Zencastr Clips is a paid feature that transforms longer-form content into several shorter video clips optimized for a variety of social media platforms. Clips supports content in English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. AI Clipping uses AI to select the clips from your content for you, while Manual Clipping allows you to select the specific segments to clip.
In this article:
Clips Pricing
Manual Clipping is available to users on all paid plans, while AI Clipping is available on the Grow plan and above. Both features operate using postproduction credits. All of Zencastr’s paid subscription plans include a monthly allowance of postproduction credits. See this article for complete information about the credits allowance, calculations, and purchases.
Customizing Your Clip Settings
What Are Clip Settings?
Clip settings are your representation of the content you are clipping. Our AI incorporates the information provided in your clip settings in its decision-making process, determining which parts of your content to highlight and how to present them. By default, your clip settings use the information in your show. Customizing your clip settings further allows our AI to better select clips that reflect your desired focus.
Creating your Clip Settings
To customize your clip settings:
On your Dashboard, click on the Clips tab on the left sidebar menu.
In the upper right corner, select Settings.
Enter or change any details in the ‘Title’, ‘Description’, ‘Topics’, ‘Optimize Your Clips For’, ‘Post Roll Link’, and ‘Post-Roll Image’.
Click the Save button.
Clip Settings Fields
Title
Enter a title that describes what podcast or content your clips are for.
Example if you have a podcast:
Show name and clips description, e.g. “Magnificent Animals Podcast: Conservation Clips”
Example if you’re a video creator:
Video series name and clips description, e.g. “Food Tours: Best Things I Ate Clips”
Description
Describe what you are creating and who it is for, highlighting what makes it unique.
Example of a bad description:
“A podcast about animals to raise awareness about threats to global biodiversity”
Example of a good description:
"Magnificent Animals is a podcast dedicated to exploring the awe-inspiring diversity of the world's wildlife. We aim to shed light on the profound significance of every living creature within our intricate global ecosystem and to highlight the pressing challenges they and we all confront due to climate change. This podcast is designed to be inclusive, welcoming nature enthusiasts, wildlife advocates, and anyone with even a passing interest. Our objectives are to inform, inspire, and cultivate support for essential conservation and sustainability initiatives."
Optimize Clips For
Select which social platforms you want your clips to be optimized for and posted on. Which platforms can be connected depends on your plan.
Post-Roll Link
The post-roll link is a clickable link that appears at the end of each of video clip. Set one to direct your audience to discover more about your podcast, brand, or content in another site.
None: No link appears in the post-roll
Link In Bio: Links to your Zencastr profile page, e.g.
https://zencastr.com/@[YOUR USERNAME]
Custom: Any link added by you
Post-Roll Image
An image that identifies your clip profile. This image will also be appear at the end of each video clip.
Must be a JPG, JPEG, or PNG file.
Resolution must be at least 1400 x 1400 pixels.
Recommended resolution is 3000 x 3000 pixels.
Creating Manual Clips
Manual clipping allows you to select specific segments from your content to clip.
To create manual clips:
On your Dashboard, click on the Sessions tab in the left sidebar menu.
Under the ‘My Sessions’ list, click the name of the session that contains the recording you want to clip.
Locate the recording you want to clip and click the Preview button next to its name.
Click the Edit button.
In the top menu bar, click Audio & Video to customize the video’s aspect ratio, layout, background, watermark, and title and caption styling.
See this article for more information about the available options for Zencastr recordings.
See this article for more information about the available options for uploaded videos.
Click on Content & Clips in the top menu bar to configure the Long Pause Removal and Remove Filler Words smart filters and access the manual clipping tool.
To manually clip, select the segment you want to clip by highlighting the text in the transcript.
On the menu ribbon, select Create Clip.
Highlight any word to remove or correct any inaccuracies in the transcript before creating your clip.
Click the Apply button in the top right corner.
Click the Next button.
Note: If you aren’t hosting a podcast on Zencastr, skip filling out the Episode Info on the right section as it is for publishing an episode to a podcast.On the Review and Confirm insert, review the summary of what you are getting and the credits cost.
Click Run Now to start the postproduction and clipping.
Result: The postproduction will begin to run and the clips will start to process. Once clips have finished processing, they will appear on the Clips tab of your dashboard.
Creating AI Clips
AI clipping uses AI to select the clips for you.
You can create AI generated clips from Zencastr-Recorded Videos, as well as Uploaded Videos.
To create AI clips:
On your Dashboard, click on the Sessions tab in the left sidebar menu.
Under the ‘My Sessions’ list, click the name of the session that contains the recording you want to clip.
Locate the recording you want to clip and click the Preview button next to its name.
Click the Edit button.
In the top menu bar, click Audio & Video to customize the video’s aspect ratio, layout, background, watermark, and title and caption styling.
See this article for more information about the available options for Zencastr recordings.
See this article for more information about the available options for uploaded videos.
Click on Content & Clips in the top menu bar to configure the Long Pause Removal and Remove Filler Words smart filters and access the AI clipping options.
Highlight any word to remove or correct any inaccuracies in the transcript before creating your clip. Click the film strip icon in the upper portion of the screen.
On the Customize your Clips insert, under Select Clip Frame, make sure the correct aspect ratio video is selected under Short Form Clips and Social Feed Clips.
Note: If you have a Scale plan or higher, you can select two aspect ratios.On the Customize your Clips insert, click the Enable button.
Click the Apply button in the top right corner.
Click the Next button.
Note: If you aren’t hosting a podcast on Zencastr, skip filling out the Episode Info on the right section as it is for publishing an episode to a podcast.On the Review and Confirm insert, review the summary of what you are getting and the credits cost.
Click Run Now to start the postproduction and clipping.
Result: A message indicates that clips are processing. When it completes, the necessary amount of credits will be deducted from your credits balance. Once clips have finished processing, they will appear on the Clips tab of your dashboard.
Editing Clips
After a clip is generated, you can adjust its start and end times, edit the post title and caption, and change the title and caption styling.
Adjusting Start and End Times
To adjust the clip’s start and end times:
On your Dashboard, click on the Clips tab in the left sidebar menu.
Click the image of the clip grouping the clip is in.
Locate the clip you want to update and click the pencil icon next to it.
On the Adjust Clip tab, click the Start Time.
Result: The clip, highlighted in green on the playbar, plays from the beginning.When the clip stops playing, click and hold the circle on the playbar and drag it to the point before or after the clip that you wish to edit the start or end time to.
Copy the timestamp and paste in into either the Start Time or End Time field.
Note: The time should be entered as hh:mm:ss.sss (hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds).
Result: The clip boundaries, highlighted in green on the playbar, adjust.Click the play button and watch the clip again to make sure you are satisfied with the changes.
Click the Save changes button at the top right.
Result: A message indicates that edits are in progress. Edits can take a few seconds to a few minutes to complete.
Editing the Video and Post Title
When you edit the title of the post, you also edit the title on the video itself. To edit these:
On your Dashboard, click on the Clips tab in the left sidebar menu.
Click the image of the clip grouping the clip is in.
Locate the clip you want to update and click the pencil icon next to it.
Click the Clip Info tab.
Edit the post title.
Click the Save changes button at the top right.
Result: A message indicates that edits are in progress. Edits can take a few seconds to a few minutes to complete.
Editing the Post Caption
To edit the post caption:
On your Dashboard, click on the Clips tab in the left sidebar menu.
Click the image of the clip grouping the clip is in.
Locate the clip you want to update and click the pencil icon next to it.
Edit the post caption.
Click the Save changes button at the top right.
Result: A message indicates that edits are in progress. Edits can take a few seconds to a few minutes to complete.
Editing the Title Styling
To adjust the title styling:
On your Dashboard, click on the Clips tab in the left sidebar menu.
Click the image of the clip grouping the clip is in.
Locate the clip you want to update and click the pencil icon next to it.
Click the Captions tab.
Locate the title section to adjust its individual elements.
Position: Select the position of the title - top, center, or bottom of the video.
For top or bottom positions, further adjust the title’s placement using the Vertical, Left, and Right spacing sliders.
To manually adjust the title section, click on the title on the left side of the video preview, then drag and drop it to the desired position using your mouse.
Font: Change the title’s font, size, and color.
Click the Save changes button at the top right.
Result: A message indicates that edits are in progress. Edits can take a few seconds to a few minutes to complete.
Editing the Caption Styling
To adjust the caption styling:
On your Dashboard, click on the Clips tab in the left sidebar menu.
Click the image of the clip grouping the clip is in.
Locate the clip you want to update and click the pencil icon next to it.
Click the Captions tab.
Locate the caption section to adjust its individual elements.
Position: Select the position of the captions - top, center, or bottom of the video.
For top or bottom positions, further adjust the captions placement using the Vertical, Left, and Right spacing sliders.
Font: Change the caption’s font, size, and color.
Outline: Opt for an outline or box style for the captions, modifying the outline color, size, shadow color, and shadow offset.
Highlight Active Word: Toggle on/off to determine how many words display in the captions at a time.
‘Off’ displays one word at a time.
‘On’ displays two to six words at a time, highlighting the spoken (“active”) word in a different color. When selected, you can define the color and scale of the active word.
Click the Save changes button at the top right.
Result: A message indicates that edits are in progress. Edits can take a few seconds to a few minutes to complete.
Editing the Clip Thumbnail
To adjust the thumbnail seen on the first frame of the clip:
On your Dashboard, click on the Clips tab in the left sidebar menu.
Click the image of the clip grouping the clip is in.
Locate the clip you want to update and click the pencil icon next to it.
Click the clip preview image on the right-hand side. Select Reupload to replace the thumbnail image or Delete to remove the current image.
Click the Save changes button at the top right.
Result: A message indicates that edits are in progress. Edits can take a few seconds to a few minutes to complete.
Downloading Clips
After clicking the Run Now button to finalize clip creation, a message will indicate that your clips have been queued for generation. You can either close this page or stay on it, as the clips will be generated in the background. You will receive an email notification when they are complete.
To download your clips:
On your Dashboard, click on the Clips tab in the left sidebar menu.
Click the image of the clip grouping the clip is in.
Locate the clip you want to download and click the download arrow icon below it.
Result: Your clip files will be zipped and then a zip file will download to your computer.
After Clipping - What’s Next?
Post your clips to social media right from your Clips tab.
Embed your clips on your website.