How to add a cutaway, call-out, or overlay to a talking head scene
The first thing you need to do to add a cutaway, call out, or overlay to your talking head scene is to create one! This is the same process as creating a scene for captions, which you can read about here.
Once the scene has been created, navigate to the Transcript tab that appears on the left side of the creator. You’ll also see a transcript button attached to the scene itself, making it easy to find your transcript anytime.
To add an overlay, click and drag to select the words in the transcript that correspond to the section of the video where you’d like your overlay to appear. The transcript functions like a timeline, and you can take a look at the timestamp that appears in the top left for details about when this overlay will appear on your scene. This approach is a lot easier than fiddling with 0.1 second increments, like you may have to with other video editors!
Once you’ve selected when you’d like the overlay to appear, click Add. You’ll be prompted to select the type of overlay you’d like to add: a cutaway to a piece of media, a text call-out that animates on top of your scene, or an icon that emphasizes a statistic are just some of the options available here:
Once you’ve made a selection, click on it to apply! You’ll see that a small preview of your overlay appears below your talking head scene, and there’s a gray highlight on top of the words in the transcript where the overlay has been applied. You can add as many overlays as you need to to tell your story! Additional overlays will appear below your scene in chronological order, and you’ll see the text in the transcript outlined in gray to indicate where each overlay begins and ends. Click on the overlay thumbnail below the scene or the overlay icon inside the transcript to navigate around:
Overlays function just like regular scene designs, so you can click right on the scene to edit call out text, change an icon color, or drag and drop from the media or icon library to change the image or icon on the scene. In this example, we’ll edit the text, choose a new icon, and then change the icon’s color:
Finally, timing is important with overlays! You’ll want to preview your scene to make sure that your overlay is appearing and disappearing at the right spot. We recommend selecting a few extra words than you think you need, to give your audience enough time to take in the content.
You can adjust the timing of an overlay by dragging the handles that appear inside the transcript tab when you click on it, like this:
Want to watch our CEO do all of that in under 4 minutes? Check that out here:
Once the scene has been created, navigate to the Transcript tab that appears on the left side of the creator. You’ll also see a transcript button attached to the scene itself, making it easy to find your transcript anytime.
To add an overlay, click and drag to select the words in the transcript that correspond to the section of the video where you’d like your overlay to appear. The transcript functions like a timeline, and you can take a look at the timestamp that appears in the top left for details about when this overlay will appear on your scene. This approach is a lot easier than fiddling with 0.1 second increments, like you may have to with other video editors!
Once you’ve selected when you’d like the overlay to appear, click Add. You’ll be prompted to select the type of overlay you’d like to add: a cutaway to a piece of media, a text call-out that animates on top of your scene, or an icon that emphasizes a statistic are just some of the options available here:
Once you’ve made a selection, click on it to apply! You’ll see that a small preview of your overlay appears below your talking head scene, and there’s a gray highlight on top of the words in the transcript where the overlay has been applied. You can add as many overlays as you need to to tell your story! Additional overlays will appear below your scene in chronological order, and you’ll see the text in the transcript outlined in gray to indicate where each overlay begins and ends. Click on the overlay thumbnail below the scene or the overlay icon inside the transcript to navigate around:
Overlays function just like regular scene designs, so you can click right on the scene to edit call out text, change an icon color, or drag and drop from the media or icon library to change the image or icon on the scene. In this example, we’ll edit the text, choose a new icon, and then change the icon’s color:
Finally, timing is important with overlays! You’ll want to preview your scene to make sure that your overlay is appearing and disappearing at the right spot. We recommend selecting a few extra words than you think you need, to give your audience enough time to take in the content.
You can adjust the timing of an overlay by dragging the handles that appear inside the transcript tab when you click on it, like this:
Want to watch our CEO do all of that in under 4 minutes? Check that out here:
Updated on: 04/10/2022
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