Imagine using CapCut in 2025. Like bro, you’re literally nerfing yourself. Well, I don’t blame you because it was so hard to switch. But luckily I’m here with the full beginner’s guide on how to use Alight Motion. And after you’ve learned and understand how to use it, you could watch other of my tutorials to learn how to make shake scales or many more effects on Alight Motion. I even give presets for free in the video. And also, I recently launched my channel membership. So join to have exclusive perks and more. So let’s get to the video.
Now here’s what the first interface looks like. Firstly, you’ll see tutorials. If you ever get lost or want to try new things out, you can learn from there. Then you’ll see the project. This is where your edits are saved automatically. And next is templates, basically where presets are saved automatically. Now to start a new project, just click that plus icon. Then you can pick your aspect ratio or make a custom one. Then you’ll set the resolution and frame rate to any one of your choice, and background color. Most editors start off with black. Don’t forget to rename your project, then hit create project.
Working with Text, Shapes & Basic Editing Tools
Now we are in our project. If you look below, you’ll see another plus icon. Click it and you’ll get media selection, shapes, audio, elements, and templates. On the other hand, we got tools like vector drawings, texts, and freehand draw. Now to add text, type texts. Type any text you want to write. At the top, you’ll see the alignment to either make it align left, right, or middle. Next you’ll see the fonts, and then you’ll see the text size. You’ll also see the option for colors, so just choose any one you want. Now going to shapes, just add a shape. Click on it. Here you’ll see lots of tools, let’s talk about all.
Start with these three icons. The first icon lets you cut and delete any layer to the left of your clip like this. The second icon lets you cut and delete clips on the right side. The middle one just splits without deleting anything. Then next we’ve got the speed control icon to slow down or speed up your clip like this. Next, the color and gradient option. You can change the color of your shape or make a gradient background. Then come to move and transform. On your right side with this here, you’ll see a big space to move your layers like this. Second is rotates them, third zooms in or out, and fourth one is skew.
Okay, I have added another shape here just to show you more stuff. Next with this option, you can add stroke border and shadow. Adjust opacity, size, and angles however you like. Then comes blending and opacity settings, which every editing app has. After that, you’ve got shape adjustments. You can change your shape’s dimensions and numbers. And right below, you’ll see presets. These are saved settings you can import from others.
Adding Effects, Keyframes & Workflow Shortcuts
Now the best part: effects. This is where your edit starts looking good. As you can see, effects are neatly organized in columns: color-related effects, 3D effects, move and transform effects, animation effects. So if you don’t know which effect for what, just check the category and you’ll find out. I have a playlist of effect tutorials, check them out. Okay, let’s add a simple motion effect on this shape, then I will show how to add keyframes on it. To remove an effect, just swipe left or right. And if you want to temporarily hide it, tap the eye icon.
Now for keyframes, go to move and transform. Unlike CapCut, this gives you way more control. You can add multiple keyframes on one clip. To move this shape, just add keyframes like this. Now if you want to make it spin, go to rotate, add a keyframe at the start and one at the end. Dial down the rotation value. And as you can see, I added motion blur because without it, the animation looks off. You can even add graphs to make your motion smoother. And if you want to make the animation shorter, you don’t need to delete and add keyframes again. Just drag them closer or use this icon—which you will find under the speed section—to move both your clip and keyframes at once.
All right, let’s talk about some quick features that can save your workflow time. Say you’ve got two layers, one short and one long, and you want to move the short one to the end. In this case, tap this icon and it’ll take it right to where your playhead is. If you want to stretch a clip’s length, tap this icon. Another shortcut: these arrows let you move your action line to the last frame or the first frame, making sure there’s no gap between layers. Next is for beat markers. Since there’s no auto-beat detection in Alight Motion, you got to mark them manually by tapping the timeline like this.
Last thing: layer management. If your project’s lagging, hide layers with the eye icon. Long press to select multiple layers and merge them by tapping the top right icon. You can also mask layers with these two. And that’s pretty much the basics on Alight Motion. If you want to learn how to make shakes or effects, check out other of my videos. And trust me, I make them very easy to understand. Until next time!
