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Cask Manual

Make your first motion graphic

This takes you from an empty project to a video file on disk. No AI generation, so it costs no credits.

You need:

  • Cask Flow installed and signed in.

Steps

Section titled “Steps”
  1. On the Projects screen, click New project. Cask Flow creates a project called Untitled and opens it. The composition is 1920 by 1080, 60 frames per second, 5 seconds long.
  2. In the toolbar, click Text. A text layer lands at the end of the scene and takes the selection. There is no click-to-place: the button creates the layer outright.
  3. Open the Inspector tab on the right and type your line into the text field.
  4. Drag the playhead in the dope sheet to 0 seconds.
  5. In the Inspector, set Opacity to 0, then click the diamond on that row. That records a keyframe at the playhead.
  6. Drag the playhead to 1 second, set Opacity back to 100, and click the diamond again. Two keyframes make the move.
  7. Press Space to play, and again to stop. ← and → step one frame.
  8. Click Export in the title bar. A card opens with a Background checkbox and two groups of presets, Deliver and Master.
  9. Pick a preset from Deliver. H.264 at 1080p is a safe first choice.
  10. In the save panel, choose where the file goes and click through. The encode starts as soon as you confirm.

Your work is saved as you go, about a second and a half after you stop making changes.

Result

Section titled “Result”

A progress pill replaces the Export button while the encode runs. When it finishes, a card appears with Reveal in Finder. Click that and the finished file is selected in the Finder.

If it doesn’t work

Section titled “If it doesn’t work”
Symptom Cause Fix
The Text button makes nothing visible The layer landed outside the visible frame, or behind another one Select it in the layers pane on the left and set Position in the Inspector
The diamond records nothing The property has no keyframe track yet and the value did not change Change the value first, then click the diamond
Playback shows a still picture Both keyframes are at the same time Move one of them along its track in the dope sheet
The Master group offers only ProRes ProRes is a QuickTime codec and cannot be written into an MP4 Save as .mov, or pick a Deliver preset
Transparent is disabled The composition has no background to remove Set a background first, or export as is
Nothing can be saved and every edit is refused The project bundle changed on disk under the editor Choose reload or keep in the app’s notice. See Fix a problem