Chapter 1: Getting Started
Welcome to FX Express, a video template editor that works the way presentation software does — but the output is video, and every template can render thousands of personalised variations. This chapter introduces the application and gets you oriented in the editor.
What is FX Express?
FX Express is a browser-based video template editor. You design a template once; the render service produces a movie from it as many times as you like, with different text, images, and audio each time. With FX Express you can:
- Build multi-scene video templates
- Place text, images, video, shapes, tables, lists, smart objects, and audio as layers
- Drive content from
{variables}for personalised output - Control timing and motion with a visual timeline and keyframes
- Grade with layer effects and adjustment layers
- Apply themes so a family of templates stays consistent
- Publish a template as a movie the FX Player can render on demand
Where templates live
Templates live in console projects, not in a file browser inside FX Express. Opening https://fxexpress.impossible.io/ shows a short front door that hands you over to the console; the editor itself is at /edit.
If you are looking for templates you made before the move, read Chapter 20: Where Did My Templates Go? — it covers the “My FX Templates” project, old links, and what did and did not get migrated.
From the console you open a template, and the editor opens with it.
The editor
The editor is one screen: a menu bar, a toolbar, three panels around a canvas, and a timeline.
Menu bar
Six menus across the top:
| Menu | What’s in it |
|---|---|
| File | New, Open, Import Template…, Save / Save As, Revert, download .fxt / .fxz, Duplicate, Save to Library…, Template Setup…, Template Theme…, Variables…, Publish…, Close |
| Edit | Undo / Redo, Cut / Copy / Paste, Duplicate, Delete, Select All / Deselect All, Preferences… |
| View | Zoom controls, Show Grid, Show Inactive Elements, Animation Path / Trail, Show Variable Values, Timeline, Chat…, Voiceover Editor, Server Rendering, Preview Current Scene / Entire Video |
| Scene | Add / Duplicate / Delete Scene, Move Scene Up / Down, Scene Transition…, Scene Sounds…, Save Scene to Library…, Scene Properties |
| Layer | New (every layer type), layer order, Group / Ungroup, Align, Distribute, Effects, Lock, Hide |
| Help | Keyboard Shortcuts…, Documentation, About FX Express |
To the right of the menu bar sits the open template’s path, with a save-state glyph in front of it — a cloud when saved, a spinner while saving, a crossed-out cloud for unsaved changes, and a red shield when the template could not be loaded and nothing is being saved (see Saving your work).
Toolbar
Under the menu bar: the ImpossibleFX logo (click it to go back to the console), the Variables button right of it (opens the Variables popup), zoom controls, and the Preview button. It doubles as the Add palette — labelled buttons for Text, Image, Video, Shape, Data, Audio, and Smart Object when nothing is selected, collapsing to a compact + Add popover while a layer’s own toolbar is up. There is no render-mode button: switch between local browser rendering and server rendering with View ▸ Server Rendering (Ctrl/Cmd+I); while the server is computing a frame a small spinner appears next to the Variables button.
Left sidebar — Scenes / Media / Library
| Tab | Contents |
|---|---|
| Scenes | Every scene as a thumbnail. Click to select, drag to reorder, + to add |
| Media | The Import menu (add media, import a scene), imported-scene cards, and the media file browser |
| Library | Searchable saved templates and scenes you can insert |
Canvas — centre
The editing surface. Click to select, drag to move, use the handles to resize. Elements dropped from the Media tab or created from the Layer menu land here.
Right sidebar — Layer / Scene
The properties panel, with two tabs:
- Layer — everything about the current selection: Transform, Timing, type-specific sections, Effects, Appearance Animation, Click Action, Visibility Condition, Track Matte, Motion Tracking.
- Scene — the current scene: Name, Mode, Duration, Thumbnail, Transition, Endcard, Background.
Selecting something on an empty canvas focuses the Layer tab; if you deliberately opened Scene, you stay there.
File ▸ Template Theme… swaps this sidebar for the theme editor.
Timeline — bottom
Toggle it with View ▸ Timeline. It shows every layer in the current scene as a bar with its in-time and duration, the keyframe lanes for animated properties, the scene camera row, and the playhead.
Saving your work
FX Express autosaves as you edit; the save-state glyph beside the template path tells you where things stand. To save deliberately:
| Action | Mac | Windows/Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Save | ⌘S | Ctrl+S |
| Save As | ⇧⌘S | Shift+Ctrl+S |
| Open | ⌘O | Ctrl+O |
File ▸ Revert to opened version throws away everything since you opened the file, when an experiment has gone far enough wrong that undo isn’t the tool.
When a template fails to load
If the template cannot be fetched when you open it (an expired session, a flaky connection, a server error), the editor shows a Failed to load file notice in the bottom-right corner and keeps the file exactly as it is: nothing you do in the editor is written to it, autosave stays off, and Save (⌘S / Ctrl+S) does nothing but bring the notice back. The save-state glyph shows a red shield for as long as that holds. The notice offers two ways out:
- Retry fetches the template again. Once it loads, saving resumes as normal (a scene you added in the meantime is kept, just as with an edit made while a slow load is still in flight).
- Save As… writes what is currently on screen to a new file, if you want to keep it, and continues editing there.
Closing the notice with × does not lift the guard — the file is not written until a retry succeeds.
For the complete shortcut list, see Chapter 19: Keyboard Shortcuts.
Next Steps
Now that you’re oriented, you’re ready to start building. The next chapter covers scenes — the unit everything else lives inside.