How to Cut and Trim Video Clips in After Effects

Adobe After Effects is a motion graphics and digital visual effects software used to create motion graphics and add special effects to videos. It also can be used to handle video editing tasks. In this post, I’ll share how to cut in After Effects and MiniTool MovieMaker.

Adobe After Effects is usually used to apply effects to videos. So how to cut in After Effects? This post will give you the answer.

How to Cut and Trim a Clip in After Effects

How to Cut a video in After Effects

Here’s how to cut a clip After Effects on Windows.

Step 1. Launch the After Effects application, create a new project and adjust the composition settings.

Step 2. Click on File in the top-left corner and choose Import > File… from the drop-down menu to import the video you want to cut.

Step 3. After loading the video, drag and drop it to the timeline

Step 4. Choose the video and move the playhead to where you need to cut. Then press “Ctrl + Shift + D” to cut the video.

Step 5. Repeat Step 4 to split the video and delete the wanted video clips.

Step 6. Then you can add transitions and effects to your video if needed.

Step 7. Finally, you can export the video by clicking File > Export. Adjust the output settings and export the edited video.

How to Trim a video in After Effects

Follow these steps to trim a video in After Effects.

Step 1. Open After Effects, click File > Import > File… to import a video and add it to the timeline.

Step 2. Select the video on the timeline and move the playhead to where you want to trim. Press “Alt + [” to trim the beginning part of the video.

Step 3. Drag the playhead to the end of the clip and press “Ctrl + ]” to trim the tail.

Step 4. Then save the trimmed video on your computer.

How to Cut a Clip in After Effects Alternative – MiniTool MovieMaker

Adobe Effects keeps crashing when you try to cut your video? Try one of the best free After Effects alternatives – MiniTool MovieMaker. It’s a simple video editor with any editing options. It lets you cut, trim, reverse, speed up, slow down video, add text to video, zoom in/zoom out video, apply effects to video, and many more.

Here’s how to cut in After Effects alternative – MiniTool MovieMaker.

Step 1. Download and install MiniTool MovieMaker.

MiniTool MovieMakerClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Step 2. Run MiniTool MovieMaker and close the popup window to import the video file.

Step 3. Drag and drop the video to the timeline after importing it.

Step 4. Move the playhead to where you want to split and click the scissor icon on the playhead. To trim the video, drag the start point/end point of the clip to the right/left.

cut a video

Step 5. Repeat step 4. Then right-click the unwanted clip and select Delete.

Step 6. Click on Export and change the output settings. After that, save the video.

Conclusion

How to cut in After Effects? Follow the above-mentioned methods to quickly split a video into two clips or trim unwanted parts of a video.

About The Author

Zoe

Position: Columnist

Zoe works as editor at MiniTool for many years, writing articles about video editing skills. She has published hundreds of articles about video editing, video conversion, video downloading, audio editing and photo editing. She also writes some articles about YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. During her spare time, Zoe loves reading, traveling, skating, watching movies, musicals and plays. Her favorite musicals include The Phantom of the Opera, Hamilton and Le Rouge et le Noir.