counting frames past it, but its progress stays at the end. What you see depends on how the graphic is written:

An animation driven by progress holds its end state.
An animation driven by frame numbers keeps going.

When Length is pinned longer than the clip, the clip ends before the graphic’s timeline does, so a late outro never plays.

Trim a graphic like footage

Trimming a graphic clip cuts into its animation, as trimming a video cuts into its footage. Trim and roll work as they do on any clip.

Edit	What happens
Trim the start, or roll the cut before the clip	In moves, so the animation starts further in. Length stays the same, so the outro keeps its timing.
Trim the end, Follow Clip on	The graphic’s timeline ends at the clip’s new end.
Trim the end, Length pinned	Length doesn’t change. Shortening the clip can cut off the outro.
Drag the start earlier	A graphic has no source to run out of, so the start can go back as far as the track allows. In moves back and stops at 0.
Split the clip	The second half’s In moves, so it carries on where the first half left off. Both halves pin Length to the original’s, which unticks Follow Clip on both and keeps the outro at the same point.
Retime Range	The clip stretches or squeezes like a title. A pinned Length stays as it was.

Good to know

Actions can’t animate size or timing. With an action selected, the Size and Timeline sections show ⊘ and always change the clip. See What an action can animate.
Adding a transition that gives a graphic clip extra frames at its head moves In back by the same amount, so the picture stays in step. Where In is shorter than the extension it stops at 0, and the graphic’s first frame lands on the clip’s new first frame.
Changing the project frame rate moves a graphic’s own timeline onto the new frames. In and a pinned Length snap to the nearest frame. A graphic that counts in seconds keeps its pace, and one that counts frames runs faster at a higher rate.

With an agent

An agent sets the size and the length with set_graphic, and can give a size to add_graphic_clip as it places the clip. A length of null is Follow Clip. To do what Fit to Canvas does, it sets the size with set_graphic, then the position and scale with set_video.

No tool sets In directly. It moves with trim_start, roll and splits, as it does in the app. See Tools: graphics.