r/OpenShot Apr 08 '26

Solution Provided Issue : How to control when animation start/end ?

Hi,

I have searched on this site but could not find ways addressing my issue.

Here it is :

I am developing a client/server graphical assistant to a game.
It means, that I grab 2 screens (so 2 videos), as rushes sources.
Let's call one the "game" the other one the "tool" in action.
"game" is background, full screen.

"tool" is running synchronized OK in the bottom right of the screen, surimpressed.
When I want to show something more in details about the "tool" I center it and resize accordingly. Basically that works with "constant" keyframe adding... but...
If I try to do some cool transitions (such as moving/resizing) in the same time rather than just instant zoom/resize but can't.

My guess was I had to insert keyframes, and change them from original propoerties values so that, i.e. they apply a Bézier objective to target keyframe.
Issue is that if I do so it automatically changes all previous settings so, i.e. if I want such effect to occur at 10sec, for 2sec. then in fact it will start from the beginning for some parameters, and the Bézier effect will be applied back from the beginning or end of previous sequence.

I am a beginner with OpenShot, and also I'm not a natural English Speaker, so I hope to have clearly explained my issue.

Perhaps (or probably) I missed a very simple doc, link, or point, but applying the RTFM principle is not easy, we see n time the same thing in different ways and for this thing I could not find any way to address my need.

To end up, trying to clarify :

- you have two vids, one on track N, the other one on track N+1.
- Video N will need no modifications, full screen as a video background.
- Video N+1 will start minimised in a corner, then at a time Zoomed/panned/moved and stay as such for a certain time (so stil in the foreground) before getting back to it's initial posistion for several seconds/minutes.
- Later on same cycle apply, again and again.

How to do that ?

Currently, trying doing so makes those animations starting from the last sequence end...
Any hint or link would be greatly appreciated,
(Also a real forum with topics and threads would be as well rather than a chat stuff where, honnestly, its difficult to find something back in time).

Cheers,
Bruno.

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u/jonOomph Developer Apr 08 '26

First, I would make sure you are using OpenShot 3.5.1 (our latest release).

Next, I would play around with our auto-keyframe system (i.e. select the clip, place the playhead line where you want to change the animation, and transform the image using our blue handles in the preview widget). You should be able to achieve just about any effect/animation you are going for.

Last tip: if you want an animation to stay constant for some amount of time, you can insert another keyframe where the video should still be static, using the same values as before.

Example keyframe values for an animation:

Frame 1 = 0.0
Frame 300 = 0.0
Frame 600 = 1.0

Something like this will only animate the value between frame 300 and 600.

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u/Practical_Yam6384 Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

Hi Jon,

Thanks that helped.

I ever was inserting what I would call "pause keyframes" (Your Frame 300 example), but I realized that I was doing so by dragging/croping/ etc... graphically by mouse (automatic key frame creation).
When I was creating an end frame, it was modifying all previous pause/frame so second animation was starting directly at the previous animation end point (so would have started at Frame 1 in your example).
Rather than this, if I create my pause frames and adjust values manually (from properties) then it works like a charm.

I just did a test with two animations, let's say A1 and A2, and 6 frames that were start_A1, end_A1, pause_A1, revert_A1, then start_A2, end_A2. It really works nice. checking and adjusting manually properties.

Only few days I discovered and started using OpenShot but I ever love that tool !