How to Make Slow Motion Videos with VideoPad

How to Make Slow Motion Videos with VideoPad

Sometimes the action in a video just happens too fast for us to truly process what we are witnessing. That is why slow motion is commonly used in sports to help referees make accurate calls about what happened when it all happened so fast. Making a slow-mo video is a great way to observe the action in your footage without missing anything. With an easy-to-use video editing software such as VideoPad, you can slow down the speed of any video to make your own slow-motion movies and videos.

Download VideoPad for Windows

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Changing the Speed of Your Clip

Making a slow-motion video really just means that you have adjusted the speed of your footage to playback slower than in real-time. To change the speed of your entire video clip so that it can be viewed in slow motion, start by dragging your clip into the timeline. From there it is as simple as right-clicking anywhere on that clip and then select the option that says "Change Clip Speed..." This will open the Speed Change window where you can adjust the speed and duration of your video clip.

Change Clip Speed

Clip speed is commonly represented as a percentage in video editing. By default, your video will have a speed of 100% That is to say that 100% is real-time playback, viewed exactly as it occurred. Anything less than that will be slower than real-time and anything greater will be faster. A good place to start for slow-motion videos is by cutting your clip's speed in half to 50% Once you have changed the speed of your clip in the Speed Change window, click on the Set button and your change will be applied. If you find that you want your video to be even slower you can always repeat these steps and set the speed (%) even lower.

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Making Only a Section of a Video Slow Motion

Making just a portion of your video slow motion is another cool and simple effect that you can try in VideoPad. This is great to use when the buildup to the action in your video is perhaps not as exciting as the action itself, or when it would be too time-consuming to play the entire clip in slow motion. To make just part of a video in slow motion, start by dragging the clip into your timeline. Move the red cursor along the timeline to the position where you want the slow-motion portion of the video to begin. Click on the scissors icon to split the clip at the cursor's current position. Then, drag the cursor to the point in your clip where you would like the slow-motion to end and click on the scissors to split the tracks at this point as well. This will give you an isolated segment of your video that you can make slow-motion without affecting the rest of the clip. Right-click on the section of your video that you have clipped to be in slow-mo and adjust the speed as demonstrated above.

Download VideoPad for Windows

For more tips on VideoPad:

• How to Make A Time-lapse Video with VideoPad
• How to Edit Travel Videos with VideoPad
• Edit 360 Video with VideoPad Video Editor
• VideoPad Video Editing Tips & Tricks
• Edit 360 Video with VideoPad Video Editor

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Create a Time-lapse Video with Debut

You've seen videos that condense hours and hours of time into a short clip: a flower blooms in 30 seconds, or a city scene showcases the busy flit of people and traffic as the shadows of buildings move slowly across the street.

You can easily create your own time-lapse video using your webcam and Debut video capture software. Here is what you need to do:

1. Click the Edit Output button and select the devices tab.
   
2. Select the option to Enable Time-lapse.
   
3. Specify how often you want an image to be taken. For the charactaristic choppness of many time lapse videos, space image captures apart by a minute or longer. For a smoother result, take captures at shorter intervals.
   

When your recording is finished, it will be saved as one video clip rather than a series of images, so you can watch the time fly by in a resulting video.

Next, to turn your time-lapse into something really worth sharing, add a title screen using VideoPad video editor. Keep in mind that VideoPad can also do other time manipulations, such as speeding up or slowing down your video footage, in case you want to fine-tune your time-lapse results.

VideoPad Video Editing Tips & Tricks

Some of our most popular blog entries have been the posts about speed changing feature to VideoPad and how to stabilize video. Not surprising since changing video speed was such a long-awaited video editing feature for the popular video editing software. To expand on the topic of helpful video editing effects and features here are several Tips and Tricks for how to edit video with VideoPad. If you have any tips of your own please comment and add them to our list. You can also get started with video editing by watching the the VideoPad video tutorials.

Title Screen and Ending Credits

Add a blank slide to the beginning or end of the timeline. Add text to the slideslide by clicking the green plus button on the Overlay Track, and a fade transition to create a dramatic opening or closing effect to your movie. For ending credits, select the vertical scrolling option and adjust the clip duration to control the scrolling speed.

Text Overlays

Adding captions, title screens and credits is a cinch. See our post on Adding text to your videos for some tips to help you get started using the Overlay Track to add text to video clips.

Video Subtitles

Subtitles are another way of adding text to your video projects. See our post on adding subtitles to your video for a quick overview on importing or creating an .ssa subtitle file in VideoPad, or for more detailed instructions go to our video subtitles tutorial.

Image Overlays

To create a watermark effect or add images to your video for presentations, use image overlays. Click the green plus button on the Overlay Track, select the Image or Video radio button, browse for a file and apply it to the sequence. Once it’s on the sequence, you can select it and edit its size, opacity, positioning and more.

Control Effect Duration

To apply an effect to only part of a clip, try slicing the clip in two. Apply an effect to only one slice, and place a cross-fade between the slices for a seamless transition.

Change Video Speed

Speed up or slow down video clips by selecting a clip and selecting the Speed effect from the Effects tab, then use the slider to select the new speed for the video clip, (i.e. 50% for half speed, 200% for double). You can also choose to play the clip backward.

Video Stabilization

One possible problem you may have with videos you have recorded on your camcorder is video clips that are shaky or unsteady. This is a common problem when you film without a tripod to keep the camcorder still no matter how steady you think your hands are. The video stabilization feature is an easy solution to eliminating camera jitter in your videos, giving you a final video that won't make you seasick to watch.

Upload Videos to YouTube

VideoPad has a wide range of output options for saving your final video, and if you are creating your video for YouTube you can even skip a step and upload to YouTube from VideoPad by entering your YouTube account information and other details, which is just one of the many choices available when saving your finished movie. VideoPad also has automated upload options for Facebook and Flickr.

Sound Effects

VideoPad comes with a Sound Effect Library. You can preview and download sounds from the Sound Effects Library by going to Edit -> Sound -> NCH Sound Effect Library. And since VideoPad has unlimited audio tracks, you have plenty of room to add and mix in the sound effect to your movie soundtrack.

Greenscreen Video Editing

For shooting those scenes you can’t do on location, use the chroma-key feature to transport yourself to another locale. To use chroma-key, click the green plus button on the Overlay Track, select the Image or Video radio button, click the Record button, click the Remove Background button, and follow the onscreen instructions. Also see out post on Easy Chroma Key Overlays.

VirtualDub Video Plugins

For even more effects, VideoPad supports VirtualDub plugins. You can add new plugins by selecting Load/Unload Plugins on the Effects Tab, and loading your saved .vdf format VirtaulDub plugin filter.

And for improving the audio or working on a soundtrack for your movie you may want to start by checking out the WavePad audio editing tips and tricks to help get you started with audio editing.

Video Editing Is Easier Than You Think

Are you guilty of using your video camera to record and then letting all of those videos sit unused in a closet or on your hard drive? If the reason you put off doing anything with all of those video recordings is a fear of how much work it will be, then we have the answer for you—VideoPad Video Editing Software.

In early December we released a new version of VideoPad with more transitions and effects, plus a variety of other improvements including a new overlay track that will allow you to extend the same text over one or more video clips, making things like scrolling credits a breeze. And now we have just updated a two-part VideoPad video tutorial series to walk you through many of the features you will need to transform all that video footage into truly memorable home movies to cherish and share. VideoPad is easy to use in itself, and with these tutorials it’s now even easier.

The new tutorials cover the basics: adding media to your movie, working with the sequence, and exporting your finished movie. They also cover the fun stuff, like placing transitions between clips, and adding effects. You’ll also learn some tips for working with VideoPad, so you’ll always be able to achieve the finished product you imagined.

So what are you waiting for? Check out the VideoPad video tutorials, download VideoPad, collect up your SD Cards and other video recordings out of hiding, and get started. You will be making your own movie masterpiece within minutes.

Change Video Speed in VideoPad

You've been asking for it, so I'm thrilled to report that VideoPad now supports speed variation, giving you the ability to slow down or speed up any video clips that you are editing. Version 2.10 of VideoPad video editing software added this long awaited variable speed playback control, which has been the most requested feature across any of our products.


Changing the playback speed of clips gives you more flexibility and control in creating your video masterpiece than ever before. So now, whether you’re adding a time lapse video of the creation of that magnificent sand castle you made at the beach or slowing down your child’s slide into home for an slow motion instant replay of that first home run, you have complete control of the action.
Edit: with version 2.20 the speed control was moved to be one of the effects available on the Effects Tab