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Overlays let you place an image or video on top of your recording — a logo, a screenshot, a reaction GIF, or a picture-in-picture clip — without replacing what’s already on screen. This is different from media (B-roll), which swaps out a whole slot of your layout. An overlay floats above everything for the stretch of time you choose.

Where to find overlays

  1. Open your video in the editor.
  2. Open effects in the sidebar.
  3. Find the Overlays section.

Add an overlay

  1. Move the playhead to where you want the overlay to appear.
  2. Click the plus button beside Overlays. This opens the Media Library.
  3. Pick an image or video — upload one from your computer, choose an existing item from your Personal or Workspace library, or generate an image with AI. (It’s the same library you use for media/B-roll.)
The overlay drops onto the canvas at the playhead.
With the library open, you can paste a copied image (⌘V / Ctrl+V) to upload and drop it in as an overlay in one step — no need to save the file first.
Transparent video overlays keep their transparent areas. This includes WebM files encoded with VP8 or VP9 and ProRes files with an alpha channel.

Position and size it

  • On the canvas, drag the overlay to move it and drag its corners to resize it.
  • The overlay keeps its position and size relative to your video frame, so it stays put across aspect ratios.
For image overlays, select the overlay to open its controls below the row in the sidebar. Use Ratio to crop it to its original shape or a preset aspect ratio, and use Size to set its width as a percentage of the canvas.

Set when it appears

In the timeline, adjust how long the overlay is on screen:
  • Drag the start or end of the overlay segment to change its duration.
  • Drag the segment left or right to move it earlier or later in the clip.
  • Or select the overlay in the effects sidebar. Its control panel opens below the row, where you can type precise start and end timestamps.
You can add several overlays and overlap them freely — no multi-track timeline required.
A video overlay shows its audio waveform on the timeline segment. Its trimmed range is capped to the length of the source clip, so a short video won’t loop to fill a longer overlay.

Mute a video overlay

Video overlays can include their own audio. To turn it off without removing the overlay:
  1. Open Effects in the sidebar.
  2. Find the video overlay and open its three-dots menu.
  3. Select Mute audio. Select Unmute audio from the same menu to restore it.
The mute action only appears for video overlays that can contain audio. It does not appear for image overlays.

Animate the overlay in and out

By default, an overlay hard cuts — it pops in and out instantly. To make it fade instead:
  1. Select the overlay in the effects sidebar.
  2. In the Transition control below the row, choose Smooth to fade the overlay in at its start and out at its end, or Hard cut to keep it instant.
Fades only apply to visual overlays. Audio clips are added as sound effects, which mix in without a fade.

Edit or remove an overlay

  • Select an overlay in the effects sidebar to open its timing, transition, and image controls and adjust it on the canvas.
  • Click an empty area of the canvas to deselect the overlay when you’re done adjusting it.
  • Use the overlay’s three-dots menu to remove it.

Reorder layers

Right-click an overlay on the canvas and choose Send to front or Send to back to change its order relative to other overlays. The Effects sidebar lists image and video overlays from front to back, matching their order on the canvas.