What is the Stage?
Understand what the Stage is and how you can change its properties.
The Stage is the area where you compose your content. It is the canvas for your creation. By default, this area is white, but you can adjust the background color in the Stage Properties panel on the right-hand side of the Studio Editor:
Click the ‘Gear’ icon top right to open the Stage Properties panel.
Here you can adjust the following properties:
- The Stage size: You can make videos in any aspect ratio. Want to make a video that matches the ratio of a Facebook Header, an Instagram post or maybe a square? You can easily modify the size of the Stage by clicking ‘Size’ and selecting an aspect ratio from the dropdown list:
- Project Mode: The standard mode is a video, but you can also make presentations or add some interactivity. Please note that with Interactive mode, you will also need to use the Moovly player which will be included in your download.
- The Background color: Modify the color of the Stage. Click the white square to change the Stage color and a color panel will appear. Select a new color and just click in an empty area to close the color panel.
- Enable smart guides: these are thin helper lines that appear on the Stage when you want to align objects with each other.
- Show Grid: for correct positioning of objects, you can use a helper grid with the number of horizontal or vertical lines of your choosing. Tick the Snap option to make objects magnetically snap to these lines.
Additional options are available in the toolbar above the Stage:
- Move the Stage: click the ‘hand’ icon to lock your content and move the Stage in any direction. This option can be interesting in case you want, for example to position an object outside the Stage or to do detailed work in a corner of the Stage. Click the ‘arrow’ icon to back to content editing.
- Add Text: you can add text objects on the Stage by clicking the Text icon.
- Draw a shape: select a shape from the dropdown and draw it on the Stage.
- Flip or mirror an object: you can flip an object vertically or horizontally by first selecting the object and then clicking these icons above the Stage:
- Cut, copy, and paste objects, including their properties and animations. Use the following icons above the Stage to cut, copy or paste:
- Please note:
- When you paste an object, it is put at exactly the same position on the Stage, but in terms of timing it will be put where the Playhead is when you perform the Paste operation. This way, for example, an object you copy at timestamp 0:05 can be pasted later in the video at 1:05, at exactly the same position.
- For cut, copy and paste, the typical keyboard shortcuts also work: Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V (or on Mac computers: Cmd-X, Cmd-C and Cmd-V)
- When you paste an object, it is put at exactly the same position on the Stage, but in terms of timing it will be put where the Playhead is when you perform the Paste operation. This way, for example, an object you copy at timestamp 0:05 can be pasted later in the video at 1:05, at exactly the same position.
- Align or distribute objects: when you select multiple objects, you can align them using this icon and its dropdown list:
- Adding a grid: for easy and correct positioning of your objects on the Stage, you can show a grid with a chosen number of horizontal and vertical lines.
Finally, you are also able to perform certain actions directly on the object:
- Rotate or tilt an object: you can rotate an object around its center point by dragging the corner of the object:
- Resize an object: click and hold the corner of the object’s binding box and drag it to a smaller or bigger size
- Move an object: click on the object and drag it to its new position
Note that every visual object also has a right-click menu with different options such as Cut, Copy, Bring Forward or Backward, etc.
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