Now you have written your script and you have gathered image ideas. But how do you transfer these ideas to actual assets you can use in your edit? Where do you find images, illustrations, videos or animations? Before we share some platforms you can use, let’s talk briefly about a few technical aspects you should consider.

1. Resolution and Aspect Ratio:

All of your assets should – if possible – fit your video resolution. Your video might be exported in FullHD (1920 pixels wide and 1080 pixels high), so your assets should at least fit this resolution or be even higher. If something has a smaller resolution than your video, it will be scaled up and you will lose quality. Images might look pixelated and blurry. If the difference is small, it might not be strongly visible, but the bigger the difference, the lower the quality.

Your assets should also fit your desired aspect ratio. In video there are different aspect ratios. They have their origin in different screen sizes the video is produced for. If the video has a different aspect ratio than the video player, black bars occur on the edges to make it fit to the screen. Our video abstract will be in 16:9 so try to stick to this for all of your assets (if possible). When an asset has a different ratio, we would recommend to scale it up, if the quality allows this. If an asset is a vertical video or has a very different aspect ratio and scaling is not an option, you can use effects like “Blanking Fill” in Davinci Resolve to fill the gaps.

2. Copyright

Copyright is very complicated and we could make a whole course just about this topic alone. Generally: only use assets for which you have all necessary rights. Just because an image can be found on google, you are not automatically allowed to use it in your video (even if it is used for educational purposes!). When using assets you have licensed from a stock library, you can be relatively certain that you are good to go.

3. Stock Libraries

Often we are not able to create every picture or video on our own. Stock libraries are a great resource to get additional assets you can’t produce yourself. Some stock libraries offer their assets for free like Pixabay or Pexels. Others offer high quality and big coverage of styles and topics, but at a certain price, like Adobe Stock or iStockFootage.

4. Music and Sound

Music and Sound can help to establish a certain mood or ambience. But they are not a must-have, a video abstract can work without it. We would recommend preparing a version of your abstract that has no music in it. This way you are prepared if a magazine wants your video without music. Free Music and Sound can also be found on Pixabay. But always double-check the license / terms of use.