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Click by Click: Using Flash to Edit Videos for YouTube

 

Full Length Tutorial

Free Flash Tutorial

Flash can be used to edit your videos before uploading to YouTube or other sites such as FaceBook etc. In this tutorial you will learn how to take one or several digital files from your camera, edit them in Flash, including the sound. While you are in Flash you have the option to add animation or text. You then re-export ready to upload to YouTube.

Step One: The Camera

1. Turn your camera on to Movie Mode:
   
2. Take several short: Films Clips.
3. Copy your film clips into a folder on your computer: Camera to Computer
4. Open the folder on the computer and: View the Clips
5. If you want create a simple: Story Board
6. Copy the files that you want to use to a new: Editing Folder
   
7. If you wish, rename the files so that they are ordered correctly: Rename
   

Step Two: Compressing the Movie Clips

1. Download: Ultra Video To Flash Converter (or similar)
2. Install the: Video Converter
3. Open the: Ultra Video To Flash Converter
4. Click: Options
5. Go to the Output Directory and browser to your: Video Edit Folder
6. Click: OK
7. For Output File Format select: MPG
8. For width type: 480
9. For height type: 360
10. Deselect or remove the tick from: Keep Original Size
11. Set the Video frame rate to: 24
12. Set the Video bit rate the: 768
13. Audio Sample rate(kHz) to: 22050
14. Audio bit rate to: 16
15. When you have finished click: Batch

Step Three: Reducing the File Sizes

1. If you are not in the Batch Section click: Batch
2. Click on: Add File
3. Browse till you find your first film file: 01 Dog File.AVI (or whatever yours is called)
4. Select the file and click: Open
5. In the Window: Select the File
6. Click on: Convert
7. When asked to register click: No
8. To clear the file select: Clear List
   
9. Repeat until you have finished all the files: Repeat

Step Four: Setting up the Flash File

1. Open either: Flash 8 or Flash CS3
2. Open a New Flash Document: File > New (Ctrl N)
3. If the General Tab is not selected, select it:
4. Select Flash Document: Flash File (ActionScript 2.0)
5. Click: OK
6. Go to: Modify > Document (Ctrl J)
7. For the width dimensions set: 480
8. For the height dimensions set: 360
9. For the Frame rate set: 24
10. Click: OK
11. Save your file: File > Save (Ctrl S)

Step Five: Setting up the Timeline

1. If the Timeline is closed, open it: Window > Timeline (Ctrl Alt T)
2. Double Click on Layer 1 and re-name it: Video
3. Create a new Layer by clicking on: Insert Layer (or Insert > Timeline > Layer)
4. Double Click on Layer 1 and re-name it: Audio
5. On the Video Layer select: Frame 1

Step Six: Importing the Video

Now that the video file size have been reduced importing the videos should be easy.

1. Go to: File > Import > Import Video ...
2. Select: On your computer
3. Browse to your file: Browse
4. Select the small MPG file: Select Movie
5. Click on: Open
6. Click: Next
   
7. Select: Embed video in SWF and play in timeline
8. Click: Next
   
   
9. For Symbol Type select: Embedded video
10. For Audio track Select: Separate
11. Select: Place instance on stage
12. Select: Expand timeline if needed
13. Select: Edit the video first (you could select: Embed the entire video)
14. Click: Next

	Use the Playhead to preview a portion of the clip.
	Use the two triangles to trim the clip.
	Important: Use the plus to add the clips. Otherwise the edit will not be imported to Flash!

15. When you have finished editing click: Next
    
16. In the next section you select the quality: Flash 8 - Medium Quality (400kbps)
17. When you have finished with the quality settings click: Next
    
18. Click: Finish
19. If the Property Inspector is closed, open it: Window > Properties > Properties (Ctrl F3)
20. Select your: Movie
21. In the Property Inspector set the X: 0
22. In the Property Inspector set the Y: 0

Step Seven: Adding the Sound to the Timeline

1. On the Audio Layer select: Frame 1
2. If the Property Inspector is closed, open it: Window > Properties > Properties (Ctrl F3)
3. For Sound select your: Audio File
4. For Sync make sure it reads: Stream, Repeat, 1
5. Scroll till you can see the: End Video Frame
6. Select the frame directly above the last frame in the Video: Last Frame
7. Go to: Insert > Timeline > Frame (F5)
8. Save your Movie: File > Save

Step Eight: Importing Additional Videos into Flash

1. Select the next blank: Audio Frame
2. Go to: Insert > Timeline > Blank Keyframe (F7)
3. Select the next blank: Video Frame
4. Go to: Insert > Timeline > Blank Keyframe (F7)

You are now ready to import the next video clip, which is of course just a repeat of what you did in the previous section: Step Seven

The most important of these settings is to ensure the following:

• For Deployment: Embed video in SWF and play in timeline
• For Audio track Select: Separate
  
  Other than these you can accept the defaults.

Step Nine: Flash Additions

Once you have finished importing your video clips it is easy to add additional MP3 sound tracks, captions, animation, photos, logos or other features available in Flash. I am not going to describe how to do this as these types of effects are detailed in many of the other tutorials on this site. But I would suggest that you lock the two layers that you have already created and do additional effects in new layers.

One other point to remember is that on sites like youTube you cannot upload the Flash Movie as you normally would on your own site - you need to convert the file back to a Movie. So there is no point in adding anything interactive, like buttons or forms as these will not work.

Step Ten: Exporting the Movie from Flash

1. Save your Flash Movie: File > Save (Ctrl S)
2. Go to: File > Export > Export Movie (Ctrl Alt Shift S)
3. Give the Movie a: File Name
4. For Save as Type select: Windows AVI [*.avi]
5. Click: Save
   
6. For dimensions type: 480 x 360
7. Select: Maintain aspect ratio
8. For Video format select: 32 bit color w/ alpha
9. Select: Compress video
10. Select: Smooth
11. For sound Format select: 44kHz 16 Bit Mono (or stereo if that is important)
12. Click: OK
13. Click: OK
14. Save your file: File > Save (Ctrl S)
15. Close the file: File > Close (Ctrl W)
16. Close Flash: File > Exit (Ctrl Q)

Step Eleven: Final Compression

1. Open your video compression program: Ultra Video To Flash Converter
2. Click on: Add File
3. Browse till you find your first film file: Dog-Vodeo_Final_Export_from_Flash.avi (or whatever yours is called)
4. Select the file and click: Open
5. In the Window: Select the File
6. Click on: Convert
7. When asked to register click: No
8. To clear the file select: Clear List
9. Close the program:

Step Twelve: Uploading a Movie to YouTube

You are now ready to upload to YouTube. For this you will need to go to YouTube.

If you don't have an account you will need to create an account. Look for the Sign Up button at the top of their home page and fill in the form.

When you are logged-in look for the Upload button at the top of the YouTube pages:

Follow the YouTube instructions.

Enjoy!!

I hope you have found this useful. If so perhaps you could recommend this site to others and link to webwasp!

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