Get started with
Nova Clip

Install on your computer

Nova Clip works in any up-to-date browser, and you can also install it as a desktop app. The installed app opens in its own window, has an icon in your Start menu, Dock or app launcher, works without internet, and updates itself.

1. Open novaclip.tech in Chrome or Edge on Windows, Mac, Linux or ChromeOS.
2. Click Install app in the top bar of the editor. You can also click the install icon at the right end of the address bar.
3. Click Install to confirm. The editor opens in its own window.

The Install app button only shows when your browser offers to install the app. If you do not see it, you can still edit in the browser tab. See Browser support.

To uninstall, open the app, click the ⋮ menu at the top of its window and choose Uninstall Nova Clip. Your exported videos are not affected.

The editor screen

The editor has six parts. Everything happens in your browser, and your files stay on your computer.

The four tabs next to the toolbar (Edit, Color, Audio and Graphics) only mark where you are working. Every tool stays available in every tab.

Import media

Nova Clip works entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded to a server, and your files stay on your device.

How to import

1. Click Import in the top bar. You can also click the small upload button above the Project list, click the Drop videos here box, or simply drag files from your computer onto the editor.
2. Choose one or many files. Any video or audio your browser can play works: MP4, WebM, MP3, WAV and OGG work everywhere, and MOV and MKV depend on the browser. A file that cannot be used is skipped, and a message at the bottom tells you which one.
3. Each file appears in the Project list with a small picture, its length and its size. The first video also shows in the preview.
4. Put a file on the timeline: click the + (Add to timeline) next to it, or drag it onto a track. Video goes after the last clip on V1, and audio goes onto A1.

Find a file

Type in the Search media… box above the list to find a file by name, or choose All, Video or Audio to show only that kind.

Timeline basics

The timeline is where you arrange, trim and layer your clips. It has two video tracks and one audio track, stacked from top to bottom.

The tracks

• V1 is your main video. The exported video follows the clips on V1.
• V2 sits on top of V1 in the preview. Use it for overlays, green screen and picture-in-picture.
• A1 is for music, voiceovers and other sound.

Each track has three small buttons on its left: M mutes the track, S plays only that track (solo), and the padlock locks it so nothing on it can be changed by mistake.

Move around

• Click or drag the ruler to move the playhead.
• Zoom in and Zoom out (or + and -) change how wide the clips look. Ctrl and the scroll wheel zoom around your pointer. Fit (or \) shows all your clips at once, and Shift+\ fits the selected clips.
• Shift and the scroll wheel scroll the timeline sideways. The thin strip under the timeline shows the whole project.
• Snap (on by default, key T) pulls clips to nearby clip edges, the playhead and markers. To trim an edge without snapping, hold Alt while you drag it.
• Follow makes the timeline scroll with the playhead while the video plays.

Work with clips

• Move: drag a clip to another time, or to another track.
• Select: click a clip. Hold Shift or Ctrl and click to add more clips, or drag a box around several clips in the empty space. Ctrl+A selects all and Esc clears the selection.
• Copy, paste, duplicate: Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V (pastes at the playhead) and Ctrl+D.
• Rename: double-click the name on the clip, or press N.
• Fade: drag the small handle at the start or end of a clip to fade it in or out.

The clip menu

Right-click a clip to open its menu:

To slip the content of a clip while it stays in place, hold Alt and drag the clip.

Preview and playback

The preview shows your video as it will be exported. Under it are the controls to play it and to check it.

Play and move

• Play / Pause: the big round button, or Space.
• Go to start and Go to end: the two buttons beside it, or Home and End.
• Step one frame: ← and →.
• Shuttle: L plays forward and J plays backward. Press the key again to go faster (1×, 2×, 4×), and press K to stop.
• Seek bar: drag the bar above the buttons to scrub through the video. The time on the right reads 00:00:00 / 00:00:00 (now / total).
• Speed (the drop-down on the right, 0.25× to 2×) changes how fast the preview plays. It does not change your video. To change a clip's speed, see Speed, reverse and freeze.
• The volume slider next to it sets how loud the preview is for you.

Loop a part

Press I to mark where the loop starts and O to mark where it ends. Then press P or click the loop button to turn looping on or off.

Small tools under the preview

Trim, split and delete

Trimming

Drag the left or right edge of a clip to trim it. The preview follows as you drag. Hold Shift while you drag the right edge, and the clips after it move along with it, so no gap is left or made (ripple trim).

For a precise trim, place the playhead and use the [ and ] buttons (keys [ and ]). [ cuts the start of the selected clip at the playhead, and ] cuts its end there.

Splitting

Place the playhead where you want to cut, select the clip, and click Split (or press S). The clip becomes two clips at that point.

Deleting and closing the gap

Select a clip and click Delete (or press Delete or Backspace). A gap stays where the clip was. Turn on Ripple first, and the gap closes by itself (the status line says Ripple Delete ON).

Transitions

Where two clips meet on the same track, a small + badge appears on the timeline. Click it to open Clip Transition. Choose a Type:

• None, Crossfade, Fade Black, Dip White, Flash
• Wipe Right, Wipe Left, Wipe Up, Wipe Down
• Push Right, Push Left, Zoom In, Iris

Set the Duration (0.2 to 2.0 seconds) with the slider, and click Apply. Click the badge again to change or remove the transition.

Text and titles

Click Text in the top bar (or Add Text in the Text Overlays panel). The Add Text Overlay window opens.

Fill in the window

• Text: type your words.
• Font Size and Color.
• Position: Top, Center or Bottom.
• Background: None, Dark bar or Frosted.
• Start (s) and End (s): the seconds on the timeline when the text shows. Leave End empty to keep it until the end.
• Entry Animation and Exit Animation: None, Fade, Up, Down, Left, Right, Zoom, and for entry also Type (typewriter). Set how long each takes with the two Duration sliders.

Click Add. The text appears in the Text Overlays list, and it shows in the preview from its Start to its End. To remove a text, click the ✕ next to it in the list.

Title templates

In the Text Overlays panel, click a ready style to open the window with its settings already filled in. Then type your words and click Add.

• Lower Third — a dark bar at the bottom that slides up
• Big Title — large, in the center, zooms in
• Subtitle — at the bottom, typed out letter by letter
• Kinetic — bold yellow, slides up
• Neon — cyan glow, fades in
• Meme Text — at the top on a dark bar, no animation
• Bold Caption — yellow at the bottom, slides up then fades out
• Credits — in the center, a slow fade in and out
• Minimal — small, at the top, a soft fade
• Impact — bold red, zooms in then fades out

Stickers

Click Sticker in the top bar (or press E, or click Add Sticker in the Stickers panel). The Add Sticker window opens.

1. Choose a group: Smileys, Hearts, Animals, Objects or Symbols, then click an emoji. It shows next to Selected.
2. Set the Size with the slider (20 to 200).
3. Click one of the nine squares in Position to place it (a corner, an edge or the center).
4. Set Start (s) and End (s), the seconds when it shows.
5. Choose an Animation: None, Fade, Up, Zoom, Bounce, Spin, Left or Right, and its Anim Duration.
6. Click Add. To remove a sticker, click the ✕ next to it in the Stickers list.

Auto captions and subtitles

Nova Clip can write the captions for you. It listens to the speech in your video on your own device. Nothing is uploaded, and you need no account for it.

Auto Caption

1. Put the clip you want to caption in the preview (the playhead on that clip).
2. In the Text Overlays panel, click Auto Caption.
3. The first time, the speech model downloads (about 55 MB) and is kept in your browser. A progress box shows Reading audio…, then Loading speech model…, then Listening and writing captions…. Click Cancel to stop.
4. When it finishes, your captions are on the timeline and the Caption styles window opens.

Caption styles PRO tag · free now

In the Caption styles window choose a look: Classic, Karaoke (the spoken word lights up), Pop, Bold green, Yellow punch, Dark box, Highlight box, Neon, Sunset, Word by word, One word or Minimal. Then adjust:

• Size (60% to 150%) and Words per line (1 to 6).
• Top, Middle or Bottom for where they sit.
• Fix the words: open it to correct any word the speech model got wrong.
• Save SRT saves the captions as a subtitle file. Done closes the window. You can open it again any time with the Caption styles button.

Import a subtitle file

Already have an .srt or .vtt file? Click Import SRT in the Text Overlays panel and choose it. Each line becomes a caption at its time, and you can style it in Caption styles too.

Speed, reverse and freeze

Select a clip and look at Clip Info on the right.

Speed

Under Speed click one of 0.25×, 0.5×, 0.75×, 1×, 1.5×, 2× or 4×. Slow motion is below 1× and time-lapse is above it. The clip gets longer or shorter on the timeline, and a speed badge shows on it.

Speed Ramp

A ramp changes the speed during the clip, for example fast, then slow motion at the key moment.

1. Move the playhead to a moment inside the clip and click + Add Keyframe. You can also click on the little graph.
2. Each keyframe shows a time and a speed number. Change the number (0.1 to 16) to set the speed from that moment, or click ✕ to remove it.
3. Add more keyframes for more changes. A RAMP badge shows on the clip.

Freeze Frame and Reverse

Freeze Frame holds the picture at the playhead for the whole clip (it then says Frozen @ and the time). Click it again to unfreeze. Reverse plays the clip backwards. Click it again to return to normal.

Opacity, blend and picture-in-picture

These settings are in Clip Info, and they matter most for a clip on V2 that sits on top of another.

• Opacity: from 100% (solid) down to 0% (invisible).
• Blend Mode: how the clip mixes with the one below it. Choose from Normal, Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Soft Light, Hard Light, Lighten, Darken, Difference, Exclusion, Color Dodge, Color Burn, Luminosity, Hue, Saturation and Color.
• Note: type a reminder for yourself. A small mark shows on the clip.

PiP Transform (picture-in-picture)

For a clip on V2, the PiP Transform box makes it a small video on top of the main one. Click Full, ↘ BR, ↙ BL, ↗ TR or ↖ TL to place it full screen or in a corner (bottom-right, bottom-left, top-right, top-left). Then fine-tune with Size, X and Y.

Pan and zoom, transform

Pan & Zoom (Ken Burns)

This slowly zooms and moves across a clip, so a still-looking shot has life. Select the clip and find Pan & Zoom in the inspector.

1. Switch Enable on.
2. Under Start Frame set the Scale (how close), Pan X and Pan Y (sideways and up-down) where the clip begins.
3. Under End Frame set the same three for where it ends. The picture moves smoothly from one to the other.
4. ⇄ Swap swaps the start and the end. ↺ Reset goes back to the default (a slow zoom out from 1.3×).

Transform

In the Transform box, Scale (0.1× to 3×) makes the picture bigger or smaller and Rotation (−180° to 180°) turns it. This is useful to fill a tall frame with a wide clip.

Canvas size

The canvas is the shape of your finished video. Click the canvas button in the top bar (it shows Auto at first) to open Output Canvas.

The export keeps this shape. A tall project exported at 1080p comes out 1080 wide and 1920 high. If a clip does not fill the frame, raise Scale in Transform, or try Auto-Reframe.

Markers and beats

A marker is a flag on the ruler that you can jump to. Use it to remember a moment, or to line cuts up with the music.

• Click Marker (or press M) to drop a marker at the playhead. Alt and click on the ruler drops one at that spot.
• Markers are listed in the Markers bar at the bottom. Click a time to jump there, click the name to type a label, and click × to delete it.
• Shift+← and Shift+→ jump to the previous and next marker.

Detect beats

Select a music or video clip and click BEAT (or press B). Nova Clip finds the beats and places a marker on each one. Turn on Snap and your cuts will land right on the beat. If it says No beats detected, try a clip with a stronger rhythm.

Silence, scenes and filler words

Three buttons in Clip Info do the boring cutting for you. All of them run on your device.

Remove Silence

Select a clip and click Remove Silence. Nova Clip scans the sound and cuts out quiet gaps (longer than about 0.3 seconds), leaving a tiny bit around the speech so it still sounds natural. The status line tells you how much it removed, for example Removed 4.2s of silence. Use Undo if you do not like it. There is also a one-step page: Silence remover.

Split at Scenes

For a video clip, click Split at Scenes. Nova Clip looks for hard cuts in the picture and splits the clip at each one. It checks the picture every 0.4 seconds, so it finds clear cuts, not every small change. The status line says how many it found, for example Split at 3 detected scene changes.

Remove Filler Words

Click Remove Filler Words to listen to the speech and cut out sounds such as um, uh, erm and hmm. The first time it downloads the speech model (about 55 MB). A progress box shows what it is doing, and Cancel stops it. This works for English.

Effects and preset looks

Open the Effect Controls tab in the inspector. Under Video Effects drag a slider to change the picture:

Preset Looks

Below the sliders, click a ready look to set them all at once: Cinema, Vintage, Vivid, B&W, Warm, Cool, Dreamy, Neon, Film and Bloom. Then move the sliders to adjust it. Reset returns everything to normal.

Color grading

Open the Lumetri tab in the inspector for professional color tools. It has four tabs: Basic, Wheels, Curves and LUTs.

Basic

• AUTO (or Shift+A) looks at the current frame and sets the exposure, white balance and contrast for you. RESET (or Shift+R) puts everything back.
• White Balance: Temperature (cool to warm) and Tint (green to magenta).
• Tone: Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks.

Wheels

Three color wheels for Lift (the dark parts), Gamma (the middle) and Gain (the bright parts). Drag the dot on a wheel toward a color to tint that part of the picture, and use the small slider under it to make it lighter or darker.

Curves

Choose Luma (light), R, G or B. Click the line to add a point, drag a point to bend the curve, and double-click a point to remove it. Reset resets the channel you are on and All resets every channel.

LUTs

A LUT is a ready color look. Under Quick Looks click Cinematic, Kodak 5219, Teal & Orange, Matte, Bleach, Night Blue, Warm Sunset, Flat or Reset. Do you have a .cube file? Click Browse .cube to load it, then use the Intensity slider to make it weaker or stronger and the ✕ to remove it.

Per-clip color

In Clip Info each clip also has its own Clip Grade and Color Wheels (Shadows, Midtones, Highlights, each with a Reset). To use the same grade on another clip, right-click the first clip and choose Copy Grade (Alt+C), then right-click the other and choose Paste Grade (Alt+V).

Color match

Color Match copies the look of one shot onto another in one click.

1. Open the Lumetri tab, and move the playhead to a frame with the look you want to copy.
2. Click SAMPLE REF (or press Shift+C) to save that frame as the reference.
3. Move the playhead to the clip you want to change.
4. Click MATCH COLOR (or press Shift+M). The grade is applied at once. The button stays grey until you have sampled a reference.

Chroma key (green screen)

Chroma key removes a plain color behind a person so you can put another picture behind them. Put the clip with the green (or blue) screen on V2, above your background clip on V1. Select it and find Chroma Key in Clip Info.

1. Switch the Chroma Key toggle on.
2. Next to Key Color click the color of your screen: green, blue, red, white or black. For any other color, click the color box and pick it.
3. Move Tolerance up until the background disappears, but not so far that the person starts to vanish.
4. Use Softness to blend the edges.

Background removal

This removes the background behind a person without a green screen. It runs on your device, and it works on video clips.

1. Select the video clip and switch Background Removal on in Clip Info. The first time, about 10 MB downloads (the on-device runtime and a small cut-out model) and is kept in your browser.
2. Under Background choose what replaces the old one: Transparent (you see the clip below), Solid Color (pick the Color), or Blur (set the Blur Amount).

Auto-Reframe

Do you have a wide video but want a tall one for Reels or Shorts? Auto-Reframe follows the face and crops the clip so it fills the frame, instead of leaving black bars.

1. Set the canvas size to a tall shape such as 1080×1920.
2. Select the video clip on V1 and switch Auto-Reframe on in Clip Info. The first time, about 10 MB downloads (the on-device runtime and a small face-detection model) and is kept in your browser.

It runs on your device. It works for clips on the main track (V1), and it is skipped while Chroma Key or Background Removal is on for that clip.

Volume, fades and EQ

Select a clip, then find these in Clip Info:

• Volume: a slider from 0% (silent) up to 200%.
• Normalize makes this clip's loudest point as loud as it can safely be. Normalize All does the same for every audio clip.
• EQ: switch it on to shape the sound with five bands (80, 250, 1k, 4k and 12k), each from −12 to +12. Reset flattens them.

For a fade, drag the small handle at the start or the end of a clip on the timeline. Use the M button on a track to mute it, or S to hear only that track. VU under the preview shows the sound level, so you can keep it out of the red.

Music and sound effects

Background Music

In the Background Music panel click Import Audio and choose a song from your computer. The song's name shows with a ✕ to remove it. Then:

• Set the Volume so it does not cover speech.
• Loop repeats the song if it is shorter than your video.
• Fade In and Fade Out (2 seconds each) soften the start and the end.

You can also put any audio file on track A1 with the + button and edit it like a clip.

Media Browser (free music and sound effects)

1. Click the Media Browser tab in the media panel.
2. Choose Music or Sound Effects, and type what you want in the search box (for example calm piano or applause).
3. Press the small ▶ to listen. Click the + to add the track to your project.

Each result shows who made it and its license (CC licenses from Openverse and Archive.org). It needs an internet connection. Read the license if you will publish the video, because some ask you to credit the artist.

Noise removal

The Audio — Noise Removal panel cleans up a voice that was recorded with hum, hiss or rumble.

1. Switch Enable on. The word next to it changes from Off.
2. Strength sets how much it works. Hi-Pass removes low hum and rumble (20 to 500 Hz). Lo-Pass removes high hiss and breath (2 to 20 kHz).

Start with the defaults, then play the clip while you move the sliders until it sounds clean.

Voice recording and AI voiceover

Record your voice (REC)

1. Move the playhead to where the voice should start.
2. Click REC under the preview (or press Ctrl+Shift+R). Allow the microphone when your browser asks. A timer shows while you record.
3. Click REC again to stop. The recording is added to the timeline at the playhead, named Voiceover 1, Voiceover 2 and so on.

AI voiceover (AI VO)

1. Click AI VO under the preview.
2. Type up to 500 characters of what the voice should say.
3. Click Generate. The first time, a voice model (about 50 MB) downloads and is kept in your browser. The voice is made on your device and nothing is uploaded.
4. The result is added at the playhead, named AI Voiceover 1 and so on.

Both kinds of voice are normal audio clips, so you can trim them, change their volume and add noise removal.

Video templates

About 500 ready-made animated videos: festival and birthday wishes, business promos and offers, Reels and YouTube intros, outros and titles, slideshows and motivation. Open them from 🎬 Video templates (500+) in the Media panel, or from the empty preview.

1. Pick a group and a topic, or search. The first 12 are free; the rest carry a PRO tag (free for now).
2. Tap a template. Type your own words, add photos or videos in the slots, and choose a music loop (or none).
3. Choose the Size: Full HD or Smaller, faster, then tap Make video. It is made in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
4. Tap Add to the timeline to keep editing, or Save video to download it. Change something takes you back to edit it again.

One-step tools and Nova Animate

Some jobs are so common that they have their own simple page. Each one opens the editor with only what that job needs: you choose your video, and it does the work.

Draw a cartoon with Nova Animate

Click Animate in the top bar to open Nova Animate, the cartoon studio. When you finish there and choose to edit in Nova Clip, your animation arrives on the timeline, ready for music, text and effects. See the Nova Animate manual.

Save, load and recover

Auto-save

While you edit, Nova Clip saves your project in the browser every 30 seconds, and a small Auto-saved note with the time shows next to the clock under the preview. If the page closes or the computer restarts, open Nova Clip again: a banner says Unsaved session found and offers Restore or Discard.

Save a project file

Click Save in the top bar. It downloads a small file named like My video.nova.json. Keep it to continue later, or move it to another computer.

Load a project

Click Load and choose the .nova.json file. Your edits come back: clips, text, stickers, markers, effects and tracks.

Export your video

Click Export in the top bar. The Export Video window opens. Nova Clip makes the whole timeline into one .mp4 (H.264) or .webm (VP9) file on your computer. No upload is needed.

The settings

The Summary on the right shows the size in pixels, the length, the estimated file size and where it will be saved, so you know before you start.

Make the file

1. Choose a preset or your own settings.
2. Click Export & Download. If you are not signed in, a window asks you to Continue with Google, or to sign in with email. It is free, and your project stays open.
3. Watch the progress bar. Keep the page open until it finishes. Cancel Export stops it.
4. The file goes to your Downloads folder.

Good to know

• Your edits are kept: trims, splits, cuts and several clips on the main track are exported as they play. The video ends where the last clip on V1 ends.
• Fast export: in Chrome and Edge, frames are made directly and the export is often several times faster than the video itself. The badge in the window says Fast export. Projects with speed changes, reverse or freeze frames, and some other browsers, export in real time.
• Big files: when the file will be larger than about 400 MB, Chrome and Edge ask where to save it first, and write it straight to disk so long videos do not run out of memory. On a phone, or in another browser that supports it, a file of about 50 MB or more is written to the browser's private storage as it is made (the Summary says Downloads (via disk)), so keep some free space. If there is not enough, Nova Clip tells you before it starts.
• MP4 or WebM: if your browser cannot make MP4, Nova Clip makes WebM instead, and the window tells you.
• A short question: after some exports a small box asks How did your export go? It is anonymous, and you can close it.

Want to see just one picture? Click Frame (F) under the preview to save the current frame as a PNG.

Keyboard shortcuts

Press ? in the editor to see this list on screen. On a Mac, use Cmd in place of Ctrl.

Playing

Editing

Markers

Color

View and tools

See the same list on the Keyboard Shortcuts page.

Common problems

Still stuck? Visit the Help Center, or send us a message with your browser and what you were trying to do.