Billions of videos have been posted on YouTube till now in different genres like news, sports, hobbies, tech, coding, education, fashion, vlogs, and hundreds of others, you name it, and it’s there. YouTube has every kind of video on any topic you can imagine.
These videos are not made by any companies or YouTube itself; they are people like you and me who invest their time and efforts in making those videos using their resources. There are a variety of people on YouTube. Some people just create content from their daily lives, but some are professional creators with millions of subscribers and viewership. Companies are also involved in this race. People are earning thousands of dollars through YouTube channels.
It doesn’t matter if you want to start to create content or if you are a professional creator. The first step is always about how to create and edit your videos.
Editing is not all about cutting unnecessary things or clips from the videos, and it requires much more skills and reasonable effort to do it. People take help from professional video editors to edit their videos or to create the best version of their videos. Video editing is an art and requires a skillset, and a professional video editor gets paid way higher than it looks.
In today’s era, there are many tools and techniques to create and edit videos, like video animation, video creators, and many more; there are multiple paid and unpaid tools available in the market for video editing. So let’s start learning the basics of video editing.
YouTube video editing basics
Before you start editing your video in earnest, you should first understand the essential tools, processes, and elements of video editing. You need to know the basic configuration, editing flow, and editing elements of an editing program.
The Basic Configuration of the Video Editing Program
Most video editing programs that many people use today consist of the following parts:
Preview window
The preview window is a space to check the edited state of the current video. You can move forward/backwards to the scene to be previewed on the timeline to check and correct the edited result.
Media Room
Source videos, images, and sound sources used for video editing are arranged here. Among the files stored on your computer, you can load and use the files for video editing here.
Editing tool
This menu allows you to edit video, audio, subtitles, effects, etc.
Timeline
A space in which source files are laid out over time. You will load media files from the media room here, cut, place, add effects, and so on. As such, editing software plays a huge role in video editing. Try free online editing software if you don’t have a primary editing program.
Video Editing Order
No matter what type of video you create, it’s important to follow a standardized editing process for every edit. There are many types of editing processes, but here’s the easiest one for beginners to follow:
Loading a scene
This is the process of loading a scene from a camera onto an editor. Traditionally, this process can be done by connecting the camera to a computer, but more recently, shooting is also done with a mobile device such as a smartphone.
If the video was shot with a digital camera, connect the device to the computer, move the file, and import it into an editing program.
If the video was shot with a smartphone, you can download the mobile app and edit the video directly on the smartphone without having to move the shooting scene to a computer.
Organizing imported files
After importing recorded clips, rename them for convenient editing. Some video editors automatically categorize files by media types, such as video, photo, or music. If your software does not support automatic sorting, you must create and manage separate folders. Just as you prepare all the ingredients, you need before cooking, the editing process is much easier if you have all the clips you need organized.
Select and Reorganize Clips
Decide which clips you want to use in your video production and add them to the timeline. Then proceed with cut editing, cutting out only the scenes you need from each clip. Now place the cut clip where you want it. You can repeat this process to create a single video draft. If you can’t finish it the first time, you can save it as a project file and recall it later to continue working.
Replay edits
Play back the cut edits from start to finish once. There are definitely things you don’t like, and you will have to fix them. Try lengthening or shortening each clip and reordering them if necessary. You should keep working on this review until you’re happy with it.
Color Correction
Depending on the nature of the footage or the quality of the clips you shoot, color correction may be necessary. Through this operation, the color values that are different for each clip can be matched as much as possible.
Adding Effects
Now it’s time to step up from basic cut editing and add effects. Add any effects you’ve seen in other YouTubers’ videos, such as transitions, titles, animations, and sound sources. Of course, this process takes some practice and flair.
Sound Check
This step checks the quality of the sound included in the video. In this step, you need to adjust the volume of each sound that makes up the sound, such as background noise, voice, and background music, to harmonize well.
Make a video & upload it to YouTube.
Repeat the above video several times and make corrections if there are any problems. If there is nothing more to improve, you can output it as a video when you think of it and upload it to YouTube.
