How to draw & stretch straight lines in your videos in Hitfilm Express

This is a very easy way to create and animate simple lines using Hitfilm Express.
A very useful technique that can be easily incorporated into your videos.
There are lots more, easy 60 second video editing tips on my channel so go and explore and have some video editing fun!
Thanks for watching
TWCG
Background courtesy of www.pixabay.com

[@HitfilmUniversity]

This is actually questionable advice.
By creating, say, a 1280x720 plane then scaling it down on one axis to become a line Hitfilm has to 1) calculate the entire 1280x720 plane, 2) execute a scale operation. This is using more memory and processing than needed. Yes, it's not much, but any extra overhead adds up. Especially for users without dedicated GPU cards, using the iGPU on their CPU.
Better option: when creating a plane, or even after creating a plane, by right clicking the plane in the Media Tab and selecting "Properties," one can directly input the dimensions of the plane. So just make the plane (example) 1280x4 to begin with. Hitfilm no longer has to calculate a larger plane area and conduct a scale operation, using less memory and fewer operations to render.
Side note - if you're not aware, the humble plane layer is the secret cornerstone of Hitfilm media. All layers ultimately come down to being planes. Photo and video layers are texture mapped planes (this is why a video might play smoothly in the trimmer but not on a Timeline). Text objects take the font data and use that to mask a dynamically sized plane layer. Even 3D models and particle sims ultimately are calculated and rendered to a texture mapped plane layer.
This also explains why Hitfilm's anti-aliasing applies globally to a render. Because everything is a texture mapped polygon.
Cycling back to lines, even a scaled plane layer is less processor intensive than modifying a grid, lightning or lightsword effect.

[@TheWobblyCameraGuy]

Hi, many thanks for your feedback and detailed advice. Lots to absorb and consider and I appreciate the time you have taken to explain in detail, the advantages of creating lines in the method you have described and the fundamentals of the plane layer. Interesting and informative - thank you. In this short video, I intended to try and help those who are just starting to get into video editing using HF to create a simple line using an easy method, just to give them a little traction and encouragement. Thanks again.

[@HitfilmUniversity]

@@TheWobblyCameraGuy and the key technique in this video is absolutely sound. Just suggesting a little tweak.
Looking forward to your next video. 👍

[@TheWobblyCameraGuy]

@@HitfilmUniversity Hi, thanks and appreciated my friend 👍