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 (except <Img>, it already is interactive) such as <div> can be turned interactive using Interactive:
```tsx title="Interactive elements"
<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.
```tsx title="Inline text"
// 👍 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.
Avoid computed names, hardcode them.
```tsx title="Interactive names"
<>
<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.
```tsx title="Interactive example"
<Interactive.Div
style={{
fontSize: 80,
color: 'red',
}}
>
Hello World!
</Interactive.Div>
```tsx title="❌ Bad for interactivity"
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.
```tsx title="Inline values"
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'
}
),
}}
/>
```tsx title="❌ Bad interactivity"
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>`.
```tsx
// 👍 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'}}
/>
```tsx title="Negative examples"
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.
```tsx title="Effects"
// 👍 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.
