Turning key moments and vistas into memorable videos is how Chou Chih Ying (Chris) records her travels. In her extensive visits to Chiang Mai, Australia and Japan, she has always relied on CapCut to turn memories into beautifully textured videos. Here she shares a few of her favourite editing tricks with her App Store Editors.
Add highlights to your story
Any ordinary object can become an interesting sticker. Added to your vlog, they create points of interest in an otherwise static frame.
With your chosen clip selected, go to Remove BG and tap Auto removal. Then use Stroke to apply a white outline effect to your object. Set your newly created sticker to Overlay and add it to your video as needed.
Create a Polaroid effect
Mastering CapCut’s keyframe feature opens up endless creative opportunities. Keyframes – set using the diamond icon below a clip – are powerful tools for creating dynamic effects. Choose a transition type between two keyframes and CapCut will generate it automatically.
For example, you could use this tool to simulate a photo emerging from an instant camera. Set the photo as an Overlay layer and then use the Layer options to position it between layers representing the camera’s film slot. Apply Mask > Rectangle to your new layer to obscure the portion of the photo that hasn’t fully emerged.
Finally, set your first keyframe to be the moment when the photo starts to emerge from the slot. When you drag to the end of the timeline and pull the photo to a fully visible position, the system will automatically generate a second keyframe. Now your image will show up on screen like it’s coming out of a Polaroid camera.
Sync images to music
Matching video cuts to music is essential. Tap your audio track, go to Beats > Auto-generate and select between Light and Intense. You can also add beat markers manually. Pinch-zoom on the timeline to get a view of the waveform that lets you easily locate the track highlights for better syncing.
Using keyframes opens up even more possibilities. Tap your video clip and add keyframes at the yellow beat markers – and pinch-zoom to enlarge or reduce the image along with the beat for an even stronger visual rhythm.
Connect your video with voice-overs
A good story needs narration – and clever use of multi-track audio can create a layered, cinematic soundscape. Tap the Voiceover track and turn on Reduce noise to make vocals clearer. You can also give more texture to your voice-overs with environmental noise. Go to Audio > Extract > Extract and add audio, where you can import pre-recorded ambient sounds like birdsong as additional audio tracks.
Don’t forget to set fade-ins and fade-outs on each track so the voice-overs transition smoothly.