Timeline Basics
Thursday, November 03, 2022
The timeline is the heart of Doodly’s video editing. It is where all our video customization activities happen. To create an amazing presentation, it is a must to know the basics of creating a whiteboard animation video. When we talk about the basics, we’re talking about the busiest part of Doodly which is, of course, the timeline. So today, we will look at the main concepts of each feature available in the timeline, how we use it, and how we can customize it.
There are 4 main features found within the timeline and these are the following:
- Pan & zoom
- Scenes
- Track settings
- Voice recording
Your timeline is located at the bottom of the edit video screen:
Adding A Scene
In our previous blogs, we worked on only one scene. This time, let’s try to add another. To do this, click the “+” sign beside the first scene found in the timeline. This will add another scene with a default blank whiteboard.
Let’s look for the same character in the first scene. As you noticed, I used a preset background on my first scene. This time, we’ll make it from scratch. Let’s add some props.
So in the video, we added a table, a beach umbrella, and a beach ball. We also flipped Ann, the kid character, so she is now pointing to the right. Next, is to add texts to our scene.
Adding Texts
To add a text, just click the text tab from the assets panel. Choose a text style from the list, then click and drag your preferred text into the canvas. You can make texts larger by dragging their edges and do “word wrap” to properly adjust text margins without affecting their size.
For proper alignment, you can use the grid. The grid is very helpful, especially if you need to add several words on the screen and even with images, the grid is very handy too. It helps align different assets on the screen, calculating character distances from each other and it helps make everything look balanced in size.
To change the text color, simply select your text then click the gear or the asset settings icon. As you see there are other customization options found within the asset settings. We will discuss this in our next blog.
The next thing to do is to add some music to it.
Adding Tracks
Background music makes your video presentation looks professional and lively. You can add a track by either importing the audio file from your laptop or choose from the sounds available in the assets panel.
The Sounds are sorted per category so if you are looking for music or a sound effect, you just have to choose the right category for your search.
Doodly’s tracks are all royalty-free so you can use it in your videos without having copyright issues.
When adding a track, it is important for you to consider the length or its duration. It is best to add a track that has a similar duration to your presentation for better syncing. But don’t worry, in the event that your music is a little longer, we can adjust the video by either adding an extra time in the end or, keeping the track short.
If you added a track to an incorrect time within the timeline, you can simply click and drag the track and set it to the right start time.
If you do not wish to extend the end of your video, you can just shorten the track. You can also set a fade-in and fade-out effect to each track.
Oftentimes the music added is a little louder than how you want it played in your video. To adjust it, click the speaker icon and set it to your desired volume. Make sure it won’t overpower your voice-over or sound effects.
If you wish to add more tracks or sound effects, you can do so by clicking the three dots right beside the volume icon:
Voice-Over
There are two ways to get voice over added in your presentation:
1. If it’s pre-recorded, you can just import the audio file by clicking the “+” sign and locating the audio file from your laptop. You can also just drag and drop the audio file to the “add new sound” pop-up box.
The imported file will automatically appear in the “My Library” Category of your Sounds list.
2. If you do not have a pre-recorded voice-over, you can just record your voice.
When you click the “+” sign to record your voice, it opens a narration box where you have your mic control. It will only start recording the moment you click the mic icon. To delete it, simply click the little “x” icon located at the upper right side of the narration box.
Just like the other audio files, you can move your recording by just clicking and dragging it to your desired time in the timeline. You can also trim the beginning and end of your voice-over, or apply fade-in and fade-out effects.
Pan & Zoom
Pan & zoom feature allows you to direct the camera to focus on a certain direction or object in a scene. This helps you highlight certain main points in your presentation, and it helps capture your viewer’s attention.
Here’s how you can set up your pan & zoom:
From the timeline, click the “+” sign. This will create a small box on the timeline with “fx” and “x” on it.
Click “fx”. This will open the pan & zoom settings screen.
Adjusting the Start frame lets you zoom out on certain angles of the screen whereas adjusting the End frame zooms in to a specified angle. You don’t necessarily need to adjust both frames at the same time.
To adjust the start frame, click the “Unlock Start” and adjust the edges. You can click “Show Preview” to review the changes made. If you are satisfied with how the video plays, you can hit Apply.
If the transition is too fast, you can slow it down by adjusting the pan & zoom duration within timeline.
Here’s how the video plays with pan & zoom in our video:
Surely that makes our video way better than just the typical fade in and fade out transition.
In summary…
So we just discussed the basic features we have within Doodly’s timeline.
We have panning & zooming, adding scenes, placing background music or sound effects as well as adding a voice over. I love all four features but my favorite is adding scenes and audio files because Doodly lets us import our own files and I think that is just brilliant!
What is your favorite Doodly feature? I’m sure you had fun working on your videos too! We’ll talk about more Doodly features in our upcoming blogs, so stay tuned. Until next time. 🙂
Posted in Feature, Whiteboard Animation, Whiteboard Animation Software
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