# Techniques and still frames

> The editor's moves applied in one press and timed to the song, still frames that cut your subject out of a frame, the talking-video tools, and techniques of your own.

https://driftedit.app/manual/techniques/

Editors repeat the same moves: a zoom on the kick, a punch-in on the beat, a freeze on the hit. The **Techniques** panel does each one in a single press on the selected clip, timed to the song, as ordinary keyframes, cuts and effects you can change afterwards. One undo takes a technique away.

![The Techniques panel with its categories](https://driftedit.app/manual/shots/techniques-light.webp)

*The Techniques panel*

## How to use one
1. Select a clip on the timeline. Move the playhead near the moment it should happen: techniques on a kick use the kick nearest the playhead.
2. Click a technique in the Techniques panel. Its tile shows your clip as the move will treat it.
3. A tile that does not fit what you selected is dimmed; click it and it says why (a title is needed, or the song's beats).

Right-click a technique for **How it works**: what it does, when to use it, what to avoid and what to check afterwards. Right-click a clip on the timeline to apply techniques from there too.

A technique that takes a while (finding the person for **Blur the background**, a photo moved in depth, a loop, a followed point, the voices cleaned, a still frame) shows its progress on its clip and in the timeline's toolbar. Press it there for the list of what is running: **Stop** beside one ends it, and nothing it was making is applied. Smoothing a slowed clip in the background, which it needs to play smoothly, runs to the end.

> [!NOTE] Techniques need the beat
> Techniques timed to the song need its kicks on the timeline. An auto edit has them. For an edit you made by hand, press **Find the beats** at the top of the panel.

## The techniques
| Group | Technique | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Hits** | **Impact on the kick** | A quick zoom on a kick that settles back, so the hit is seen as well as heard. |
| | **Punch in** | A cut to a closer view of the same shot on the beat. |
| | **Freeze on the hit** | A closer view of the frame on the kick held for 0.4 s, then playback resumes. |
| | **Lens hit** | The picture bent hard as a wide lens bends it, settling slowly to nothing over the clip. |
| **Speed** | **Velocity on the beat** | Slow on each kick, fast between them: a velocity edit. |
| | **Rewind onto the beat** | The clip plays backwards with a zoom out, ending on a kick. |
| | **Make it loop** | The clip ends on a frame that looks and moves like its first, so it loops without a seam. |
| | **Smooth motion** | Slow motion that stays fluid: a model draws the frames between the footage's own. |
| **Cuts** | **Cut on the beat** | A long shot cut on every bar, alternating wide and close. |
| | **Wipe with the movement** | The next shot wipes in the way the last one was moving. |
| **Words** | **Words on the beat** | A title's words appear one at a time, each on a kick. |
| **Sound** | **Riser into the drop** | A riser over the four seconds before the drop, a boom on it. |
| | **Sound leads in** | The sound starts half a second before the picture (a J-cut). |
| | **Sound carries on** | The last shot's sound plays on into this one (an L-cut). |
| | **Split into stems** | Vocals, drums, bass and the rest, each on its own track. |
| **Visual edits** | **Follow what moves** | A title or sticker tracked to the subject under it, frame by frame. |
| | **Move in depth** | A photo pushed into, near things moving against far ones. |
| | **Blur the background** | The person kept sharp, the background blurred. |

## Still frames
A still frame holds one frame of a clip, cuts its subject out (a car, a person, a drawn character: whatever stands out), and makes the subject and the background move apart on the beat. Editors put it on the beats before a drop.

1. Select a video clip and move the playhead to the frame you want.
2. Click a still frame technique, under **Still frame**.
3. The first time, the subject model downloads (98 MB, once). Then the frame is read, the subject cut out, and the still placed: by default the two beats before the clip.

The still is two pictures from your clip, kept in the bin: the subject on transparency, and the background with the subject's place filled in, so the subject can move without leaving a hole. They sit on two tracks, grouped. Press another still frame technique while the still is selected to add its moves.

| Move | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Rise in** | The subject rises from below and lands on the beat with an impact. |
| **Glow** | A coloured glow round the subject swells on every beat. |
| **Shake on the beat** | The subject shakes on each beat while the background holds still. |
| **From black** | The subject starts as a black silhouette and comes up into its colours. |
| **Slide with a trail** | The subject slides in, a trail of copies behind it. |
| **Sparkling outline** | A bright outline round the subject that glitters. |
| **Colour change** | The subject's colours change on each beat. |
| **Shaking shadow** | The subject's shape again behind it, in one colour, sharp and jumping about. |
| **Lens warp** | The background bent hard behind the subject, settling to nothing. |
| **Zoom** | A slow push in, or a punch on the landing beat; on the background, it gives depth. |

Built-in combinations: **Drop intro** (rise, glow, shaking shadow), **Reveal** (from black, slide), **Aura** (glow, glitter, a light shake), **Lens drop** (the subject rises as the background bends) and **Parallax** (the background pushes in and trembles behind a glowing subject).

## Talking-head video
For someone talking to the camera:

- **Edit a talk** does it all at once: cleans the voice, removes the pauses, cuts to a closer framing at each jump cut, writes the captions and lowers the music. To choose which pauses go, use **Remove pauses** on its own.
- **Clean up the voice**: less rumble and room hiss, even levels, the loudness set for short videos.
- **Remove pauses**: silences longer than 0.7 s between words are shown on the timeline first, each kept or removed as you choose, with a breath left on each side. Captions move with the words.
- **Lower the music under speech**: the music drops by 12 dB under each phrase.
- **B-roll on the words**: where footage in your bin shows what is said, it is cut in over the speaker for that phrase, the voice continuing underneath.

## Techniques of your own
Every technique with settings can be made your own, and you can build a new one from scratch.

- **Make your own**: right-click a technique and change its settings: how far Impact zooms and how quickly it settles, how long Freeze holds, how slow and fast Velocity goes. For a still frame: its length in beats, where it goes, how dark and soft the background is, and its moves, in two lists, one for the **Subject** and one for the **Background**.
- **New technique** builds one from steps. Each step is a **When** (the kick by the playhead, every kick, every bar, the drop, the clip's start or its end) and a **What**: a zoom, a move, a turn or the opacity pulsing to a value and back, any effect's setting pulsing, the speed slowed or rushed around the hit, or a cut there. Steps add up: a zoom punch, a white flash and a shake on every kick, for example.

**Apply to the selected clip** shows it on your clip; pressed again, it replaces what it put there. **Save** keeps it under **Yours**, **Export** saves a `.drifttechnique` file to share, and **Open** brings one in. Your techniques travel with the projects that use them and, signed in, to your other devices.