Make a hollow highlight box with a Rectangle shape

A hollow frame around one part of the picture tells the viewer where to look and leaves the detail itself visible. It works on a button in a screen recording, a number on a chart or a face in a group shot. DepCut builds it from a Rectangle shape with the fill turned down and the outline turned on.

Add the Rectangle

1. In the left panel, open the Elements tab. It shows four tiles: Rectangle, Ellipse, Line and Arrow.
2. Drag the Rectangle tile onto the timeline at the moment the detail appears. Where you drop it sets the start time, and it runs for three seconds.

Clicking a tile picks it and shows a blue ring. Dragging a tile onto the timeline places it. The new shape arrives white and solid, and the right panel shows its settings under a Rectangle heading.

Hollow it out

1. Drag Fill opacity to the left end. The white fill disappears.
2. Switch on Outline. A dark outline appears.
3. Choose a bright Color for the outline. Yellow, red and white read well on most footage.
4. Move the Width slider until the line is easy to see on a phone screen without crowding the detail.
5. Raise Corner radius a little for soft corners, or leave it at zero for a sharp frame.

For a tint, set Fill opacity to a low value above zero. The detail shows through a light color wash with the outline on top.

Fit it to the detail

Drag the shape in the preview until it sits over the target. A selected shape shows a handle at its bottom-right corner. Drag it to resize. The handle scales width and height together, so the frame keeps its proportions.

That suits square targets such as an icon, a face or a short number. The Ellipse tile gives a ring for a round target. If you need a box wider than it is tall, ask the DepCut Agent to add a rectangle with the width and height you want. The Agent spends credits when it runs on DepCut's hosted models.

The rotate handle above the shape tilts the frame, and a slight tilt can make a hand-drawn feel.

Time it to the voice

The shape's bar on the timeline is magenta, the color the timeline gives to shapes and stickers. Drag its left edge to the instant the narrator mentions the detail and its right edge to the end of that sentence. Edges snap to the playhead, so park the playhead on the exact word and drag the edge to it.

Then give the frame an entrance:

1. Open the Animation section in the shape's panel and choose In.
2. Pick Pop or Fade, and keep the Length short.
3. Choose Loop and pick Pulse if the frame has to hold attention for a long moment.

Keep it clean

• Use one frame at a time. Two bright boxes on screen split the eye.
• Match the outline color to the rest of your graphics.
• Remove the frame as soon as the point is made. A highlight that lingers turns into clutter.
• To mark words inside a title, the Box setting in the Words tab draws a close box right behind the words.

Frame one detail

Open a screen recording or a product clip, find the one thing the viewer must see, and frame it. Open DepCut to try it.