Cutting and arranging clips

Move, trim, split, delete, duplicate and replace clips; change speed, framing, transitions and colour; set each clip's sound.

The timeline is where your video takes shape. This guide covers moving, trimming and splitting clips, changing their speed and framing, adding transitions and colour, and setting each clip's own sound.

How the timeline is laid out

Tracks are listed the way they stack on screen: text and captions on top, then overlays and video, then sound. A new project starts with Video 1 and Audio.

Each track's header has small buttons:

Hide (the eye) takes the track out of the preview and the finished video without deleting anything. Sound tracks can't be hidden. Mute them instead.
Mute (the speaker) silences everything on a video, overlay or sound track.
Lock stops anything on the track being moved or changed by accident.
↑ / ↓ move a video or overlay track up or down, so its pictures are drawn above or below the others.
✕ removes an empty track.

To add a track, click + Track in the toolbar and choose Video, Overlay, Text or Sound.

Select a clip and move the playhead

Click a clip on the timeline or on the picture to select it. Its settings open on the right. If the playhead is somewhere else, it jumps to the start of the clip so the preview shows it.
Click or drag along the time ruler to move the red playhead. Split and new text go where the playhead is.
⏮ and ⏭ under the player jump to the start of the previous or next clip.

Move a clip

Drag the clip left or right along its track. Drag it up or down to move it to another track that takes it: video and overlay tracks take clips and photos, text tracks take text and shapes, and sound tracks take sounds.

Good to know:

To change the order, drop a clip on another one on the main video track (Video 1): it goes in there, and the clips after it move along to make room. Where it left, the gap closes up, just as when you delete a clip. Other tracks keep their timing, so check text and sound still line up. ⌘Z undoes the whole move.
On other tracks two items can't sit on top of each other: if the spot is taken, the item stays where it was, so make room first.
With Snap on, edges line up with other items, the start of the video and the playhead. Click Snap on to switch it to Snap off and place things freely.

Trim a clip

Use this to choose which part of a clip plays.

Drag the clip's left or right edge on the timeline.
For exact values, select the clip and type Starts at and Ends at under Trim in its settings.

Good to know:

A clip can't be trimmed past the start or end of the original, or to less than a tenth of a second.
Making a clip end later in the original makes it longer on the timeline, and anything after it on the same track moves along to make room.

Split a clip

Use this to cut a clip in two, for example to remove a section from the middle.

Move the playhead to where you want the cut.
Select the clip and click Split in the toolbar, or press S. You'll also find Split at playhead in the clip's settings.

With nothing selected, Split cuts everything under the playhead. Each piece keeps the clip's look.

Delete, duplicate and replace

Delete: select an item and click Delete in the toolbar, or press ⌫. On a video track the clips after it move up to close the gap; on overlay, text, caption and sound tracks the item just goes and nothing else moves. Your Library copy is kept, and ⌘Z brings it back.
Duplicate: select an item and click Duplicate, or press ⌘D. The copy goes right after it, or at the next free spot on the track.
Replace: use this to swap in different footage but keep everything you've set up.
1. Select the clip or photo and click Replace in the Clip section of its settings.
2. Media opens with "Pick a video or photo to replace…". Tap the new video or photo, or press Cancel.
The new footage takes the old one's place and keeps its fit, framing, rotation, colour, transition and sound settings. Things that belonged to the old footage, like its crop, freeze, AI picture change, Studio voice and auto-zoom, are dropped. A shorter replacement ends earlier rather than stretching. A photo can replace a clip and the other way round.

Zoom the timeline

Drag the Zoom slider in the toolbar, or press + and −. Zoom in to trim precisely. Zoom out to see the whole video.

Change a clip's speed

Select the clip and find Speed in its Edit tab.
Pick a speed from 0.25× to 4×. The sound keeps its pitch.

Changing the speed changes how long the clip lasts on the timeline. Speeding it up leaves space after it. Slowing it down makes it longer, and the clips after it on the same track move along to make room. Other tracks (captions, music, text) stay where they are, so check they still line up.

Freeze the last frame

Use this to hold the picture after a clip ends, for example while a voice-over finishes.

Select the clip and find Freeze last frame under Trim.
Type how many seconds to hold, up to 30.

The clip's own sound stops at its end. Once a clip has a freeze, dragging its right edge changes the length of the freeze. A freeze can last up to 30 seconds; the clips after it move along to make room.

Frame the picture: fit, crop, rotate and flip

Select the clip or photo and open Frame in its Edit tab.

Fit:
- Fill covers the whole canvas. Edges that don't fit the shape are cut off; use Crop to choose what stays.
- Fit shows the whole picture, with bars where its shape doesn't match. A crop is set aside while Fit is on (the crop settings are hidden), and comes back when you switch to Fill or Free.
- Free lets you place and size it anywhere, like picture-in-picture. Drag it on the player, or use the corner handles to resize (it grows and shrinks about its centre, and a drag stops at a tenth of the canvas width so it never shrinks to a dot; the Size slider goes smaller) and the round handle to turn it. Size, Tilt and Opacity appear in the settings.
Rotate: ⟲ 90° and ⟳ 90° turn the picture a quarter turn. This fixes phone videos filmed sideways.
Flip: ↔ mirrors it left to right (writing is mirrored too). ↕ turns it upside down.
Crop shape: pick Free, Canvas, 1:1, 4:5, 9:16, 16:9 or 1.91:1. A shape keeps its proportions while you use the Crop width and Crop height sliders. Once it's cropped, Crop left–right and Crop up–down move the crop. Crop works with Fill and Free.

Add a transition

Use this to soften the change from one clip to the next.

Select the second of the two clips.
Under Transition in, pick one of the eight tiles. Each plays the transition on a loop, so you can pick by seeing:
- Cut switches straight to this clip.
- Crossfade fades the previous clip into this one, and blends the sound.
- Dip black fades briefly through black. Dip white goes through white instead: a bright, clean reset.
- Slide pushes this clip in from the right; Slide up pushes it in from the bottom.
- Wipe sweeps a hard edge across to reveal this clip.
- Zoom scales this clip in from slightly large. Good for hooks and reveals.
Set the Length slider (0.2 to 2 seconds; not shown for Cut).

Good to know:

A transition only applies when the clip sits right after another clip on the same track.
A crossfade overlaps the two clips, so this clip and everything after it on the track move a little earlier. Turning it off moves them back.
A transition can be up to 2 seconds; a dip to black can be up to half a second. None can be longer than half of either clip.

Fade a clip in or out

Under Transition in, the Fade section fades a clip's picture, not just its sound.

Select a clip or photo.
Set Fade in from and/or Fade out to to None, Black or White. Logos, stickers and overlay clips offer None or Fade, and fade to transparent.
Drag Length (0.2 to 3 seconds). Both fades share it.
Fade the sound too is on, so the sound ends with the picture. Untick it to keep music or a voice-over playing at full volume.

Fade the whole video

Click an empty part of the editor so nothing is selected. Start and end has Fade in from black at the start and Fade to black at the end (new videos start with the end fade on), plus a Length slider (0.5 to 2 seconds). It fades the picture and all sound together, after everything else. When it is on, Export and Publish remind you, with a Change link back to this panel.

Change the colour and finish

Select a clip or photo and open its Adjust tab.

Look: one tap for Original, Vivid, Punch, Faded, Warm, Cool, B&W or Noir.
Adjust: Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Warmth and Sharpen. Reset puts the sliders back without touching the Film settings.
Film:
- Tone: None, Warm, Crisp or Cinema.
- Colour: Colour, B&W or Sepia.
- Vignette.
- Film texture: fine grain that makes AI video look filmed.

Good to know: warmth, sharpness, film tone and texture are shown closely in the preview and applied exactly when you publish.

Set a clip's own sound

Select a clip and open its Audio tab.

Mute turns the clip's sound off.
Even loudness evens out quiet and loud parts.
Clean up voice reduces background noise behind a voice. It uses no credits. The preview plays the original, and the cleaned sound is used when you publish.
Volume goes up to 400% for quiet recordings. The preview plays up to 100%.
Fade in and Fade out ease the sound in and out.

For music, voice-overs and effects, see Sound.

Photos and stickers on the timeline

A photo stays on screen for 3 seconds when you add it. Select it to change its Duration (or drag its right edge), framing, transition and colour, just like a clip. Stickers keep their own colours.

Motion. In a video, a photo can move slowly so it doesn't sit still. Select it and, on its Edit tab under Motion, pick Slow zoom in or Slow zoom out (None keeps it still). The zoom runs evenly across the photo's whole time on screen, about 12%, centred on the photo as you've cropped it, and the export matches the preview. It works on photos that fill the canvas; on a Fit or Free photo, click Set to Fill first.

Describe a change: Adjust settings

Use this when you know what you want but not which setting does it.

Select the clip. Describe a change is at the top of its Edit tab.
Click Adjust settings · no credits.
Type what you want, for example "keep the first 5 seconds, brighter, play it at double speed, fade out the sound".
Click Apply.

The settings change at once, and a note says what changed and anything it couldn't do. It uses no credits and is undoable. It can trim, change the speed, colour and sound, and the canvas shape. Speed is set to one of the values in the clip's Speed setting (0.25× to 4×); if you ask for something in between, it picks the nearest and says which. If what you asked for changes what's in the picture, it says so and offers Switch to ★ Change the picture, with your words kept. See AI tools for video.

Still stuck?

Email support@vibeday.com with what you're trying to do and a screenshot if it helps — we'll write back within one business day.

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