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Timeline

A project in Komposition has a timeline, where you place your video and audio parts you want to render to a video file. The timeline is a tree structure, with a fixed depth, that can be described as follows:

  • A timeline contains one or more child sequences.
  • A sequence contains one or more child parallels, where each child is played sequentially in order.
  • A parallel contains a video track and an audio track, where the video and audio tracks are played in parallel (simultaneously). The longest track defines the length of the parallel.

Sequences

Sequences are used to compose parallels that belong together, forming a cohesive part, or chapter, of your screencast. Parallels inside a sequence are played in sequence. By placing video and audio parts in separate parallels inside a sequence, you can synchronize the start of video and audio.

Parallels

Parallels are used to play video and audio tracks in parallel. The parts within a track play in sequence, until the end of the longest track. This means that if the audio parts form a longer track than the video parts, the video will be extended with still frames. Correspondingly, if the video track is longer, the audio track will be silent in the end.

Track Parts

Video and audio parts added to a track are either clips from the library, or gaps. A clip is a slice of some original media file. A video gap is a still frame segment, and an audio gap is just silence.

Examples

  • If you want video clip v1 to start at exactly the same time as audio clip a1, put them both in the beginning of a parallel.
  • If you want video clip v1 and audio clip a1 to play simultaneously, and when they end play video clip v2, put v1 and a1 in one parallel followed by a parallel containing only v2.
  • If you want video clip v1 to play with silence, and then play audio clip a1 together with video clip v2, put v1 in a parallel, and v2 and a1 in another parallel.
  • If you want to play video clip v1 together with audio clip a1, but start a1 after two seconds, put v1, a two second audio gap, and a1 in a parallel.

Adjusting Timeline Parts

The sidebar shows properties of the focused timeline part, and for things like video and audio clips, it allows you to adjust certain properties of those timeline parts. You may change the start and end position within the original media of a video clip, or adjust the playback speed.