[Sterix]

So I've just created my first "lyric video" using some free online software called Kapwing. It was nice and easy to use (and free), at least once I ditched using it on Firefox and switched over to Chrome to stop it automatically playing multiplle near-simultaneous playbacks of the audio every 60 seconds (which, when you're trying to time in the lyrics is a bit of a Jeremy Hunt!). The main downside (given it's free) is the lack of being able to use more than one text format. It's one font, once colour, one style all the way through. Same with the background...

Anyone know of anything out there similar that may offer a little more flexibilty whilst still being easy for someone like me? Something that is good with changing text (even if it's only the colour) and, allows you to manipulate the background (like adding pictures at different points) preferably. Maybe something that does some nice "transitions". Free preferably, or at least "cheap" (as this is not something that I'm looking to do a lot of, at least at the moment, I don't want to really part with much of my hard-earned cash).

[CaliaMoko]

Just to give you a bump, I'll say I don't know of anything like that. I just started making videos myself, venturing into new territory. I've been wanting to for a long time, but I had the idea fixed in my head that the only alternative was to record the videos myself (or have someone do it for me), plan out the whole thing, make storyboards (maybe), and edit it all together. I recently decided I could use free video clips from online resources like Pixabay, so I've now done three.

What I use is not online and it isn't free. I'm using adobe premiere elements 15, which is now obsolete; the current version is 2020 instead of 15.

Anyway, I'm sure it can be used to make lyric videos but, as I said, it isn't free. I just looked and the current version is about $100 USD. I know it can do a lot more than I've figured out so far. I can barely use it, but I hope to get better.

Don't know if that's helpful to you at all or not, so, for whatever it's worth, that's what I know.

Vicki

[Sterix]

I've found a half-decent one that you can use for free called YouTube Movie Maker. It's simple (and actually quite intuitive with the lyrics I found). There are a couple of annoyances with it (you can select lots of different moving backgrounds but you can't seem to change the actual background colour). Not sure what the cost of premium is but for my needs at the moment it'll do okay.

[PeteS]

I've made 3 now.  But I've learnt along the way.

The first 2 were stills or animated gifs pulled together as a video in iMovie, movement supplied with the Ken Burns feature and lyrics added using the titles facility.  However that is limiting and the pictures were not all licensed for use so I couldn't use the resulting video as I might want to.

So I set off on a hunt for a better option.  I looked at a lot of free lyric video systems and didn't fancy any of them. 

So on my last one I took a different approach.

I used iMovie to produce the video using clips and stills from free online sites.  Sites such as Pexels, Pixabay, Videezy and Unsplash have completely free video clips and photos that you can use, they just want you to credit the artist, so In just added a list of credits at the end.

So having found a group of clips that suited what I wanted to do, I pulled them together in iMovie, edited the timing to how I wanted and started adding lyrics.  I didn't want all the lyrics this time and I wanted to animate the words.  So I selected occasional words that I wanted to draw out, animated them in Powerpoint on a lime green background, exported the slide or group as a high quality movie and overlaid it on my video using the green screen feature.

Once I got the hang of it, i got much quicker at it and depending on how precise you need to be it doesn't have to be that hard.

An easy option can be to have lyrics on a green PowerPoint slide with a build, export it and you're away.

I think the result is really good.   I'd post the link to the video but it's a song I want to post for feedback in future weeks so I probably can't at the moment.

[Sterix]

For my needs I'm finding the YouTube Video Maker fine - with the exception of the 5 minute limit witht the free version. I'm getting to know the features better now (I'm an impatient learner at my age so I don't want anything too complex) and I've used a couple more (credits and transitions) in my last one (not for public consumption yet).