ScreenFlow User Guide
Main Window : Actions — Video Actions

Video Actions

A video action overrides properties found in the Video Properties panel.

Below is a screen-shot of a video action on a screen recording clip.

The colored action rectangle starts at time 1.5 (1.5 seconds), and continues until time 2s (2 seconds):

Editing Properties of Video Actions

It is best to think of a Video Action as a marker in your presentation; a place where properties change.

Everything to the left of the Video Action is the "before" state.
Everything to the right of the Video Action is the "after" state.
Everything inside the Video Action is transition, or "ramp up/down".

To edit the properties of a Video action, you must move the Scrubber to the beginning or end of the Video Action.

If you move the Scrubber to the right of the video action, then change a video property, you will affect the "after" state of the Action. When the action completes, the value will be what you configure. You can edit the "after" state by moving the Scrubber anywhere to the right of the clip, as long as the Scrubber is before any other Video Action.

If you move the Scrubber to the left of the video action, then change a video property, you will affect the "before" state of the Action. When the action begins, the value will be what you configure. You can edit the "before" state by moving the Scrubber anywhere to the left of the clip, as long as the Scrubber is after any other Video Action.

An Example

Using the above screen-shot, we have a Video Action starting at time 1.5, and finishing at time 2.

If you move the Scrubber to time 2 (as shown) and set the Scale of the Video Properties to 50%, then play the presentation, the screencast will reduce in size from 100% to 50% for 0.5 seconds of your presentation (starting at 1.5 seconds in). Thereafter, the Scale stays at 50%, until the Scrubber encounters another Video Action.

Thus, a Video Action changes the state of your properties (the scale, etc.), while defining the duration of the change.