Retiming and speed
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Retime maps a layer’s time (or clip time, inside a Sequence layer). Use it to ramp speed or hold a frame. It can also run footage backwards.
What can be retimed
Section titled “What can be retimed”- Footage layers have their own Retime.
- Precomp layers have their own Retime. A node graph placed as a Precomp layer retimes the same way, and a Time offset box shifts one branch inside a graph.
- Inside a Sequence layer, each cut clip has its Retime.
Speed is the rate the retime map runs at:
| Speed | Result |
|---|---|
| 100% | Normal. |
| 0% | A freeze. The frame holds. |
| −100% | Reverse. |
Speed is easiest to work with through the Speed lens of the graph editor rather than the Value lens, which shows which moment of the source is on screen instead.
Make a speed ramp
Section titled “Make a speed ramp”
- Turn on Retime for the layer.
- Add a keyframe where the ramp starts.
- Add another where it ends.
- Shape the curve between them in the graph editor.
Overrun
Section titled “Overrun”Overrunning is when the map asks for source time past the end of the media, or before its start. Lumit clamps the boundary frames and marks the region in the timeline.
Overrun never moves layer boundaries or edit points.
Frame interpolation
Section titled “Frame interpolation”The In-between frames setting on a footage layer’s Source card decides what shows when a retime lands between two source frames:
| Mode | How |
|---|---|
| Nearest | Repeat the closer frame. Sharp, but it stutters. |
| Blend | Crossfade the two frames. Smooth, but it ghosts. |
The third answer is Flow, which synthesises the frame in between. It is the Flow switch in the layer’s switch cluster rather than an entry in that dropdown. Turning it on reveals a Flow group in the Effect Controls panel: engine, measurement resolution, input rate, vector detail, smoothness, how occlusions are handled, what to fall back to, a guard for on-screen overlays, and a switch to force it on where it would otherwise stand down.
Engine is Lumit’s own optical flow or the RIFE model pack installed from Settings ▸ Addons. A machine without the pack previews with the built-in engine and says so on the row, and an export of that layer is refused.
Turning Flow off returns the layer to Nearest and keeps the group’s settings.
Frame interpolation is a render setting either way. It does not change the retime map.
Stretch
Section titled “Stretch”Stretch plays the layer at a new speed and gives it the length that implies. Right-click the layer’s row in the Timeline and choose Stretch….
The dialogue takes a new speed in per cent or a new duration, and editing either moves the other. The layer is anchored at its in point.
Stretch rescales the Retime map itself, so an existing Retime is kept — every key’s time is scaled about the in point.
A clip inside a Sequence layer has Speed… instead, and no duration field — a clip’s place and length are fixed. Reset speed on the same menu puts it back to 100%.
Freeze a frame where you are
Section titled “Freeze a frame where you are”Right-click the layer’s row and choose Freeze frame at playhead. The moment showing is held for one second, everything after it is pushed that far later, and the map is cropped back to the layer’s own out point — the layer’s length never changes. The tail may newly overrun.
The hold is two ordinary keyframes once it is made, so it drags and eases like anything else. It is refused on a Sequence layer, and at a moment on or outside the layer’s own ends.