Creatomate RenderScript vs a Sume Timeline document: field map

RenderScript describes a scene with any number of elements; a Sume Timeline 1.0 document describes a single audio track and an ordered list of video slots. You can translate a RenderScript made only of full-frame video and audio into a Timeline, but anything with text, shapes or layered elements has no equivalent in Timeline, and needs Timeline compose or a different tool.

RenderScript facts are from Creatomate's JSON format page, read on 2026-10-10. The Sume fields are from Timeline 1.0 and Timeline compose.

What the two documents contain

Per Creatomate, a minimal RenderScript needs output_format (mp4, jpg, png or gif), width and height in pixels, and an elements array. Element types are image, video, audio, text, shape and composition, and a composition groups elements with its own timeline.

A Timeline document needs audio.duration_seconds and either an audio source or audio.mode: "silence", plus video[]. The audio spine sets the output length, so the video layer follows the sound, not the other way round.

Three differences that bite

First, overlap. Timeline slots are sequential and a slot that overlaps another past its crossfade fails with segment_overlap, whereas RenderScript elements can sit on top of each other. Second, sources: URLs must be this workspace's media.sume.com artifacts, and an outside link returns unsupported_media_source, so you import files before you render. Third, effects: the transition list is fade, wipeleft, wiperight, slideup, slidedown and dissolve, with a duration of at most 1 second.

A migration order that works

Sort your RenderScript elements into three piles. Full-frame video and audio map directly. A still above a video becomes one Timeline compose job (stack or overlay, $0.02 flat per job in the docs), and its output goes into video[]. Text and shapes stay outside Sume. Call POST /v1/timeline-1.0/plan to validate the result without a charge, then render with an Idempotency-Key and poll the job. Confirm live rates in GET /v1/catalog, since the docs name the rates but point there as the authority.

A worked example

Take a RenderScript with a 1080 by 1920 canvas, a narration audio element and three full-frame video elements back to back. In Timeline 1.0 this is output with width 1080 and height 1920, an audio.url for the narration with its duration_seconds, and three video[] slots whose start values rise from 0. Add a transition of fade only if you want a crossfade; its duration cannot exceed 1 second.

Now add a title text element on top. There is no Timeline field for it, so the honest answer is that this part of the design stays in RenderScript, or you render the Timeline first and add the title with a tool built for text layers. Sume does carry a video-captions route for burned-in subtitles, which covers one common text case but not a free-placed headline.

• Check that every output edge is an even integer between 256 and 2160.
• Import every source file into the workspace first; outside URLs are refused.
• Use plan before render to catch overlaps and bad sources without spending anything.
• Keep the original RenderScript as the source of truth if text or shapes matter to the design.