For the last several weeks, this blog’s posts have been focused on taking control of AI features on a variety of platforms. I’d like to take a break from artificial intelligence and write about some tools for creating videos.
With so many different video creation tools available, many of them free, choosing the perfect one can seem daunting. Depending on the parameters of your video project, one tool may work better than another. There are lots of things to consider. Thankfully, Tech-Talk has put together a webinar and worksheets to help you choose the best platform to plan and create your video.
They also have many articles and videos demonstrating how to use these tools, if you need help getting started after choosing one.
My Go-To Video Tool
Most of the videos I create for the library focus on using the library’s online resources. All I really need are screenshots or a short screen capture (video) with text instructions demonstrating how to use the resource.
Because I have minimal talent with aesthetics and starting video scenes from scratch, Lumen5 is the perfect tool for most videos I make. If you love to have lots of bells and whistles and editing flexibility, this is not your tool. However, if you want to use pre-made scene templates where you can just drop in images, video, and text to make an instructional video, Lumen5 may be ideal for you.
Lumen5 is not a tool mentioned by Tech-Talk in their article, which is one of my reasons for highlighting it. Also, it is a completely free tool, which is not true of some of the tools in the Tech-Talk webinar.
Getting Started with Lumen5
To use Lumen5, you will need to create a free account. The limits on a free account aren’t a deal breaker for us, but they might be for you. There are limits of 5 videos per month and 2 minutes per video. The free account only allows 2 minutes of the AI voiceover feature, and the finished video has a Lumen5 watermark. If this makes the tool unusable for you, they do offer several paid plans.
After creating an account, you can create your first video. Start by clicking the New Video button on the All Videos page.
On the next page, you are given the option to use a premade template. This is what I usually do. Click the preview button to see sample scenes. Note – the preview button only appears when you hover over the theme with your cursor. The images and the text can be changed, but the colors can only be “shuffled.” More on that later.
When you find a suitable template, select “Use this template.”
On the next screen, you are offered several ways to get started. For this tutorial, we will start from scratch. However, if you have a blog and you’d like Lumen to convert posts to videos, you may want to try the Text on media option.
Editing Scenes
After choosing the “start from scratch” option, we are presented with our first scene – the intro. Note the menus to the left and right of the scene.
Left Menu
On the left, you can move the scene up and down in the order, copy it, trash it, or add a sub-scene. A sub-scene uses the same arrangement as the main scene, but offers new text fields. Here is what a scene with a sub-scene looks like:
Right Menu
The right menu helps you design the scene. By default, each scene is set for 5 seconds. You can make this longer or shorter, depending on how much time you need to show the text or an embedded video. I would suggest watching each scene and reading the text very slowly to determine the timing needed.
Swap design takes you to a scene selection menu where you can choose a different scene layout within the theme template. Here are some other scenes available for this template:
You can’t tell from the still images, but these scenes come with animation that can be altered or turned off, if needed.
“Shuffle colors” is just what it sounds like. Here are some shuffles of the scene above:
The user does not get any input into the colors used. The only option is to keep clicking the shuffle colors button until an arrangement you like comes up.
Edit Text and Images in the Scene
Click on text within a scene to edit content, size, and color. Accent colors are available to call out words within the text.
Clicking on text reveals this menu:
You can change the text size, color, font, placement, and justification from this menu. Select a word or phrase within the text to activate the highlight menu.
With the text “Customer” selected and the highlight color on, click “highlight.” Here is the result:
If the scene you’re working with includes an image or video, you can swap those out with their stock items or an image/video of your own.
Replacing Images or Video
Many of the “canned” scenes contain images and video, but you can swap them out for your own. Here is a scene with an image in it:
Click on the image in the slide to select it. When selected, a menu will appear:
To replace the image or video, leave the image selected and click on “media” in the left menu:
Use the search box to find and select a royalty-free image or video from the existing library. To add your own, click “Uploads” above the search box. Then select either “upload media” or record a video using your device’s camera. After you upload your media, you can organize the assets into folders for later use.
Note: to keep your video intact on Lumen5, images and videos you have uploaded and used must remain in the library.
Remember, you can move the text to a new position by clicking it and selecting the grid in the toolbar. Then pick the area where you’d like the text to go:
Choose the section to which you would like to move your text.
Add a New Scene
To add a new scene, click the green plus sign above or below the current scene. You are given a few options:
All of my scenes are text on media, because I don’t like how I look or sound on video. However, if you selected “AI Voiceover” when you started the video, you can insert text for the AI voice to recite.
Finishing Up
When all of your scenes are in place, you can design your “outro.”
After clicking on Add outro, some layout options will pop up. Or, you can click the blank one to create your own:
When you have all of your scenes done and tested, click “Preview” at the top to watch the whole video:
You can go back and make some edits if you’d like, or you can click publish to finalize the video. Don’t worry, you can always go back and edit the video later and republish if something needs to be edited.
Sharing and Other Options for Published Videos
After the video is published, click the Lumen5 logo in the upper left to go to your video list. Click on the three-dot menu icon in the lower right to reveal a menu
Useful options include sharing, editing, downloading, deleting, and duplicating the video. Advanced options also appear here.
Summary
There are many types of video creation software available, from basic to advanced. If you need a free, basic platform to create videos without a lot of bells and whistles, Lumen5 might be for you. If you need more features to create your videos or are interested in tips for planning a video, check out this Tech-Talk webinar about creating videos.
