What are Retiming Marks?

Every element has an intro, a middle, and an outro. Retiming marks demarcate these sections, so that when an element is placed in a project, the animations in the intro and outro are preserved, while the middle compensates for any changes in duration. Creating elements that can can be altered when placed in projects significantly increases their usability. 

Retiming marks appear as small yellow ticks on the timeline, as seen in the image below. They are only visible when editing the element, and not when the element is placed into a project.

The behavior (retiming) of the middle is determined by the value of Retiming, set in the Element Settings. Retiming can have the following values.

• Freeze — The last frame of the middle part is held as a freeze frame if the duration is longer than the element's original duration, or cut off if the element duration is shorter.
• Stretch — The middle part is stretched (slowing down) if the duration is longer, or compressed (sped up) if the duration is shorter.
• Loop — The middle part is looped to fill any extra duration. If the duration is shorter or doesn't match an even number of loops, the last loop will be cut off midway.
• Loop & Stretch — The middle part is looped to fill any extra duration, but if there are any partial loops left over they removed and the remaining whole loops are stretched out to make up the complete duration. Use this if you want the middle part to loop at approximately the same speed as the original, but still match up seamlessly with the intro and outro.
• Blank — The intro and outro times are ignored and the element duration is fixed. If the duration in the host project is longer, the remaining time is shown as blank (transparent); if shorter, the element is cut off.

Notes

No Retiming Marks on An Element

If retiming marks are not explicitly set, it is assumed that the intro and outro both have a duration of zero seconds, meaning that the entire duration of the element is comprised of the middle.

Learn More

To learn more on elements please see our complete guide: https://support.alightcreative.com/hc/en-us/articles/360021029732