In this lesson of our tutorial, we will show you how to apply filters, overlays, elements and utility effects to video clips you edit in Filmora9.

Getting to know Filmora9’s Effects Tab

Filmora9 has plenty of professional-looking effects that take only a few seconds to use. Click on the Effects tab to start browsing through Filmora9’s collection of visual effects.

The effects are organized in three different categories, Filters, Overlays, and Utility Effects. You just click on a category and select the effect you want to apply to the footage. All effects in Filmora9 can be dragged and dropped to a specific location of the timeline. You have to make sure that you place an effect on the video track above the one on which the video clip is located.

In case you want to apply an effect over an entire video clip, you can drag an effect you selected from the Effects tab onto a video clip.

Using the Filters, Overlays and Utility Effects to enhance videos

The Filters category contains more than a hundred presets you can apply to videos. Each effect, you can find in the Filters category can be used to enhance the colors in a video or to distort the image. 

Overlays effects add a new layer over a video to which they are applied and you can use them to add a Film Reel effect that makes your footage look like it was recorded on a vintage camera or to create the Bokeh effect. In addition, you can use the Cinema 21:9 overlay if you want to change a video’s aspect ratio quickly.

Utility effects enable you to conceal a face in your video, crop or mask videos or create the tilt-shift effect. Applying the Auto Enhance effect will automatically adjust the video’s sharpness and make the colors more vibrant.

Fine-tuning the Video Effects settings

Each filter, overlay and utility effect you add to the timeline can be edited from the Video tab. Double-click on a visual effect on the timeline or on a video clip if you want to adjust its settings. In case you added an effect to a clip a Video tab will pop up on the screen, that enables you to increase or reduce an effect’s intensity via the Alpha slider.

You can remove an effect from a video by unchecking the tick box next to an effect, or you can turn off all the effects you added to a video clip by ensuring that the Video Effects checkbox is not checked.

Adding Elements to Videos in Filmora9

In addition to an impressive collection of visual effects, Filmora9 also features a rich library of elements. This enables you to add arrows to a video that draw the viewer’s attention to an important detail in the shot or emojis that make your videos more cheerful.

You can edit all Elements you add to the timeline by double-clicking on them and adjusting their settings in the Video tab.

Optionally, you can adjust the element’s position from the Preview screen by clicking on it and dragging it to its new location. Dragging one of the corners of an element in an inward or outward direction will reduce or increase its size.