If you want to create video on your mobile phone or tablet, there is no shortage of apps available such as FilmoraGo, Adobe Premiere Clip and Rush, Videoshow, Kinemaster, VivaVideo for Android and LumaFusion, Videoshop, Splice and Quik for iOS. And plenty more where they came from.
They all have pros and cons of course, and some are not compatible with certain phone models which is a pain (Rush does not work on my Samsung Galaxy 7 for example, but Clip does).
Now online video service Vimeo wants a piece of the action – presumably to lure users from YouTube – as it has announced Vimeo Create available for Android, iOS and the desktop inside a browser. On my PC it insists on loading inside Microsoft Edge for reasons unknown I must get to the bottom of.
It comes with a swag of templates, stock clips, photos and commercially licenced music is available plus you can tailor colours, fonts and layouts.
A so-called “smart editor” is claimed to turn your clips into a “polished video” in “minutes”.
But Vimeo have gone an extra step by also including the ability to get feedback and track performance statistics.
All sounds good, so we put it to the test in a quick trial. We used some footage of the new puppy, Dougie the Dog to try to create a quick video using Vimeo Create.
Instead of using a template, I opted to start from scratch. First you need to login to Vimeo (or create an account if you don’t have one). Across the top of the screen, the workflow becomes evident with a step-by-step Create>Storyboard>Style>Music metaphor shown.
The first thing you are then asked is to add any photos and videos via either upload or from the online templates This is the Create step.. Online templates also show their length in time. Once done, clicking Add drops them into the storyboard and from here, you can reorder clips and add text.
There are three options available here as well; Brand to add your own assets such as a logo (for which you need a business account), Ratio (to set the aspect ratio of your video) and Duration (auto or 15, 30, 60 secs or “custom”).
You click Next to continue. Next you can choose a “Style”.
And here I found the first annoyance. In this workflow metaphor it’s not immediately evident you can step back to correct something, that is, there is no “Back” button. In fact what you do is click the step of the metaphor list at top (the Create>Storyboard>Style>Music text) to go back one step.
Moving on.
Clicking on a Style gives an animation thumbnail of what that style does. As you’d expect in this world of Instagram filter-y type things, they are all pretty cheesy and no self-respecting video editor would use any of them.
However for the sake of the exercise I chose one called “Circles”.
Next is your choice of music. Again, limited choice and cheesy, but what the hell, “Beach Emotions it was, for what it’s worth.
Vimeo Create then goes off and does its thing. And I wish I could say it was grand and beautiful. But absolutely nothing happened!
So I tried again from scratch… and the same thing happened. Nothing.
Vimeo Create put up a splash screen stating it was creating a preview, and then it vanished.
So quite simply, I stopped wasting my time. And anyway, if you want to use it seriously for ANYTHING, you have to pay, starting at AUD$9 / month (billed annually of course) for 5GB / week to a max of 250GB / year right up to AUD$95 / month, also billed annually for Premium with unlimited streaming. Without paying you cannot save or post a video.
Thanks but no thanks. YouTube has nothing to worry about here at least. You’d be better off getting a “lite” version of Vegas Pro or other major NLE, or the free version of HitFilm Xpress or even DaVinci Resolve if you are on either PC or Mac.
Your mileage may vary, but Vimeo Create is certainly not for this little black duck.
Film, Video & Virtual reality 