Making and sharing videos with the smartphone is extremely popular, but not every video is immediately suitable for sharing. Often you want to cut away a piece, or embellish the video with filters and music. These kinds of simple operations are fine with a smartphone. We take a look at the capabilities of the YouCut app, which helps with video editing on Android.
We share something through social networks. Take TikTok alone: more than a million people in the Netherlands – mostly teenagers – have downloaded the music app. They record video clips with well-known songs and share them with friends. Many of these apps, including WhatsApp and YouTube, offer built-in editing tools, but they are not always complete and they all work slightly differently. A separate program is more convenient. YouCut offers all the basic editing and more, is free to use, and doesn’t add a watermark like many competitors.
Working with the timeline
We get started with YouCut. You can choose the option Share with use to open a selected video in your gallery in YouCut. The most convenient is to just start YouCut and create a new project in it. In that case you can designate one or more videos from the gallery. If you choose several, they will appear side by side on the timeline as separate fragments. At any time you can add additional videos to the timeline via the plus sign.
The timeline only offers one layer of videos in a row and above that extra layers (up to ten) with, for example, overlapping texts, music or stickers. If you want to move an element on the timeline, long press it and drag it. To edit an element, just tap it. We will show you what you can add. First we show the basic video clip operations.
Basic operations
To edit a video clip, tap it. You will then see a menu with all kinds of options. A common one is Trim to shorten the fragment, actually in a similar way. You will also see the option Cut to cut a piece out of the fragment and Split to split the fragment in two at a certain point.
You can also adjust the volume, change the speed of the fragment (Speed) or cut out (Crop). You can also duplicate fragments with Copy. You can see the different video fragments in blocks at the bottom and you can move them by holding them down briefly and then dragging them. Important: after each edit, tap the check mark to enter it, or the cross if you don’t want to.
Add music and lyrics
To add a text, first scroll through the timeline to the point in the video where the text should appear and tap Text. There are countless options for changing the text format. Adding music is similar. Divided over the tabs Features, My Music and Effect you will find royalty-free background music, your own music and also a selection with all kinds of fun sound effects of, for example, animals or instruments.
If you put such an element on the timeline, tap it to, for example, shorten it, change the volume or change the options Fade In and / or Fade Out to use. You have three layers for sounds on the timeline, so they can also overlap. You can move them by holding them down briefly and dragging them to another position or possibly another line. The Pro version (3.99 euros / year or 9.99 euros once) gives more royalty-free music and also extra effects.
Filters and Effects
Filters and effects are readily available in YouCut. First go back to the beginning of the video via the timeline where you want to apply such a filter or effect. For example, a filter can give the video a vintage look, but it knows on the tab Adjust also normal controls to adjust for example color, contrast or brightness.
Effects are even more varied and can be applied to pieces of video. For example, they shake or disturb the image. Tap Effects to view them. You will then see a separate timeline of the video in which you can exfoliate, with sections below (Glitch, Beat, Magic and Mirror) any effects you can apply. Some effects require the Pro version.
To apply an effect, hold down the effect and the video will run on the timeline from that point, with that effect on it now. Release your finger when you are done. Use the eraser to erase effects in a similar way. And do not forget to make the changes with the check mark or remove with the cross.
Finally, you can take the photo via Save store it in your archive in the desired quality (including 1080p) and distribute it further.
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