Text, Captions, and Subtitles
Three related things put words on screen. Text clips are items you type into. Captions are generated from a clip's transcript and ride along with it. Subtitles are a cue track on the timeline.
| Kind | What it is | Starts from |
|---|---|---|
| Text clip | A standalone timeline item you type into | The Text tab |
| Captions | Generated lines that ride on a video or audio clip | A clip transcript |
| Subtitles | A cue track on the timeline | An embedded track, or consolidated captions |
Add and style a text clip
- Open the Text tab, then click Add text or a template to place text at the playhead. You can also drag a template onto the timeline or the canvas.
- Choose a layout (Single, 2 Spans, 3 Spans) and a style preset such as Clean, Lower Third, Cinematic, or Neon.
- In the Text section set font, size (8 to 500 px), weight, color, background, alignment, spacing, line height, padding, and radius.
- Add shadow or stroke under Effects, and animate the words under Text Animation.
Animate the words
In the Text Animation section (in text properties, or in the selected layer's Motion library) each character, word, or line can animate on its own. Text animation stays live, so there are no keyframes to manage.
- Select a text clip and open Text Animation.
- Pick a preset in the In, Out, or Loop row. In plays at the clip start, Out at the clip end, and Loop runs continuously between them.
- Click the active preset again (or its ✕) to remove it. One preset per row.
- Tune the controls that appear under the active preset.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Applies to | The unit each preset animates: Character, Word, Line, or Whole clip. |
| Duration | Length, in frames, of each unit's animation. |
| Stagger | Frames of delay between units, for a cascading effect. |
| Order | Which unit animates first: Forward, Backward, Center out, or Random. |
| Intensity | Scales the effect strength, from 0 to 200 percent. |
The Applied list shows each live text-motion slot. Select an entry to move the playhead to its timeline band. In the Motion workspace you can drag a band edge to change its duration, or drag an In or Out band away from the clip edge to offset it.
Captions from a transcript
- Generate a transcript for the clip from the Media panel or the Transcript panel.
- Choose Generate Captions from the clip context menu. Transcript captions can also be switched on for you.
- Edit cue timing and text, and pick a style preset (Netflix, YouTube, Bold Yellow, Outlined, TikTok) in the Subtitle section.
- Adjust caption color, size, vertical position, and an optional background.
Use Consolidate Captions To Segment to turn transcript captions into a standalone subtitle segment.
Embedded and imported subtitles
- Use Extract Embedded Subtitles on a media card to scan a file for subtitle tracks.
- In the Embedded subtitles dialog, pick a track. Each row shows its language, codec, and cue count.
- Insert the track to add its cues to the timeline as a subtitle segment.
- Edit each cue start, end, and text in the Subtitle section, and set whole-cue Italic, Bold, or Underline.
Subtitles on export
The export dialog decides how captions leave the editor: burned into the frame, as a separate .srt file, or as a soft track inside the container. See Exporting for the full table. Some players hide subtitle tracks by default, so your viewers may need to switch them on.