Skip to main content
Version: Latest

Detect Motion

Detect Motion studies your video and records where the picture is moving and where it sits still. It also works out what kind of footage it's looking at: a screen recording, camera footage, or a mix of both. Nothing on the timeline changes. The results power other tools, described below.

Run Detect Motion​

  1. Open the Process menu and click Detect Motion…. You can also right-click files in the media bin and choose Detect Motion… there.
  2. In the dialog, check the files to analyze. The tool needs video, so it won't run on audio-only files.
  3. Leave Motion Type on Auto, or pick Screen, Camera, or Hybrid yourself. The dialog's own hint says it best: "Auto detects the footage type; only change this if Auto gets it wrong."
  4. Click Run Detect Motion.

The run then works in the background like any other tool. See Run an AI Tool for progress, cancelling, and failures.

See the motion on your clips​

Right-click a clip, open the Display submenu, and click Motion Overlay. The same toggle is on the timeline's own right-click menu. Each analyzed clip then draws a line tracing how much motion it has from moment to moment, so the still stretches stand out at a glance.

The toggle carries a checkmark while it's on, applies to the whole timeline, and is remembered between sessions.

Check the results in the media bin​

The Module Results popover in the media bin gains a Motion row after a run. It shows the detected footage type and a segment count, for example Screen recording · 12 motion segments, along with when the run happened. A gray dash means the file hasn't been analyzed yet.

What Detect Motion unlocks​

Two tools read the motion data:

  • Clip → Delete Non-motion… cuts or disables the stretches where nothing is happening. Without motion data, its dialog reports each source as not analyzed — run Detect Motion first. See Cut Silence and Dead Footage.
  • Camera Selection uses motion as one of its signals when choosing which camera to show. A camera lane with motion data shows a monitor icon labelled Content data (motion). See Pick Camera Angles with Camera Selection.