How to create a unique video: step-by-step guide

The first video takes a few minutes. Please import one file. Leave the settings at their defaults. Choose a save folder and press "Start". The app creates as many copies as you specified. Each copy gets its own setting values.

Below is the same order of steps as in the app's guided tour. The tour has twelve steps. The last step is the first start.

What you need before you begin

• The app is installed and activated. Installation is described on the Installation page. The key is covered on the Activation page.
• There is at least one video file. If you have no video of your own, you can download one by link. You can also set up sources. Then the app downloads new posts by itself.
• There is a folder on the disk for finished videos.

How to create your first video

1. Open the project tab. At the first start the app creates a project by itself. Right away it shows the guided tour.
2. Press "Import video" and choose one or more files. After the first video, the project shows the list of imported videos. From then on you can drag files into this list with the mouse. A whole folder too. The app accepts 13 formats: mp4, mov, mkv, avi, webm, m4v, wmv, flv, mpg, mpeg, ts, m2ts, 3gp.
3. See how the settings work. Open the "Light and tone" page in the side panel on the left. Find the "Change brightness" setting. It is not a single number but a range. The slider moves from -50% to +50%. The default is from -10 to +10.
4. The main rule. You set the range. The app picks a value inside the range at random for each copy. One copy gets +7 of brightness, another -3. That is why the copies come out different.
5. Turn on the similarity check if you like. The "Similarity check" setting is on the "Export" page. Its default value is "No".
6. Check the result before a bulk start. Press "Preview". The app creates one video with the current settings. This button does not affect bulk video creation.
7. Set the number of copies. The "Export" page has the "Number of unique copies of each video" field. In a new project it is set to 10. The app creates this number of copies for each imported video. 3 videos and 10 copies give 30 files.
8. Choose the folder. The "Folder to save videos to" row has a button with a folder icon on the right. Press it and choose a folder for the finished files.
9. Press "Start". The button is in the bottom bar of the tab. It is visible from any settings page.

How to add videos by dragging

You do not have to choose files in a window: you can drag them with the mouse right into the list of imported videos. A whole folder too.

While you hold the files over the list, the app highlights nothing. This does not mean the list does not accept them. The answer is visible after you release the mouse button. New rows appear in the list, and the number under the list changes.

Dragging into the list of imported videos. While you hold the files over the list, the app highlights nothing: the answer is visible after the release.

If what you dropped was not only videos, the app says so. A hint appears above the "Import more videos" button:

• for files, the hint has the names: "Videos added: 3. Not video: file.pdf.";
• for a folder, the hint has only a number: "Not video in the folder "Archive": 12 files.";
• the list of accepted formats appears only when not a single video was accepted.

Which settings to use

The same ones you use in manual uniquification. The rule is: whatever you did by hand in a video editor, turn on here.

• Changed brightness and contrast - turn on "Change brightness" and "Change contrast".
• Shortened the duration - turn on "Change video duration".
• Slightly enlarged the frame - turn on "Scale video".
• Changed the volume - turn on "Change volume".
• Changed color saturation - turn on "Change color saturation".

There is exactly one difference from manual work. By hand you pick a value for each copy separately. Here you set the range once. After that the app picks the value for each copy by itself.

Your set of techniques stays yours. The app does the repetitive part of the work.

The order to begin with is this. Move what you do by hand into the project. Press "Preview" and look at one copy. If the result suits you, start creating all the copies.

What happens after you press "Start"

The "Check before start" window opens. The app shows what will come out. It splits remarks into two kinds.

Window section	What it means
"Not ready"	Video creation does not begin until you fix this.
"Warnings"	Video creation begins, but the result may differ from what you expect.
"What you get"	A summary: how many files, where and in which mode.
"Daily video limit"	How many videos are taken off the limit and how many remain. The section appears only if a daily video limit is set.

To begin, press "Start now". To go back to the settings, press "Cancel".

Most rows of the "Not ready" section have a button on the right. It fixes the cause without closing the sheet.

Then the results table opens. For each copy it shows the "Name", "Status", "Progress", "Similarity to original" and "Similarity to copies" columns. After them come the values the app picked for this copy. While work is running, the "Start" button is called "Stop". You can stop video creation with it.

Should the similarity check be on from the start

No. In a new project the "Similarity check" setting is set to "No". The first video comes out without it. Turn it on when you want to control the result more strictly. The check compares finished videos with the original and with each other.

Next to it there are two more settings:

• "Similarity threshold" - a number from 1 to 100%, the default is 90%. The lower the threshold, the stricter the check.

The full list of settings with limits and defaults is collected in the settings reference.

• "If similarity is above the threshold then" - what to do with such a copy: "Delete and recreate", "Delete" or "Do nothing".

The check modes are covered on the Similarity check page.

Where to see the project complexity

In the lower left corner of the tab there is the project complexity counter. It shows the sum of the complexity of all settings that are on. The higher the project complexity, the lower the speed of video creation. Click the counter. A table opens with all the settings that are on and their complexity. It shows which setting loads the system more than the others.

Complexity also matters when creating videos in the cloud. The more complex the project, the higher the cost. What to choose is described on the Video creation on the device and in the cloud page.

How to find a setting when there are more than a hundred

The app has more than 100 settings. Almost all of them are laid out on the pages of the side panel on the left. Integration settings are separate: ClipSave, VideoGen and sending finished videos over HTTP. They are collected in the "Project integrations" window. It is opened by a button in the same panel. At the top of the app window there is a search bar. It finds a setting and opens the right page or window. Search is the fastest way to find the setting you need.

How to take the guided tour again

The tour opens by itself at the first start of the app. This happens while there are no projects yet. Later you can open the tour by hand.

1. Press the menu button at the top of the window, next to the logo.
2. Choose the "Guided tour" item.

The app opens a new tab with a new project. The tour shows all twelve steps again.

Further reading

• How uniquification works - why the copies come out different.
• Export settings - export types, save modes, number of copies.
• Video quality - how not to lose quality on output.
• Video creation on the device and in the cloud - what to choose and what it costs.

Frequently asked questions

How many videos will I get?

The number of copies is multiplied by the number of imported videos. The app applies the value of the "Number of unique copies of each video" field to each file of the list separately. A new project has 10 copies. So three imported videos give 30 files.

Which video formats can be imported?

Thirteen: mp4, mov, mkv, avi, webm, m4v, wmv, flv, mpg, mpeg, ts, m2ts, 3gp. You can choose the files with the "Import video" button. You can also drag them into the list with the mouse. A whole folder too.

Can I see the result before a bulk start?

Yes. The "Preview" button creates one video with the current settings. It does not affect bulk video creation. The source video opens in the preview window on the right. To do this, double-click a row of the list.

How do I stop video creation?

With the same button you started it with. While work is running, "Start" is called "Stop".

Which settings should I use for uniquification?

The same ones you use by hand. The app does not add new techniques. It repeats your techniques on each copy and puts different values into them. Details are in the "Which settings to use" section above.

Do I have to set anything up before the first start?

No. A new project has six settings working: "Change brightness", "Change contrast", "Change sharpness", "Change video duration", "Scale video" and "Change volume". Two more switches are on on the "Color correction" page - "Change color balance of midtones" and "Change color saturation" - but they do not affect the result. The main switch of that page, "Use color correction", is off, and without it the whole page is not applied. Covered in light, tone and color. The export type is "One-time", the video creation mode is "Local". There are exactly two required actions. Import at least one video. Set the save folder.