ExpoCut Blog

Guides from inside
the render engine.

Deep dives on the ExpoCut template format, the on-device render pipeline, AI-driven video automation, and how to get the most out of mobile video editing.

Motion & KeyframesGuide

Track Mattes & After-Effects-Style Compositing on Your Phone

Go beyond basic layers: use alpha and luma track mattes to reveal footage through a shape or text, mix layers with blend modes, and drop an adjustment layer to grade everything below at once — real motion-graphics compositing, on a phone.

June 29, 20266 min readRead article →
Effects & FiltersGuide

Add Animated Stickers & Lottie Overlays to a Video

Drop animated overlays on your video on your phone: ready-made confetti, hearts, stars and streamers for personality, plus full Lottie support — paste Lottie JSON or pick a .json/.lottie file for crisp vector animations that scale to any size.

June 29, 20264 min readRead article →
Motion & KeyframesGuide

How to Reverse & Freeze-Frame a Video (Time Remap)

Play a clip backwards or freeze a single frame on your phone with Time Remap. Map playhead time to source frame with keyframes: hold a source value to freeze, run it in reverse to rewind, and stack the two for boomerang loops and record-scratch intros.

June 29, 20266 min readRead article →
Templates & BrandGuide

Import After Effects & CapCut Templates (.mogrt) on Mobile

Bring projects and templates from other editors into ExpoCut on your phone. Import After Effects .mogrt motion graphics, Lottie animations, and FCPXML timelines, then edit them natively — reuse work from desktop tools without rebuilding it.

June 29, 20265 min readRead article →
Color GradingGuide

How to Use & Import LUTs (.cube) on Your Phone

Use professional LUTs in your video on your phone — apply built-in cinematic looks, dial the intensity, and import your own .cube LUT files for a custom or studio-matched grade. The fast path to a consistent, film-grade color look.

June 29, 20265 min readRead article →
Getting StartedGuide

How to Make a YouTube Short (Step by Step)

Make a YouTube Short on your phone — 9:16 vertical, under 60 seconds, with a hook that survives the swipe, clear value, captions, and a clean loop. A complete editing walkthrough in ExpoCut from project to export.

June 29, 20265 min readRead article →
Getting StartedGuide

How to Make an Instagram Reel (Start to Post)

Make a scroll-stopping Instagram Reel on your phone — the right 9:16 size, a 3-second hook, beat-matched cuts, a clean filter, captions, and the export settings that look best in the feed. A complete walkthrough using ExpoCut.

June 29, 20266 min readRead article →
Getting StartedGuide

How to Make a TikTok Video (That People Actually Watch)

Make a TikTok on your phone that holds attention — vertical 9:16, an instant hook, fast punchy cuts, on-screen captions, and a tight loop. A full editing walkthrough in ExpoCut, from blank project to export.

June 29, 20266 min readRead article →
AI & AutomationGuide

How to Edit Video to the Beat (Cut Your Clips to the Music)

Sync your cuts to the music on your phone. Read the beat straight from the audio waveform, park the playhead on each beat, and Split — the single biggest upgrade for music-driven video. Isolate the drums with stem separation for an even clearer beat to cut to.

June 29, 20265 min readRead article →
Templates & BrandGuide

How to Make an App Promo Video with Device Mockups

Wrap your screen recording in a clean phone frame and build a polished app-promo video on your phone. Use ExpoCut's device mockups and the Phone Mockup Reveal effect for App Store previews, feature highlights and launch teasers.

June 29, 20265 min readRead article →
AI & AutomationGuide

How to Clean Up Video Audio (Isolate, EQ & Loudness)

Make your video sound as good as it looks. Isolate a clean voice out of noise with stem separation, shape it with EQ and dynamics, even out loudness, and balance music under your voice so nothing fights for attention.

June 29, 20266 min readRead article →
Color GradingGuide

Import a DaVinci .cdl Color Grade on Your Phone

Bring a professional ASC CDL grade from DaVinci Resolve, Premiere or Final Cut onto your phone. ExpoCut reads .cdl / .ccc Color Decision Lists, detects the format, and wraps your footage in the exact slope/offset/power/saturation a colorist set on the desktop.

June 29, 20265 min readRead article →
AI & AutomationGuide

How to Add Captions & Subtitles to a Video (Automatically)

Add captions to any video on your phone — auto-transcribed on-device, no typing. Generate subtitles from speech, fix the wording, style them for readability, and burn them in. Works offline; your audio never leaves the phone.

June 29, 20266 min readRead article →
Text & TypographyGuide

Video-in-Text: How to Put Footage Inside Your Letters

Create the trendy 'video inside text' effect on your phone — footage playing through big bold letters. ExpoCut fills your text glyphs with any video or image, so a single word becomes a window into your clip. Great for intros and titles.

June 28, 20265 min readRead article →
Widgets & DataGuide

Video Data Widgets: Scoreboards, Polls, QR Codes & More

Add live data overlays to your video on your phone — scoreboard, poll, stat bar, quote, follower count, like-burst, QR code, weather, news ticker and more. ExpoCut ships 22 configurable widgets that drop on the canvas as real layers.

June 28, 20266 min readRead article →
Templates & BrandGuide

How to Use Templates & Reels (Make a Video in Minutes)

Skip the blank timeline. Start from a bundled Template or Reel on your phone, fill its slots with your own clips and text, recolor it to your brand, and export. The fastest way to a finished, good-looking video in ExpoCut.

June 28, 20265 min readRead article →
AI & AutomationGuide

Text-to-Speech Voiceover on Your Phone (No Mic Needed)

Turn a script into a natural voiceover on your phone — pick a voice by accent and gender, type your lines, and ExpoCut generates the narration on-device. No microphone, no recording, and your script never leaves the phone.

June 28, 20265 min readRead article →
Shapes & MasksGuide

How to Make a Split-Screen & Collage Video on Phone

Put two or more videos on screen at once. Use ExpoCut's collage layouts — grid, mosaic, diamond and freeform — for split-screen comparisons, reaction videos, multi-cam, and before/after. Drop a clip into each tile and you're done.

June 28, 20266 min readRead article →
Motion & KeyframesGuide

Slow Motion & Speed Ramps on Your Phone (the Cinematic Way)

Make slow motion, fast-forward and smooth speed ramps on your phone. Set a clip's speed, keep the audio pitch natural, ramp from slow to fast for cinematic hits, and freeze a frame — all on-device with preview that matches the export.

June 28, 20266 min readRead article →
Templates & BrandGuide

How to Save & Reuse Your Own Video Template

Build a video once, reuse its structure forever. Save any ExpoCut project as your own template on your phone, then start new videos from it with your animations, timing and branding already in place — perfect for series and repeatable formats.

June 28, 20264 min readRead article →
AI & AutomationGuide

How to Remove Vocals & Make a Karaoke Track (On-Device)

Split any song into vocals, drums, bass and other — right on your phone. Remove the vocals for a karaoke or instrumental track, isolate a voice, rebalance the mix, or cut your edit to the drums. All on-device, nothing uploaded.

June 28, 20266 min readRead article →
AI & AutomationGuide

How to Remove the Background from a Video (No Green Screen)

Cut the background out of any video on your phone — no green screen needed. ExpoCut's on-device subject segmentation isolates a person automatically, so you can drop them onto a new backdrop, a blurred scene, or a brand color. Plus when to use chroma key instead.

June 28, 20266 min readRead article →
Shapes & MasksGuide

How to Add Picture-in-Picture (PiP) to a Video on Your Phone

Put a small video over a bigger one — picture-in-picture for reactions, webcam-over-screen-recording, tutorials and commentary. Scale it down, drop it in a corner, round the edges, and animate it in. All on your phone.

June 28, 20265 min readRead article →
Getting StartedGuide

How to Make a Photo Slideshow Video (with Music)

Turn your photos into a moving slideshow video on your phone. Set each photo's duration, add the Ken Burns slow-zoom so stills feel alive, transition between them, and sync it all to music. Perfect for memories, recaps, and birthdays.

June 28, 20265 min readRead article →
Getting StartedGuide

How to Make a Meme Video (Captions, Zoom Punches & SFX)

Make a meme video on your phone — bold top-and-bottom captions, the classic zoom-punch for emphasis, a record-scratch or boing sound effect, and a freeze on the punchline. Everything you need to turn a clip into a shareable joke.

June 28, 20264 min readRead article →
Text & TypographyGuide

How to Add Lower Thirds (Name Tags & Speaker Titles)

Add professional lower thirds to your video on your phone — animated name tags and titles for speakers, segments and brands. Pick from 120+ presets (including Arabic/Urdu right-to-left sets), edit the primary and secondary text, and match your colors.

June 28, 20265 min readRead article →
Text & TypographyGuide

Kinetic Typography & Typewriter Text (Words That Move)

Make text that types itself out and words that animate character by character on your phone. ExpoCut's typewriter reveal and per-character animation turn plain captions into kinetic typography — the punchy, word-by-word style all over short video.

June 28, 20265 min readRead article →
Shapes & MasksGuide

How to Use a Green Screen (Chroma Key) on Your Phone

Film against a green or blue screen and key it out on your phone. ExpoCut's chroma key drops a solid color so your subject lands on any background — with tips on lighting the screen, avoiding spill, and getting clean edges around hair and motion.

June 28, 20266 min readRead article →
Templates & BrandGuide

How to Add Your Logo & Brand Kit to Every Video

Stamp your logo, colors, and handles onto every video on your phone. Save a brand profile once — logo, slogan, socials, brand color — and apply it to any project in one tap. Plus how watermarks work and how to control them on export.

June 28, 20265 min readRead article →
Effects & FiltersGuide

How to Add Borders & Frames to a Video (on Your Phone)

Frame your clips on your phone — Polaroid, film strip, neon and custom borders. Add per-side widths, solid/dashed/dotted styles, and a glowing edge to make photos and videos pop, separate a picture-in-picture, or give a clip a designed, retro feel.

June 28, 20264 min readRead article →
Effects & FiltersGuide

How to Blur Part of a Video (Faces, Plates & Backgrounds)

Blur a face, a license plate, a logo, or the whole background of a video on your phone. Use ExpoCut's blur with a mask to confine it to one moving region, blur the background for depth, or fill empty bars with a soft blur. Privacy and polish, on a phone.

June 28, 20265 min readRead article →
Motion & KeyframesGuide

Blend Modes Explained (Overlays That Actually Look Good)

Understand blend modes on your phone — Screen, Multiply, Overlay and more. Learn which mode drops black, which drops white, and how to composite light leaks, dust, smoke and textures over your footage so they sit in the shot instead of on top of it.

June 28, 20266 min readRead article →
Widgets & DataGuide

How to Make a Bar Chart Race Video on Your Phone

Make those satisfying animated bar chart race videos right on your phone. ExpoCut's bar-chart-race widget animates ranked data over time — top countries, brands, players, subscribers — with bars that overtake each other. Load your data, style it, export.

June 28, 20265 min readRead article →
Widgets & DataGuide

How to Add a Countdown Timer to a Video

Drop a live countdown timer (or stopwatch) into your video on your phone. Perfect for sale launches, giveaways, 'starting soon' screens, workout intervals and challenges — a real ticking widget you can style and place anywhere on the canvas.

June 28, 20264 min readRead article →
Effects & FiltersGuide

How to Add Effects to a Video (Every Effect Explained)

The complete guide to video effects: filters, transitions, motion, text animation, color grading, blur, glitch, light leaks and generative backgrounds — what each one does, when to use it, and how to add it on your phone.

June 18, 202611 min readRead article →
AI & AutomationGuide

Video Automation: How to Create Videos at Scale (2026)

A practical guide to video automation: turn one template into hundreds of videos with data, auto-caption and batch-export, and drive an editor with an AI assistant — all explained from first principles.

June 18, 202612 min readRead article →
Stock & SocialGuide

How to Add Stock Footage & Import Clips to Your Video

Add free stock video and photos to your project and import clips from your camera roll or any direct video URL — the fastest way to fill gaps, build B-roll, and never stare at an empty timeline again.

June 18, 20266 min readRead article →
Shapes & MasksGuide

How to Use Shapes, Masks & Overlays in Video

Use shapes, masks and overlays to design your video on your phone: add graphic shapes and lower-thirds, mask a layer into a heart/circle/custom shape, and reveal or hide parts of a clip for pro-looking composites.

June 18, 20267 min readRead article →
Generative & ShadersGuide

Generative Backgrounds & Shaders for Video (Light Leaks Too)

Add animated generative backgrounds, shader effects and light leaks to your video on your phone — aurora, nebula and rain-on-glass backdrops behind text, plus organic overlays that make footage feel alive.

June 18, 20267 min readRead article →
Effects & FiltersGuide

30+ Mobile Video Effects (and How to Use Each One)

A practical menu of mobile video effects you can add on your phone right now — glitch, slow-motion, light leaks, zoom, blur, shaders, animated text and more — grouped by the vibe you're going for, each with when-to-use advice.

June 18, 202610 min readRead article →
Getting StartedGuide

How to Edit Video on Your Phone (2026 Complete Guide)

The complete 2026 guide to editing video on your phone: trim and layer clips, add effects and filters, drop on titles and music, color grade, and export for TikTok, Reels and Shorts — no desktop needed.

June 18, 202612 min readRead article →
Getting StartedGuide

How to Make Your First Video in ExpoCut (Start to Export)

A friendly, no-experience-needed walkthrough: add your first clip, trim it, drop on text and music, add a filter, and export a share-ready video — all on your phone, in about ten minutes.

June 18, 20269 min readRead article →
Motion & KeyframesGuide

How to Use Keyframes to Animate Video (Zoom, Pan, Move)

Learn keyframes on your phone: animate position, scale, rotation and opacity to create zooms, pans, Ken Burns moves, motion paths and reveals — the single most powerful tool in mobile video editing.

June 18, 20268 min readRead article →
Effects & FiltersGuide

How to Use Filters & LUTs on Your Phone (One Tap)

Turn flat phone footage into something cinematic. This guide shows you exactly where filters live, how to browse 100+ looks by category, and how to dial in the perfect intensity — with real screenshots of every step.

June 18, 20267 min readRead article →
Export & RenderGuide

Best Video Export Settings for Social (1080p & FPS)

The right export settings for TikTok, Reels, Shorts and YouTube: which resolution, aspect ratio, frame rate, format and quality to pick on your phone — and why 1080p MP4 is the safe default.

June 18, 20267 min readRead article →
Color GradingGuide

How to Color Grade Video on Your Phone (Cinematic Look)

Color grade video on your phone: exposure, contrast, white balance, saturation and LUTs explained simply — plus the fast path to a cinematic teal-and-orange look that makes phone footage feel like film.

June 18, 20268 min readRead article →
TransitionsGuide

How to Add Transitions Between Video Clips (Smoothly)

Add transitions between video clips on your phone — fade, dissolve, swipe, zoom, spin and shader wipes (liquid, ink, tile) — and learn the timing rules that make them feel smooth instead of cheesy.

June 18, 20266 min readRead article →
Text & TypographyGuide

How to Add Animated Text & Titles to a Video

Add titles, captions and animated text to a video on your phone: pick a font and style, position it, and animate it in with fade, typewriter or word-by-word effects — the right way to grab attention in the first second.

June 18, 20267 min readRead article →
AudioGuide

How to Add Music & Audio to a Video (the Right Way)

Add music, sound effects and voiceover to a video on your phone: line the beat up with your cut, fade in and out, duck music under speech, and balance levels so your audio sounds professional.

June 18, 20267 min readRead article →
AI & AutomationGuide

Automate Video Rendering with the ExpoCut MCP & Render Engine

Two surfaces, one pipeline. Design with an AI assistant on your phone over the in-app MCP server, then render in bulk on your laptop with the desktop Render Engine. A step-by-step guide that covers headless rendering, template import, slot filling from a spreadsheet, live preview streaming, and CI snapshot tests.

June 10, 202618 min readRead article →
Templates & BrandGuide

How to Use .ectpl: The ExpoCut Template & Canvas Render Format

An <code>.ectpl</code> file is not a video — it's a recipe for one. A complete, professional guide to slots, layer prototypes, the brand-binding inflater, the percentage-based canvas, asset bundles, and the on-device render pipeline that turns one recipe into a finished 4K video.

June 10, 202614 min readRead article →