The Video Studio: tracks for your music video

The Video Studio shows the open project's Timeline as tracks. It is the same video as Classic's Timeline: a change in one is in the other, and Undo takes back every change in both. Open it from the Create menu, or as the Video studio tab inside Classic.

The tracks, from the top: the effects over the video; the video tracks you add (V2, V3 and up, the higher drawn over the lower); V1, the song's parts with their looks; the song; and the sound tracks.

• Open the Video Studio
• Open Classic's Timeline

Press Video track to add a track (a video holds up to 8), then Words or Shape to put a clip on it at the playhead. A clip is drawn over the picture under it, with its own opacity and fades, so words can sit over a shot or a shape over the whole video.

Clips on one track never overlap: a clip dragged onto another stops at its edge. A dragged clip snaps to the other clips' edges, the parts' edges and the playhead.

• Move: drag the clip, or focus it and press the Left and Right arrows (Shift for whole seconds).
• Trim: drag either edge, or press Alt with an arrow to change its end. A clip is never shorter than a quarter of a second.
• Change track: Up and Down on a focused clip, or Track above and Track below in its settings.
• Split: S on a focused clip, or Split, cuts it at the playhead; the first part keeps its fade in and the second its fade out.
• Delete: Delete or Backspace on a focused clip, or Delete in the toolbar.
• Hide a track with the eye: it is left out of the preview and the export. Lock it with the padlock: its clips stay as they are until you unlock it.

Select a clip to change its name, its words, how see-through it is and how long it fades in and out. Select a part's clip on V1 to make it the look Classic's settings edit: its visualizer, colours and layers.

A clip on a video track draws its pictures, words and shapes. A visualizer inside such a clip is not drawn yet; the studio says so on the clip.

Deliverables lists each platform's file: Spotify Canvas, Spotify Clip, Spotify Countdown video, Song preview (30 seconds), YouTube Short, Instagram Reel, TikTok, Apple Music motion art (square), Apple Music motion art (tall) and Music video (16:9). Open one to see its shape, length and sound, press Make the edit this shape to see the edit at its shape, and Show its safe area to see where the app's buttons and captions will cover the picture.

Export for makes the file from this edit at the platform's own shape and length, then reads it back and checks it against the platform's rules: Ready, or each rule it breaks.

• Export for every platform

A song made in the Music studio arrives with its tempo, its parts and its notes. SW Agent can open the Video Studio with it already on the Timeline, set up for a platform, and cut to the music: on its parts, every few bars, or on a track's notes.

• Open the Music studio