Animated overlay cards
23 designed, animated overlay presets — lower thirds, stat callouts, social-post cards, CTAs — from the Cards panel or one agent prompt.
Animated overlay cards are designed motion graphics that play over your footage with a transparent background — lower thirds, big-stat callouts, social-post "receipts", follow CTAs — without building anything in a design tool. Pick from 23 presets in the Cards panel, or describe the card to the agent and let it choose the moment, preset, and wording.
Ask the agent (fastest)
"Add a lower third with my name when I first appear. Title: Maya Chen, subtitle: Product Lead, orange accent."
"Put an X post card on screen when I mention the tweet — handle @maya, post text 'We just crossed 10k users.'"
"Add a stat count-up card the moment I say 42%. Subtitle: lower cost per signup."
"Find the strongest quote in this clip and put a pull quote card over it."
"Add a follow CTA for TikTok at the end, handle @pluged."
What the agent actually does
The agent reads the transcript to pick the exact start time (an intro card in the first seconds, a stat card the moment the number is spoken), picks a preset and accent, and bakes the card. Because it's grounded in the transcript, timing usually lands right on the first try — and it's undoable if not.
The agent also has one option the panel doesn't: it can bake a fully custom card from a self-contained HTML + CSS fragment. Motion comes from CSS animations (@keyframes) only — no scripts, and images must be inline data: URIs. Ask for it in plain language:
"Design a custom animated card announcing our v2 launch — dark, glassy, with the logo text sliding in."
Add a card manually
- Move the playhead to where the card should start.
- Open Cards in the left asset panel.
- Type a Title (required) and optionally a Subtitle, Handle, and Body — which fields matter depends on the preset (see the fields table below).
- Pick a preset, accent color, alignment, and duration.
- Click add and wait a moment for the card to bake.
The card lands on the timeline as an animated overlay: move it, trim it, duplicate it, delete it, or transform it like any other overlay element. To change its text or preset, add a corrected card and delete the old one — cards are baked at creation.
The 23 presets
Lower thirds (11)
Speaker intros, roles, and labels. Best in the lower-left or lower-right, in the first few seconds after a person or section appears.
| Name | Feel |
|---|---|
| Clean Bar | Crisp white bar with a colored accent tab — the default |
| Soft Pill | Rounded pill, softer creator-friendly feel |
| Dark Card | Dark card with accent underline — for bright footage |
| Mask Reveal | Text wipes in from behind a mask |
| Bold Block | Heavy block type, high impact |
| Kicker Name | Small kicker line above a large name |
| Accent Underline | Minimal text with a drawn accent underline |
| Stack Bars | Stacked color bars behind staggered text |
| Color Block | Solid accent-color block |
| Side Rule | Thin vertical rule beside the text |
| YouTube Subscribe | Subscribe-style lower third for YouTube content |
Data and stats (5)
Center-placed, timed to the exact moment the number or line is spoken.
| Name | Use for |
|---|---|
| Data Callout | One oversized number with a label (42% / lower cost per signup) |
| Stat Count-Up | A number that counts up with rolling digits |
| Bar Chart | Animated horizontal bars — the body takes label:value, label:value pairs (max 5) |
| Code Card | A code block card — the body is the code; dark or light variants |
| Pull Quote | One strong spoken line with attribution |
Social (5)
On-screen "receipts" and CTAs that look like the real thing.
| Name | Use for |
|---|---|
| X Post | Show a tweet — the handle is the author, the body is the post text |
| Reddit Post | Show a Reddit post — the handle is the sub (like r/fitness) |
| Music Card | A now-playing style music card |
| Follow CTA | Follow prompt — TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube variants |
| Notification | A push-notification card — iOS or macOS variants |
Misc (2)
| Name | Use for |
|---|---|
| News Ticker | Breaking-news style scrolling ticker |
| Outro Card | End card with handle and CTA |
Card fields
| Field | What it does | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Primary line: name, stat, or quote (required for presets) | All |
| Subtitle | Secondary line: role, stat label, attribution | Most |
| Body | Longer text: post text (X Post, Reddit Post), notification body, code (Code Card), or label:value pairs (Bar Chart) | Presets with a body area |
| Handle | Social handle like @richie, or sub name like r/fitness | X Post, Reddit Post, Follow CTA, Outro Card |
| Variant | Preset flavor: Follow CTA → TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube; Notification → iOS or macOS; Code Card → dark or light | Those three presets |
| Accent color | Accent hex, e.g. #ff5a36 | Most |
| Alignment | Left, center, or right (default left) | Presets that support it |
| Duration | On-screen time, 1.5–15 seconds (default 4) | All |
Timing and layout tips
- Lower thirds: first few seconds after a person or section appears.
- Stat and social cards: the exact moment the stat or post is mentioned — this is where the agent's transcript timing shines.
- 3–5 seconds on screen for most cards; dense cards (posts, charts) need longer.
- Keep cards inside the safe area for TikTok/Reels/Shorts, and don't cover faces or captions. If a card collides with captions, move or retime one of them.
- One or two strong cards per 30 seconds reads premium; a card on every sentence reads cluttered.
Limits
- Cards are baked at creation. Edit the text or preset by adding a new card and deleting the old one — you can't re-edit a card's content in place.
- Card assets live in IndexedDB (this browser). Open the project on another device and the card images won't be there — finish and export card-heavy edits on the machine where you made them.
- Custom cards (agent-only) allow CSS animations only: no scripts, no external assets — inline everything as
data:URIs. - Baking takes a moment; wait for it to finish before transforming the card.
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Fix |
|---|---|
| Add button disabled | Enter a title first |
| Card at the wrong time | Drag it on the timeline, or tell the agent "move the intro card to when I first appear" |
| Card overlaps captions | Move, shorten, or retime one of them |
| Wrong text on the card | Add a corrected card and delete the old one |
| Card missing on another device | Known limitation — card assets are stored in this browser only |
See also
- B-roll and overlay cards tutorial — cards and B-roll in a full workflow
- Text overlays and titles — plain text when a designed card is too much
- Left asset panel — where the Cards tab lives
- How the AI agent works