Adobe Spark: Creating Videos on the Go

WHAT SHOULD I USE IT FOR?

Say you’re a filmmaker and you want to share a behind-the-scenes promo of your latest project on social media—Adobe Spark Video is a mobile app that’s perfect for doing this. Easily edit footage on your iPad or iPhone, sync the finished project to other devices such as your laptop, and share an awesome video with the world. Fun. Fast. Simple. 

Adobe Spark Video is only available on iOS devices at the time of this writing. However, you can sign up for early access to the Android beta and Adobe will notify you as soon as you can start using it!

What It Is: 

  • A fun tool for both beginners and pros
  • Great for creating fairly basic, gracefully designed videos on the go 
  • Lets you edit from scratch or choose from a variety of story templates 
  • Enables you to cut down your video clips and add titles and minor customizations 
  • Allows you to publish your video to other sites or save it locally on your device
  • Lets you add or swap music and dialogue

What It Isn’t: 

  • A pro-grade video editor like Adobe Premiere Pro
  • You can't correct video issues like color and noise
  • Doesn’t offer extensive options for titles and layout 
  • No ability to edit music and dialogue (outside of adding/swapping)
  • No stabilization and you can’t add custom transitions


WHAT DIGITAL MEDIA CAN I USE?

Images & Graphics

  • Import images and graphics (even psd files) from your device, Creative Cloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, Facebook, and Lightroom. 
  • Search online for images using the app, and it will try to return only files that fall under Creative Commons licensing (it’ll automatically include proper attributes in the end credits, but the liability falls on you to verify!)

Icons

  • Use the app to search for icons and, again, it’ll try to offer only files that fall under Creative Commons licensing.

Video

  • Footage must be on your device before you can import it into the app.
  • Stick to using video taken with your mobile device, or be sure you load a format your device can read. For instance, my iPad is a little dated and can't deal with 4k footage. I work around this by importing clips into the app with my iPhone 6s and continue working with my iPad once the project is synced. Ideally, and for my demo below, I converted all my video to 1080p and loaded them onto my iPad via Creative Cloud.

THINGS TO CONSIDER

Accessibility

  • As soon as you publish an Adobe Spark Video, it’ll sync to all of your iOS devices.
  • You can also view it in a browser by logging into your Spark website account.
  • You can choose where you want it to go and whether or not it’s listed publicly. Only then will others be able to view it.
  • If you plan to work somewhere with no internet connection, download the assets beforehand! 

UI and UX Differences Across Devices

  • An iPad offers more screen space, letting you better identify quality footage. It also offers one or two options over iPhone.
  • Ideally, try to check your project on a variety of displays before publishing. If it looks good on your mobile device, it’ll probably look good on everyone else’s. 
  • Stats say that about half your viewers will be on a laptop or desktop computer. 
  • Web vs. mobile versions differ slightly. For instance Creative Cloud members can now remove the “Made with Adobe Spark Video” credits from the end slide, but I’ve only found that option via web. That said, the web editor lacks the theme customization that is offered via mobile. 

If you know something I don’t, or if an update changes any of stuff I’ve told you, please leave a comment or send a tweet to @QueenOfCBR—I’d love to learn together! I did just find out that the Theme Lab, in its current form, will go away in mid June. It will be replaced with something said to be better. 

I now invite you to join me as I create a video with the Adobe Spark Video app (watch video below), or you can head over to the Adobe Spark website to learn more, or to download the app and jump right in! 

Here is a project created only with my iPhone & published via Spark site embed code.

Vicky RyderAdobe Spark Video, Mobile Video Editing, Mobile Apps for VideoComment