remotion-best-practices

When to use

Use this skills whenever you are dealing with Remotion code to obtain the domain-specific knowledge.

New project setup

When in an empty folder or workspace with no existing Remotion project, scaffold one using:

npx create-video@latest --yes --blank --no-tailwind my-video

Replace my-video with a suitable project name.

Designing a video

Animate properties using useCurrentFrame() and interpolate(). Use Easing to customize the timing of the animation.

import { useCurrentFrame, Easing } from "remotion";

export const FadeIn = () => {
  const frame = useCurrentFrame();
  const { fps } = useVideoConfig();

  const opacity = interpolate(frame, [0, 2 * fps], [0, 1], {
    extrapolateRight: "clamp",
    extrapolateLeft: "clamp",
    easing: Easing.bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3, 1),
  });

  return <div style={{ opacity }}>Hello World!</div>;
};

CSS transitions or animations are FORBIDDEN - they will not render correctly. Tailwind animation class names are FORBIDDEN - they will not render correctly.

Place assets in the public/ folder at your project root.

Use staticFile() to reference files from the public/ folder.

Add images using the <Img> component:

import { Img, staticFile } from "remotion";

export const MyComposition = () => {
  return <Img src={staticFile("logo.png")} style={{ width: 100, height: 100 }} />;
};

Add videos using the <Video> component from @remotion/media:

import { Video } from "@remotion/media";
import { staticFile } from "remotion";

export const MyComposition = () => {
  return <Video src={staticFile("video.mp4")} style={{ opacity: 0.5 }} />;
};

Add audio using the <Audio> component from @remotion/media:

import { Audio } from "@remotion/media";
import { staticFile } from "remotion";

export const MyComposition = () => {
  return <Audio src={staticFile("audio.mp3")} />;
};

Assets can be also referenced as remote URLs:

import { Video } from "@remotion/media";

export const MyComposition = () => {
  return <Video src="https://remotion.media/video.mp4" />
};

To delay content wrap it in <Sequence> and use from. To limit the duration of an element, use durationInFrames of <Sequence>. <Sequence> by default is an absolute fill. For inline content, use layout="none".

import { Sequence } from "remotion";

export const Title = () => {
  const frame = useCurrentFrame();
  const { fps } = useVideoConfig();

  const opacity = interpolate(frame, [0, 2 * fps], [0, 1], {
    extrapolateRight: "clamp",
    extrapolateLeft: "clamp",
    easing: Easing.bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3, 1),
  });

  return <div style={{ opacity }}>Title</div>;
};

export const Subtitle = () => {
  return <div>Subtitle</div>;
};

const Main = () => {
  const {fps} = useVideoConfig();

  return (
    <AbsoluteFill>
      <Sequence>
        <Background />
      </Sequence>
      <Sequence from={1 * fps} durationInFrames={2 * fps} layout="none">
        <Title />
      </Sequence>
      <Sequence from={2 * fps} durationInFrames={2 * fps} layout="none">
        <Subtitle />
      </Sequence>
    </AbsoluteFill>
  );
}

The width, height, fps, and duration of a video is defined in src/Root.tsx:

import { Composition } from "remotion";
import { MyComposition } from "./MyComposition";

export const RemotionRoot = () => {
  return (
    <Composition
      id="MyComposition"
      component={MyComposition}
      durationInFrames={100}
      fps={30}
      width={1080}
      height={1080}
    />
  );
};

Metadata can also be calculated dynamically:

import { Composition, CalculateMetadataFunction } from "remotion";
import { MyComposition, MyCompositionProps } from "./MyComposition";

const calculateMetadata: CalculateMetadataFunction<
  MyCompositionProps
> = async ({ props, abortSignal }) => {
  const data = await fetch(`https://api.example.com/video/${props.videoId}`, {
    signal: abortSignal,
  }).then((res) => res.json());

  return {
    durationInFrames: Math.ceil(data.duration * 30),
    props: {
      ...props,
      videoUrl: data.url,
    },
    width: 1080,
    height: 1080,
  };
};

export const RemotionRoot = () => {
  return (
    <Composition
      id="MyComposition"
      component={MyComposition}
      fps={30}
      width={1080}
      height={1080}
      defaultProps={{ videoId: "abc123" }}
      calculateMetadata={calculateMetadata}
    />
  );
};

Starting preview

Start the Remotion Studio to preview a video:

npx remotion studio

Optional: one-frame render check

You can render a single frame with the CLI to sanity-check layout, colors, or timing. Skip it for trivial edits, pure refactors, or when you already have enough confidence from Studio or prior renders.

npx remotion still [composition-id] --scale=0.25 --frame=30

At 30 fps, --frame=30 is the one-second mark (--frame is zero-based).

Captions

When dealing with captions or subtitles, load the subtitles rule file for more information.

Using FFmpeg

For some video operations, such as trimming videos or detecting silence, FFmpeg should be used.

Silence detection

When needing to detect and trim silent segments from video or audio files, load the silence-detection rule.

Audio visualization

When needing to visualize audio (spectrum bars, waveforms, bass-reactive effects), load the audio-visualization rule.

Sound effects

When needing to use sound effects, load the sfx rule.

3D content

See 3D rule for 3D content in Remotion using Three.js and React Three Fiber.

Advanced audio

See audio rule for advanced audio features like trimming, volume, speed, pitch.

Dynamic duration, dimensions and data

See calculate-metadata rule for dynamically set composition duration, dimensions, and props.

Advanced compositions

See compositions rule for how to define stills, folders, default props and for how to nest compositions.

Google Fonts

Is the recommended way to load fonts in Remotion. See google-fonts rule for how to load Google Fonts.

Local fonts

See local-fonts rule for how to load local fonts.

Getting audio duration

See get-audio-duration rule for getting the duration of an audio file in seconds with Mediabunny.

Getting video dimensions

See get-video-dimensions rule for getting the width and height of a video file with Mediabunny.

Getting video duration

See get-video-duration rule for getting the duration of a video file in seconds with Mediabunny.

GIFs

See gifs rule for how to display GIFs synchronized with Remotion's timeline.

Advanced Images

See images rule for sizing and positioning images, dynamic image paths, and getting image dimensions.

Light leaks

See light-leaks rule for light leak overlay effects using @remotion/light-leaks.

Lottie animations

See lottie rule for embedding Lottie animations in Remotion.

HTML in canvas

See html-in-canvas rule if you need to render HTML into a <canvas> to apply 2D or WebGL effects via <HtmlInCanvas>.

Measuring DOM nodes

See measuring-dom-nodes rule for measuring DOM element dimensions in Remotion.

Measuring text

See measuring-text rule for measuring text dimensions, fitting text to containers, and checking overflow.

Advanced sequencing

See sequencing rule for more sequencing patterns - delay, trim, limit duration of items.

TailwindCSS

See tailwind rule for using TailwindCSS in Remotion.

Text animations

See text-animations rule for typography and text animation patterns.

Advanced timing

See timing rule for advanced timing with interpolate and Bezier easing, and springs.

Transitions

See transitions rule for scene transition patterns.

Transparent videos

See transparent-videos rule for rendering out a video with transparency.

Trimming

See trimming rule for trimming patterns - cutting the beginning or end of animations.

Advanced Videos

See videos rule for advanced knowledge about embedding videos - trimming, volume, speed, looping, pitch.

Parameterized videos

See parameters rule for making a composition parametrizable by adding a Zod schema.

Maps

For simple maps with little flyovers, consider using static map images. For complex maps with animated routes or flyovers, load the maplibre rule.

Voiceover

See voiceover rule for adding AI-generated voiceover to Remotion compositions using ElevenLabs TTS.