Move, resize, crop and rotate a layer

Every picture in a Rooster project is a layer on the canvas: the main recording, B-roll and images, as well as titles and shapes. Select a video or image by clicking it on the canvas, or any layer on the timeline or in the Layers list.

Titles and shapes cannot be dragged on the canvas - clicking one selects whatever is behind it. Select them on the timeline and place them with the numbers in Adjust.

On the canvas

• Move: drag the layer. It snaps to the centre lines and to the thirds of the frame, and magenta guides show when it does.
• Resize: drag a handle. A corner handle keeps the layer's proportions; an edge handle stretches it one way only.
• Transform menu: the toolbar that appears over a selected layer has Transform. Under Position it can Fill scene, Fit scene, or send the layer to Top left, Top right, Bottom left or Bottom right - a quick picture-in-picture. Rotate left and Rotate right turn it a quarter turn.

A layer larger than the frame can have handles you cannot reach; resize it in Adjust instead.

Exact numbers in Adjust

With the layer selected, open Adjust:

• Size and position: position, width and height in canvas pixels, with a chain to keep width and height together; rotation in degrees; and corner radius. The fit button puts the layer back in the middle of the canvas, unstretched and upright.
• Opacity: a percentage, with an eye to hide the layer.
• Border: press the plus to add one, then set its width and colour; the bin removes it.
• Crop: open it for Top, Bottom, Left and Right sliders. The crop is taken before the layer is scaled and turned. Crop on the canvas toolbar opens the same sliders.

Each change is one step you can undo with ⌘Z.

What the main recording offers

The main recording can be moved, resized, rotated, cropped and given a border, so you can reframe it - into the middle of a portrait frame, say. It has no opacity or speed: it is cut in the script or on the timeline, and plays at the speed it was recorded.

Titles and shapes have no crop, and are moved with the position fields rather than on the canvas. A title's box follows its text unless you change its Sizing to Auto height or Fixed, which let you set its width, or its width and height.

To change which layer covers which, see Reorder, hide and lock layers.