6 Best Video Editing Tips Every Graphic Designer Should Know

After you give your blood, sweat, and tears filming the video and already get the footage you need, it's time for the other half of the battle: the editing process.

This process is where all those footages you have molded into a story. In this matter, you can say that smooth video editing is much more than just straight cutting. It's creating an enticing story and vision.

When it comes to video editing, you don't need a master's film degree to be an editor. Even if you're a graphic designer, you can still sit in the editing room, working with the directors and sound engineers.

Whatever your background is, there are some pretty definitive 'rules' that you should stick to in order to get the videos right. Get them wrong, and your videos end up looking very flat and boring, making them look unprofessional.

Below are some basic video editing tips, especially for graphic designers, to produce the most enjoyable video for the viewers.

Graphic Designers and Video Editing: How It's Related

But, before we get into the nitty-gritty, it's important to understand why you can't actually separate video editing and graphic design.

Graphic designers and video editors might be two different professions, but they are short of interconnected with one another. Graphic design is all about creating images using the composition of colors, lines, textures, and shapes. Meanwhile, video editing is "designing" the video by producing and creating a visual story using a combination of footage, color, typography, symbols, and more.

It means that it'd be much helpful if you have design skills while editing videos. Those kinds of skills will help add value to your works and excel in your field, leading to more opportunities.

Video Editing Tips for Graphic Designers

Since films or videos are also very much designed in the same way that you design posters or brochures, we mostly focus on the editing tips that have a strong element of design.

1. Utilize the Best Video Designing Tools

Thanks to the internet -- now you can easily use an online video editor and any other video tools you need to help you create well-edited, stunning videos. There is a bunch of software out there, and they basically offer you basic editing features for standard video edits.

In this case, you can choose the right ones for you based on your preferences and needs. So, you need to pay attention to their usability, digital interface, and features. Make sure all of them match your editing capabilities and style.

Some of the most popular video editing software are After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, and more. There is also Clipify, an automatic video editing program that helps to create impressive videos manually or with the help of pre-designed templates in just a couple of minutes. If you’re looking for a free software with a user-friendly interface, this one might come in handy. 

2. Master the Hotkeys

Keyboard shortcuts might sound nerdy. After all, you're not an IT director that needs this thing the most.

However, since video editing takes already long enough, you can speed up the process by mastering some keyboard shortcuts or hotkeys. 

These combinations of keys on the keyboard help you perform a certain task within a program faster and more comfortably than by using a mouse. In other words, it bridges the gap between effort and action, helping you save more time to move from point A to point B efficiently.

What's more, mastering hotkeys also allows you to fine-tune details in your audiovisual projects. Therefore, you can create a compelling video without taking too much time spent on the point-and-click method.

3. Think About Color Corrections

Color is such a crucial element when it comes to video graphics. It sets the mood and helps convey the overall message. And in most video production, even with the help of good light settings or excellent scenery conditions, the raw footage you have still tend to be over-saturated and bland at first. 

Therefore, you need to balance them out with color corrections by adjusting the levels of particular colors within it -- which every graphic designer has been dealing with.

Color corrections help your final product to have a consistent color palette. It ensures that no detail is lost when your video is watched on the viewers' screen.

Related: Video Post Production

4. Add Stunning Graphics and Effects

Graphics can make a bigger difference to your video production. In this case, there are many different types of graphics you can add to your video to make it more engaging and captivating.

For instance, you can add motions to make the viewers more focus on the content. You can add logos to make great branding enhancements. You might also add some typography or titles to make it easier for viewers to digest the content. You can even use a tool to change the background of photos and include the elements in your video.

The key to adding graphics here is to help your audience to quickly recognize and seamlessly connect emotionally with you and your video.

5. Understand the Lingo

Just like any other industry, video editing has a language all its own. And one thing that can make your workflow much easier is understanding that language. Remember, editing not only comprises "the cut" since there's no single way to edit footage. 

In this situation, understanding video editing terms won't only help you edit an astounding video and make it easier for you to communicate with other editors or clients.

From transition to jump cut, learning the lingo and speaking the post-production team's language can spark your creativity and improve your editing skills.

6. Strive for Clarity

Both design and editing are fundamentally about striving for clarity. So, even though it's great to know a lot of editing techniques and design skills, it's crucial to keep it clean and easy on the eye.

More techniques applied to the editing process doesn't always mean a better final result. Make sure you don't go overboard with your editing. It will make your video chaotic, and the viewers will have a hard time understanding what you are talking about.

Try to only add the elements that will improve your video and avoid using unnecessary ones. With clear and simple editing, the viewers are left in no doubt about what's being discussed in the video.

Wrapping Up

Video editing is such a key process in production since it's not all about stunning visuals, but it's also about making the viewers feel emotionally connected. Your editing goal should always be to deliver an enticing story that can evoke your viewers' emotions.

Sometimes that means you need to break some industry standards to make your video unique and stand out among the rest. That's why design skills can help you to improve the final results. With some design skills, you'd be able to edit videos and add the exact atmosphere that fits the videos' content while also deliver valuable information.

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