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Kakrona Chan
YouTube‘s online Editor launched in June last year as a very basic video editing suite originally borne from one of Google‘s “20%” projects. Now it has seven full-time developers working on it and new features are gradually being introduced.
Mashable spoke to Tom Bridgwater, a YouTube software engineer and one of the founding members of the team that developed Editor, about how to get the most from the free video editing software.
If you’d like to know how to trim your videos, improve the image quality and add free music, then take a look through the gallery of short video demos below. Let us know your favorite YouTube Editor function — and what else you’d like to see in the future — in the comments below.
[via mashable]
Mashable spoke to Tom Bridgwater, a YouTube software engineer and one of the founding members of the team that developed Editor, about how to get the most from the free video editing software.
If you’d like to know how to trim your videos, improve the image quality and add free music, then take a look through the gallery of short video demos below. Let us know your favorite YouTube Editor function — and what else you’d like to see in the future — in the comments below.
1. Intro to Editor
The YouTube Editor is comprised of three areas -- the media picker window on the top left, the preview video window on the top right and the "storyboard" across the bottom of the screen.
"We choose to go with the storyboard metaphor because we felt it was easier in concept," explains Bridgwater. "It's like a storyboard where you just take Post-It notes and stick them on the wall in the order in which you want things to happen.
"As opposed to having to fiddle around with dragging times and getting everything lined up perfectly -- it's more just 'this is the sequence of videos' and that's what you're focussed on."
To open the YouTube Editor once you're signed in, click on your username in the top right of the screen, select "Account" or "My Videos" then hit the "YouTube Editor" tab.
"We choose to go with the storyboard metaphor because we felt it was easier in concept," explains Bridgwater. "It's like a storyboard where you just take Post-It notes and stick them on the wall in the order in which you want things to happen.
"As opposed to having to fiddle around with dragging times and getting everything lined up perfectly -- it's more just 'this is the sequence of videos' and that's what you're focussed on."
To open the YouTube Editor once you're signed in, click on your username in the top right of the screen, select "Account" or "My Videos" then hit the "YouTube Editor" tab.
2. Adding Clips to the Storyboard
Adding clips to the storyboard is super simple. Just drag them into the storyboard window, or click the plus sign on the video you want to add. Once the clips are in you can drag and drop to re-order them, or remove them from the storyboard either by dragging them back up to the media picker window or clicking the "x" in the top right corner.
Bridgwater has a tip for anyone who wants to use several parts of the same clip in your finished video. "You can use one video multiple times by just putting it into the storyboard multiple times." So if you want to repeat a clip, or use the beginning and end of a clip at different times in your final video, just add it to the storyboard as many times as you want to use it.
Bridgwater has a tip for anyone who wants to use several parts of the same clip in your finished video. "You can use one video multiple times by just putting it into the storyboard multiple times." So if you want to repeat a clip, or use the beginning and end of a clip at different times in your final video, just add it to the storyboard as many times as you want to use it.
3. Rotating Clips
If you need to rotate a clip, simply hover over it in the storyboard window and hit the arrow icon. You can now rotate it 90-degrees left or right until it's at the correct orientation. When it is, hit save.
"This was a huge thing when we added it because we have a lot of users who upload from their mobile phones," says Bridgwater.
"Certain phones are able to send orientation information, other phones aren't. It's not very standardized how phones communicate the orientation of a video. In the upload priocess we try, if the phone gives us that information, to rotate it, but it's often not done. So this gives users the opportunity to rotate a video back to the correct orientation after they've uploaded it."
"This was a huge thing when we added it because we have a lot of users who upload from their mobile phones," says Bridgwater.
"Certain phones are able to send orientation information, other phones aren't. It's not very standardized how phones communicate the orientation of a video. In the upload priocess we try, if the phone gives us that information, to rotate it, but it's often not done. So this gives users the opportunity to rotate a video back to the correct orientation after they've uploaded it."
4. Trimming Clips
You can trim the beginning and end of clips in Editor. Hover over the clip you want to trim and select the scissors. You can now drag the handles along the frame strip to cut unwanted footage. As you drag the handles, the player above seeks to where you're dragging to, but you can get even more precise, as Bridgwater explains:
"Say someone walks into a room and you want to start the clip at the moment they enter. You can step through frame by frame by using the little left and right arrows at the top of those drag handles. This means you can 'nudge' the start point and the end point on a frame-accurate basis."
"Say someone walks into a room and you want to start the clip at the moment they enter. You can step through frame by frame by using the little left and right arrows at the top of those drag handles. This means you can 'nudge' the start point and the end point on a frame-accurate basis."
5. Changing the Brightness and Contrast
"Brightness and contrast are just pretty much like an old TV set where you have the two knobs," states Bridgwater. "And black and white just makes the video a black and white video."
Simple enough, but the near-live preview is pretty handy. "Our mantra for the video editor is that the preview has to be 'what you see is what you get'" says Bridgwater. "We show you a lower resolution version of the video that you're putting together with all the effects. You don't have to wait more than a couple of seconds, no matter what you do."
To access these controls, hover over the clip you want to adjust, select the wand icon and then you can play around with the settings to get the best result for you. Checking the "Preview effects side by side with original video" will allow you to do just that.
Simple enough, but the near-live preview is pretty handy. "Our mantra for the video editor is that the preview has to be 'what you see is what you get'" says Bridgwater. "We show you a lower resolution version of the video that you're putting together with all the effects. You don't have to wait more than a couple of seconds, no matter what you do."
To access these controls, hover over the clip you want to adjust, select the wand icon and then you can play around with the settings to get the best result for you. Checking the "Preview effects side by side with original video" will allow you to do just that.
6. Stabilizing Clips
The stabilization functionality is new to Editor, and it's something that YouTube is pretty proud of. Perfect for stopping citizen journalism-style clips from being too bumpy, the tool can also be used on any clip shot on a handheld device that could use some stabilization. You can try the effects out in Editor with near real-time previews, as Bridgwater explains:
"Editor can actually do a preview of a stabilized clip in real time. This is in contrast to a lot of desktop video editing software where you click the 'stabilize this video button,' go and get a cup of coffee and wait for it to do its work."
To try out the functionality you need to hover over the clip you want to edit, hit the wand icon and then check the box next to the stabalize options. It works on a sliding scale, which Bridgwater elaborates on:
"If you are on the left end, the less stable end of the slider, your video will be slightly more shaky but the advantage is that you lose less of the video. The way any stablization works, no matter what algorithm you're using, is by cropping the video a slight amount. In our case, at the less stable end we crop 3% of the video and on the far right end we crop 30%."
So how does the algorithm work? "Video that is shot professionally and made to be stable typically uses dollies and tripods, so the camera itself remains stable. What this algorithm does is tries to recreate what the camera motion should have been if you were using one of those tools, a dolly or a tripod."
"Editor can actually do a preview of a stabilized clip in real time. This is in contrast to a lot of desktop video editing software where you click the 'stabilize this video button,' go and get a cup of coffee and wait for it to do its work."
To try out the functionality you need to hover over the clip you want to edit, hit the wand icon and then check the box next to the stabalize options. It works on a sliding scale, which Bridgwater elaborates on:
"If you are on the left end, the less stable end of the slider, your video will be slightly more shaky but the advantage is that you lose less of the video. The way any stablization works, no matter what algorithm you're using, is by cropping the video a slight amount. In our case, at the less stable end we crop 3% of the video and on the far right end we crop 30%."
So how does the algorithm work? "Video that is shot professionally and made to be stable typically uses dollies and tripods, so the camera itself remains stable. What this algorithm does is tries to recreate what the camera motion should have been if you were using one of those tools, a dolly or a tripod."
7. Adding Transitions
Editor gives you the option to add transitions to your clips, at the beginning and end of your video, and in between the clips themselves. The transitions last for two seconds. Clips adjacent to a transition must be at least two seconds long. If there is a transition on both sides of a clip, then that clip must be at least four seconds long to accommodate both transitions.
To add a transition to your video, go to the media picker window and click on the bow tie icon. You can now drag and drop your selected transition into your storyboard.
One thing to note about transitions," says Bridgwater. "As you drag and drop the transition it'll give you some feedback about exactly where it will land. The feedback, the blue highlight, will straddle clips and transitions to show you where the thing you're dragging will land."
More transition tips from Bridgwater include: "If you put a transition at the very beginning, before the first clip, or at the very end, after the last clip, it's going to transition from or to black. If there's a transiton between videos the audio between those two clips will [also] similtaneously cross fade between the two videos while the transition is occuring."
To add a transition to your video, go to the media picker window and click on the bow tie icon. You can now drag and drop your selected transition into your storyboard.
One thing to note about transitions," says Bridgwater. "As you drag and drop the transition it'll give you some feedback about exactly where it will land. The feedback, the blue highlight, will straddle clips and transitions to show you where the thing you're dragging will land."
More transition tips from Bridgwater include: "If you put a transition at the very beginning, before the first clip, or at the very end, after the last clip, it's going to transition from or to black. If there's a transiton between videos the audio between those two clips will [also] similtaneously cross fade between the two videos while the transition is occuring."
8. Adding Music
"You can replace the audio in your own video with a track from our library of free songs," says Bridgwater. To find a song, go to the media picker window and hit the musical note icon. There are around 50,000 songs for you to choose from. You can search via genre, artist or keyword. To preview a song simply hover over it and hit the play arrow. To add it to your storyboard hit the plus symbol.
9. Managing Music
Once you've added a song to your storyboard you can manage it by scrolling down to the bottom of the page where your choice is displayed. To remove it entirely simply hit the "x" or to adjust the levels, here's Bridgwater's explanation of the functionality.
"If you put an audio track in the storyboard it will replace the entirity of the audio for your edited video, but you can choose how it's mixed."
"If the slider is all the way to the left -- set to 'only music' -- it's the same result as you get using the regular 'AudioSwap' feature on YouTube. If the slider is all the way on the right you might as well have not added to the track because it won't be heard over the clip's audio.
With Editor you're able to do a mix anywhere in between. Dead center is an even mix betwen the original audio from the video clip and the music track that you've selected, so you can choose the balance."
"If you put an audio track in the storyboard it will replace the entirity of the audio for your edited video, but you can choose how it's mixed."
"If the slider is all the way to the left -- set to 'only music' -- it's the same result as you get using the regular 'AudioSwap' feature on YouTube. If the slider is all the way on the right you might as well have not added to the track because it won't be heard over the clip's audio.
With Editor you're able to do a mix anywhere in between. Dead center is an even mix betwen the original audio from the video clip and the music track that you've selected, so you can choose the balance."
10. Previewing Your Video
Once you've edited your clips and added any music or transitions you want, you can preview the finished product simply by hitting the play button on the preview window on the top right of the screen.
11. Naming and Publishing
When you're happy with everything, you'll need to give your video a title. To do this just type in the text box on the top right of the screen. Then you can hit the publish button to send your video live.
If you hit publish without giving your video a name then YouTube will give it a default title comprised of the date and time. You can still edit this after you've published it. Simply load up the video and hit the "Edit video detail" button that's just beneath the YouTube logo on the top left of your screen.
If you hit publish without giving your video a name then YouTube will give it a default title comprised of the date and time. You can still edit this after you've published it. Simply load up the video and hit the "Edit video detail" button that's just beneath the YouTube logo on the top left of your screen.
[via mashable]
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