Build the elements of your graphic.

Create, select, check.

1. Open the comp and move to the starting frame.
2. Choose a text or shape tool, or a Library starting item.
3. Create the object and confirm selection and clip timing.
4. Set content, appearance and transform.
5. Check it at output size, then save.

Position moves an object. Anchor chooses the rotation/scale pivot. Apply Scale is a geometry operation, not simply resetting a percentage.

Add a solid or a null.

The Add tool makes a Solid, a colour rectangle you can size and colour, and a Null, a transform that draws nothing and works as a parent for other objects. A null has position, rotation, scale and origin, but no size or opacity. In After Effects it carves to a real Null layer with the children parented to it. In Resolve it carves to a transparent background with a Transform that the children follow.

Text is more than a family name.

Adjust wording, font face/style and typography controls. Check the face actually in use. Font changes can alter wrapping, spacing and bounds; longer wording can change how the animation looks.

After refreshing fonts, check the selected face again. A font on your machine is not automatically available on another machine or licensed for redistribution. Test the languages your project needs.

Shape geometry and appearance separately.

Shapes have fill, stroke and transform controls. Paths have points and spatial handles. Spatial handles shape geometry; temporal handles shape motion over time.

• Compound paths hold contours and holes. Releasing them can fill former holes.
• Editable Boolean operations keep their operands; check the resulting contours.
• Animated paths need the same point/contour structure on every key.
• Check the result after an operation and Undo if it is not what you wanted.

Choose effects that apply to the object.

Add effects from the list available for the selected object. Reorder, bypass and remove are separate actions. Promoting a parameter does not enable its effect. Object motion blur is not optical-flow footage interpolation.

Check how an effect looks in your actual output, especially in editable Fusion, before relying on it.

Eleven new effects are in the Add effect list: Hue/Saturation, Vignette, Pixelate, Tint, Zoom blur, Sharpen, Levels, Posterize, Displace, Chromatic aberration and Lens. They are sent to After Effects and DaVinci Resolve. Some, such as Zoom blur and Lens, are approximate in the editors, so check the result.

Add a transition.

A transition blends one clip into the next, or brings a single clip in or out.

• Types: Dissolve, Wipe, Push, Slide, Iris, Zoom and Morph.
• Put one on the cut between two clips on a track, or use it as a clip’s In or Out.
• Find presets, with previews, in Library > Transitions.
• Copy, undo and save carry them with the clip.

When you send to an editor, a transition arrives as one editable comp: an After Effects precomp, or a Fusion clip in Resolve. Some soft edges, and Iris in particular, can be close rather than identical, so check the frames.

Keep original media accessible.

Import images, video or audio. A file extension alone does not guarantee a codec will decode on your machine. Check decoding, dimensions, timing and audio after import.

A preview proxy is a smaller copy for editing. It does not replace the original for output. Check proxy status before starting proxy work again, and keep source files when removing a proxy.

Understand what the starting item does.

The Library contents can grow with updates. Website illustrations are examples, not a catalogue.