YouTube‘s online Editor launched in June last year as a very basic video editing suite originally borne from one of Google‘s “20%” projects. Now it has seven full-time developers working on it and new features are gradually being introduced.
Mashable spoke to Tom Bridgwater, a YouTube software engineer and one of the founding members of the team that developed Editor, about how to get the most from the free video editing software.
If you’d like to know how to trim your videos, improve the image quality and add free music, then take a look through the gallery of short video demos below. Let us know your favorite YouTube Editor function — and what else you’d like to see in the future — in the comments below.
1. Intro to Editor
The YouTube Editor is comprised of three areas -- the media picker window on the top left, the preview video window on the top right and the "storyboard" ac ross the bottom of the screen.
"We choose to go with the storyboard metaphor because we felt it was easier in concept," explains Bridgwater. "It's like a storyboard where you just take Post-It notes and stick them on the wall in the order in which you want things to happen.
"As opposed to having to fiddle around with dragging times and getting everything lined up perfectly -- it's more just 'this is the sequence of videos' and that's what you're focussed on."
To open the YouTube Editor once you're signed in, click on your username in the top right of the screen, select "Account" or "My Videos" then hit the "YouTube Editor" tab.
2. Adding Clips to the Storyboard
Adding clips to the storyboard is super simple. Just drag them into the storyboard window, or click the plus sign on the video you want to add. Once the clips are in you can drag and drop to re-order them, or remove them from the storyboard either by dragging them back up to the media picker window...
