Timeline Editor
Trim, sequence, caption, and render your clips into a finished video on the canvas
The Timeline Editor is FLORA's video editor, built directly into the canvas. It's a real multi-track timeline for trimming, sequencing, captioning, scoring, and rendering video — so the clips you generate in FLORA go all the way to a finished MP4 without leaving your workflow. Because the editor is a node, the finished cut flows right back onto the canvas as a new video you can keep building on.
Overview
The Timeline Editor turns a node into a full video-editing workspace, connected live to the clips that feed it. In it you can:
Assemble a sequence from your generated clips, laid out end to end on a single track
Trim and split clips to the exact frames you want
Layer up to 10 tracks of video, audio, text, captions, images, and shapes
Style each item — position, size, crop, rotation, opacity, playback rate, volume, and fades
Caption and title with your choice of font, stroke, and alignment
Render a finished MP4 server-side, saved back to the canvas as a new version
Export to a pro editor as an EDL / XML / FCPXML bundle with your source media
This is ideal for cutting a social clip, assembling a product teaser, finishing an ad, or scoring a short — all without exporting to CapCut or Premiere just to put together what you already made in FLORA.
The Timeline Editor reads its clips live from the nodes wired into it and always uses each node's latest generation. That link back to your graph is what makes it different from a standalone editor — see Connected inputs & live updates.
Getting Started
Adding a Timeline Editor Node
Add the Node
From the node menu, select Timeline to add it to your canvas. (You can also add the node first and connect clips afterward — order doesn't matter.)
Connect Source Clips
Connect clip nodes to the Timeline node. Each connected input becomes one layer, in the order you connected them. Select several nodes to wire them all in at once.
A video node
A video clip
An image node
A still clip (with a thumbnail)
An audio node
An audio track
A text node
An editable text layer
Open the Editor
Double-click the Timeline node, or click Open Timeline Editor in the node toolbar. The editor opens in place — the node becomes the editing surface, and the canvas stays pannable around it.
Edit and Render
Arrange, trim, and style your clips, then open the Export panel and choose Edited File to render a finished MP4 back onto the canvas.
The Timeline Editor is a paid feature — available on Starter and above (see Plans & limits).
The Editor Interface
The editor unfolds around the node itself — there's no full-screen takeover, and the FLORA chrome stays visible. It has three regions.
The Preview
The live playback area, shown right on the node. It reflects whatever the playhead is over. Opening reframes the canvas so the node clears the surrounding chrome; if you pan or zoom the node out of view, a Recenter toast brings you back.
The Properties Sidebar
On the right — a tools row plus an inspector that changes with your selection, organized into collapsible sections (at parity with the Layer Editor).
Video clip
Playback rate, volume, crop, rotation, rounded corners, position, size, opacity, fades
Audio clip
Volume, playback rate, fade in/out, timing
Text / caption
Font (Google Fonts), stroke, alignment, position, size, opacity, rotation
Image / shape / GIF
Position, size, crop, rotation, opacity, rounded corners
The Timeline Drawer
Slides up along the bottom, holding the playback controls and the timeline — tracks, clips, playhead, and ruler. Clips show film-strip thumbnails (and audio shows a waveform), and each track has hide and mute toggles to solo or silence a layer. Drag the top edge to resize its height, and snap its width between default and full canvas width.
Editing Clips
Your connected clips start on a single track, end to end, in connection order — a standard sequential assembly you then refine.
Arranging
Drag a clip left or right to reorder or move it; other clips make room.
Drag a clip up onto another track to layer it (overlays, text, picture-in-picture). You can use up to 10 tracks.
Snapping helps clips line up against each other and the playhead. Toggle it with the N key or the snapping toggle.
Trimming
Drag a clip's left edge to change where it starts, or its right edge to change where it ends. Trimming is non-destructive — you're changing the in/out points of that placement, not the source media.
Splitting at the Playhead
Move the playhead to the exact frame (scrub, or click the ruler).
Select the clip.
Click the scissors button (Split Clip at Playhead).
The clip splits into two, and you can trim, move, or delete either half. Split is available only when the playhead sits inside the selected clip.
The Clip Menu
Right-click a clip for its context menu:
Go to Node — frame the clip's source node on the canvas
Cut / Copy / Duplicate
Bring to front / Send to back — change stacking order where clips overlap
Duplicating, Copying & Deleting
Duplicate with
Cmd/Ctrl + D.Cut / Copy / Paste with
Cmd/Ctrl + X/C/V; Select all withCmd/Ctrl + A.Delete with
DeleteorBackspace(this also removes the clip's connecting edge on the canvas).
Styling a Clip
Select any item and shape it from the properties sidebar. Every item supports position, size, opacity, rotation, crop, layer order, and fade in / fade out. Video clips add playback rate, volume, and rounded corners.
There's no keyframe animation in this version, so an item's transform values are constant for its duration. To change a look partway through, split the clip and style each part separately. Undo any edit with Cmd/Ctrl + Z — undo applies to your edits only, never the surrounding canvas.
Text & Captions
Add titles, lower thirds, credits, and timed captions directly to your video.
Add text in the editor — press
Tto drop a new text item.Connect a text node — it comes in as an editable text layer, linked to its source node (Go to Node works on it, and renaming the node updates the label).
Style text from the sidebar: font (Google Fonts), stroke (an outline for legibility over busy footage), alignment, plus position, size, opacity, and layer order. Stack text above your video by putting it on a higher track.
Captions are handled as timestamped caption pages — text blocks tied to points in time, so each line shows at the right moment. Style them the same way as text.
Audio
The Timeline Editor handles audio as its own kind of track, so you can lay music or a voiceover under your video and balance the mix.
Connect an audio node (including audio you generated in FLORA), drag an audio asset from your library, or upload a file in the editor.
Each source becomes its own layer, so a music bed and a voiceover can run on separate tracks.
Select an audio clip to set its volume, playback rate, fade in / fade out, and timing (trim its edges and drag it to line up with the picture). Video clips carry their own audio too, adjustable per clip — lower the video or music volume to let a bed sit under dialogue, and use Mute during playback to check the picture on its own.
Connected Inputs & Live Updates
The Timeline Editor doesn't import copies of your clips — it reads them live from the nodes wired into it. Each connection is a layer that points back at its source node.
Always the Latest Generation
The editor reads each connected node's current active output — normally the newest generation.
Regenerate while the editor is open, and the layer refreshes to the new result automatically.
Regenerate while it's closed, and the layer is up to date the next time you open.
If you've selected an older generation as a node's active output, the editor mirrors that — it matches what the node is currently showing.
When a source node regenerates, its layer is replaced, not merged — a per-clip trim on that clip resets, because it's now different media. Trims on other clips are unaffected.
Go to Node
Every clip remembers where it came from. Right-click a clip → Go to Node, or double-click it, to frame its source node. Clips are labelled by their source node's title (not a file name or ID), and the label updates live if you rename the node. Text clips carry this link too.
Adding Media Without a Node
Drag from your library — any FLORA asset onto the timeline. Dragged-in assets are standalone (not linked to a source node).
Upload a file — it lands on the timeline and appears on the canvas as a connected media node, so it stays part of your graph.
New dropped or uploaded media lands as a new track starting at 0:00 — drag it along the track to place it.
Good to Know
Empty inputs are allowed — connect a node before it has generated anything; nothing appears until real content exists (you'll see a "No generations to edit" notice).
Deleting a clip whose source is still connected is temporary — it returns on reopen. Disconnect the source node to remove it for good.
Playback
The Playhead
The vertical line marking the current frame; the preview always shows what it sits on. Click the ruler to move it, or drag to scrub frame by frame. While playing, the timeline follows the playhead so it stays in view.
Playback Controls
Play / Pause
Plays from the playhead; pauses in place (Space)
Seek bar
Drag to move through the whole composition
Jump to start / end
Send the playhead to the beginning or the end
Loop
Repeat playback continuously
Mute
Silence preview audio
Fullscreen
Expand the preview to fill the screen
Only Play / Pause has a keyboard shortcut; the rest are buttons.
Zooming
Zoom the timeline horizontally with the zoom slider, or by pinching / scrolling on a trackpad while the editor is focused. Zooming affects only the timeline, not the canvas.
The in-editor preview is a fast approximation; the final render is produced server-side at full quality. If a clip hasn't rendered yet, the preview shows its source's first frame rather than a blank box.
Rendering & Export
The Timeline Editor gives you two ways to get your edit out, both in the node's Export panel.
Render to a Finished Video
Choose Edited File. FLORA renders your timeline server-side — on FLORA's infrastructure, not in your browser — so you can keep working or close the tab while it runs. You'll see a render-time estimate up front and progress as it renders. The result is an MP4 (H.264 video, AAC audio), saved back onto the canvas as a new version of the Timeline Editor node.
"Save Edits" vs. "Edited File." Save Edits bakes your current timeline down to a new version. Edited File does the same and then downloads the MP4. Either way, a render is what produces a version.
Unexported Edits
Your edits live on the node as you work, but downstream nodes keep using the last exported version until you export again. While you have changes that haven't been rendered, the node shows an "Unexported edits" badge. Downloading a cut that hasn't been rendered yet triggers a render first, then downloads the result.
What a Render Costs
Rendering is the one metered action — it draws on your workspace's credits, scaled by the length and resolution of the output. The editor shows the estimated cost before you render. Editing, previewing, and the NLE export are always free. See How renders are billed.
Render Quality
Renders use a balanced Standard profile by default. Where the picker is available, you can choose High (higher quality, slower) or Compact (smaller file). Set defaults per profile — output max edge, CRF, encoder preset, audio bitrate — in Account → Timeline Editor preferences.
Export to a Pro Editor (NLE Bundle)
To finish somewhere else, use the Timeline + Assets section — pick a format and download a ZIP with the project file plus your source media:
EDL (CMX3600)
Most NLEs
XML (FCP7 XML)
Premiere Pro
FCPXML
Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve
The timeline is reconstructed with clips relinked to the packaged sources. This export is client-side and runs no render.
Rendering runs server-side. If a server render isn't available and your browser falls back to in-browser encoding, use the latest Chrome or Edge — some browsers can't encode MP4 locally yet.
Plans & Limits
The Timeline Editor is a paid feature. Output length and resolution scale with your plan; frame rate, format, and track/clip capacity are shared across paid plans. Rendering draws on your workspace's credits.
Availability
Free
Not included
Starter
✅
Pro
✅
Max
✅
Enterprise
✅
If your plan doesn't include it, you'll see "Timeline export is not included on your current plan."
Length, Resolution & Inputs by Plan
Max duration
60 s
120 s
300 s (5 min)
600 s (10 min)
Max resolution
1080p (1920 px)
1080p (1920 px)
4K (4096 px)
4K (4096 px)
Image inputs
10
15
20
40
Video inputs
10
15
20
40
Audio inputs
5
8
10
20
Pro adds all aspect ratios (vertical/portrait) at 1080p; Max and Enterprise unlock 4K (up to 4096×2304).
Shared Across All Paid Plans
Frame rate
30 FPS
Output format
MP4 — H.264 video, AAC audio
Tracks (parallel layers)
10
Timeline items (clip placements)
100
Unique source assets
40
Max video file size (per upload)
500 MB
Assets are unique source files (one clip reused five times = 1 asset); items are placements on the timeline (that clip in five places = 5 items); tracks are the layers items sit on.
How Renders Are Billed
Render cost is charged in credits and scales with the length and resolution of the output — a short 1080p cut costs a fraction of a full-length 4K one.
Enterprise plans include a monthly render allowance (about $100 of render usage per user) before overages apply.
For the credits included with your plan and current render pricing, see the How Pricing Works section.
Guardrails
Concurrency — you can run up to 3 renders at once per user; additional renders queue until one finishes.
Device playback — preview plays in your browser, so heavy timelines can stutter on lower-memory machines. You may see a notice like "This device supports up to 5 simultaneous video tracks — playback may stutter above that." It's a warning, not a hard block; the final server render is unaffected. Hide or mute tracks you're not working on to smooth playback.
Keyboard Shortcuts
While the editor is focused, your normal canvas shortcuts are paused — so Cmd/Ctrl + Z undoes your last edit and never deletes the node. Shortcuts don't fire while you're typing in a text field.
Play / Pause
Space
Undo
Cmd/Ctrl + Z
Redo
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Z (or Cmd/Ctrl + Y)
Select all
Cmd/Ctrl + A
Duplicate
Cmd/Ctrl + D
Cut / Copy / Paste
Cmd/Ctrl + X / C / V
Delete
Delete or Backspace
Toggle snapping
N
Add text
T
Add media (import)
Cmd/Ctrl + I
Export EDL / XML / FCPXML
7 / 8 / 9 (Export panel open)
Split has no hotkey — use the scissors button. Loop, mute, fullscreen, and jump-to-start/end are buttons, not keys. Zoom with the slider or a trackpad pinch/scroll.
Limitations
No transitions beyond fades
No crossfades, dissolves, or wipes — only per-item fade in/out
No effects or color
No filters, LUTs, blur, distortion, or color grading
No keyframe animation
Per-item transforms are static for the clip's duration
Fixed output specs
30 FPS, MP4 / H.264 only
Plan-capped length & size
Duration and resolution are capped by plan (60–600s, 1080p–4K)
No Free access
The Timeline Editor is a paid feature
For anything beyond this — color, VFX, or long-form finishing — use the NLE export and finish in DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut, or Premiere.
Troubleshooting
A connected clip isn't showing
The source node hasn't generated anything yet, or its active generation isn't the one you expect — the editor shows the node's currently active output.
My trim reset itself
The source node regenerated, so its layer was rebuilt from the new result. To keep a trim regardless of regeneration, drag the finished asset in from your library (standalone) instead of leaving it linked.
A clip I deleted came back
Deleting a clip whose source is still connected is temporary. Disconnect the source node to remove it permanently.
Render won't start
You may not be on a plan that includes it, you may be over your plan's duration/resolution cap, or you may be at the 3-renders-per-user concurrency limit. Rendering is server-side, so it continues even if you close the tab.
Tips for Better Edits
Preview freely, render once — editing and previewing are free; you're only billed on render, so lock the cut before you export.
Split to restyle — since transforms are static per clip, split a clip to change a look partway through.
Name your source nodes — clips are labelled by node title, so clear names make a busy timeline readable.
Hide or mute tracks you're not working on to keep preview smooth on heavier edits.
Use Go to Node to jump back and regenerate a weak clip without losing your place in the edit.
Common Use Cases
Social clips — cut generated shots into a vertical reel with captions and a music bed
Product teasers — assemble a 30–60s sequence, trim to the beat, and render a clean MP4
Ads & sizzle reels — quick-cut multiple clips end to end with titles and audio
Finishing hand-off — assemble a rough cut in FLORA, then export the NLE bundle for color and VFX elsewhere
Last updated
Was this helpful?