Drawing & telestration
Annotate a freeze frame with arrows, shapes, ground markers, and animated reveals.
On this page
Telestration is drawing over a paused video frame — arrows for a run, a circle on the ball, a line linking two defenders. Open it from the player controls, or press Option + D (Mac) / Cmd/Ctrl + D. What the button does depends on your mode:
- Analyze mode — the video pauses on the current frame and opens the full drawing tool. Whatever you draw is saved with the clip and replays later.
- View mode — the same button turns into a laser pointer for live walkthroughs. Strokes fade out after a configurable time, S pins a stroke so it stays up, and nothing is ever saved.
This page covers the full Analyze-mode drawing tool. For the separate fullscreen formation board, see Tactics board.
The toolbar
Left to right:
| Item | Hotkey |
|---|---|
| Style settings (per-tool options for the current tool) | — |
| Templates menu | — |
| Pen | P |
| Line | L |
| Arrow (straight; curved via the style popover) | A |
| Text | T |
| Spotlight (circle or rectangle hole via the style popover) | G |
| Markers dropdown — player, zone, freeform zone, link | N / B / F / K |
| Shapes dropdown — circle, rectangle, cross | C / R / X |
| Move (select, drag, edit strokes) | M |
| Eraser | E |
| Color swatches (six slots) | 1–6 |
| Swap the last two colors used | Q |
| Undo / redo | Cmd/Ctrl + Z / Shift + Z |
| Clear canvas (trash icon) | — |
| Save (green floppy icon) | Enter |
| Close | Esc |
Q swaps between the last two colors you used — set one for your team and one for the opponent, then tap Q to flip back and forth without opening the swatches every time.
Style options
Every tool has its own style popover, opened from the settings icon at the start of the toolbar. Depending on the tool, you'll find:
- Stroke width or font size
- Dashed (D)
- Fill
- Hold-on-reveal duration — how many seconds the video freezes on this drawing when it replays
- Sequential reveal — strokes appear one at a time instead of all at once
- Zoom — when the drawing replays, the video glides in on it and back out when it leaves. A drawing you saved while zoomed in keeps the framing you chose. You can switch it on or off later from the drawing's edit menu in the list
- Curved arrow toggle
- Spotlight shape — circle or rectangle
- Auto-number — for the player marker only, see below
Text labels
Click with the text tool to place a label, then type. Enter commits it; Shift + Enter starts a new line. Labels get a dark backing pill so they stay legible over any footage.
Ground markers
The Markers dropdown holds ground-perspective markers — drawn as if painted on the pitch, not floating over it.
- Player marker (N) — a translucent ellipse under a player. Turn on Auto-number in the style popover and each new marker gets the next free number, drawn just below the ellipse; edit the number later from the selection panel.
- Zone marker (B) — a receding trapezoid for marking an area of the field.
- Freeform zone (F) — click to place vertices, then click the first vertex again to close the shape (needs at least 3 points). Esc cancels the zone, Backspace removes the last vertex, and Enter or the save button commits an open polygon as-is.
- Link markers (K) — click one player marker, then another, to join them with a line that follows both markers as they move. Keep clicking to chain more players (A → B → C); Esc cuts the chain. A faster way: with the Move tool, select a marker and Cmd/Ctrl + click another one to link them — the selection walks to the marker you just linked, so you can keep chaining without reopening the Markers dropdown.
Deleting a player marker removes any links attached to it. Dragging a link moves both linked markers together — useful for shifting an entire defensive line in one motion.
Moving, duplicating, and deleting strokes
Switch to the Move tool (M) and click any stroke to select it. A floating panel appears with recolor, width, dash, fill, player number (for player markers), duplicate, and delete. Drag the stroke to reposition it.
With a stroke selected:
- V or Cmd/Ctrl + D duplicates it
- Cmd/Ctrl + C / Cmd/Ctrl + V copies and pastes — each paste lands a bit further offset than the last
- Backspace deletes just that stroke
Templates
Save the current drawing as a named preset from the templates menu. Stamping a template back onto the canvas adds its strokes on top of whatever's already there — as a single undo step, so one Cmd/Ctrl + Z removes the whole template if you change your mind.
Templates are stored in your browser, per device, up to 24 at a time.
Saving and replay
Enter or the green save button stores the telestration at the current timestamp, named "Frame N". During playback, the video freezes at that moment, reveals the drawing (stroke-by-stroke if sequential reveal is on), holds for the configured duration, then resumes.
Saved drawings appear in share links, and the desktop app can burn them directly into exported clips.
Desktop and web stay in sync
Telestrations aren't locked to the app that created them: edit, retime, rename, or delete any drawing — including ones originally made on the web — from either the desktop or web app. Changes sync in both directions on your next sync.
Closing without losing work
Esc backs out one step at a time: it first cancels an open polygon or link chain, then deselects the current stroke, and only then closes the drawing tool. If you have unsaved strokes on the canvas, closing asks for a second Esc within 1.5 seconds — so you can't lose a drawing with one stray keypress.