Video Playback

Add video to your Graphic Templates and control playback in Producer

Christine Chalk avatar
Written by Christine Chalk
Updated over a week ago

You can include video in your Graphic Template so you can add videos to playblack b-roll, sponsor videos, animated backgrounds, and more! This article will cover:

Adding a Video Element to a Graphic Template

To get started, open up your Graphic Template builder. (New to Tagboard Graphics? No problem! Get started with the basics on building a Graphic Template here.)

Click the 'add video element' button on the left side of your graphic template builder.

This will pull up your account Media Library. You can select a video you've already uploaded to your media library or upload a new one.

Tagboard supports MP4 or WEBM file types. The file size limit is 100 MB.

Select your video and click 'Use File'. This will automatically insert a video player as an element in your Graphic Template. Now you can customize the video element using the options on the right rail.

Size and Placement

  • Position: Everything on your canvas works with a drag-and-drop workflow, or in the upper right corner you can set an exact X and Y axis.

  • Freeform: Allows you to re-size video elements without having to maintain the aspect ratio

  • Snap To: Use this feature to snap your text to one of nine exact locations on the canvas (center, center-top, center-bottom, center-left, center-right, bottom-left, bottom-right, top-left, top-right)

  • Nudge: Click to move the text layer one pixel at a time, to get exact placement

You can hold shift + click on several layers to select multiple layers at once. If multiple layers are selected, you will see additional options in the right rail for size & placement:

Video Options

  • Autoplay: When checked the video will automatically play when the Graphic is taken live in Producer; when unchecked you will manually control play and pause

  • Loop: When checked the video will automatically play on loop if left Live in Producer; when unchecked the video will hold on the final frame

  • Start Muted: When checked audio will automatically be disabled when the Graphic is taken live in Producer; when unchecked audio will play in Producer

  • In/Out: Select the in and out points where you want the video to start and stop, in seconds (by default it will select the entire video length)

  • Play/Pause: Allows you to play and pause the video within the Graphics Template builder. You will see similar controls in Producer.

  • Unmute: Allows you to mute and unmute the video within the Graphics Template builder. You will see similar controls in Producer.

Important note! The settings here will carry over to Producer, but you will also be able to update these settings on the fly in Tagboard Producer. So don't worry, what you enter here isn't set in stone!

Style and Animation

  • Opacity: On a scale of 0-100% set the transparency of your video. 0% will be completely transparent, 100% will be completely solid

  • Border: Checking this box adds a border around your video. You can adjust the width (in pixels) of the border and color.

  • Shadow: checking this box will give your video a drop shadow. You can also adjust:

    • X: Adjust the shadow on the horizontal axis, left and right

    • Y: Adjust the shadow on the vertical axis, up and down

    • Blur: Adjust how harsh or feathered you want your shadow to be

    • Spread: Adjust the width of your shadow

    • Color: Set the color of your shadow

  • Blur: Gradually increase the number to increase the blur of your video

  • Animation: control animations for you video on & off screen

    • Animate In: Select from the dropdown menu how you want your video to animate onto the screen. The duration (set in milliseconds) determines how long your animation will last. The delay determines how long after selecting this graphic, the individual layer will begin to animate.

    • Easing will allow you to change the acceleration of the animation, to be smoother or more natural. select from the dropdown to make a smoother and more realistic animation. The two most common easing options are "ease in", meaning the animation will start slowly and accelerate, and "ease out", where the motion will start quickly and decelerate.

    • Animation Out: Select from the dropdown menu how you want your video to animate off the screen, followed by same customizable options as above.

    • Looping Animation: If you check this box you can set a layer of the graphic to continue animating a certain way while the graphic is displayed on screen.

Using Video in Tagboard Producer

If you're just getting started with Tagboard Producer ↪️ Start here!

Drag and drop a Graphic with a Video element onto your Playlist. Select the Graphic on your Playlist so it is highlighted in blue, and then click on the Video element. This will reveal the options in the Layer Editor in the lower right quadrant.

Play/Pause and Mute Controls

If a video is set to Autoplay, playback will automatically begin when you take the video to Preview or Live. It will always start at your selected In point, every time you click Preview or Live.

If the video is not set to Autoplay, this is where you have controls to play/pause and mute your video. You can click on the Play/Pause or Mute buttons, or use hotkeys:

  • P: Play/pause

  • M: Mute

You need to have the video layer selected and open in your Graphic Editor in order to use the hotkeys.

An important note about using videos with audio:

Chrome's autoplay policies affect video playback with sound, as web browsers move towards stricter autoplay policies.

If you want to use video with audio in Tagboard, it's important to take the following steps:

  • Configure your browser to make sure you get sound. Go to chrome://settings/content/sound. Add these websites to allow audio to play by default: https://live.tagboard.com and https://producer.tagboard.com.

  • Before you go live, interact with your output at live.tagboard.com (click, tap, etc.)

  • Play a video on your output and let audio run for at least 7 seconds or more (Chrome uses a Media Engagement Index to score how likely you are to consume media on a site. This looks at the ratio of sessions vs. sessions with playback/interaction. The higher the MEI score for live.tagboard.com, the better!)

You can disable the autoplay policy entirely by using a command line flag. This means audio will always be allowed from your Tagboard output. You can find full instructions on how to do this here for Windows and macOS.

Swapping out the Video Asset

You will see the starting frame of the video that is currently loaded in this Graphic. To change the video, click the pencil icon. This will pull up your Media Library modal, where you can select a video you've already uploaded to your media library or upload a new one.

Tip: If you want to use Tagboard to play out a high volume of fullscreen b-roll and video clips, we recommend creating one Graphic Template that includes a full frame video element, then swapping out the video asset in Producer. You can retitle the Graphic in Producer so your rundown is easy to follow. This will be the most efficient way to use Tagboard as a video playout system.

In the Graphic Editor, you can also make quick changes to Autoplay, Loop, and your in & out points.

Ready to go live? 🎬

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