Add an action

Add Action puts a new action on the selected clip at the playhead, ready for you to say what it animates to.

Menu: Clip ▸ Add Action
Keys: ⌥⌘K
Where: Clip tab ▸ action lane ▸ + (Add Action)
Agent tools: add_action

Add Action

Select a clip and put the playhead over it.
Press ⌥⌘K. Clip ▸ Add Action and the + button in the Clip tab’s action lane do the same.
In the Clip tab, change what you want the clip to reach by the end of the action. To fade the clip out over that second, for example, set Opacity in the Picture sub-tab to 0%.

The new action starts at the playhead, lasts 1 second and uses the Linear curve. It’s one undo step.

A new action starts empty

A new action’s end state is empty, so it changes nothing until you edit it. The band appears, and the clip looks and sounds the same as before.

The action is selected as it’s added, so the Clip tab is ready for its end state. See Set what an action animates to. The playhead stays where it is, at the action’s start, so the preview shows the change only once you move through the action or play it.

When Add Action is available

Add Action needs the playhead over a selected clip. Otherwise Clip ▸ Add Action is greyed out, and the action lane’s + button beeps.

Several clips selected

With several clips selected, the action goes on the first selected clip under the playhead and isn’t selected, because only a single selected clip can have a selected action. Select that clip alone to edit the new action.

When there’s no room for an action

The new action needs a clear second after the playhead. Frame Job beeps and adds nothing when the action would:

overlap another action on the clip, or
run past the clip’s end.

The reason appears at the foot of the inspector, after “Refused:”. See When an edit is refused.

Near the end of a clip, move the playhead back first, or shorten an existing action. A clip shorter than 1 second has no room for an action from Add Action.

Other commands that make actions

These commands write ordinary actions. They show as bands and edit like any other.

Command	What it adds
Zoom to Region	One 1-second Ease In Out action that zooms to a rectangle you draw
Zoom Back	One 1-second Ease In Out action back to the clip’s own size and place
Clip ▸ Speed Ramp…	One action for Ramp Up and Ramp Down, two for Speed Dip and Speed Burst
Clip ▸ Auto Zoom…	Zoom actions planned from a recording’s cursor file
Clip ▸ Follow Subject…	Moves that keep a subject in frame
Clip ▸ Camera Layout	Moves from one layout to the next
The volume line	An action for each point you add with `⌥`-click

Only Add Action, Zoom to Region and Zoom Back select the action they make.

With an agent

add_action takes the clip, a start in clip time and an optional length, 1 second if left out, so an agent can place an action shorter than 1 second where Add Action has no room. The new action’s id comes back in new_actions. See add_action.