The editor: an overview

The VideoBB editor is a timeline editor that runs in your browser. You open it from your studio and pick one of your processed videos. Your published video is never changed. When you are happy, Save video makes a new private video from your edit.

How to start an edit

1. Open Studio › Editor.
2. Under Start a new edit, press Edit next to the video you want to work on.
3. Wait a moment while the editor prepares a light editing copy of the video.
4. Make your changes. Each one is saved as you go.
5. Press Save video when the edit is ready.

Your projects stay listed under Your edits, so you can come back and keep working later.

The parts of the editor

The layout follows desktop editors such as CapCut: a library on the left, the player in the middle, the inspector on the right and the timeline across the bottom.

Getting back to Project settings

Frame shape, crop position, master volume, fades and captions live under Project. When something is selected, press the Project button at the top of the inspector, the Project button in the top bar, or Esc. Clicking an empty part of the player or the timeline does the same.

Tracks and layers

Anything on a higher video track sits on top of the tracks below it. Use + Video track or + Audio track under the timeline to add more. Right-click a clip or a track for extra options, such as speed or locking a track.

To put a clip on top of the story, drag it from the main track (V1) up onto V2 or higher, or onto the drop zone above the top track for a new track. It becomes a full-frame video there, and the main track closes the gap. Drag a video from an upper track down onto V1 to put it back into the story; an insert line shows where it goes. Alt+↑ and Alt+↓ do the same from the keyboard, and each move is one step you can undo. Locked or hidden tracks do not accept drops. Speed changes, reverse and freeze frames stay on the main track, so reset them before moving a clip up. Filters and effects apply to main-track clips only.

What you can add

• Text titles. Double-click one on the preview to type.
• Images such as a logo or sticker, in PNG, JPG, WebP or GIF, up to 20 MB each. Transparent PNGs stay transparent.
• Picture-in-picture: one of your other videos in a small window on top.
• Shapes, such as a bar behind a lower-third title.
• Music or a voice-over, up to 150 MB per file. It can fade, loop and duck under speech.
• Transitions, speed changes from 0.25x to 4x, and a new frame shape such as 9:16 for a Short.

Filters and adjustments

The Filters tab of the library has one-click looks: Vivid, Warm, Cool, Black & white, Sepia, Vintage, Film, Cinematic, Faded, Noir and Dramatic. Click one for the selected clip, or drag it onto any clip. The Intensity slider, under Video in the inspector, sets how strong the look is, from 0% (the original) to 100%. The inspector's Adjust tab has exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, highlights, shadows, gamma, temperature, tint, sharpen, blur, vignette and grain. The preview shows the same colours the saved video gets. Apply to all clips or Copy to all clips gives every clip the same settings.

Effects

The Effects tab has Shake, Zoom punch-in, Pulse, Wobble, Glitch, Blur in, Flash in, Fade to black, Fade to white, Vignette pulse, Old film, Zoom lens, Fisheye, Magnifier, Edge glow, Oblique blur and Blurry focus. The row of groups above them (Trending, Basic, Blur, Lens, Retro, Light and Party) and the search box narrow the list. Hover a tile to see it move, then drag it onto a clip or press + to add it to the selected clip. A clip can have up to four effects, each with its own strength under Video, Effects. The switch on the Effects section turns them off without losing them. Blur in looks slightly softer in the saved video than in the preview.

Stickers and emoji

The Stickers tab has more than 200 emoji in eight groups, a search box and a row of the ones you used last. Click an emoji to add it at the playhead, or drag it onto the player to place it. A sticker is an item on a video track like an image: move it, resize it from its corner, tilt it, fade it and animate it in and out. You can also type emoji inside a text title. Emoji from this set look exactly the same in the player and in the saved video; an emoji that is not in the set is flagged and cannot be saved.

The emoji artwork is Noto Emoji by Google, used under the Apache License 2.0.

Freeze frame, reverse and clip tools

• Freeze frame holds the picture under the playhead still for 2 seconds, and everything after it moves later. Select the freeze to change its length, up to 30 seconds.
• Reverse, on the timeline toolbar and the Speed tab, plays a clip backwards. It works on clips up to 20 seconds long. The preview steps through a reversed clip at a lower frame rate and without sound; the saved video is smooth.
• The split tool on the timeline toolbar cuts a clip wherever you click it.
• Split and delete left or right (Q and W) remove the part of the selected clip before or after the playhead in one step.
• Mirror flips the clip under the playhead, and Rotate turns it a quarter turn at a time.
• The Audio tab has sound fade in and fade out for each clip.

Enhance

The Enhance sub-tab under Video has four switches that are applied when you save: Stabilise smooths small camera shakes, Noise reduction lowers steady hum, hiss or wind, Reduce flicker evens out flicker from lights and screens, and Sharpen details brings out fine detail with a slider. The preview shows an approximation of the sharpening.

Masks

The Mask sub-tab shows only part of a clip: Horizontal (everything above a line), Mirror (a band), Circle, Rectangle, Heart or Star. The mask appears on the player with handles: drag the middle to move it, the edges to resize it, the round handle above it to rotate it and the handle below it to soften its edge (feather). A rectangle also has a handle for rounded corners. Invert shows the outside instead, and the reset button removes the mask. Masked-out parts show the tracks below, or black on the main track. A picture-in-picture video has the same Mask tab.

Crop

Press Crop on the timeline toolbar or C, or Crop on the player under Video, Basic. Drag the box or its handles on the player, or pick a shape: Free, Original, 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:5 or 4:3. Apply crop keeps that part of the picture, and the clip is then fitted to the frame as usual. Enter applies and Esc cancels.

Adjustment layers

The Adjustment tab of the library adds a layer to a video track, like a clip without a picture. For its time on the timeline it changes the colour of everything below it: the main track and lower video tracks. Pick a filter and its intensity and any of the Adjust settings in the inspector, and drag the layer's edges to change how long it lasts.

Cover

The Cover button at the start of the main track sets the poster of the video that Save video creates: a frame from the edit, an image you upload, or Automatic, where VideoBB picks a frame while the new video is processed.

Recording a voice-over

Press the microphone on the timeline toolbar, then Start recording. Your browser asks to use the microphone the first time. After a 3, 2, 1 countdown the edit plays from the playhead while you speak, and a level meter shows your voice. Press Stop and the recording is saved as an audio file on the first free audio track, starting where the playhead was. Headphones keep the edit's own sound out of the recording. If the microphone is blocked, allow it from the address bar and try again.

Magnet and linkage

The magnet keeps the main track closed up: delete a clip and the ones after it move in. Turn it off and a deleted clip leaves a black gap instead. Linkage keeps text, stickers, overlays, music and markers in step with the main track: when you cut, delete, insert, paste or duplicate a clip there, everything after that point moves with it. Turn it off to leave them where they are.

Working fast and safely

Light preview, full-quality save

The preview plays a light copy so scrubbing stays instant. Saving always uses your original file in full quality.

Saved as you go

Every change is saved to your project as you make it. The status in the top bar shows Saving, Saved, or how long ago the last save was. Anything still waiting, such as a slider you are dragging, is saved every 5 minutes and when you leave the page. If your connection drops, the editor keeps your change and saves it when you are back online. This is separate from Save video, which makes a new video.

Undo and History

Every change becomes a step in History. Press Restore on any step to go back to it, and Undo brings you forward again. Our list of editor keyboard shortcuts makes all of this quicker.

Your editor files

Images and music you add are private to you. They are listed under Your editor files on the editor page, where you can delete them.

When the edit is done, read saving your edit as a new video. To let the AI do the first rough cut, see the AI assistant, and to reframe for vertical, see Shorts.