Remotion Interactivity

By writing Remotion markup in a specific way, the Remotion Studio is able to recognize the structure of the code and makes it interactive:

• Allowing items to be selected by clicking on them
• Allowing drag+drop, resizing and rotation
• Editing the CSS styles
• Making keyframes and easing values editable

If the markup is too complex for the Studio to make it interactive, then the values become grayed out.

Make an HTML element interactive using Interactive

Every HTML and SVG element such as <div> can be turned interactive using Interactive:

<Interactive.Div
  name="Greeting card"
  style={{fontSize: 80, padding: 24}}
>
  Hello
</Interactive.Div>

This allows styles and keyframes to be set in the Studio. Be sensible, if a component has many elements, the timeline might get messy.

Prefer inline text

If text is fixed and only used once, write it directly inside the interactive element instead of extracting it into a constant.

// 👍 Fixed copy stays editable
<Interactive.Div name="Title">
  Remotion Best Practices
</Interactive.Div>

Use a prop or variable only when the text is dynamic or reused.

Give interactive elements a descriptive name

Add a name prop to elements to make them easily identifyable.

<>
  <Interactive.Div name="Hero title" style={{fontSize: 80}}>
    Launch day
  </Interactive.Div>
  <Img name="Avatar" src="https://remotion.media/image.jpeg" />
  <Video name="Background" src="https://remotion.media/video.mp4" />
  <Sequence name="Title">
    Launch day
  </Sequence>
</>

Keep all CSS styles inline

The best way is to just pass a plain object to style - no referring to constants, no object spreading, no math.

<Interactive.Div
  style={{
    fontSize: 80,
    color: 'red',
  }}
>
  Hello World!
</Interactive.Div>

const baseStyle = useMemo(() => {
  return {
    fontSize: 12 // ❌ Non-inline styles are not supported
  }
}, []);

<Interactive.Div
  style={{
    ...baseStyle, // ❌ Spreading is not supported
    color: RED, // ❌ Referring to constants is not supported
    scale: frame * 10 // ❌ Math is not supported
  }}
>
  Hello World!
</Interactive.Div>

Animate using interpolate()

Write animations as inline interpolate() calls on the property that changes. The output range, easing, extrapolation and output property should use hardcoded values.

The input range may additionally use durationInFrames, fps, width and height destructured directly from useVideoConfig(). Bare identifiers such as durationInFrames, multiplication with a number such as 2 * fps or fps * 2, and subtraction of a number such as durationInFrames - 1 are supported.

const {fps, durationInFrames} = useVideoConfig();

// 👍 Inline values can be standardized and keyframed
<Interactive.Div
  name="Product card"
  style={{
    color: 'white',
    fontSize: 80,
    scale: interpolate(frame, [0, fps], [0, 1], {
      easing: Easing.spring({damping: 200}),
      output: 'perceptual-scale',
      extrapolateLeft: 'clamp',
      extrapolateRight: 'clamp'
    }),
    rotate: interpolate(frame, [0, 1 * fps], ['0deg', '20deg'], {
      easing: Easing.spring({damping: 200}),
      extrapolateLeft: 'clamp',
      extrapolateRight: 'clamp'
    }),
    translate: interpolate(
      frame,
      [durationInFrames - 30, durationInFrames],
      ['0px 0px', '0px 120px'],
      {
        easing: Easing.spring({damping: 200}),
        output: 'perceptual-scale',
        extrapolateLeft: 'clamp',
        extrapolateRight: 'clamp'
      }
    ),
  }}
/>

const translateY = interpolate(frame, [0, 30], [0, 120]); // ❌ Math should be directly in the markup

<Interactive.Div
  name="Product card"
  style={{
    translate: translateY, // ❌ Only inline interpolate() calls are supported,
    rotate: interpolate(frame, [start, start + 10], [0, Math.PI]), // ❌ Cannot use math with arbitrary variables, cannot use constants
    scale: interpolate(anyVariable, [0, 30], [0, 1]) // ❌ Can only interpret the `frame` variable.
  }}
/>

Use scale, translate, rotate CSS properties

Avoid the transform CSS property. If possible, use scale, rotate and translate instead because only they are interactively editable.

Keep composition metadata inline

When scaffolding a composition, keep width, height, fps, durationInFrames and defaultProps inline and make no type assertions.

The Props editor can save visual edits back to your code when defaultProps is an inline object literal on <Composition> or <Still>.

// 👍 Static values are in <Composition>, dynamic values are in calculateMetadata()
const calculateMetadata = useMemo(async () => {
  const dimensions = await getDimensions(); // just an example
  return {width: dimensions.width, height: dimensions.height};
});

<Composition
  id="my-video"
  component={MyComponent}
  durationInFrames={150}
  fps={30}
  calculateMetadata={calculateMetadata}
  defaultProps={{title: 'Hello', color: '#0b84ff'}}
/>

const defaultProps = {title: 'Hello', color: '#0b84ff'}; // ❌ Don't extract defaultProps, must be inline
const calculateMetadata = useMemo(() => {
  // ❌ Unnecessary because no calculation is being done,
  return {durationInFrames: 150, fps: 30, width: 1920, height: 1080};
});

<Composition
  id="my-video"
  component={MyComponent}
  calculateMetadata={calculateMetadata}
  defaultProps={{
    title: 'Hello',
  } as Props} // ❌ Don't have type assertions, instead type MyComponent correctly
/>

Use only calculateMetadata() for the part of the metadata that is dynamic.

Effects should be inline too

The effects array should not be computed. The same rules for setting keyframes as interpolate() apply too here: All values should also be hardcoded: Input range, output range, easing, extrapolation, output property.

// 👍 Parameters are inline and the array shape is stable
<CanvasImage
  src={src}
  width={1280}
  height={720}
  effects={[
    radialProgressiveBlur({
      center: [0.5, 0.5],
      width: 1.2,
      height: 0.8,
      start: 0.2,
      disabled: true,
      rotation: interpolate(frame, [0, 120], [0, 180]),
    }),
  ]}
/>

const center = [0.5, 0.5] as const;
const rotation = frame * 1.5;

<CanvasImage
  src={src}
  width={1280}
  height={720}
  // ❌ Conditional effect is not animateable
  effects={enabled ? [
    radialProgressiveBlur({
      // ❌ Not inline
      center,
      rotation,
    }),
  ] : []}
/>

Render separate elements if one version should have effects and another should not.

Making your own component interactive

To make a custom userland component interactive, use: Make a component interactive

Video editing

If a Remotion component mainly consists of video and audio clips, see Video editing for best practices on how to structure Remotion markup so the clips are interactively editable in the timeline.