Animate visuals in your scene to change their position, size, cropping, rotation, or opacity over time. Use presets for quick effects, or create custom animations using keyframes. Text and captions can also be animated to control how they appear or move on screen.

This article covers:

• How to apply animations using Underlord
• How to add or remove an animation manually
• Available animation presets
• How to create a custom animation
• How to use custom animation curves

Option 1: Apply animations with Underlord

If you’d prefer to skip the manual steps, ask Underlord, Descript’s AI co-editor, to animate your visuals or captions for you.

Try prompts like:

• "Add zoom in and outs at the start of all of my scenes or jump cuts"
• "Make the video fade out the last 10 seconds"
• "Animate the title screen"

Underlord will apply the animation and generate the keyframes automatically. You can still open the animation editor and make adjustments as needed. Learn more about using Underlord.

Option 2: Add or remove animations manually

To manually add animations, select the visual in the scene editor that you want to animate.

• To add an animation: Click the + button in the Animation section of the Properties panel.
  
• To remove an animation: Click the minus (-) button next to the animation.
  

Available animation presets

Choose from the following in/out presets for visual or text layers:

Custom animations

With a custom animation, you control exactly how a visual or text element appears, moves, or changes over time. Unlike presets, you define the start and end of the animation using keyframes, and adjust properties like position, size, and opacity to create the effect you want.

How to add and adjust a custom animation

1. Select a visual in the Scene Editor.
2. In the Properties panel, click the + icon in the Animation section, then select Custom from the dropdown.
3. Your animation will appear in the timeline with two diamond icons (keyframes for start and end).
   
4. To adjust the animation duration: drag either keyframe left or right in the timeline.
5. To edit the animation properties at each keyframe, you can:
   • Use the Scene Editor to visually resize or move the layer.
   • Use the Properties panel to change numeric values under Size and position.
6. Repeat adjustments for the second keyframe as needed.
7. To exit animation mode, press Esc

To re-adjust your animations, click the Edit keyframes in timeline button in the Properties panel.

Targeting animation by text unit

You can animate text by word, line, or paragraph using the Appear and Reveal presets. This is useful for emphasizing specific text timing or pacing.

• By word: Each word animates separately.
• By line: Each line animates as a unit.
• By paragraph: The entire paragraph animates together.

Custom animation curves

Animation curves control how quickly or slowly a layer animates between keyframes. Use the Animation settings panel to choose a curve that matches the pacing you want—whether it’s linear, smooth, or snappy.

Easing options help your animations feel more natural. You can apply different curves to entry and exit points to fine-tune the flow.