WeVideo’s Web-based collaborative video editor gets in-app recording, smart timeline and more

Last September, we wrote about WeVideo which constitutes most of the tools you’d need to make a fairly well-produced online video. Collaboratively. We said at the time:

“….there’s a lot that WeVideo offers that makes it comparable to Apple’s native iMovie or a stripped-down version of Final Cut Pro, the standard-bearer for video editing, and the tool used by many movie producers. With WeVideo you can modify the color and saturation of frames, on the fly and adjust sound levels, and pretty much anything that an experienced video editor would, all from the Web. And the tool works across devices, so you can access it from an iPad, for instance.”

That’s it in a nutshell, at least. Since then, the California-based company has reeled in a whopping $19.1m in funding and upped sticks to a larger HQ in Palo Alto.

WeVideo also recently unveiled some new features, aimed squarely at professional users. With what the company is calling Tag & Bag, WeVideo said it was targeting “TV stations, cable operators, syndicators and networks to work together on local promo tagging from any browser, without the need for dedicated editing systems or external delivery providers”.

Now, the company has rolled out another series of updates to WeVideo on YouTube and WeVideo for Google Drive.

WeVideo welcomes Record a Video feature

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You can now record a video directly into WeVideo using your webcam with a new in-app recording feature. So, say you’ve all but finished your creation and just need to add in a little spoken intro, for example, you can do so.

A timeline…smart

The new so-called “smart timeline” means that you no longer have to manually zoom to get the overview on the timeline when adding or moving clips. The timeline adjusts automatically when dropping in clips or when changing their order.

A new “Fit to width” feature has also been added, which is actioned when you double-click the zoom-icon. The timeline will then fit all the clips on the timeline.

Audio control

If you want to lower the background audio track while someone is talking, or make it louder when they’re not talking, you can now adjust the volume of the audio tracks at any point during the video.

Other tweaks

You can style your video with professionally-designed transitions, music and effects, which can be actioned by applying a theme with a single click. There’s also more fonts, to help you customize your video text – this covers style, color and size. Two new transitions have also been included – you can dip to black and dip to white. With this effect, the left clip fades to black (or white), and the right clip fades in from black (or white).

A number of usability improvements and other bug fixes have been implemented –  for example, context-specific feedback when hovering over icons, so it’s easier to understand the actions.

➤ WeVideo