YouTube adds slow-motion video effect feature

YouTube has slowly added effects and different things users can add to their videos, allowing them to edit them from within YouTube while retaining all the comments, URL, and such that are already applied to the video. Today the video hosting service added a new feature to Enhancements – Slow Motion. Says the announcement, this feature allows users to slow down videos, giving the appearance they were filmed with a slo-mo camera.

Unlike some slow motion effects added by software, this YouTube effect is smooth, and results in a video that appears to have been recorded at about 120fps, with the exception being that it retains the audio (likewise slowing it down), while some consumer-level cameras won't capture audio in slo-mo mode. Obviously, poorer quality videos won't handle the effect as well as better quality ones, but nonetheless it is very smooth.

Whether you want to make a pseudo "300" styled video or you just want to slow down the precious moments when someone takes a ball to the face, the feature is available for content creators to use now. The feature can be accessed in in the Enhancements tool (Video Manager -> Enhancements), as well as the YouTube Editor, whichever you prefer to use. The video to which you want to apply it must already be uploaded.

This follows an announcement on May 16 that YouTube will be expanding its Live Streaming feature to more accounts, which must meet specific requirements. Users who want to Live Stream must have their account in good standing across the board, as well as having 1000 subscribers on the account. Users can find out if their account is eligible under "Live Events" in Account Features.

Also this month, YouTube launched paid subscriptions on May 9, something we'd been hearing about before that. Thus far the launch is being done as a pilot program, giving the feature to 53 channels, including National Geographic TV and Comedy.TV. Such channels offers a two week free trial and a $0.99 monthly subscription rate (or higher, depending on the channel).

SOURCE: YouTube Creators Blog