Tie video and audio to the timeline so they play along with the motion.
Video and audio usually play on their own, when the scene opens or when you click during a presentation. Turn on Sync to Timeline, and the scene’s timeline takes over playback, so they play together with keyframe animation on the same line of time.
Tie a video to the timeline
Start in Animation mode with a scene that has both a video or audio clip and keyframe animation. If it has no keyframes at all, see Your first animation first. To add video or audio, see Images, video, and audio. Audio follows the same steps; only the panel is called Audio.
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Turn on sync
Select the video on the canvas. In the Video panel on the right, under Playback, turn on Sync to Timeline. A clip band appears on the video’s row in the timeline. If the video has sound, a waveform is drawn inside the band. Videos start with Muted on, so to hear the sound, turn Muted off.
Turning on Sync to Timeline adds a clip band with a waveform to the video’s row. Video: Selecting the video and turning on Sync to Timeline in the Video panel adds a clip band with a waveform to the video’s row in the timeline. -
Match the clock length
Press F to fit the whole clock on the ruler. If the band is cut off at the end of the ruler, the video is longer than the scene’s clock. The video’s length shows in the Video panel, under Trim. In “0 / 5000 ms” on the button row above the timeline, the right field is Clock duration. Type the length there in ms and press ↩. For 30 seconds, that’s 30000. If you’ll delay the start in the next step, add that much too.
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Set the start time
Drag the clip band to the right. The start time shows while you drag, and the video starts that much later. Hold ⇧ while you drag to snap the ends of the band to keyframes, stops, the playhead, and ruler ticks.
Dragging the clip band to the right makes the video start at that time. Video: Dragging the clip band on the video’s row to the right shows the start time during the drag, and after the drop the band starts at 1 second. -
Scrub to line things up
Drag left and right on the ruler. The video on the canvas jumps to the picture at the playhead’s time. Watch the picture to choose when to add motion. Audio is silent while you scrub, so use the waveform in the band to find where the sound is.
Dragging the ruler moves the video back and forth with the playhead. Video: Dragging the ruler left and right makes the video on the canvas jump to the picture at the playhead’s time, so it moves back and forth. -
Play them together
On the button row above the timeline, click Jump to start, then the triangle Play button. The video plays along with the keyframe animation. At a stop, the video halts too, and when you play again, it continues from there.
A synced video doesn’t play on its own
Once a video is synced, Autoplay is ignored even if it’s checked, and you can no longer click the video during a presentation to play or pause it. Show playback controls is dimmed and can’t be used. The video plays only while the scene’s timeline runs, so in the first scene of a presentation, the video also starts on the first click. To play it separately on click, turn sync off.
In a scene with no keyframes or stops at all, the timeline doesn’t run when you present, so a synced video doesn’t play. If the scene has only the video, turn sync off and turn on Autoplay.
Trim, loop, and export
To cut off the start or the end, drag either end of the Video panel’s Trim bar, or type seconds in the In and Out fields. The clip band in the timeline shrinks to that length too. The original file doesn’t change.
When you turn on Loop in the Video panel, the clip band runs to the end of the clock, and the video repeats over that span. A video with loop off stays on its last picture after it ends. Before its start time, a video shows its first picture (the trim’s In point).
When you export to video, synced clips go in at the same times as on the timeline. The video’s sound goes in only when Muted is off. Export explains exporting.
Volume, background music, and frame clocks
To fade the sound in. Put the playhead where the clip band starts and change Volume to 0. Move the playhead 1 second later and change Volume to 1. These volume changes become keyframes too, so the sound rises over 1 second. Clicking the diamond next to volume also adds a keyframe.
To keep it going like background music. Turn sync off and turn on Autoplay. Sound that isn’t synced starts when the scene opens and keeps playing through stops.
Frame clocks don’t move video. Even a video inside a frame syncs to the scene’s timeline. While a frame clock is open (see Frame clocks), the clip doesn’t follow along. To line things up, go to the Timeline clock at the very start of the button row above the timeline and click Scene.
Shortcuts on this page
| Play or pause the timeline | Space |
|---|---|
| Jump to start | Home |
| Fit the whole clock on the ruler | F |
| Snap the band to keyframes, stops, the playhead, and ticks | ⇧+drag the band |
Updated 10/12/2026 · The videos on this page were recorded in the current editor.