Tiktok Trends, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts: the digital video landscape today is so imposing that it is almost impossible to miss the creation of short videos in a communication strategy. Spoiler alert: most of the videos published are not created by great directors or editors who have undergone dedicated training. This means that with a little motivation, curiosity and patience, anyone is able to make a video montage simply with applications such as Canva or one of the applications developed by Adobe: Adobe Express !

Adobe Express: Canva's little brother?

Very popular with communicators, whether they are marketing department workers or community managers, the Canva application was launched in 2013. A design tool for digital visual communication accessible to everyone, Canva allows you to design and publish multimedia content without even having graphic design or illustration skills.

For more than ten years, Canva has been overshadowing the Adobe suite, which alone concentrates almost all the publishing software for visual communication. It's not for nothing that, as if by magic, a competitor signed Adobe appeared shortly after the arrival of the famous Canva...

First developed as Adobe Post in 2015, then Adobe Spark in 2016, the Adobe Express app is released in its latest version in 2021. A complementary tool to the Adobe suite, Adobe Express allows you to create visual, still or animated content mainly intended for social networks, websites, digital posters or newsletters. While most of the features are identical to those present on Canva, the difference between the two apps is in the collaborative function. Canva offers a more advanced suite of collaboration tools, allowing teams to design content simultaneously.

While Adobe Express is quite user-friendly and also allows content to be saved on a cloud, the tool requires a longer adaptation time for the user than on Canva due to a greater number of features.

Is it possible to create an animation or a short brand content video on Adobe Express?

Yes, you can. Phew, you're saved: no need to read dozens of tutorials to learn how to handle Première Pro in a hurry! On the other hand, be careful: it is a very simplified editing tool that allows you to create versions of videos that require little or no editing.

On Adobe Express, a video is exported to MP4 and can reach 4K quality, depending on the resolution of the original video imported into the app. In terms of format, it is possible to choose the desired size in a dedicated column by ticking the destination platform (Instagram Reel, Tiktok, Youtube thumbnail, etc.).

Once the template has been created, you can import elements from your computer (video, images, logo, typography) or use the database integrated with Adobe Express.

"Ready-made" illustration videos, symbols, and text animations are just a click away for all users who have a paid license.

*Adobe Express interface for video editing*
Each time you **save a video template**, you can then start from that base to edit it. This can be a time-saver if you plan to create multiple similar video or animation templates.
How to edit a Reel on Adobe Express?
Choosing a portrait format
To begin with, if you need to create a Reel dedicated to Instagram, you need to choose the format of your template when creating your document.
💡 The dimension **of the Reels is 9:16** in a portrait format and a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. **A Reel can last up to 15 minutes and have a maximum size of 4GB.**
On Adobe Express, we discovered that the choice of format was 100% turnkey. In fact, all you have to do is check the **"Instagram Reel"** format and your created document will automatically respect the technical constraints related to this content.

Upload your video or "source" content

When you already have material (video clip, video or photos) shot or captured, you can import this content into your template. Otherwise, there is a "Media" category where you can find a database of royalty-free videos to use to illustrate your points.

Make a selection of the images you want to edit and drag them directly onto your Adobe Express home screen.

The video is integrated directly into the right format. If you have several videos to embed, you can add them one by one to your "timeline", which is located at the bottom of the screen. This is the bar that shows the entire timeline of your video.

Trim your video

Once you've uploaded your video or dailies (snippets of video that you want to highlight in your edit), you can "cut" them into several pieces of video, "adjust" the passages and place them in the order you want.

This sorting step is very simplified on Adobe Express and allows you to organize your dailies directly via the tool. As soon as you add a video, remember to create a scene via the playbar. Be careful: if your videos are too heavy or too long, you will need to do a first sorting of your content before editing.

Create a beautiful sequence of videos

Once you've organized your timeline, you can then create sequences by adding transitions between two scenes , for example. Adding transitions helps make a video more dynamic, which is appreciated on Instagram.

Add text, stickers, or graphics to your video

In Adobe Express, you can create areas with text frames, color highlights, or add shapes.

Just like on a still template in Photoshop, you just have to create "layers" inside above the moment in the video where you want your graphic element or text to appear.

Sizes, colors and opacity can be adjusted directly from the left-hand column, in the "Elements" section.

A small advantage of Adobe Express is the ability to add animated video templates that you can then modify according to your preferences. To add an animation, go to the "Templates" section in the left column of the work screen.

Adding subtitles: it's possible (but it's not the best option)

Once you've finalized your flows and skins, you can also add text at certain points in your video.
This can be quite simple if you have few texts to integrate. If you need to subtitle an interview, this is a bit more complex, because moving the "text" layers is not at all obvious.

💡 You can easily create a start and/or end credits with animated text to introduce your video.

Conclusion: a mixed verdict!

The +

Using Adobe Express is perfect for editing a short and simple video from your computer. The basic functions allow you to organize your video, trim it while adding transitions, but also blocks of charted text, logos and animations. With Adobe Express, you'll be able to easily mount your Reel in less than 30 minutes!

The-

In addition to being not very advantageous when it comes to adding subtitles, as it is tedious and approximate, Adobe Express brings few additional assets compared to Instagram. Indeed, Instagram (like Tiktok) also allows you to edit videos in a simple and fast way. Organizing videos, adding transitions, text, emojis, and stickers are functions offered in the Instagram Reels publishing tool.

Adobe Express is not the optimal solution for video editing

Of course, Adobe Express allows you to create a simple video in the colors of your graphic charter with animated elements, in just a few clicks.

But, when it comes to editing a video with many rushes, nothing beats a real editing software like Première Pro or Final Cut for a professional rendering. With a few tricks and a little time spent on the software, you will be able to create your Reel or TikTok in less than 2 hours, top time! If you want to render very quickly, Instagram or TikTok apps provide simplified editing tools that can do the job. Other (partly paid) apps such as Capcut or Inshot allow you to do simple video editing while adding text.

If you want to work with subtitles, Adobe Premiere offers an option to create automatically generated subtitles. Apps dedicated to creating subtitles have also developed in recent years, because it's a fact: adding subtitles to videos on social networks has become a standard.

In short, while Adobe Express is a 100% turnkey tool that competes very well with Canva, this type of tool is not the most suitable editing option to make an Instagram Reel with a professional result.

We tested it for you: editing a brand content video with Adobe Express