Composition Lab
Composition Lab is Fractal's dedicated motion-design workspace for animated intros, explainers, title cards, chart reveals, map traces, profile cards, and reusable branded scenes. It gives you an After Effects-style motion workflow inside Fractal without forcing those builds to live as dozens of tiny manual layers in your main edit.
Best for creators who want reusable motion graphics, cleaner chapter cards, and polished editorial scenes that can drop straight into the main timeline.
Build reusable editorial scenes fast
Composition Lab already ships with motion-design patterns for search UI beats, chapter transitions, and branded outros. These examples are the kind of scenes you can build once, refine, and reuse across multiple videos.
Why Creators Use Composition Lab
Build motion scenes without timeline clutter
Create polished animated segments in one focused workspace instead of stacking a large number of manual layers in the main Video Creator timeline.
Reuse branded graphics
Make intros, chapter cards, statistic callouts, and outros once, then export or re-add them whenever you need the same design language again.
Keep motion design inside Fractal
Preview, revise, export MP4, and send the finished build back to Video Creator without bouncing between separate apps for every graphic beat.
How Composition Lab Works
Open it from Video Creator
Add a Composition item in Video Creator, then open Composition Lab when the project needs a standalone motion sequence instead of a normal clip layer.
Drop in a template or motion graphic
Use the Library to drag a motion template or a standalone motion graphic onto one of the timeline tracks.
Assign media and text
If the template expects a primary image or video, assign it in the left panel, then set overlay text, focus text, timing, and transitions.
Add canvas polish
Layer on extra text, shapes, images, or videos in Canvas mode when you want overlays, callouts, or additional branded elements.
Rebuild preview and export
Rebuild the live preview, review the timing, then either export the composition as its own MP4 or add it straight back into the main timeline.
What You Can Add Inside The Lab
Motion templates
Use presets like document stack, typewriter title, archival collage, profile card, map trace, chart reveal, text on paper, word focus, and video in video.
Motion graphics
Add standalone graphic bits that do not need a primary media file when the scene is mostly typographic or purely graphic.
Canvas tools
Drop in rectangles, circles, triangles, lines, stars, arrows, hexagons, hearts, diamonds, plus quick text, image, and video layers.
Media-backed scenes
Assign a main image or video to motion-template clips so the template has real source media to animate.
Timeline, Canvas, And Template Editing
The useful part of Composition Lab is that it separates scene structure from overlay polish and template surgery, so you are not fighting one overloaded interface.
Timeline for structure
Use tracks, trim handles, drag-to-move timing, transitions, and canvas rows to shape the full scene before it is rendered into a single previewable composition.
Canvas mode for overlays
Place and resize free-positioned text, shapes, images, and videos directly on the stage when you want additive polish on top of the built composition.
Template mode for internals
Edit built-in template elements in place when you need to move text regions, crop media differently, resize nodes, or adjust layer order inside the template itself.
The Actions That Matter Most
Rebuild preview
Recompile the composition so the live Remotion preview reflects the current timing, template settings, and canvas edits.
Export MP4
Render the motion piece as a standalone file when it needs to live outside the current project or be reused elsewhere.
Add to timeline
Send the finished build back into Video Creator as a usable composition asset instead of rebuilding the same scene by hand.
Open Video Creator
Jump back to the main editor without losing context when the motion piece is ready to become part of the larger video.
When Composition Lab Makes The Most Sense
Chapter cards and explainers
Great for editorial videos that need chapter opens, statistic reveals, branded section dividers, or map and chart sequences mid-video.
Repeatable channel branding
Useful when you want intros, outros, lower-thirds, and graphic beats that look consistent from one video to the next.
Cleaner master edits
It fits best when the main Video Creator timeline should stay focused on the story edit while motion design lives in a dedicated sub-workspace.
What To Read Next
Video Creator
See the main production workspace that Composition Lab feeds back into once a motion scene is finished.
Open pageCreate With AI
Use this when the wider project needs AI-assisted script, narration, sourcing, and draft assembly before motion polish.
Open pageThumbnail Creator
Keep packaging and branding aligned if your motion scenes and thumbnails need a shared visual language.
Open pageMain docs
Read the full walkthrough for templates, canvas mode, template mode, media assignment, and export.
Open docsPricing
Check plan access if motion graphics and reusable branded scenes are part of why you want Fractal.
See plansNeed The Full Composition Lab Walkthrough?
Read the docs for the deeper template and canvas controls, or go to pricing if motion design is one of the main reasons you want Fractal.