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The Timeline Node is Ozu’s in-browser video editor. Once your storyboard frames exist, the Timeline turns them into a playable animatic — a timed, scored, color-graded rough cut of your scene — and exports it as an MP4. It’s a full multi-track editor with playback, scrubbing, and export built in. You never leave the browser.

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Opening the Timeline

The Timeline Node lives on the Flow canvas, downstream of the Storyboard Node.
  1. Connect a Storyboard Node to a Timeline Node. The Timeline auto-populates with one clip per beat, in order.
  2. Double-click the Timeline Node (or select it and press Space) to open the full editor.
  3. The editor fills your browser. Three regions: the Preview Monitor at the top, the Inspector on the right, and the track stack along the bottom.
First time in? Don’t touch anything. Hit Space to play. You’re watching a rough cut of your storyboard with whatever audio you’ve wired in. That’s your starting point.

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What the editor looks like

Preview Monitor

A 16:9 canvas showing whichever frame is under the playhead. Transport bar below it for play, pause, skip, and volume. Timecode readout in MM:SS.f.

Inspector

Properties for whatever’s selected — a clip, a transition, a color grade. Context-sensitive: if nothing is selected, it shows export options and timeline settings.

Track Stack

The editable workspace. Multiple tracks stacked vertically with a shared timecode ruler and a playhead line running through them.

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The track stack

A Timeline has five kinds of tracks:
  • Primary Video — your storyboard frames in beat order. Auto-populated.
  • Alternate Frames — overlays and cutaways on a secondary track.
  • Dialogue — voiceover clips from the Audio Node.
  • Music — a score track from the Song Node.
  • Effects — transitions, color grades, and keyframe animations layered on video clips.
Each track has its own lane. Clips on any track can be dragged to reposition, trimmed by dragging edges, or deleted with the Delete key. More on tracks →

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The playhead and export range

The vertical line running through all tracks is the playhead. Drag it to scrub; click anywhere on the timecode ruler to jump. Every timeline has an in point and an out point — the range that gets rendered when you export. By default the range covers the whole timeline. Set tighter in/out points to export a single scene or a specific beat range. Playback controls →

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Rendering to MP4

When you’re happy with the cut, click Export in the Inspector.
  1. Pick a format. PDF Storyboard, ZIP Frames, or MP4 Animatic.
  2. For MP4, the export uses your in/out points as the render range. Aspect ratio matches your project setting.
  3. The file downloads when the render completes. Filename is auto-sanitized from your project name.
Exported MP4s are standard H.264 video — drop them into Premiere, Final Cut, DaVinci Resolve, or any editor for polish. Export formats →

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Why an editor lives inside Ozu

Most storyboarding tools stop at static frames. Ozu goes one step further: the Timeline is where your frames acquire timing, audio, and editorial intent. A 30-frame storyboard that plays silently for 30 seconds tells you nothing about pacing. The same frames with dialogue, music, and keyframed pans tell you whether the scene actually works. You can export and finish elsewhere — most creators do. The Timeline exists so you can answer the question “does this scene work?” without leaving the app.

Tracks

The five track types and how clips move between them.

Playback Controls

JKL shuttle, snap grid, in/out points, and speed control.

Color and Effects

Grades, transitions, keyframes, and Ken Burns presets.

Export Formats

PDF Storyboard, ZIP Frames, and MP4 Animatic — what each format is for.

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FAQ

Does opening the Timeline cost credits? No. The Timeline is editorial — no generation happens inside it. You only spend credits on image, video, or audio generation upstream. Do I need to manually place my storyboard frames on the timeline? No. When a Storyboard Node is connected, the Timeline auto-populates the Primary Video track with one clip per beat, in beat order, using each beat’s estimated duration as the initial clip length. Can I edit the animatic outside Ozu? Yes. Export as MP4 and open the file in any video editor. The Timeline is optional for anyone who prefers to do editorial work in their own NLE. What happens if I regenerate a storyboard frame after building the timeline? The Timeline clip updates in place. Your clip timing, transitions, and effects are preserved — only the underlying image changes. Can I have more than one Timeline per project? Yes. Each Timeline Node is independent. Many creators use one per scene and a “master” Timeline that combines them. What aspect ratio does the animatic export in? Whatever you chose at project setup — 16:9, 4:3, 9:16, or 1:1. All frames and the MP4 inherit the project’s aspect ratio.