Animated Timeline Steps for Video
Milestones on a vertical accent line that draws down, each node and label landing as the line reaches it, the current step lit.
What Is the Timeline Steps Card?
The Timeline Steps Card is a white card with a title and two to six milestones down a vertical line. Done steps show a check, the current step is lit with a halo, later steps are hollow. The card settles, the line draws down from the first milestone, and each node pops with its title and detail settling in the moment the line reaches it. You set the title, the steps with titles and details, which step is current, the card width, the draw speed and the colours. Everything is frame-driven, so the live preview in the editor and the exported MP4 are identical down to the frame. The card is authored on a single design language shared by every element in this family: a white surface with a soft two-layer shadow, Inter with tight tracking, one accent colour, eased multi-stop gradients that never band, and figures that count up in step with the visual and land exactly on the target value. Pick a colourway, type your own numbers and labels, drop it on the canvas over your footage, and export without a watermark.
How It Works
The card settles, the line draws down from the first milestone, and each node pops with its title and detail settling in the moment the line reaches it. The element owns its own timeline: an enter phase where the card rises and settles, a build phase where the figure and the visual animate together from the same progress value, a hold phase that stretches to fill whatever duration you give the element, and an exit where the card fades and scales down. Because the hold is the only phase that stretches, the enter always plays at the start of your clip and the exit always lands at the end, however long the element runs.
Best For
- -Roadmaps and launch plans
- -How I got here stories
- -Step-by-step processes
- -Course or program outlines
- -Any sequence with a now
Best Platforms for Timeline Steps Card
YouTube Shorts
Shorts viewers decide in the first two seconds. A timeline steps card gives the number a shape they can read instantly, so the point lands before the voiceover finishes the sentence.
Instagram Reels
Reels are watched muted more often than not. The timeline steps card carries the message visually, with the figure and the animation doing the talking when the audio is off.
TikTok
TikTok rewards a clear, confident visual beat. The card enters, builds and holds on its own schedule, so it drops cleanly onto a talking-head clip without any keyframing.
Why a timeline steps card works in short-form video
A vertical timeline mirrors how people scroll, and drawing the line down sets a pace the viewer follows without thinking. Lighting the current step turns a list into a position. The Timeline Steps Card is a white card with a title and two to six milestones down a vertical line. Done steps show a check, the current step is lit with a halo, later steps are hollow. The element is built for the way people actually watch: vertical, fast, often muted, on a phone. That is why the figure is the hero and the visual is proof under it rather than a chart with axes and gridlines. Small text competing with the footage is noise at phone size, so the card shows one number, one label and one accent, and lets the motion carry the rest. It sits inside the same editor you use for captions on videocaptions.ai, so the element, the captions and the export all come from one timeline and one render.
Customising the timeline steps card
You set the title, the steps with titles and details, which step is current, the card width, the draw speed and the colours. Every size on the card scales from a single width, so you can make it small in a corner or fill the frame and the type, spacing and shadows stay in proportion. Colourways are curated: Sky, Mint, Ember, Orchid and Ink each write the accent, tint and surface together so the card never ends up with a second hue fighting the first. If you edit one colour by hand the pill simply drops and your value stays. Duration is set on the timeline; the element stretches its hold phase to match, so the enter plays at the start and the exit lands at the end whatever length you choose. Export at 1080p or 4K as an H.264 MP4, or keep the transparent background and layer it in another editor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know before you start.
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