In Video Studio you can upload your own image and video assets as well as using one multiple stock image services that exist in the tool – more on them below.
Opening the asset browser
You import your assets through the asset browser that you can access from a couple of different places.
Opening the asset browser from the toolbar
In the toolbar, there is an "Assets" button. This will open the asset browser and let you upload your own assets by way of the "Drop file here to upload – or click to browse" function. Or you can search the many millions of stock assets that are built-in by inputting your search term into the "Search stock images" field. (And it also searches for video.)
When using the asset browser this way you are not connected to a specific group or slide and can not place an asset directly. That is the function of the other way of opening the asset browser.
Opening the asset browser from the main asset lane
You can also open the asset browser – and do what is described above – directly from the main asset lane for a group. This will let you upload or search for images and select them for use in that group.
The asset browser can be opened by clicking "Add main asset" when no asset has previously been chosen.
The asset browser can be opened by clicking the "Change asset" button when there is a previous asset there.
When you open the asset browser this way – it will let you select what asset to place as main asset. And when doing stock searches you can "Import and select" an asset you find with one click, very efficient.
Asset browser formats
When uploading files to the asset browser, the following formats are supported:
Video: .mov, .mpg, .mpeg, .mp4, .wmv, .avi, .m4v and .gif.
Important note on video files: We do NOT support video files that have Variable Frame Rate (VFR), which is the output format from certain mobile phone camera apps. If you want to avoid this problem when uploading, please refer to this support article.
Images: .jpg and .png.
If you have issues when uploading a video file and Video Studio gives you an error message, please refer to this article to troubleshoot.
Image and video search in Video Studio
When you need to find stock images or video resources you can do so directly from the Asset Browser in Video Studio. Just input your search words into the "Search stock images" field in the Asset Browser and press enter.
Depending on your search words you will now get many results from a few different sources, that you with a single button press can add to your slide or the Asset Browser.
You can look at an asset in detail by clicking the link icon in the top right corner of the asset when you hover over it with the mouse pointer. This will open up the asset detail page on the service that provides it; this link will open up in a new window.
You don't have to do anything on that detail page except view the asset if you want to. Selecting and importing it into the system is done in the asset browser.
So when you find an asset that you like to use you can either "Import" it (if you accessed the Asset Browser from the Assets button in the top menu) or "Import and select" it to automatically add it to your slide if you accessed the Asset Browser through the "Add main asset" button under a slide. Then it will both be imported into the system and also set as the background on the slide you're on.
License: Non-attribution and free to use
All providers in the system give you full non-attribution rights to the content, meaning that you are free to use the images and videos without the need for credits. We import credits from the providers, but you as a user do not have to display it. It could be a nice touch to do it, nevertheless, but it's not mandatory.
The open providers we are using in the system now are Pixabay, Pexels, and Unsplash. And if you want to read up on their license terms, you can do so by following these links: Pixabay License Terms, Pexels License Terms, and Unsplash License Terms.
Premium Provider
The Premium Provider "Videoblocks" gives you as a user more access to more than 450 000 high-quality video assets that are free to use for you as a Video Studio user – this is a service we provide to all clients as an added bonus. The usage is the same as for the open providers with, but with Videoblocks you can do filtered searches that allow you to get only assets that are explicitly model released, property released and cleared for commercial use*. You are still free to use these assets as non-attribution assets.
The filters you can use with Videoblocks are as follows:
- Use "Talent Released" to ensure that recognizable individuals (image or voice) depicted in a video clip have given permission for the clip to be used for commercial purposes. If the content has not been model released, it can still be used for editorial purposes.
- Use "Property Released" to ensure that owners of the property (such as a trademark or privately owned building or object) depicted in a video clip have given permission for the clip to be used for commercial purposes.
- Use "Editorial only" to filter out videos that are only explicitly cleared for editorial use and not commercial.
*Commercial use, according to Videoblocks: "In general, “commercial use” means use intended to help sell or promote a company, product, or service. If you are going to use our content to make money, then you are probably using it commercially."
For more on the Videoblocks licensing, please check out this link. Please also review Videoblocks EULA and share it with your end-users, Videoblocks EULA can be found on this link.
Automatic Search Suggestions when using AI support
When creating a storyboard from Text or URL – we analyze the script content to give you suggested search terms in the asset browser. This is what happens, in broad terms.
- We analyze your script for categories – and if your script is in another language than English, we translate the script first. Since this is categorization analysis, the finer grammatical details make no difference.
- We map these analyzed categories to a proprietary set of categories that are more logical to content creation.
- Each category has many editorially chosen search term suggestions that are broad enough to yield a meaningful amount of hits from the built-in stock asset providers.
- A script can belong to more than one category – so the available bucket of suggestions becomes bigger.
- We suggest a number (10) of these terms at the time – and you as a user can refresh the list of suggestions at will. Then we'll suggest a new set of 10. Sometimes the same word will appear again – and that's due to the randomization that occurs.
- You can click a word directly to see the available assets, just like you had written your search terms.
This is a tremendous creative help; you get many words that you may not have thought about yourself, which can help you break a creative block or find new paths you weren't thinking about.
As always, see this as suggestions – not rules.