A method, system, and computer-readable storage medium are disclosed for interpretation of free-form timelines into compositing instructions. An array comprising a plurality of items is generated. Each of the plurality of items comprises one or more instructions representing one or more operations occurring at a point in time in a video sequence. For each one of a plurality of patterns, the array is scanned to determine if one or more groups of items in the array match the pattern. For each group of items matching one of the plurality of patterns, the matching group of items is replaced in the array with a merged item. Each merged item comprises an ordered sequence of the one or more instructions in the corresponding matching group of items. A frame of the video sequence is composited dependent on the array comprising the one or more merged items.