Templates & components
Two different kinds of reuse.
| Template | Component | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A composition with selected properties exposed as named fields | A saved subtree you can reinsert |
| Who edits it | Someone filling in fields, not building animation | Whoever is building the scene |
| Analogy | An Essential Graphics template / MOGRT | A symbol or a saved group |
Templates
Build a composition once, expose the fields that should change per output — text, colours, images — then fill them per output.
The end user of a template edits only the exposed fields. Everything else is locked, so the animation cannot be broken by someone who only needed to change a name.
Live preview cards
Template cards animate live, rendered from the actual composition through the real snapshot builder at a shared 30 fps, drawn through a Canvas2D backend. They are real frames, not recordings.
Image-swap fields and the template authoring UI are still TODO. Text and numeric fields work; a full authoring surface does not exist yet. See Known gaps.
When to use one
- The same graphic goes out with different copy, repeatedly — lower thirds, title cards, social variants.
- Someone who is not a motion designer needs to produce a variant.
- You are producing a batch: build once, fill fields, queue the renders. See Render queue.
Components
Save any subtree as a reusable component. Thumbnails are generated automatically, and components are reinserted from the Components panel.
Use components for the pieces that recur within your own work: a styled button, a card, a badge, a logo lockup with its rig already on it.
Composition instances
A third, lighter option. Insert → Composition instance puts composition A inside composition B by reference.
- The same composition can be instanced more than once.
- Change the source and every instance follows.
- AE-style stacking rules apply.
Picking between them
| You want | Use |
|---|---|
| One graphic, many copy variants, filled by someone else | Template |
| A reusable piece you drop into scenes and then customise | Component |
| One thing that appears in several places and must stay in sync | Composition instance |