Titles, callouts and motion graphics

Wabcut has two kinds of on-screen text. A title is one block of styled text, made from the Library. A graphic is a clip on a video track that holds layers: text, shapes, pictures and groups. Each layer has its own position, scale, rotation and opacity, a blend mode, a drop shadow and masks, and each one can be animated. The callouts in the "Callouts" panel are graphics.

Animation in a graphic is made of ordinary keyframes, so you can change anything a template or preset does. Copies of a graphic clip are independent: editing one doesn't change the others.

Add a callout from the gaming pack#

1. Open "Callouts" in the left rail.
2. Find a template under "Gaming", or type its name in "Search callouts".
3. Drag the card onto the timeline. Or select the card and press Enter, or right-click it and choose "Add at playhead".

A graphic added without a track goes on the first free track above your footage, so nothing is overwritten.

• Any length. Each template's intro plays from the start of the clip and its outro ends with the clip, however long you make it. The middle stretches: it only holds or loops.
• Thai works. The templates use bundled fonts with Thai (Bai Jamjuree for headings, IBM Plex Sans Thai for body text), and every text field takes Thai.
• The end card's slots are placeholders: a graphic can't play video, so the two frames mark where YouTube's end-screen videos go (YouTube end screens last 5-20 seconds). Each slot can show a thumbnail picture.
• Instant replay (in the timeline's "Moments" button) adds the "Replay" stinger over the slow-motion part for you. See Gaming moments.

Change a template's text and colours#

1. Select the graphic clip on the timeline.
2. In "Callouts", open the "Edit" tab. The template's fields come first: its texts, colours, pictures, switches and length.
3. Type a new text, pick a colour, or choose a picture.

Boxes behind your text are pinned to it, so they grow with a longer name or a translated one. A clip made from a template keeps its fields, so you can still edit it after the template changes or is gone.

Edit a graphic in the Program Monitor#

Click the graphic in the Program Monitor to select a layer, then use its handles:

Since 0.1.3, the Program Monitor picks things the way Premiere's does:

• Click selects the topmost object under the pointer: a graphic's layer, a title, or a clip on a video track (a nested clip counts as one). The object you picked last stays picked while it is under the pointer, so you can drag an object that sits behind another once you've picked it. Pointing shows a dashed outline of what a click would pick; the picked clip or title is outlined in the accent colour.
• Double-click a text (a graphic's text layer or a title) to edit it in place, even when nothing is selected. Enter keeps the text, Shift+Enter starts a new line, and Esc cancels.
• Double-click again on the same spot to pick the next object behind, wrapping back to the top. A text on the way is picked first and edited with the next double-click. Picking anything elsewhere (the timeline, Tab, Esc) starts over.

While you draw masks, mark review notes, click objects for AI masks or draw layout regions, clicks go to that tool.

Add a title#

1. In the "Library", open the "Text" tab and choose "New Title". The title goes at the playhead, on a free video track, so nothing under it is overwritten.
2. Double-click the title in the Program Monitor and type your text.

A title's style (font, size, fill, stroke, shadow, alignment, line spacing and tracking) is an effect on the clip, so you can keyframe it in "Effect Controls". Place, scale and rotate the title with the clip's Transform. Changing a title's text changes every clip of that title, in one undo step.

For an animated lower third, add "Lower third" from "Callouts" instead. "Intro" makes an opening title.

Build your own graphic#

In "Callouts" > "Edit", with no graphic selected, adding a layer starts a new graphic at the playhead. "Advanced" in the same tab shows the layers, their motion, presets, pins and responsive time.

• Text can be a single line or a paragraph box that wraps, with a background box behind it.
• Shapes are rectangles (with rounded corners), ellipses, polygons, stars and paths, with a solid, linear or radial fill and a stroke (dashes too). Trim start and end draw a shape on or off.
• Pictures come from your project. A picture layer can't play video.
• Groups hold other layers.
• Every layer has a transform, a blend mode ("Normal", "Multiply", "Screen", "Overlay", "Add", "Darken", "Lighten", "Difference"), a drop shadow, masks, and in and out times.
• Pins make a layer follow the edges of another, as in Premiere's Responsive Design - Position: a box pinned to all four edges of a name grows with the name.
• Responsive time gives a graphic a designed length with a protected intro and outro, as in Premiere's Responsive Design - Time: the intro plays from the clip's start, the outro ends at its end, and the middle stretches.

Animate a layer with a preset#

A preset writes ordinary keyframes into a layer. Nothing is hidden: change or delete them like any other keys.

1. Select the layer in the Program Monitor.
2. In "Callouts" > "Edit", open "Advanced". Under "Animation", pick a preset in the "In", "Out" or "Loop" row.
3. Set its length (0.5 seconds by default; for a loop, one cycle), its easing ("Linear", "Ease in", "Ease out" (the default), "Ease in and out" or "Overshoot"), and for Slide and Wipe its direction.
4. Choose "Apply".

You can also run "Apply Animation Preset" from the command palette. In presets key the start of the graphic and Out presets its end; on a graphic with responsive time, an Out animation always ends with the clip. Keys a preset writes replace any keys already in that stretch. Typewriter counts a Thai consonant with its marks as one character.

Save your own template#

1. Select a graphic clip and choose "Save as template…" in "Callouts".
2. Choose the fields that stay editable: a text, a colour (a layer's fill, stroke, background or shadow), a font, a picture, a length (a layer's out point or the clip's length), or a checkbox that shows or hides a layer.
3. Keep it for "This project" (saved in the project file) or "My templates" (every project).

Your templates appear in "Callouts" under those two names, ready to add like the built-in ones. Wabcut doesn't open Premiere's .mogrt files or After Effects templates.

Theme graphics with a brand kit#

A project's brand kit holds named colours, font roles (heading, body and so on) and logos (pictures from the project). Graphics, templates and caption styles can refer to these by name instead of a fixed value. Change the kit and everything that refers to it changes with it. A colour that names a brand colour the kit doesn't have keeps its own colour.

In 0.1.3 you set the brand kit with the "Set Brand Kit" command, from the command palette or a script. It takes the kit as JSON; the format is in Graphics. The built-in gaming templates don't use the brand kit: change their colour fields instead.

Add a Lottie sticker#

1. In "Callouts", go to "Stickers" and choose "Import Lottie sticker…".
2. Pick a Lottie file (Bodymovin JSON, from After Effects or LottieFiles). It is added at the playhead as a graphic and kept under "Stickers" to add again.

Keyframe easing comes across, so the motion matches the original. A report lists what was carried, approximated (with the reason) or dropped:

A Lottie file can be up to 16 MiB. A graphic holds at most 256 layers; any beyond that are dropped and listed in the report. "Import Lottie" in the command palette does the same import.