More and more, people are opting to shoot video instead of taking photos. But most people don't want to learn the intricacies of nonlinear multi-track video editing to produce something fun for their friends to watch on Facebook or Instagram.
Enter Clips 2.0—Apple's super simple app that's capable of dazzling effects and polished short video productions. Clips works on iPhones dating back to the iPhone 5s, but it really comes into its own with iPhone X's Face ID and advanced A11 Bionic processor. Read on to see what wonders you can do with an iPhone X and Clips.
1.
Start Using Clips
There's no label on it, but that big red bar is obviously what you press to start recording a Clips video. You can also snap a still shot or grab media from your existing Photos collection. Note also that Clips shoots in a square aspect ratio, so you don't have to worry about turning the phone sideways for landscape, which is always preferable when shooting video. As you shoot and add more content, the square thumbnails fill up the bottom area of the screen.
2.
Apply Filters
Clips includes effect filters that mimic artistic styles. You access these from the multi-colored star button to the right of the Record button. Apple used machine-learning AI to get these right, similar to the popular
Prisma app. Some of these filters require the A11 chip in the iPhone X and iPad Pro, so are only available on those devices.
3.
Live Titles
As you speak while recording video, the Live Titles feature will add what you say as text on the screen, in a choice of several, well-designed styles.
4.
Add Labels, Stickers, and Emoji
Snapchat has certainly influenced a lot of apps, and Clips is not one to be left out. The Labels lets you assign a place, time, or theme clearly to your production, while Stickers and Emoji add a bit of fun. Some Sticker sets are licensed from Pixar and Disney, so you can use Star Wars and other popular franchises' characters.
5.
Make a Scene: The Money Shot
This is the first trick that requires an iPhone X, and it's a doozy. Clips can strip out the actual background in your shot and replace it with one of 12 impressive landscapes. One of the coolest is a Times Square–like cityscape, and there are even Star Wars, space, and artistic backgrounds. The backgrounds aren't static, but are 360-degree images, so you can move the camera around to vary the view. The scenes even apply effects to the person in the video to match the background's lighting and sometimes add a filter in the style of the background.
6.
Posters
Posters are text scenes you can add as clips to your video. They're animated, and as they play, the background music pumps up, but we're getting ahead of ourselves: See the next slide.
7.
Soundtracks
Like any self-respecting easy video app, Clips lets you add background music to your mini movie. You can choose from a good selection of mood-themed tracks, or use non-DRMed music from your own collection. The canned soundtracks can auto-stretch to match the length of your video. They don't, however, time transitions to the beat, as the Photos app in Windows 10 does, since you, rather than the program determine clip lengths.
8.
Share
Once you're done, you can send your slick video off to any targets available on the standard iOS Share Sheet. Those include AirDrop, email, social networks, and iCloud Sharing albums.
9.
Ta-Da! Our Silly Clips Video
We didn't have a lot of time with the PCMag iPhone X, but this little video can at least show you some cool stuff you can do with Apple Clips.
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