Education

Four-Year Timeline

A line drawing left to right through four year markers, the last of them landing on a plate.

Duration
4s
Frame
1920 × 1080
Export
MP4, GIF, MOV (alpha)
Resolution
Up to 4K

About the Four-Year Timeline animation

The origin story, for a channel or a business whose shape is easier to show than to tell. The line draws rather than appears, so the years read as a sequence instead of four labels, and plating the final marker puts the weight on now. Four points is the format: a fifth turns a story into a chronology.

Where it fits

  • As the origin story for a channel or a business whose shape is easier to show than tell.
  • In an about video, as the four turns.
  • In an anniversary post, plating the current year.

Filling it in

Four points is the format; a fifth turns a story into a chronology. The years go in order, and the title and caption frame them: The short history, then a line about what the four turns were. The last marker lands on a plate, so it should be now.

Format and timing

Four-Year Timeline is built at 1920 × 1080, a 16:9 landscape frame, the shape of a YouTube video, a stream layout and most editing timelines, and runs 4 seconds at 30 frames per second. It arrives in 2.4 seconds, holds for 1.2 and clears in 0.4, so cue it a beat before the moment it labels. Export it as an MP4 for a timeline or a feed, a GIF where video will not embed, or a MOV with an alpha channel to lay it over footage with nothing behind it. Renders go up to 4K, and the free plan exports at 720p with a watermark.

What you can edit

  • Titletext
  • Captiontext
  • Year 1text
  • Year 2text
  • Year 3text
  • Year 4text

Questions about Four-Year Timeline

Can the markers be months or milestones rather than years?

Yes. Each marker is a short text field, so Q1 or LAUNCH fits as well as 2019. Keep them to a word so the line stays clean.

Why is the line drawn rather than shown?

So the years read as a sequence rather than four labels. A line arriving at each marker in turn is what makes it a story.

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