remotion-best-practices

name	remotion-best-practices
description	Remotion video creation expertise — compositions, useCurrentFrame, interpolate, Sequences, assets via staticFile, render CLI, captions, audio, FFmpeg. Use when working with .tsx files importing from "remotion" or "@remotion/*", building video compositions in React, configuring Root.tsx, rendering frames/stills, adding audio/video/captions, or when the user mentions Remotion, Remotion Studio, or video composition. Do NOT use for general React UI work, non-video animation, or pure ffmpeg pipelines without React.
metadata	{"tags":"remotion, video, react, animation, composition"}

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, useVideoConfig, interpolate, 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 ./rules/subtitles.md file for more information.

Using FFmpeg

For some video operations, such as trimming videos or detecting silence, FFmpeg should be used. Load the ./rules/ffmpeg.md file for more information.

Silence detection

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

Audio visualization

When needing to visualize audio (spectrum bars, waveforms, bass-reactive effects), load the ./rules/audio-visualization.md file for more information.

Sound effects

When needing to use sound effects, load the ./rules/sfx.md file for more information.

3D content

See rules/3d.md for 3D content in Remotion using Three.js and React Three Fiber.

Advanced audio

See rules/audio.md for advanced audio features like trimming, volume, speed, pitch.

Dynamic duration, dimensions and data

See rules/calculate-metadata.md for dynamically set composition duration, dimensions, and props.

Advanced compositions

See rules/compositions.md 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 rules/google-fonts.md for how to load Google Fonts.

Local fonts

See rules/local-fonts.md for how to load local fonts.

Getting audio duration

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

Getting video dimensions

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

Getting video duration

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

GIFs

See rules/gifs.md for how to display GIFs synchronized with Remotion's timeline.

Advanced Images

See rules/images.md for sizing and positioning images, dynamic image paths, and getting image dimensions.

Light leaks

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

Lottie animations

See rules/lottie.md for embedding Lottie animations in Remotion.

HTML in canvas

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

Measuring DOM nodes

See rules/measuring-dom-nodes.md for measuring DOM element dimensions in Remotion.

Measuring text

See rules/measuring-text.md for measuring text dimensions, fitting text to containers, and checking overflow.

Advanced sequencing

See rules/sequencing.md for more sequencing patterns - delay, trim, limit duration of items.

TailwindCSS

See rules/tailwind.md for using TailwindCSS in Remotion.

Text animations

See rules/text-animations.md for typography and text animation patterns.

Advanced timing

See rules/timing.md for advanced timing with interpolate and Bézier easing, and springs.

Transitions

See rules/transitions.md for scene transition patterns.

Transparent videos

See rules/transparent-videos.md for rendering out a video with transparency.

Trimming

See rules/trimming.md for trimming patterns - cutting the beginning or end of animations.

Advanced Videos

See rules/videos.md for advanced knowledge about embedding videos - trimming, volume, speed, looping, pitch.

Parameterized videos

See rules/parameters.md 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 maps rule: rules/maplibre.md

Voiceover

See rules/voiceover.md for adding AI-generated voiceover to Remotion compositions using ElevenLabs TTS.