Add motion to your video with custom animations

As we’ve continued adding pro power to our collaborative editor over the past year with controls like audio keyframing, automatic subject reframing, and more, one of the ongoing requests we’ve heard from customers has been that they want more control over motion and animation in their videos. 

And while we’ve allowed you to add build in and out animations for over a year, we know that there’s been a major gap when it comes to adding animation within the middle of a clip (for example, a slow “Ken Burns” pan and zoom, or a precise zoom into a spot on a screen recording). Today’s release of custom animations closes that gap completely.

How to add animations to your videos

Creating animations and motion for a given clip in Scenery takes 5 basic steps:

1. Select clip. Select the video, image or shape on the timeline that you want to animate.
2. Add animation block. Add the animation block where you want the animation to start.
3. Set start and end states. Configure how you want your clip to look at the start and finish of the animation by customizing the clip’s position, opacity, and scale on each side of the block.
4. Control duration. Drag and resize the block to control the duration.
5. Set easing curve. Set your easing curve to control the animation feel.

For a full look at each of these steps, check out the detailed guide on our help center.

Example animations in action

To give you a sense of what’s possible with this new toolset, here are some examples of the most common animations that you might create on your clips.

Create a “Ken Burns” effect

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The classic “Ken Burns effect” was popularized by the documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, whose films frequently show images and videos slowly panning and zooming to draw attention to specific items and create visual interest overall. Creating this effect is easy now in Scenery by adding an animation and setting the desired end state zoom level and position.

Zoom in and out on a screen recording

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If you’re making screen recordings to teach people who to use certain tools or software, you’ll often want to zoom in and out on certain details to make sure your viewers can see them clearly. Now you can create a zoom in and out effect with two animation blocks — one for the in and one for the out. Bonus tip: I like to use the “ease in and out” curve to create a smooth zoom effect for these.

Motion tracking on a moving object

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For sports and other videos with moving subjects, you can use animations to track the motion of your video’s main focus and keep them at the center of the action. Simply create an animation for each main direction your subject moves, then adjust the video’s end state to put the subject in the center at the end of the animation block(s).

Help us build what's next

We're excited to hear your thoughts and see what you create with this new power! If you’ve got additional changes you’d like to see, join us in Slack and let us know or shoot us an email at contact@scenery.video. We’d love to hear your feedback.