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Overlay templates

An overlay template is a layout of text, images and metadata tags that composites over a clip. Because its tags resolve per clip, one template labels a whole reel: each shot prints its own name, project, client, role and year.

Playback crossing a cut, the overlay fading in on the new shot and re-resolving to that shot's own metadata

Build a template in the overlay template editor first. Saved templates appear as tiles on the Features tab, one per template.

Put one on the reel

  1. Open the Features tab.
  2. Drag a template tile onto the strip itself, anywhere that is not a clip. It becomes the reel default and every clip gets it.
  3. To override one shot, drag a different tile onto that clip. Only that shot changes.
One template dropped on the strip, becoming the default on all three clips, then a second dropped on the middle clip alone as an override

The template band

The band along the top of the reel timeline shows which template applies where, one stretch per clip, labeled with the template's name.

Select a stretch and the settings panel offers:

  • This shot, which is the reel default, a named template, or Excluded.
  • Reel default, the template every clip inherits without an override of its own.
  • Fade-in, in frames, applied at every cut. Set it to 0 for a hard cut instead of a ramp.

Right-click the band for the same choices, plus Edit Template…, which opens the editor on that stretch's own template, and Remove Overlay From Reel.

Excluded is how you keep one shot clean without disturbing the rest: the reel keeps its default and that clip alone draws nothing.

Warning

A restricted shot never prints its client name, project or notes, whatever the template says. The rest of the layout still resolves.

What happens

The reel stores the default template's name and one override per shot, so the reel file references templates rather than containing them. Editing a template updates every reel that points at it, and renaming one follows into those reels rather than orphaning them.