Why every scene is code

When people first open the code view in Orbit, the reaction is usually some version of “wait, the whole film is this?” Yes. Every film is a storyboard of scenes, and every scene is a short program. There is no hidden timeline of keyframes behind it.

That sounds like an engineering detail. It is actually the reason most of Orbit works the way it does.

The trouble with keyframes

Traditional video tools store motion as keyframes: at second two this card is here, at second three it is there, and the software fills in between. That is a fine way for a person to animate by hand. It is a fragile way for software to build, edit and re-render films on its own.

Keyframes are tied to one canvas size, so a vertical version is a separate project. They are tied to absolute times, so shortening one scene means nudging dozens of points. And they do not explain themselves: a keyframe knows where a card was, not why it moved.

A function of time

An Orbit scene takes a moment in time and draws that frame. Give it the same moment and it draws exactly the same frame, every time. Motion is described as relationships rather than positions: the headline rises over the first fifth of the scene, the card settles in after it, the accent takes over near the end.

scene({ duration: 6 }, (ctx, t) => {
  const a = ease.settle(seg(t, 0, .22))
  text(props.headline, { y: lerp(120, 0, a) })
})

That is a complete, real scene. Everything is measured against the frame, so it works at any size, and against the scene length, so it works at any duration.

What it unlocks

• Scrubbing is exact. Drag the playhead anywhere and you see precisely what the export will contain.
• Every format comes free. The same scene runs at 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1, and type reflows instead of being cropped.
• Style packs are swaps, not redesigns. Colors, type and corners are inputs to the scene, so changing the look never breaks the motion.
• Retiming is safe. Change a scene from two seconds to three and everything inside it stretches in proportion.

New scenes, every film

Because a scene is just a small, readable program, Orbit's AI can write new ones. When your release needs a motion idea that no existing scene has, it writes one for that film, using the same rules and the same easing as everything else.

This is the part keyframes could never do well. Generating a believable keyframe timeline from scratch is hard to get right and harder to edit afterwards. Generating a short, readable function that follows a few clear rules is something you can check, understand and change.

Editing without fear

Code being the source of truth does not mean you have to write code. The timeline, the props panel and the chat all edit the same scenes. Drag a scene and its order changes in the code. Type a new headline and the prop changes. Ask for “more energy in scene three” and the AI edits that scene's code and nothing else.

And when you do want to open the code, there is nothing to reverse engineer. Change a value once, like the accent color, and it updates everywhere it is used.

What it means for you

You get films that are consistent, editable and honest about what they are. No black box, no template you cannot change, and no gap between the preview and the file you export. That is the whole reason every scene is code.