11/05/2012 by Amy-Mae Elliott on Mashable
Haven’t you heard? Photos are so 2011. Video is where it’s at. More specifically, take a look at Viddy, a social video editing and sharing app that has just surpassed 26 million users.
Much in the way people use social photography apps to beautify and share everyday moments, Viddy wants to do the same for videos. The app gives you 15 seconds to capture your footage, whereupon you may add filters and music to give the clip a cinematic feel. Then, access built-in social options to share your clips with friends.
If you haven’t yet signed up, don’t worry. Our easy guide shows you how to get started with Viddy, from setting up your account to finding people to follow to posting your first clip.
Take a look through our simple walkthrough above and get shooting. Then, come back and link in the comments to any great Viddy clips you’ve created and would like to share with the Mashable readership!
Launched in April 2011, Viddy is available on iTunes for iPhones, iPod touches and iPads. It's free to download.
The app lets you capture, edit, filter and share 15-second video clips, or "viddys."
One-click share your creations to popular social networking sites, and find fresh content to watch.
Once you've download Viddy, sign in with your Facebook or Twitter accounts.
Alternatively, you can sign up with an email address.
When you sign in with Twitter or Facebook, Viddy will show you a list of your online buddies already signed up.
From here, you can choose to follow them by hitting the "Follow" button.
You can also follow Viddy's "Suggested Users."
Browse this list by tapping the contacts-style icon on the top-right of your display. Suggested users are listed by "Popular" and "Featured."
When in the "Suggested Users" screen, tapping the contacts icon again takes you to the "Find Friends" options.
Here you can find more of your buddies by allowing Viddy to scan your phone's address book, or search for your friends by name.
If you signed in to Viddy with Twitter or Facebook and want to link your other account, tap "Find Twitter/Facebook Friends" and give the necessary permissions.
While you wait to build your followers up, check your profile by hitting the icon that looks like a Rolodex card in the bottom-right-hand corner of your display.
This gives you an at-a-glance look at your profile, the viddys you have created, your followers and people you are following.
If you tap the cog icon in the top-right-hand corner, you can also check your settings and edit your profile, including changing your avatar.
Now that your profile is set up and you've found some friends, you can tune into your personalized Viddy stream.
This can be found by tapping the icon on the bottom-left of your display (the film strip).
Here you can tab between clips from people you're following, clips you have liked and "Featured" content, as curated by Viddy.
To favorite a Viddy, simply tap the heart icon under the clip and it will be saved to your "Likes" list.
To comment on a clip or read comments made by others, just hit the speech bubble.
To view tags, hit the tag icon, and if you need to "Flag" a video, there's a skull and crossbones icon to report the content.
If you want to share a Viddy clip you like, hit the green "Share" button.
This gives you quick-share options for Twitter and Facebook.
More advanced sharing options can be seen by hitting the plus icon.
From the next screen you can share to Tumblr, via SMS or email the clip to a friend.
The next thing to do is discover some great content.
If you want to browse, tap the flame icon at the bottom of your display, which will take you to the "What's Hot" section.
Here you can view popular, trending and new clips. It's a great way to find interesting people to follow and get inspired to create your first clip!
Alternatively, you can view content either by trending tags, categories or finding fresh Viddys via keyword search.
Activate this kind of search by tapping the magnifying glass at the top-left of your display and scrolling down.
One more area worthy of note before we look at creating clips is the "Activity" tab.
This can be found by tapping the icon with three people on it, second from the right at the bottom of your display.
Here you can see what clips the people you are following have created, liked, commented on and who they have started to follow.
By clicking the square icon at the top-right of the screen, you can also see your Viddy "Notifications," such as who has followed you, who has liked one of your viddys, recent comments, etc.
Hit the central lens icon to create your first clip. You can choose to use your phone's camera or select an existing clip from your Camera Roll.
If you choose to use your camera to shoot a live Viddy, start shooting straight away by hitting the red button, which will start your 15 seconds of recording time. Or take a look at the advanced options.
From the bottom-up these options include changing the aspect ratio of the video from 4:3 at 480p resolution or going widescreen with a 16:9 ratio at 720p.
Next up is the ability to add a grid overlay to your display, useful if you want to ensure your clip stays level.
Then there's the timer option -- hitting this will give you a three-second countdown before recording starts.
The next icon up turns on the audio meter and shows the volume level as you are recording.
The next three advanced options offer the ability to "lock" settings for your clip. You can choose to lock the focus, the exposure level and the white balance.
To lock these settings, tap the screen to set the level you'd like and then tap the icons to lock them down.
Once you've tweaked the advanced settings (or not) you can go straight into shooting.
Just hit the red button to record and Viddy will count down your 15 seconds before presenting you with the option to use the clip (hit the green check mark) or delete it (the red cross).
If you want to select a video from your Camera Roll, choose the "Video Library" option once you've hit the lens icon. This will bring up all the videos in your Camera Roll to choose from.
If you select a video longer than 15 seconds, you can edit it down with a slider tool.
Once you've captured your viddy, play around with the special effects the app offers.
A few free effects are pre-loaded -- tap them to see a preview. You can control the intensity of the filter effect by using the slider scale at the bottom of your display.
You can adjust the audio in the same way -- moving the slider to the right will give you more music, to the left makes the original audio louder.
Get more effects -- both free and paid for -- by hitting the "+More" icon. This takes you through to the Viddy Marketplace, where you can also view any "Packs" you download.
When you're happy with your edits, hit the "Next" button on the effects screen.
Now you can add a title, a short description, select appropriate tags and share your Viddy out to your connected social networks.
When you've edited the fields, just hit "Post" to send your viddy live.
Now, link us to your Viddy creations in the comments below!
Source: Mashable
