Before you start creating your animation, there are three quick decisions to set the foundation for your project: how long your scene runs, what size it fills, and what sits behind it all.
💡 Tip: Use Jitter's infinite canvas to iterate faster and quickly test ideas side by side — no more switching between files!
Set your scene duration
This defines the length of your animation and export output. The default length is 4 seconds and the max is 120 seconds. Choose a length that suits your project by hovering over the boundary between the white and grey areas of the timeline and dragging the arrow cursor to the right.
For more ways to adjust scene duration, see the full article on Change the scene duration.
Choose your artboard dimensions
Define this early on to match your target format. That might be a social square, widescreen video, vertical story, or something else. Open the Format dropdown menu to choose predefined dimensions, or set your dimensions manually in the Size property.
Add a new artboard
You can add new artboards to your file in two ways.
Click the Add an artboard button in the toolbar
Or, duplicate an existing artboard with:
⌘ C / Ctrl C to copy and ⌘ V / Ctrl V to paste
⌘ D / Ctrl D
Hold ⌥ / alt while dragging the artboard
Set your background
Choose a solid color or gradient, or drop in a media asset to set your canvas background. Uncheck the background Fill property if you need a transparent background on export (only available on the Max plan).
Color animations can also be added to the background fill from the animation tab.
✏️ Note: your background fill travels with your artboard when you turn it into an animated component, so setting it right at the start saves you from chasing consistency later.