Timeline basics: assets, clips, tracks

Three things: assets, clips, tracks

• Assets: the video, audio, and images you import, plus components downloaded from the Library. They sit in the Library until you use them.
• Clips: once an asset goes onto the timeline it becomes a clip. Trimming, moving, and animating all act on clips.
• Tracks: the containers for clips. Higher tracks cover lower ones, so subtitles go on top and the main picture goes at the bottom.

Put things on the timeline

Drag an asset from the Library into empty space on the timeline, or select it and press Enter. Drag either end of a clip to trim it, and drag its middle to move the whole clip. Hold the snap key and clip edges line up with the edges of other clips.

How tracks stack

A typical track order for a video, from top to bottom:

1. Subtitles (on top, always covering everything below)
2. Components / cards
3. Effects and transitions
4. Main picture (at the bottom)
5. Audio (its own track, not part of the visual stack)

Think of tracks as a stack of clear film: the top sheet is what you see first.

Undo and saving

Every edit can be undone, with the undo history stored per project. Saving is something you trigger, and Orbit never uploads your project to any server without your knowledge.

Next

Now that you can place things, head to Paste and go: turn code into components. It's the part of Orbit that saves the most time.