CapCut is a popular and powerful video editing app for Android smartphones, favored by many for its user-friendly interface and a comprehensive set of features—all available for free.
CapCut offers a wide range of features for both basic and advanced editing, with many powered by artificial intelligence. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use it, from a beginner’s perspective.
Getting Started
Download and Install: Go to the Google Play Store, search for “CapCut,” and install the app.
Create a New Project: Open the app and tap on the “New Project” button. You will be prompted to give CapCut access to your photos and videos.
Import Media: Select the videos and photos from your device’s gallery that you want to include in your project. Once you’ve selected them, tap “Add” in the bottom-right corner.
Understanding the Interface
After you add your clips, you’ll be taken to the main editing workspace. The interface is clean and intuitive:
Preview Panel: This is at the top of the screen. It shows you a real-time preview of your video as you edit.
Toolbar: The row of icons at the very bottom of the screen. This is your main menu for all editing tools, such as Edit, Audio, Text, Stickers, Effects, and more.
Timeline: Located at the bottom of the preview panel. This is where your video clips are arranged in a sequence. You can pinch to zoom in and out of the timeline for more precise editing.
Basic Editing (The Essentials)
Trim and Split Clips
Trim: Tap on a clip in the timeline. You will see a white box around it. Drag the white handles on the left or right side to shorten or lengthen the clip.
Split: Place the white vertical line (the playhead) where you want to cut a clip. Tap on the clip, then select the “Split” icon (a pair of scissors) from the toolbar. This will divide the clip into two parts, allowing you to delete unwanted sections.
Adjust Speed
Select a clip and tap the “Speed” button in the toolbar.
Choose “Normal” to speed up or slow down the entire clip uniformly (from 0.1x to 100x).
Choose “Curve” to create dynamic speed changes throughout the clip. CapCut offers pre-made curves (like “Hero” or “Montage“) or you can create a custom one.
Add Transitions
Tap the white box with a line in it that appears between two clips on your timeline.
This will open the transitions menu. You can choose from a variety of categories, such as Camera, Slide, Distort, and more.
Once you select a transition, you can adjust its duration using the slider at the bottom.
Adding Creative Elements
Music and Sound Effects
Go back to the main toolbar and tap “Audio.”
You can select from CapCut’s extensive library of music and sound effects under “Sounds.”
You can also import your own audio by extracting it from a video file on your device under “Extracted.”
Text and Titles
Tap the “Text” button in the main toolbar.
Choose “Add text” to type your message. You can customize the font, style, color, and add animations.
You can also select from Text Templates for pre-designed animated titles.
Effects and Filters
Tap “Effects” from the toolbar.
Video Effects: Apply cool visual effects like Glitch, Blur, or Motion Blur to your clips.
Body Effects: Use these to add effects that are specifically applied to people in your video.
Tap “Filters” to change the overall mood and color of your video with preset color correction filters.
Exporting Your Video
Once you’re happy with your video, it’s time to save it.
Look for the export icon (an arrow pointing up and out of a box) at the top right of the screen..
Tap it to open the export settings. You can adjust the Resolution (e.g., 720p, 1080p, 4K) and Frame Rate (e.g., 24fps, 30fps, 60fps) to control the quality of your final video.
Tap “Export” to save the video to your phone’s gallery. CapCut also offers the option to share your video directly to platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
By default, CapCut adds a small branded ending. You can easily remove it by tapping the ending clip in the timeline and selecting “Delete.”
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