AI Video Editing: A Step-by-Step Beginner to Intermediate Guide

 

Video editing can be a daunting experience when you first open up a video editor. AI Video Editing helps you to get through those initial steps with less fear. You are faced with timelines, tracks, transitions, audio, captions, effects, and export functions.

The truth is that you do not need to become an expert on every single feature in your editor to create something incredible. Modern AI video editor tools can do many of the time-consuming tasks for you while you focus on the creative direction.

This lesson will guide you through an entire process from raw material to a polished video. You will become familiar with 5 free tools and paid options, including a practical example that walks you through every step. Let us jump right in!

What Is AI Video Editing?

AI Video Editing refers to using AI within a video editing workflow to analyze, organize, enhance, or replace footage in some way.

Depending on the program, AI can identify and extract speech, people, and objects. It can enhance images or remove undesirable elements. It can also generate captions, clean audio files, or find the highlights of a longer recording.

Traditional editing methods are still employed. However, an AI-driven workflow can handle some of the more time-consuming and tedious tasks.

AI Video Editing should not replace your personal input and editing choices. A beginner-level video editor can utilize AI features to their advantage without feeling overwhelmed by the complexity of some advanced editing software.

In this lesson, you will learn a comprehensive workflow. You will see five paid and five free AI video editing software options and follow along with a practical example. Let’s begin!

What Is AI Video Editing? (Continued)

As mentioned, AI-driven software can streamline and simplify some aspects of the editing process while making others more accessible to people who are new to video editing.

However, traditional editing techniques are still used in AIVideo Editing. There is always an element of human curation when it comes to video editing.

For a beginner, the best approach to learning AI Video Editing is to avoid the pressure of finding the software with the most impressive array of AI features.

Instead, focus on finding the tools that are right for your project and your skill level.

Why Should Beginners Learn AI Video Editing?

There are a number of reasons why a new video editor should explore the benefits of AI Video Editing.

First and foremost is time. An AI-assisted process can streamline certain aspects of the editing process, particularly when it comes to transcription, captioning, and other time-consuming activities.

Imagine you have a ten-minute recording. If you were to edit this manually, you would need to watch it multiple times, making notes as you went along.

An AI-assisted process will transcribe it for you, identify the best parts, highlight areas of interest, and even clean up some of the audio. This process saves both time and effort.

AI Video Editing can make the most complicated processes easier to understand and execute.

A beginner can use AI-generated captions and audio clean-up functions to avoid the painstaking process of traditional captioning. An aspiring social media marketer can use auto-reframe features to adjust a horizontal video to fit the vertical format of an Instagram or TikTok post.

Before We Begin: Prepping Your Project

There are three things you should determine before arriving at your desk or opening your laptop.

A little planning goes a long way when it comes to editing, particularly in the context of AI Video Editing, where organization is key.

Who is your audience? What are you making? And finally, what will be the final format or destination for your video?

A typical YouTube tutorial, for instance, has a horizontal format, whereas a short-form vertical video is best suited for Instagram or TikTok. These considerations should inform your choices at every stage of the editing process.

It is also a good idea to create folders for your project.

This will help you to upload and organize your media more efficiently. You can create folders for your raw footage, music, voice recordings, images, projects, exports, and thumbnails.

Use descriptive names for your files, such as tutorial-camera-01 and product-demo-broll-02, for instance.

Step 1: Record Your Source Material

A beginner might not realize it, but the editing process begins long before you ever arrive at your editing software.

In fact, the single most important step in AI Video Editing is to record high-quality source footage.

AI functions can only do so much. They cannot fix fundamentally poor quality, shaky, or poorly framed material.

While it is true that a skilled editor can fix some of these issues in post-production, it is always best to begin with high-quality source footage.

You do not need to invest in the most expensive equipment available. A modern smartphone can be a perfectly viable recording device so long as you know how to use it.

A sturdy tripod will ensure that your phone does not shake or fall over during recording. It is also a good idea to keep your face or the subject of your recording in the center of the frame.

When it comes to lighting, avoid harsh shadows by placing your light source at an angle rather than directly behind you, unless you are intending to create a dramatic silhouette.

Artificial lighting is preferable, but a well-lit room will suffice.

The quality of your audio is just as important as the quality of your video.

Many people will overlook this and end up with poor audio quality during recording. A quiet space is the best way to minimize unwanted background noise during your recording.

If you are recording a tutorial or explanation of any sort, enunciate clearly and speak in short, easily digestible sentences. This will make the editing process much easier.

If you make a mistake, simply pause and restart the recording. This will make it much easier to edit out any unwanted takes.

Step 2: Import and Evaluate Your Footage

Launch your chosen program. Import your media. Do not add any effects yet.

Watch the footage once through and watch for areas that need improvement.

Make notes of any unwanted mistakes, moments of hesitation, repetition, and any other undesirable elements.

Step 3: Create Your Rough Cut

Your rough cut is essentially the skeleton of your video.

Use your notes from the previous step to cut out any unwanted elements, including:

• Long pauses
• Unwanted takes
• Repetitive takes
• Explanations that do not serve a purpose
• Unnecessary intros
• Camera wobble
• Empty space
• Time-wasting introductions of unrelated subjects

It is important to realize that not every single second of footage needs to make it into your final cut.

A good rule of thumb is to assume that if any given sentence or phrase does not contribute to the overall message or effect of your video, it should be cut.

Step 4: Clean Up Speech and Audio

Speech and audio clean-up can significantly improve the overall quality and clarity of your video.

Many modern editors offer AI-assisted speech recognition, noise cancellation, voice isolation, and leveling functions, or similar features.

Always begin with lighter effect levels when it comes to audio clean-up. Heavy-handed vocal processing can result in an artificial-sounding voice that sounds like it belongs in a science-fiction movie.

If you have unwanted background noise such as the hum of an air conditioner, traffic, keyboard clicks, or any other distracting sounds, test the cleaning function on a short sample before applying it to the entire video.

Listen closely. If the vocal track sounds unnaturally robotic or metallic, dial back the effect.

AI can detect the presence of speech and background noise in a way that is faster and more efficient than a human editor would be able to achieve on their own.

This is the true power of AI Video Editing.

Step 5: Generate and Fix Captions

Captions serve a number of purposes.

They allow people who are deaf or hard of hearing to follow along with your video. They aid people who might be watching your video without sound. They can also make viewing a short-form video easier.

Subtitles and captions can also be generated automatically with a few simple clicks.

Always review the generated caption file, as AI-assisted captioning can miss names, numbers, and other specific terms.

Words such as “SEO,” for instance, might appear as “sea” or some other unrelated term in the final caption file.

Always double-check:

• Names
• Numbers
• Technical terms
• Punctuation
• Speaker identification
• Timing
• Spelling

Step 6: Add B-Roll

B-roll refers to the supplemental video footage that appears while a narrator is speaking.

This can take the form of a computer screen recording, an illustration, product placements, location shots, hands performing an action, and more.

Assume, for instance, that your video involves an explanation, such as “Open the settings menu.”

Rather than showing your face for this particular sentence, you could show a screen recording of the settings menu instead.

AI Video Editing can assist you in finding, generating, or identifying relevant b-roll, but relevance is more important than quantity.

Not every sentence needs to have corresponding b-roll.

Step 7: Improve the Overall Pacing

Watch your video once more. This is not an optional step, especially in the context of AI Video Editing.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Does the video grab attention at the beginning?
• Are there any unnecessarily drawn-out sections of the video?
• Does every single shot contribute to the message or effect of the video?
• Are the captions legible and unobtrusive?
• Is the music affecting the delivery of the message?
• Are the transitions helpful or distracting?

AI Video Editing can help you identify unnecessary sections of video and remove them.

However, always review any changes that an AI-assisted process makes.

Deliberate pacing is a matter of style. If the video provides the message or effect that you are going for, then it is a good video.

Step 8: Add Music (Carefully)

Music can enhance the emotional impact of a video, but it can also be distracting if not used correctly.

Music should never overpower the message of the video.

Music should also be appropriate for your audience and the intended purpose of the video.

A technology-themed video might lend itself to more subtle background music, whereas a travel vlog can support more upbeat and lively music.

Always keep your background music at a lower volume than your voice.

Music should fade in and out, rather than fading abruptly.

Always make sure that you have the rights to use the music in your video, depending on the intended audience and distribution method.

Step 9: Add Simple Text and Graphics

Text elements can contribute to the clarity of a video.

Avoid overstuffing your video with text. Limit yourself to a title, any relevant keywords, important instructions or tips, a short word cloud, a website link, and a final note or instruction.

Always keep your text legible and avoid using too many different font styles within a single video.

Step 10: Color and Visual Correction

Color correction is an important part of video editing, but it can also be a controversial topic among beginner-level editors.

It is best to err on the side of caution when it comes to color grading. Always keep skin tones natural and avoid increasing the overall saturation unless you have a specific reason to do so.

Begin with basic correction options such as exposure and white balance, and move on to selective correction if necessary.

Keep your contrast levels subtle. Remember that overly contrasting colors can strain the viewer’s eyes.

Another rule of thumb is to keep videos from different cameras reasonably consistent, if not identical.

Some editors utilize AI to identify objects and faces and make specific correction recommendations, which can be useful. However, always review the results to make sure that the recommendation was applied correctly.

Step 11: Review Your Work

This is an important step in AI Video Editing, but many editors forget it.

Always conduct a general review of your video, beginning to end.

Watch the video as if you were watching it for the first time. Are there any abrupt changes in volume? Does the timing of the captions seem right? Are there any other obvious errors?

For important projects, it is always a good idea to review the final exported file.

This will reveal any potential errors that were not apparent within the editing software itself.

Five Free Tools Every Beginner Should Know About

1. CapCut

This is a good choice for short-form content and beginners.

It combines traditional timeline editing with AI-assisted features such as captioning and auto-background removal. CapCut is cross-platform and ideal for short-form social media content.

Use it for social media, short-form tutorials, simple YouTube videos, and mobile-specific projects.

2. DaVinci Resolve

This is a great option for anyone who wants to learn traditional timeline editing without a steep learning curve.

The free version of DaVinci Resolve does not include some of the more advanced AI functions, but it covers everything that a beginner-level editor needs.

Always double-check which tools are available in the free version versus the Studio version before beginning any project.

Use it for longer-form videos, YouTube projects, learning traditional video editing, and color-correcting.

3. Clipchamp

This is a good option if you are looking for something that is accessible on Windows.

It offers traditional editing features and some AI-assisted functions such as automatic captions and audio clean-up.

Use it for presentations, simple tutorials, screen recording projects, and beginner-level projects.

4. Descript Free

This is a unique option that allows you to manipulate video through a text-based interface.

This is useful for talk shows, podcasts, lessons, and any other type of video that involves significant amounts of speech.

Avoid using this for longer-form projects due to the limitations of the free version.

5. VEED

This is ideal for anyone who does not want to install desktop software.

VEED offers a range of editing functions, including AI-assisted auto-captions.

The free version is good for basic editing, but it does have limitations in terms of export functions and watermarks.

Always review the current terms and restrictions before using this for client-facing or commercial projects.

Paid Tools Worth Considering

1. Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere Pro is ideal for professional-level editing that involves a traditional editing timeline.

It also has a range of AI-assisted functions to help with object masking, transcription, search functions, and generative expansion.

2. Filmora

This is a good option for any aspiring video editor who wants a simpler interface without the need for a monthly subscription.

It includes a variety of AI-assisted tools, although it does not have the same level of overall polish as Adobe Premiere Pro.

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