Timeline & Editing

The timeline is where most of the work happens. This page covers the tools you use to cut, arrange, and shape clips, plus the conventions Evidor uses for tracks, snapping, and the playhead.

Tracks

There are two kinds of tracks: video and audio. They behave slightly differently.

Video tracks hold visual clips: video files, images, titles, shapes, adjustment layers, and compound clips.
Audio tracks hold audio files and voiceover recordings, and have extra controls for volume, pan, EQ, gating, and compression.

Video tracks are drawn in the order they appear in the list, with the topmost track rendered first (i.e. below the others). A clip on a higher video track appears behind a clip on a lower video track when they overlap in time.

Add a new track from the Add track button at the right end of the timeline toolbar. A project can hold up to 32 tracks.

Track controls

Each track head shows a small set of controls next to its name:

Mute - silences the track and hides its audio from the mix
Lock - prevents editing on the track. Clips can still be selected and copied, but cannot be moved, trimmed, or deleted.
Hide (video only) - removes the track's visual output from the preview and from exports
Voice (audio only) - marks the track as a dialogue track. Other audio tracks with ducking enabled will lower themselves when this track plays.
Solo (audio only) - mutes every other audio track except this one
FX (audio only) - opens the audio effects dialog for that track

Audio tracks also show a volume slider directly below the track name. Drag it to set the track level between 0% and 200%.

The playhead and the ruler

The playhead is the vertical line that marks the current time. It moves with playback and can be repositioned manually:

Click anywhere on the ruler to jump there.
Drag on the ruler to scrub. While scrubbing, video and audio update live, and any clip that was playing before you started scrubbing resumes when you let go.
Hold Shift and drag to define a loop section. Once set, enable Loop section in the toolbar to repeat that range.

Selecting clips

Click a clip to select it.
Hold Shift, Ctrl, or Cmd and click to add to the selection.
Click and drag on empty lane space to draw a marquee. Every clip the marquee touches is added to the selection.
Click on empty lane space with nothing held to clear the selection.

The inspector always shows the properties of the most recently selected clip, even when multiple clips are selected.

Moving, trimming, and fades

Each clip has three interactive regions in the timeline:

Middle - drag to move the clip. Hold nothing for free placement, or rely on snapping (see below) to land on edit points.
Left and right edges - drag inward or outward to trim the clip. Trimming the left edge changes the in point and shifts the clip start; trimming the right edge changes the duration.
Top-left and top-right corners - small fade handles appear when you hover or select a clip. Drag inward to add an audio / video fade.

Trimmed and moved clips are clipped to valid ranges automatically. You cannot trim a clip below one frame, and you cannot trim a video clip past the end of its source.

Snapping When Snap is on, dragging a clip near an edit point snaps the clip's nearest edge to it. The playhead, the in and out points, and every other clip's start and end are all snap targets.

The editing tools

The timeline toolbar provides three edit operations that apply to the current selection:

Split - cuts the selected clip at the playhead. If the playhead is not inside the clip, nothing happens. Pressing S does the same thing.
Duplicate - copies the selection and places the copy immediately after the original, on the same track.
Delete - removes the selection. Pressing Delete or Backspace does the same. Holding Shift while pressing delete performs a ripple delete, which also closes the gap left behind.

Undo and redo

Every edit is recorded. Use the arrow buttons in the timeline toolbar, or Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y. The default history depth is 80 steps and can be changed in Settings. Undo and redo apply to the whole project, including clip moves, colour changes, effect reordering, and preset applications.

Transitions

Transitions blend two adjacent clips on the same track. To add one, select a clip and open the Transitions section in the inspector. The In and Out dropdowns list every available transition type: dissolve, dip to black, dip to white, wipe left, wipe right, wipe up, wipe down, slide left, slide right, and zoom.

The two duration sliders below each dropdown control how long the transition lasts in seconds. A transition is only valid if the clip has a neighbouring clip on the same track at that boundary. If it does not, the transition is silently dropped and the clip plays normally.

During playback, transitions are rendered in real time. Every frame of the transition draws a blend of the outgoing and incoming clips, based on how far the playhead is through the transition window.

Speed

The Speed section of the inspector controls the playback rate of the selected clip:

Constant - a single rate from 0.25x to 4x. The clip's duration on the timeline adjusts automatically to keep the same source window.
Fast to Slow, Slow to Fast, Slow-Fast-Slow, Fast-Slow-Fast - preset speed ramps. The clip is stretched or compressed to match the average rate of the ramp.

Speed changes ripple the following clips on the same track so that nothing overlaps. The clip's audio is time-stretched along with the video, so dialogue stays intelligible up to about 2x.

Markers

Markers are points in time that you can jump to instantly. Add one by right-clicking the ruler and choosing Add marker, or by pressing M. Markers appear as small triangles on the ruler. Right-click a marker to rename it, jump to it, or delete it.

To move between markers quickly, press Ctrl+Left or Ctrl+Right. The playhead jumps to the previous or next marker, wrapping at the ends of the timeline.

In and out points

The in and out points define a range on the timeline. They are used by several features: the Loop button, the export range option "In / Out region", and the "play from in point" shortcut.

Press I to set the in point at the playhead.
Press O to set the out point at the playhead.
Press Shift+I or Shift+O to clear both.

The range is drawn on the ruler as a translucent band. Right-click the ruler for the same actions from a menu.

Looping

Evidor has two kinds of loop:

Loop - repeats the in / out range. If neither is set, it repeats the whole project from 0 to the last clip. Toggle with Ctrl+L.
Loop section - repeats a range set by shift-dragging on the ruler. Toggle with Ctrl+Shift+L. Clearing it is available from the ruler's right-click menu.

Only one loop can be active at a time. Enabling one disables the other.

Compound clips

A compound clip bundles several clips on the timeline into a single unit, which you can then move, trim, and apply effects to as if it were a normal clip. Select two or more video clips and press Ctrl+Shift+G, or use Create compound clip from the clip context menu.

Double-click a compound clip to open it in a temporary sub-timeline, where you can edit its contents. Press Esc or click Project in the breadcrumb above the timeline to return. Ungroup a compound clip with Ctrl+Shift+U.

Nesting limits Compound clips cannot contain other compound clips. The maximum depth is one level.