Timeline Reference

Navigation

Positioner

The “playhead” for playing the clip. The frame directly beneath the positioner is displayed in the Player or is the current location for an edit such as a dissolve or cut.

Focus point

A horizontal line on the positioner indicating the current track.

Back button

Click to move back one page in the timeline window.

Horizontal scroll bar

To pan, drag left or right. To zoom the timeline, drag up or down.

Forward button

Click to move forward one page in the timeline window.

Current Timecode field

Displays the timecode of the current position. Editable.

- button

Click to expand track height.

+ button

Click to decrease track height.

Vertical scroll bar

To pan, drag up or down. To zoom the timeline, drag left or right.

Timeline Search button

Click to open the Find and Select in Timeline window to search the timeline using many different criteria.

Timeline Layout combo box

Select an option to display the timeline.

Select:	To:
Home	Reset the view of the timeline.
Reset Height	Reset the height of the tracks in the timeline.
Fit to Width	Reset the horizontal scale of the timeline.
Fit Selection	Centre the timeline on the selected element.

Rendering

Rendering combo box

Select an option to render timeline effects. You can edit effects after rendering.

Select:	To:
Render	Render the selected elements. This is the default option.
Force Render	Force a render on a timeline effect that needs to be refreshed. Use this to force a render on a locked element, or when Smoke fails to recognize that a processed clip is no longer valid. For example, if you change a track in a complex vertical edit, you may need to force a render to update all the tracks in the stack.
Render Proxy	Render proxies only, not the corresponding high-resolution images. An amber outline appears on the timeline segment to indicate the state of the rendering.
Force Proxy	Force the rendering of a proxy on a timeline effect that needs to be refreshed.

NoteIf Burn is present, additional options are available.

Depending on how a clip is rendered, you can see a visual representation on the render bar at the top of the clip on the timeline:

Render Bar:	State:
	Unrendered.
	Rendered.
	Partially rendered.
	Proxy rendered.
	Proxy partially rendered.
	Sent to Burn.

Viewing

Timeline View Mode box

Select a viewing mode for working in the timeline.

Select:	To Display:
Timeline	Video and audio tracks in a timeline format with a positioner at the location of the current frame.
Reel	A collapsed view (only the current frame of each sequence). Shuttle through the sequence by dragging the cursor across the bottom of the frame.

TipIn Reel view, you can drag sequences to reorder them. If you switch back to Timeline view, the new order of sequences is maintained.

Timeline Tasks

Timeline Task menu

Select a task to perform on the timeline. Some of the options have sub-menus with more options.

Select:	To:
New	Add new tracks or versions to the timeline.
Edit	Perform various element or timeline editing operations.
Rename	Rename the selected timeline element.
Rename Track	Rename the selected track.
Media	Break the link between an element's metadata and media or high-resolution media.
Select All	Select all elements in the timeline.
Deselect All	Deselect all elements in the timeline.
Container	Work with containers on the timeline.
Group	Create an edit sync group for selected timeline elements.
Go To	Navigate to various areas of the sequence.
Marks	Work with In and Out, Cue, or Segment marks.
Stereo	Work with stereo tracks on the timeline.
Cut	Add a cut to the selected element at the positioner location.
Cut All Tracks	Add a cut to all tracks at the positioner location.
Merge Tracks	Merge timeline tracks into a single track.
Swap Effects	Copy timeline effects between clips.
Lift	Remove the selected element from the edit sequence, and leave a gap in its place.
Ripple Delete	Remove the selected element from the edit sequence, and close the gap.
Close Gap	Remove a gap and collapse the elements to fill the gap.
Commit	Manage your timeline to simplify or save space.
Render	Manage render options for the timeline.

Other Options

Timeline Options menu

Select an option for working on the timeline.

There are a number of audio options in this menu:

Select:	To:
Scrub Audio	Enable scrubbing audio while dragging the positioner.
Show Gain Animation	Display the animatable Segment Gain level.
Show Waveforms With Effects	Display waveforms after an effect is applied to an audio segment.
Show Waveforms Without Effects	Display waveforms before an effect is applied to an audio segment.
Hide Waveforms	Not display waveforms.
Increase Waveform Range	Zoom in on the waveform.
Decrease Waveform Range	Zoom out on the waveform.

Use the Rectangle Selection options to select how timeline elements are included in a selection when drawing a bounding box around them.

Select:	To select:
Inclusive	All elements that are partially or entirely included in the bounding box.
Partial	Only the portions of the elements that fall within the bounding box. Audio is selected on a sub-frame basis if Sub-frame Positioner is selected in the Timeline section of the Preferences menu.
Partial A/V	Only the portions of the elements that fall within the bounding box. Audio is selected on a frame basis even if Sub-frame Positioner is selected in the Timeline section of the Preferences menu.
Bounded	Only elements that are fully in the bounding box.

Enable one or both snap options to include in the timeline snap criteria:

• Snap To Positioner on Gestural Insert
• Snap Includes Marks

Enable Focus on Trim if you want the timeline positioner to snap to the transition while trimming, allowing you to view frames in the player.