Video editing is an art form. I love doing it, but it's something that you only learn
by doing it over and over and practicing. And sometimes
it can be a bit overwhelming. But there are a few easy ways
to make simple video clips look super slick and on brand. Today I'm going to show you how to elevate
simple video clips to make them look super professional. Just using animated graphics in Canva. We're going to start
with a simple video file in Canva. This one is a horizontal format. You can of course do the same thing
on a vertical format video. I'm just doing it this way because
it gives me a bit more screen space. show you what I'm actually doing. First thing we need to do is just to insert the video
that we're going to use for this example. I'm going to go to my uploads folder,
and there is a roughly 32nd video that I recorded earlier
to use for this project. I'm going to click on it
and it appears on my page. Then I'm just going to resize it to fill
that page for the full 1080 video size. When I hit play,
the first thing I notice is that there are a few seconds at the beginning
before I actually start talking. And so I want to edit those out. So I am just going to move my playhead
so that it's just before I say the first word. And then I'm going to click and drag
the left hand side. Drag that handle
into snap to the playhead. And now if I go to the beginning
and hit play, I start talking right away. One easy way to make your videos look a little more professional
is to include a top and title. Now a top in town is just a screen at the beginning
and at the end of your main content that frames the content with something
like a talking head video like this. At the beginning,
you would probably have something that has a title on or introduces
what you're going to be talking about. And at the end, I like to include
something that has a bit of branding. But more importantly,
lets people know what action you want them to take
or how they can support or follow you. So we're going to create those in Canva. Now you could create these from scratch and we're just going to click to add
two pages first of all to our project. And I'm going to click and drag one to
before my video clip and leave one after. Now depending on your brand style and how comfortable you are
with your brand elements, or if you've got existing designs
and templates that you can draw on, you could do whatever you want for this
top and tail and make it as colorful or as bright
or as perfect for your brand as you want. And you can do that
just using simple elements in Canva. But we're actually going to use existing
template from Canvas Template Library. So I'm going to go over to designs
in the left hand panel. And you can see that there is a whole
range of designs you can choose from. Again, depending on what your brand is
like, you could choose any of these that feel close to your brand
and that are easy for you to customize. I'm just going to use this one at the top
that says Digital Marketing Tools. And when I click on it, it's
just going to insert that first slide into the blank slide
that my cursor was on. Next we're going to customize this
so it fits with my brand. So the first thing I'm going to do is
to just remove this quarter circle frame. And then I'm going to move the frame
with a photograph up. And I'm going to adjust
the sizing and location of this circle. And actually I'm going to duplicate it
and add a smaller one. And then I'm going to recolor them
so that they fit for my brand. To recolor this whole slide, I could go
to the brand icon on the left hand side and then use my primary palette
and just by clicking shuffle, it will start applying my brand colors until there is something that I find easy
to use or easy to customize. So for this one, I'm
just going to change the colors on to some of these circles
so that they match my brand. And then for that image, I'm going to go
to my brand folder that I've created. And I'm going to click and drag
a photograph of myself into that frame. Next we're going to customize the text. I'm going to click on this title. And the first thing I'm going to do
is to change the font to the font that I want to use called Poppins,
which is a really nice bold font. And I know it works well for titles. The subtitle I am also going to change
to Poppins to just the regular weight. I'm going to make that a little larger. Then I'm going to just reposition
these and add my content in. Then I'm going to just resize them
so that I think it all works nicely. And add in a little bit of branding. So that's at the beginning as well. Now because we used an existing template,
there are already animations applied to these elements. But you could change them to whatever
works for you, or just find one that already has animations that you like,
and that's easy for you to use. if I just play through this five second
clip, you'll see the branding I put on and haven't added an animation to,
but the rest of it animates really nicely. It's very subtle and I'm happy with that. What I am going to do
is make it a little bit shorter. So once everything has animated in,
I'm just going to give it a second or two and then I'm going to click and drag this right hand handle
until it snaps to where the playhead is. So it's now only 3.3 seconds
before it goes into the main content. Speaking of which, to move from our first slide,
this intro slide into the main video clip. I'm going to click
between the two elements, and I'm going to add a transition. And I'm just going to use
a simple dissolve. I'm going to take it down to 0.3 seconds. So it's fairly quick. But it just means that from that intro
slide we go straight into the content with me talking. And that looks really slick,
but it's very subtle and it doesn't detract from the content. For the final slide
I'm going to create this one myself. So I'm going to use the brand
charcoal color for the background. I'm going to add in a brand logo
and I'm going to add an animation to that. And for that I'm going to add
in this new animation called succession, which has a kind of a blur
and a zoom as part of that animation. Now, if you're looking for this animation
and it hasn't appeared in your Canva toolkit yet, don't worry about it. I know that Canva is rolling this out,
so it might take a little time to get to everywhere in the world, but
it is coming, so keep an eye out for it. And if not,
you can always reach out to Canva and ask them when it will be available
in your region. Next, I'm going add a line
by hitting L on my keyboard, and I'm then going to rotate it
and put it in the center of the page, so that it almost forms a center divider
between the left and right of this page. Then I'm going to add in the text box,
type in my URL or my website address. Resize it and put it on the right hand
side. For this line
I'm going to click on animate. And I'm probably just going
to choose the wipe animation. But I'm going to go
so that it goes from top to bottom. And then for the website address
on the right hand side, I'm going to use that same succession
animation that I used on the actual logo. And so when we now play that back
it goes from the content to that and the logo, the line and that domain
name or website address appears. Now I've kept this really simple,
but obviously you can add in whatever you want. You could add in your social links,
you could add in links to where your freebie
or your lead magnet is, or anything else that will help people know how to take action,
how to reach you or follow you or support So it's always good
to have those on the end of the videos. I'm going to leave that at five seconds because people will click off the video
when they're ready anyway. And then of course, I'm
just going to apply that transition
between those two elements. Again, a dissolve at 0.3 seconds. And so that just means
that at the end of the video when I finish talking,
it fades into that final slide. The next thing we're going to create
is called a lower thirds. And all this means is that it's
usually a text element that appears on videos to either
show the person's name and title, or maybe give some context
or tell people what they're talking about. And it appears for a few seconds, usually in the lower third of the screen,
so that it doesn't obstruct the content. And we're going to create that with a name
and title just using Canva elements. So I'm going to go back to my video. And the first thing I'm going to do
is to hit C to add a circle. I'm going to change that
to my brand color, the charcoal color. And I'm just going to reposition
that on the page and make it smaller. The next thing I want to do is to add my logo in, because that's
going to go over that circle, and I will add it there
and align it with the circle. And then both of those elements
I'm going to animate again just using that succession animation.
So that it's consistent with the animations
I've used elsewhere in this video. Before I add my next element,
I want to make sure that these only come in a few seconds
after the video has started. So if my video comes in
and the content starts playing, I don't want that to come in immediately. I wanted to come in around here,
so I'm looking at about seven seconds. So I'm going to click on those elements
and I'm going to click on the three dots or right
click and choose Show Timing. And then I can click and drag the left
hand side so that that's where they start. If I drag the playhead, you'll see that
we have a few seconds of me talking And then they appear. Next thing I'm going to do
is to add a rectangle, and I'm going to resize and recolor
this to fit with my brand colors. I'm also going to round the corner. So it creates this almost pill shape. And I'm going to move that down
so that it's aligned with the circle. But I am going to use the layers tool
to move it behind the circle. And the logo. This box
which is going to contain the text boxes. I want to look as if it kind of emerges
from behind that circle, which means that the animation I'm going to use
is click on animate and use baseline, and then choose the arrow
that shows it coming from left to right. Then I want to adjust the timing, and
by clicking and dragging this, I can see once the circle and the logo appear,
that's when the box should come in. Now if I click and drag the playhead
and then just play it, you'll see the circle and logo come in
and then the box emerges from it. Next I'm going to add in my text box. First of all, just my name and pronouns. And then format that again using Poppins to make sure
that we keep things consistent. And I'm going to enlarge it and then just
position it where I want it on that box. Next I'm going to add in a second box. And I'm going to add my title in. Move that down and reformat again
just using Poppins. And then I'm going to just change the spacing of elements
so that they all look consistent. And they all work. Now the text boxes
I definitely want to animate in, in the same way as that box
that surrounds them, I want them to come in
a couple of seconds after. So I'm going to right click, having selected both of them,
make sure Show timing is selected. And then I'm going to click the handle
on the left hand side and drag until we see
the box has almost fully appeared. And then I can start those text boxes. And for the text boxes
I'm going to add the same animation with a baseline from left to right. And I'm
going to slow that down a little bit so that we have slightly different
speeds on the box in the text. In fact, to add some interest,
I'm going to click on the subtitle of this text,
which has my title in, and I'm going to choose that coming in
from right to left the other way. And that's
just to add a little bit of interest. And it looks kind of slick coming in
from the right hand side. Once that's been on for a few seconds
we then wanted to disappear. So we're going to select all of
those elements that we've just animated. And we're then going to click on
Show Timing. Make sure that it's visible. And we're then going to click from the
right hand side for all of those elements so that they disappear a few seconds
after. And people
just have enough time to read them, but they don't interfere
with the actual content of the video. Now, when that disappeared,
you'll see that the box behind the text actually moves off to the right,
and I want it to go back to the left. And the way that I do that is by clicking
on it, checking my baseline animations. And then at the bottom here
I will choose reverse exit animation, which means it comes on left to right,
but it disappears right to left. And that just gives this really nice effect of it
disappearing behind the circle again. So it's a subtle thing, but it does
look a little more professional when things like that are paid
attention to. Now that's a pretty simple lower third. It's just created from individual boxes
and elements in Canva. And obviously you could do the same thing
if you wanted to highlight certain points in your content. For example,
if you were talking about facts and figures and you wanted to show
some statistics, you could just use Canva text boxes with those figures in
and have them suddenly animating in. As you talk about them in your video,
it's really easy to add those kind of graphics into Canva, and you can decide
how long they're on the screen. You can animate them on and off, and it just adds a bit of punch
to what you're talking about. Plus, of course,
it keeps people's attention because there are different elements
moving and changing. Another way to keep people's attention
is by having things change in the video. So for example, you could change the
framing of your actual talking head video. Now by that
I just mean that you'll zoom in or out it keeps people's attention
because something has changed. Now, an easy way to do that is to create
what's called a jump cut. Now a jump cut, literally
just means that you jump from one framing of a video
to another framing of a video. There's no animation between them,
and it's a very sharp cut, Now in Canva, this couldn't be easier to do,
and I'll show you exactly how we do it using this clip. So I'm going to just play through
and see where there is a bit of a natural pause
when I'm talking. Once I found that position, I'm
going to leave the playhead where it is, right click on it
and I'm going to choose Split Page. Now all that means is that it
split this video into two parts, but when you play it back,
you won't see that there is a split there. At the moment. But what we are going to do
is we're going to change the framing of this second clip
just for a few seconds, and then we're going to go back
to the framing of the first clip, and we're going to do that by again
choosing to right click on that area, choose split Page. And now we essentially have three clips. The wide angle
we're going to have a closer angle. And then the wide angle again. And to get that close angle we're going
to just click and drag on this element on this video and enlarge it. here's the trick. And this was something that a professional
video editor taught me years ago. If you're going to do a jump cut,
particularly on a talking head video, the best thing to do to make it feel
natural is to make sure that the eyeline is aligned between the two clips, because people tend to look at someone's
eyes when they're talking. If you keep them in a consistent location
in the video, it's easier to do a jump cut that feels natural
and doesn't feel disjointed. So we're going to do that in Canva
by using guides. I'm going to just click on the ruler here,
and I'm going to drag a guide down so that it crosses where my eyes
essentially are in that frame horizontally. Next, I'm going to do the same with
a vertical guide to the middle of my nose. And so now that means that you'll see
when I play through, if I click on the guides, it's
roughly where my eyes are. For the jump cut, we're going to go
to that middle piece that we isolated. I'm going to zoom out on this page
so that it's easier to click and drag and resize this. And then I'm just going to resize
a little bit. There's no specific measurement here
for this, try not to make it too extreme. And then I'm going to click and drag it to make sure that again,
those lines show me where my eyeline are. And I've got those guides. And now it means that we go
from this wider shot to a slightly closer shot
and back to a wider shot using a jump cut. Now you can put an animation
between these, but sometimes with Canva, those animations will cause the frames
to blur a little as the animation is happening. But a jump cut can work
just as effectively. And as I say, it's
very good at capturing people's attention. The last thing I want to do
is to add in a couple of sound effects. So I'm just going to click
and drag my cursor to where those animations come in
for the lower thirds and just where they start animating. I want to add in a sound effect,
and I'm going to go to apps. going to go to audio,
and I'm going to type in transition. And I'm going to click and drag
this first one in to where that cursor is. And that just means that as those
animations happen there is this subtle animation
of movement of a woosh transition. And it just again attracts attention. And it adds a little bit of a more professional feel to your videos
than just silent graphics all the time. before we look at the finished video, if you found this helpful
and you'd like to learn more about how to use Canva to its full potential,
then there are two ways that I can help. The first is, I would love it if you would
sign up to my weekly newsletter. It's called Meaningful Creations
and every week it shares free resource, new tutorials, creator profiles
and you can sign up in the link that's in the description
below. The video. Secondly, my Canva course called
Canva Offers will be open again for enrollment soon. So if you go to the link
that's in the description or just hit on the link up here,
you can sign up to the waiting list and I'll let you know
as soon as that's open for enrollment. Now let's have a look at what
this video looks like with our graphics, with our top and tail,
and see how much more professional it looks than just a simple
video clip with no additions. When I started my YouTube channel,
there were two things I was really clear about. The first was that I wanted to make sure
I was helping people by making really good design accessible to everyone. And the second was that I was doing that
by being myself, being authentically me, and never putting on any kind of pretense
or false persona. And that means that sometimes
I'm vulnerable. I'm very open about who I am and my life,
but it also means that I connect with people in a way
that is really real for me. for me folks. Stay awesome. Keep creating and have a fabulous week.
