Easy Video Editing and Sharing with Motion Box
Are you searching for easy video solutions? Most Video Production Tips readers are, so I like to point them out when I find them.
MotionBox is a new online video editing platform that’s certainly worth a look. I hope this humble review will help you know what Motion Box is and what it can or can’t do. To be clear, so far I’ve only spent one afternoon playing with it, but from what I saw, MotionBox makes simple video editing in-the-cloud practical, simple, and affordable for just about anybody.
Motionbox even provides enough video and audio elements as soon as you open an account to have a professional looking video done in a flash for a few bucks. These resources include a library of ready-to-use video and audio clips, plus an assortment of graphics and animated templates you can turn into nifty show opens, or anything really.
You can have any of them in your timeline in a few seconds.
Then you can customize to your hear’s content.
I exported one of the templates and posted it at the top of this post as an example of what’s there.
After customizing all these visual and audio elements along with any video shots and elements you upload, the finished video can be on your website before you need a bathroom break.
As someone who learned editing with a razor blade-like thing and tape, I rather find online video editing platforms amazing. 🙂
OK, we’ve evolved since then. 🙂
To bring my resume up to date too, rest assured I’ve used at least fifteen different video editing programs over the years and taught hundreds of people how to edit digital video on one platform or another.
I’ve seen video editing evolve from needing a million-dollar editing suite larger than my living room than being able to do it with nothing but an internet connection and the device of your choice. Having said that, video editing takes a lot of power and screen space, so I’d never do it on a phone, but some people do.
I am quite sure most people could catch on to the Motion Box system fairly easily. They had plenty of tutorials.
Any prior video editing knowledge will be helpful, but not 100% necessary. Motion Box follows the basic video editing flows and techniques I always describe in my tutorials no matter what program you’re using.
The interface at Motion box is pretty standard, so if you’re familiar at all with video editing you should catch on immediately.
The video at the top of the post is an example of one of their templates exactly as you’ll find it in your account. The foundational elements are all there, already animated. All you need to do is swap out your details and elements for the placeholders in the timeline. You can easily see each separate element in the timeline image below. They have dozens of templates like this one, that enable you to create easy show opens that look spectacular and complicated to make, but of course are drop-dead simple.
If you’re new to video production, or just want to crank out stuff quickly, sticking with a service like Motionbox makes so much sense. It’s also a good option if you need to collaborate with others on a video project. An account can have multiple users so you can edit projects alongside colleagues on the other side of the world just about as easily as if they were in the next room.
So many people want to take advantage of online video and need tools to make it simple. Motion box is indeed a helpful one.
The learning curve for a simple system like Motion Box is way less steep than a full professional editing system, so a fantastic choice for those who don’t want to spend months learning how to edit video. This of course, is always my recommendation style of choice for beginners.
If you’re wanting to keep it simple, I always say stick with basic editing.
Now, if you’re wanting to get in there and tweak every little detail of each shot and apply lots of special effects, you won’t have enough oomph for that, but most people don’t really need to do that. Those who do, would be too limited and frustrated by a platform like motion box. But of course that goes for any in-the-cloud editing. Video editing needs lots of power and space to modify ginormous video files, so complex video editing should be done offline.
You can check Motionbox out for free first, so you can get your feet wet without any commitment.