Editing Video Clips
Any video clip you put on a scene can be trimmed, split, sped up, looped, cropped and color-corrected without leaving the editor. This article covers getting footage into a design and every edit you can make to a clip. For cutting a talking-head video by editing its words, see Edit Video by Transcript.
The Video Editor mode is set up for this work: its rail opens on Upload and includes Record, Video, Edit by Text, AI Video, Subtitle and Visual FX. The Full Editor has the same panels. In Animation mode, the Video, Edit by Text and AI Video panels aren’t on the rail, but you can still upload a clip and edit it with everything below. See Choosing an Editor Mode.
Add a video
Section titled “Add a video”Click Upload on the rail and upload the file, then click it to add it to the current scene. You can also drag a video file from your computer straight onto the canvas: it appears at the drop point right away and is added to your library while it uploads. See Uploading Your Own Media.
Click Video on the rail, or press Ctrl+Shift+O (Cmd+Shift+O on a Mac). Type in Search videos… (Press Enter) and press Enter, then click a clip to add it, or drag it to where you want it. Stock clips come from a third-party library and count toward your plan’s monthly stock allowance. See Elements, Stock Media, GIFs and Emojis.
Click Record on the rail to capture your screen, webcam or both. See Recording Your Voice, Screen and Webcam.
The Generate AI Video button at the top of the Video panel makes a new clip from a description. It uses AI credits. See AI Video, AI Actor and Avatars.
The video toolbar
Section titled “The video toolbar”Select a clip on the canvas to see its toolbar. Along with the controls every item has, a video gets:
- Trim: choose which part of the clip plays
- Edit Video: volume, speed, loop, blend, adjustments, filters and crop
- Subtitles: caption the clip’s speech (see Subtitles and Captions)
- Dub: translate and re-voice the clip (see Dubbing a Video into Another Language)
- Replace: swap in a different clip or picture
- Set as background: make the clip fill the scene behind everything else
More Tools (Ctrl+Shift+D, Cmd+Shift+D on a Mac) holds the rest: Adjust, Filters, Crop, Blend, Fit to Slide and AI upscale, among others.
Trim a clip
Section titled “Trim a clip”Trimming sets which part of the source file plays. The file itself is never changed, so you can always widen the trim again.
- Select the clip and click Trim
- Drag either end of the highlighted window over the waveform to set the start and end, or drag the whole window to play a different part of the clip
- To set an exact length, type it in seconds in the Length box
- Double-click the clip’s bar on the timeline. The bar grows and shows frames from the whole source, with the unused head and tail shown faintly behind it
- Drag the Trim in point or Trim out point handle to set where the clip starts and stops. Drag the middle of the clip to change which part of it plays without changing its length
- Click the check mark (Finish trimming) or press Esc
Trimming on the timeline makes it easy to end a clip exactly where the music or another item does, because the handles line up with the timeline’s grid and playhead.
Outside trim mode, dragging either end of a clip’s bar on the timeline also changes how much of the source plays, unless Loop is on.
Split a clip
Section titled “Split a clip”Splitting cuts one clip into two at the playhead. Each half is its own clip that you can trim, move or delete.
- Select the clip
- Move the playhead to where you want the cut
- Click Split (the scissors) in the timeline’s control bar
To cut without moving the playhead, select the clip, hold Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) and move the mouse over the scene’s row on the timeline. A dashed cut line follows the pointer; click to cut there. You can also open the command palette (Ctrl+P, Cmd+P on a Mac) and choose Split Selected Video at Playhead.
Animations and audio attached to the clip are divided between the two halves at the cut.
Volume, speed, loop and blend
Section titled “Volume, speed, loop and blend”Select the clip and click Edit Video to open the panel on its Adjustments tab. The first four rows control playback:
- Volume: 0 to 100%. The speaker button next to it mutes the clip (Mute) and restores the previous level (Unmute)
- Speed: from 0.25× to 4×, with quick buttons for 0.5×, 1×, 1.5× and 2×. The value shows how long the clip will last on the timeline at that speed. Your trim stays the same part of the source, so a 10-second trim at 2× takes 5 seconds
- Loop: Restart automatically when it ends. With Loop on, stretching the clip’s bar on the timeline adds repeats of the same trim instead of more footage. Use it for background footage that should run for the whole scene
- Blend: how the clip mixes with what’s under it. There are 17 modes. Screen hides black, which is the quickest way to lay fire, smoke, sparks or light leaks shot on black over another picture
Color-correct a clip
Section titled “Color-correct a clip”Under the playback rows, the Adjustments tab has sliders in four groups:
| Group | Sliders |
|---|---|
| Light | Brightness, Contrast, Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Fade, Gamma, Blacks, Whites |
| Color | Hue, Saturation, Vibrance, Temperature, Tint, Colorize |
| Detail | Noise, Blur, Sharpen, Clarity, Grain |
| Effects | Pixelate, Vignette, Posterize, Remove Color |
Click Reset next to a slider to put just that one back, or Reset all to clear them all. Remove Color is the green-screen key. See Removing Backgrounds.
The Filters tab is a gallery of more than 90 one-click looks in categories such as B&W, Vintage, Cinematic and Duotone, previewed on your own clip. Search with Search filters…, and click None to remove a filter.
Crop a clip or give it a shape
Section titled “Crop a clip or give it a shape”Open the Crop tab of Edit Video. You can also double-click the clip on the canvas, or select it and press C.
- Crop: drag the edges of the clip on the canvas to cut it down without changing its box. Press P with the clip selected to switch this on and off. Reset removes the crop
- Rounded: rounds the corners. A slider sets the radius
- Shapes: 20 masks such as Rectangle, Rounded rectangle, Circle, Triangle, Diamond, Hexagon, Arrow and Chevron. Choose Keep shape to keep the shape’s proportions, or Stretch to fit to fill the clip’s box
- None: removes any crop, rounding or shape
To show a clip inside a word or a shape, place the text or shape above the clip, select both and click Clip on the toolbar: the top object becomes a mask for the clip. See Layers, Groups and Locking.
Flip, position and size
Section titled “Flip, position and size”Click the Position & Layers button on the toolbar for layer order, alignment, flip and exact size and rotation. See Selecting, Arranging and Aligning Items.
To make a clip cover the whole scene, use Fit to Slide in More Tools, or Set as background below.
Replace a clip
Section titled “Replace a clip”Replace swaps the media and keeps everything you built around it: position, size, rotation, animations, effects, shadow, lock and timing. The clip’s Loop, Volume and Speed settings carry over too.
- Select the clip and click Replace
- A banner asks you to Pick an image or video to replace it with, with buttons for Uploads, Photos, Videos, GIFs, AI image, AI video and Brand
- Click the clip or picture you want. Press Esc or click Cancel to stop
You can also drag a clip or picture from a panel onto the one on the canvas. The target is outlined with Drop to replace. Hold Alt (Option on a Mac) to add it as a new item instead.
The new clip plays from its own start, and keeps the old clip’s length on the timeline if it is long enough. A shorter clip makes the bar shorter.
Use a video as the scene background
Section titled “Use a video as the scene background”Select the clip and click Set as background. The clip fills the scene behind everything else, runs for the whole scene, and is locked so it doesn’t move when you click on the canvas. To move or resize it again, unlock it in Layers.
When you add a clip from a panel, you can hold Shift as you drop it on the canvas (Hold Shift to set as background) to make it the background straight away. See Backgrounds and Colors.
Make a low-resolution clip sharper with AI upscale
Section titled “Make a low-resolution clip sharper with AI upscale”AI upscale enlarges a clip with AI so it looks sharper in your export. It uses AI credits and is on every plan.
- Select the clip and open More Tools
- Click AI upscale. The panel shows the clip’s current size
- Choose a Scale: 2x, 3x or 4x
- Optional: turn on Smooth to 60fps (doubles the cost) to also raise the frame rate
- Check the output size and the credit cost, then click Upscale
The cost depends on the size of the result and the length of the clip: about 3.3 credits per second when the result is 720p or smaller, about 6.7 credits per second up to 1080p, and about 26.7 credits per second above that. Smoothing to 60 fps doubles it. The price on the panel is the exact amount charged, and it’s refunded if the job fails.
Animate a clip
Section titled “Animate a clip”Clips take the same entrance, exit and looping effects as any other item, from Effects and Animations on the toolbar. You can also move a clip along a path or keyframe its position and scale. See Entrance, Exit and Looping Effects and Keyframes, Motion Paths and Camera Moves.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”- Split is grayed out: stop playback, unlock the clip, turn off Loop, and make sure the playhead is at least half a second from either end of the clip.
- The clip stops before the end of the scene: lengthen the trim, or turn on Loop and stretch the clip’s bar to the end of the scene.
- The Edit Video panel is empty: it works on one clip at a time. Select a single video.
- No AI upscale tile, or “Only media hosted by this app can be upscaled”: the clip is still uploading, or it isn’t stored on Glintia. Wait for the upload to finish, or upload the file yourself.