Youtube’s Video Editor: A Quick Introduction

Just in case you still missed it, YouTube finally got its very own tool for you creating your own videos directly on your browser. No need for installing heavy apps on your PC. All you need is a solid internet connection, a good collection of video clips, and of course, an existing YouTube account.

With the Video Editor, you are given the chance to mix up or combine your collection of videos without crowding your very own library. Short clips, if they are capable of telling a story, can be sequenced to build a new, single video. More features with the latest updates of YouTube are:

1. Texts/titles with your choice of font color, size, and style, banner color, position, etc.
2. Manipulate: Trim, lengthen, trim, loop, rotate video clips
3. Add custom pre-approved audio tracks to overlap the audio of video clips you have
4. Creative filters (video enhancements) like Sepia and Cross-processing, and even greyscale, and even an auto-fix option
5. Other creative options like slow-motion playback, control for brightness and contrast levels, pan & zoom, image stabilize, and a lot more.

Just in case you are already experience with video editing, you can surely meet a lot of limitations as well. Remember that this browser-based video editor is not designed to be a professional-grade tool for professional purposes, so if you are after some more options, features, and controls, you may check out the some leading video editing apps for your computer like Adobe Premiere Pro, Edius, and Cyberlink PowerDirector.

To go to the video editor, you can use the link as given above, or you may follow the steps below:

1. Sign in to your YouTube account.
2. Click on the Upload button next to the search bar.
3. On the right side of the area to where you upload your new videos, under Create videos, select Edit.

Note: Just in case you miss it or you really intend it, you may want to try Create for making your Photo slideshows. You can do slideshows on the video editor, but the Photo slideshow is more dedicated to that.

Getting Started

1. Upload.

1. Be sure that you have the video clips ready for use. The video editor of YouTube requires that you have them uploaded prior to editing them in the timeline.
2. Note that the editor does not allow drag & drop videos right from your system directories.
3. If you do not want the videos you upload to appear in your public library, be sure to select Unlisted or Private before actually uploading them.

2. Open the Video Editor.

3. Select Items.

1. Items from your library that you want added to the timeline can be added by hovering on the item and clicking the plus sign above it. Alternatively, you can directly drag and drop them on the timeline for a more visible cue.
2. Items on your library are categorized as: My Videos, Creative Common (CC) videos, Photos, Audio, Transitions, and Text. Use the search bar if you are finding difficulty locating the files.
3. Clips are maxed to only 50 clips for videos and 500 images.
4. Video clips to be used for editing must not exceed 10,000 views, and must be less than two hours long, and must not have a matching content ID.

4. Edit.

1. Drag photos and videos on the timeline dedicated for videos. Audio files must sit on the timeline dedicated for audio files.
2. Trim or Lengthen clips by dragging the handles on either side of each clip. Dragging the handles beyond the clip size will make the clip repeat or loop.
3. Adjust volume by hovering on each clip on the timeline and adjusting the volume slider left or right.
4. Hover over each clip for options like Rotate, Effects, Text, and Split. Rotating will do 90-degree clockwise or counter-clockwise increments, effects will open the effects window for filters and enhancements, and text will allow text overlays, titles or subtitles.
5. To Split clips, click the scissor icon and select the point to where you want the clip to be divided into two.
6. Adjust timeline view size using the zoom slider on the bottom right of the timeline.
7. Drag transitions in between video clips or photos.
8. The current video editor does not support multi-track editing, i.e., video tracks on top of or overlapping other videos or photos, music on top of another music. You can only make one music come before or after another, and the same for music.
9. Audio clips will overlap the raw audio from the video clips within the same time frame. To control how much the audio tracks overtake the video’s default audio, adjust the volume slider.

5. Publish

1. It might take a while for the video to be complete processed depending on the length, the amount of editing, and the number of items used.
2. You might want to edit the video after processing. This includes Info and Settings, Enhancements, Audio, Annotations, and Captions.