Basic Guide To Using YouTube's New Video Editor

In June 2010, YouTube finally released a browser-based video editor. This was something that youtubers had been clamouring for a long time. This tool requires no additional software, or browser plug-ins other than Adobe's Flash, and allows users to make minor edits to videos they've uploaded, and stitch several clips together into one longer video.

Drawbacks? It doesn't allow for many of the basic features of modern day consumer video editing software (like captioning, transitions, and image stabilization), but it is somewhat convenient. All your video files can enhanced by YouTube's servers, which means you will be able to do some complex HD video editing using older computers that might appear woefully inadequate.

There are five basic steps to using Youtube's Video Editor:

1. Upload
2. Arrange
3. Cut
4. Audio
5. Publish!

First off, shoot lots and lots of great video of your friend getting teabagged by a football or crashing after doing a skate board stunt. After you and your friend scoop up his teeth, you rush home to put it all on YouTube. So, step 1:

Upload Your Clips

One important point is that if you have several different clips that you want to string together into one video, you'll have to upload each clip individually to YouTube. Also, if you don't want to have each clip stand alone as separate videos, be sure to click the "private" or "unlisted" option. (What are these options about? Well, I'll do a seperate post about them later).

Arrange Your Clips

You can get to YouTube's Video editor by clicking that link - don't worry it rarely bites. It will open in a new window for you.

When you get there you'll see your video clips uploaded. To add videos to your time line just drag them down from from your "My Videos" list to the timeline below (the gray area). Another option is to click the plus sign in the top right hand corner of each video clip. If you want to add portions of one clip that you've already moved all you have to do is drag the clip a second time.

Cut, Baby, Cut!

Now is the fun part as far as I'm concerned and also sometimes the most difficult. Cutting each clip to show only that amount of film that you want displayed in your epic video. Maybe you don't want the part where your buddy states he was going to "own" that skateboard stunt before he does the faceplant, so you can cut that part out.

Also, if you want, rather than going through all the rigamarole (<- a fancy $2 word hassle/BS/etc) of actually "cutting up" your epic vid, you could just hit "Publish" and then tell your toothless friend and other buddies to check out your YouTube video, but where's the fun in that?! You need to become an editor, son! Cut and realign your clips into into something a little cooler. And music or a voice-over or show your buddy getting pwned by the concrete over in over in slow-mo. One thing about YouTube's editor is that it lets you trim a video, but not split it, so if you want to cut a single clip into two or more parts you need to drag more copies of that video down into your time line from the "My Videos" section.

Audio - You need music!

While you can't change the volume level or add an audio track of your own using YouTube's Video Editor, you can use another tool from the might 'Tube to add music to your creation. It's called the YouTube's AudioSwap feature and I'll add a link later to a review of that option.

You should know that using the YouTube Video Editor removes any audio that was already in your video and you can add only one audio track to your epic, so choose carefully. Actually that's the same problem encountered when using the Autoswap feature.

annnnd - PUBLISH!

When you're happy with the finished product, all you have to do is hit "Publish" and wait for YouTube to get your video uploaded. This can be fairly quick if it is a short clip, but if you are doing monstrously large videos like Shay Carl and other who upload longer videos, it can take a loooong time for your video to finish processing. One daily vlogger that I follow named NickosBLOG, lives in Australia and did a video (here's a link) where he complains about how long it takes him to upload from there.

So if you are trying to upload a longer video or something in HD, expect it to take longer.