Please Help...Editing a premade video template

[JustLearning00]

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone in advance for any assistance or advice that will be given and say this may be a question that has been asked before in the forum but I didn't see it so bear with me. I'm trying to simply edit the text that are on pre-made videos. These pre-made video templates have general text which I would like to personalize. Which video editor can I use to get the effect I want.

I've attached a screen shot of the video and the bottom portion with that generalized text is what I would like to get rid of or edit but keep in mind that the text never moves through the video and stays at the bottom so once again I would love to know how to delete that text or edit it and place my new text on there. Once again, thanks so much

[poisondeathray]

What format is your template in?

Usually templates are specific for a certain program. For example they might be a template for FCPX, or Sony Vegas, Premiere Pro, After Effects, etc.... That would mean you could edit it directly in the application

Otherwise, you can just make it from scratch pretty easily and use it as an overlay in your video editor. It's know as a "lower third". There are many step by step tutorials on youtube and similar sites that can guide you - just search for "lower third" and whatever video editor you're using

If you still need help ,provide the information on the template and what video editor you are using

[JustLearning00]

Thanks for your response. Originally it was in mp4 format but I changed it to FLV format because I have Explaindio video program which only takes FLV format and thought I could edit it with that software but the entire 30 second video just shows as one slide unfortunately.

[manono]

You're taking a video you got from somewhere and want to replace something already encoded into the video with something else? And by editing what's already there? You can forget that. Take the original video (don't further ruin it by converting it to something else) and replace the bottom part with something you created yourself.

It's as pdr said, "Otherwise, you can just make it from scratch pretty easily and use it as an overlay in your video editor."

[poisondeathray]

Ok, MP4 or FLV are not "templates" in the sense of video editing templates. Video editing templates are project files where you can just change the text very easily. You would have to just make it from scratch

Easiest way would probably be in an image editor like photoshop or free ones like gimp or paint.net then use it as an overlay . I haven't heard of Explaindio, but you probably need a better video editor. Even a free one like aviutl would work

[JustLearning00]

Huge thank you to both of you (manono and poisondeathray) I'm going to jump into the deep end and hopefully swim to success.
Sounds like it's not too difficult.

[Cornucopia]

Setting aside the unfortunate choice of video editing app (and subsequent unfortunate import file format choice), the reason those templates work in those various apps mentioned by pdr is because they are composed of an edit session/layout/sequence metafile (aka an EDL or edit decision list, describing the essence elements referenced, along with their spatial & temporal relationships and settings).
Then, either internally or externally, you have the actual essence data in either audio/video/picture/vector/text format(s) and these are arranged in layers when opened in those apps.
So for most titling templates in most of those apps, you would have a separate text layer (usually actually text->vector plus surrounding vector/picture), overlaid on top of background video. To "fill in" the template, you load the template into the editor, select the "title" layer, and edit the text and save.

If you were given an MP4 format, it could be one of 3 things:
A. A multi-layer MP4 with separate foreground text, middleground vector/picture, and background video layers.
B. A multi-layer MP4 with a foreground picture layer (which has had the text & vectors rendered, or "baked-in" into the picture) and a background video layer.
C. A single layer MP4 with all the elements blended together & baked-in (aka "hard-coded") as a single monolithic video element.

If it's A, you can edit and/or replace the text, and probably edit/replace the middleground vector/picture layer as well. Then save and continue on.
If it's B, you can only create a whole new picture graphic (possibly faked with overlays, or recreated from scratch by example, in Photoshop, etc), but you cannot directly edit the text anymore (because it is no longer actual text, but a picture of text). Harder to work with.
If it's C, you can only overlay a brand new, possibly similar-looking original/recreated graphic to cover over the existing "text" portion of the video element (it will have to be mainly opaque also). MUCH harder to work with.

Scott

[poisondeathray]

Were you asking just to replace the text, but keep the video (the guy with the hardhat) ? I think I might have been confused by "video editing template" in your title

To be clear - you can't edit the existing video very cleanly. It's not a video editing template , which has individual layers that you can access. What you have is a video which has been "flattened" to 1 layer. Thus the text, all the attributes are not accessible.

What was being suggested is that you create the overlay and put that onto your own video, not the video that you already have that has the text and the guy in it as in your screenshot

But if you wanted to keep that exact same video, you could overlay something on top of the lower third to "cover" it up. It would no longer have the partial transparency (notice how the guy's arm is visible "underneath" the lower third ?) . You would cover it up with something opaque

[JustLearning00]

Yes, sorry as I am learning I was probably a bit confusing. I definitely want to keep the video as is..I only want to edit, mask, and/or remove the text and replace with new text in the lower third section of the video.

Cornucopia, thank you as well and I think I'm dealing with option A or B so I'll try some of your suggestions.

[manono]

...I think I'm dealing with option A or B...

Hehe, and I think you're dealing with Option C.