Tour of the editor: preview, timeline, anchors, and inspector
When you open a project, you enter the Smooth Operator editor. This is where you create virtual camera movements. Here is a tour of the main parts of the editor screen.
The Preview (center)
The large area in the center shows your video with the current camera framing applied. You can switch between two preview modes using the toggle button:
- Output preview: Shows exactly what the exported video will look like after cropping and camera movement. This is the "Frame" view.
- Monitor preview: Shows the full source video with a crop overlay indicating the output frame. This is the default view and is best for adjusting camera framing. Use this to see the "big picture" while positioning your crop.
On the preview, you can pinch to zoom and drag to pan the camera frame. Touch and drag the corner handles to resize the crop.
The Timeline (bottom)
The timeline runs horizontally across the bottom of the screen. It shows:
- Time ruler: Markers showing the time in seconds.
- Camera track: Where you add anchors (diamond shapes) that define camera positions at specific points in time.
- Motion track (visible in Physics/Natural mode): Where move blocks appear as colored rectangles between anchors. Each block represents a transition from one anchor to the next.
- Playhead: A vertical line showing the current playback position. Drag it to scrub through the video.
You can pinch to zoom in/out on the timeline and drag to scroll.
Anchors
Anchors are key moments where you define the camera's position — where it is pointing, how zoomed in it is, and the rotation. Anchors appear as orange diamond shapes on the timeline. A selected anchor is highlighted in blue.
Each anchor stores:
- Position (Pan X, Pan Y): Where the camera is centered (0.5, 0.5 = center of the frame).
- Scale: How zoomed in the camera is (1.0x = full frame, higher numbers = more zoomed in).
- Rotation: Small rotation adjustment (up to ±30 degrees).
A new project starts with one default anchor at the very beginning, slightly zoomed in at 1.5x.
Move Blocks
Move blocks are the transitions between two anchors. They appear as colored rectangles on the Motion track. Each block has:
- Move type: The style of transition (Smooth, Dolly In, Dolly Out, Reveal, Pan, Tilt, Handheld, Locked).
- Weight: How snappy or heavy the camera movement feels.
- Easing: How the movement accelerates at the start (Ease In) and decelerates at the end (Ease Out).
- Duration: How long the move takes.
The block color indicates the move type: blue for Smooth, purple for Dolly, green for Reveal, orange for Pan/Tilt, yellow for Handheld, gray for Locked.
The Toolbar (top)
The toolbar at the top gives you quick access to:
- Hamburger menu: Opens a list of anchors, move blocks, and options like Rotate Source, Output Orientation, AI Camera Assistant, and Video Analysis Plan.
- Motion preset picker: Quick access to camera motion styles.
- Export button: Opens the export sheet.
The Inspector (Mac only)
On Mac, the right-side Inspector panel shows details about whatever is selected:
- Anchor selected: Shows Position (Pan X, Pan Y), Scale, Time, Lock toggle, and a Delete button.
- Move Block selected: Shows Move Type, Easing (In/Out), Weight, and a Delete button.
- Nothing selected: Shows project details (Duration, Resolution, Frame Rate, Number of anchors).
Compact layout (iPhone)
On iPhone, the editor has two layout modes you can switch between:
- Scrub mode: Large preview with a compact scrubber for quickly navigating the video.
- Timeline mode: Smaller preview with a full timeline for precise editing.