How to make your videos stand out
You’ve started making some videos and now you would like to take them to the next level. Let’s see how you can do that in Flixier with a few simple tricks that will work with most types of videos. Following these tips will dramatically improve the quality of your videos, drive more engagement and increase viewing numbers. What’s even better? All of them take seconds to re-create in Flixier.
Let’s get to it:
1. Transitions
Transitions are used in most videos and they generally allow the editor to create a smooth switch between footage sequences.
There are many types of transitions but we suggest that you still use the classics like Cross-fade, Fade to Black or Fade to White.
In Flixier you can use transitions by dragging and dropping them from the Transition Library on a video track in the timeline. When clicking a transition a blue outline will appear on the tracks and you can drop it there. They can be added both at the beginning and at the end of a video.
To adjust the duration of a transition you can click and drag from the blue overlay over the track and make it last longer or shorter.
To remove a transition just click on the track that holds that transition and remove it from the right panel under object properties.
2. Video Filters
Let’s move on to Filters, they are used to offer a certain vibe to the video since different story types fit better with some filters than others. Did you ever notice how some videos have this bluish tint on top of them while others have a yellowish one? Also, videos made recently that want to tell a story from the past, let’s take the 70s for example, will also use a filter to convey that feeling.
This is an oversimplification of using filters of course. In feature films, there is a person, called color grader, that makes these adjustments individually to each shot that goes into the movie. It's an art in itself.
Still, you can improve your videos just by using pre-made filters in Flixier. To add them select a clip and click on the “Effects” tab in the right panel and choose the one you would like to use. To remove it just be sure that the object you want to remove it from is selected and press the Delete icon in the Object Properties, same as you remove transitions.
3. Video Effects
Moving on to visual effects you can blur, pixelate or add noise to a video, this is helpful if you want to hide something in your video for a while or if you have a video that doesn’t fit in the desired aspect ratio. A common approach to fix this issue and get rid of black bars is to scale a video on the background and then apply a blur effect to it, then add the same video on top and it will mix really nicely with the background.
Trying to make a point and quickly go through a process? Just use the video speed-up feature. Speeding up a video in Flixier is very easy and flexible as it lets you fine-tune the right speed for you.
Use video slow-down, if you want to showcase something that needs more time on the screen or simply to show-off a funny situation, use the same slider as above just in the opposite direction to slow down a video.
4. Overlays
We’ve talked about transitions before but I’ll also get into Overlays. They have the same purpose as transitions but behave like simple objects that you overlay on a new track in your video.
Overlays usually are made of shapes and offer a more modern look to your transitions. It’s worth noting that they don’t really work when making a feature film but for other types of videos like tutorials, gaming videos, vlogs, tech and many more they really add a modern vibe and fit really well.
Check out the video below to see how to use them in Flixier.
5. Motion Text
Who likes simple boring text in a video where most of the elements are dynamic? We added a high number of animated texts that have a modern design and provide that much-needed motion to keep your video engaging. To use Motion Text in Flixier just drag and drop it from the Text Library in the timeline and use the “Edit Animation” button in the right panel to edit it.
This short video shows you how to do just that in a few simple steps.
6. Animated Calls to Action
All your videos should ask the viewer to take some action after watching it. Usually choosing a main one works better than having multiple ones because it is not confusing for the viewer.
In the case of social media, this is very clear as many videos have “Subscribe to my channel”, “Follow me on Instagram”, “Like my video” kind of requests from the creators.
These work very well because people are usually grateful after watching a good video and are more likely to take action to help the creator.
In Flixier you have a high selection of calls to action objects that you can just drag and drop on your timeline. You can easily edit them too so you can truly make them yours.
Check out the video below to see how easy it is to use them.
As a final word, I would like to emphasize the importance of not overusing all the elements mentioned above. Some people have this tendency and the result is just something hard to watch that annoys viewers with too many animations or calls to action.
That’s it! Get started and dramatically improve your video now. If you feel ready to publish your video check out the fastest ways to upload a video on YouTube or other channels. In case you feel like you need to take a step back and would like to learn how to get started with video you can take a look at best steps to edit a great video.
