Make one
- Select the clips, titles or sounds to group (Shift-click or drag a box).
- Click Group in the bar above the timeline, press Ctrl+G, or right-click and choose Group into a compound clip.
- One clip takes their place. Move, trim, split or speed it up like any clip.
Edit inside
- Double-click the compound clip (or select it and click Open).
- Edit as usual. Every edit is one Undo step, as anywhere else.
- Go back with ‹ Project in the timeline header, or press Esc (twice if a clip is selected).
Rename it: inside, click its name in the timeline header (Compound 1), type and press Enter. The inspector's Info tab has a Name field too.
Break it apart
Select it and press Ctrl+Shift+G, or choose Break apart under More in the bar above the timeline (or right-click). The clips come back exactly where they were.
| Good to know | |
|---|---|
| Effects | Motion, transitions, colour, crop, opacity, volume and fades on the compound clip apply to the whole group |
| Copies | A copy (duplicate, copy and paste, Alt-drag) gets its own content: editing one copy never changes another |
| Split halves | Splitting a compound clip in two keeps one shared inside: an edit inside shows in both halves |
| Locks | A locked compound clip locks everything inside it. Locks inside still protect those clips |
9 more details
- Up to three levels: a compound clip inside a compound clip inside a compound clip.
- Some things stay on the clips inside, not on the compound clip: colour look files (LUTs), green screen, captions, Match voice, voice and audio effects, and sound sync. Open it and set them there.
- Clean up, Select object and Follow a subject skip a compound clip: open it and use them on the clips inside.
- Project settings (canvas size, frame rate, markers, subtitles, master sound) can't change while a compound clip is open. Go back to the project first.
- Break apart says why when the compound clip has its own effects or a speed other than 100 %. For effects, Break apart anyway removes them.
- Clips must be next to each other on the main row to be grouped. A title that also covers the clip before or after has to be trimmed or that clip included: the message names both.
- An adjustment layer is grouped together with the main-row clips under it, so it keeps adjusting the same pictures.
- The preview of a sped-up compound clip can play less smoothly than a plain clip. The export is exact.
- The AI can read and edit inside compound clips too, with the same locks and Undo.