Detached Clips

What are detached clips?

Detached clips are a unique feature in MotionKit's Frame-by-Frame mode. A detached clip is a layer that plays independently alongside the FBF sequence instead of being part of the show/hide clip sequence.

While normal clips are shown one at a time (only the active clip is visible), detached clips are always visible. If a detached clip has a nested timeline, that timeline plays simultaneously with the FBF sequence.

Use cases

• Background layers — a static or animated background that stays visible while foreground clips cycle.
• Overlays — UI elements, watermarks, or decorations that persist across all frames.
• Independent animations — a character that keyframe-animates while the background changes frame-by-frame.

Setting up detached clips

1. In FBF mode, right-click a clip in the gallery.
2. Select Detach from the context menu.
3. The clip is marked as detached and disappears from the clip sequence. It now plays independently.

To reattach: right-click the detached clip → Reattach. It returns to the normal clip sequence.

How detached clips render

During playback and export:

• Detached clips are always visible, regardless of which FBF clip is active.
• If a detached clip has a nested timeline, MotionKit interpolates its keyframes at the current global time and applies the values.
• Detached clips are excluded from the FBF clip count and duration calculations.
• During rendering, each frame composites the active FBF clip + all detached clips together.