Create YouTube Shorts from Long Videos - OpenClip
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YouTube Shorts

Create YouTube Shorts from Long-Form Videos Automatically

OpenClip's AI finds your best moments and converts them into vertical, captioned YouTube Shorts — without touching a timeline editor.

content-creation
pro

Scenario

A YouTuber publishes long-form videos ranging from 15 to 60 minutes and wants to consistently feed the YouTube Shorts feed to grow a second audience and drive traffic back to their main channel. Manually clipping and reformatting videos is time-consuming, so they need an automated workflow that identifies the strongest moments and outputs Shorts-ready 9:16 clips with captions.

Workflow

1

Upload your long-form YouTube video

Paste a link or upload the video file directly to OpenClip. The platform accepts standard video formats and handles files of any length.

2

AI scans for Shorts-worthy moments

OpenClip's AI engine analyzes the transcript and scores every segment for hook strength, narrative completeness, and viral potential — surfacing the best 5–15 clip candidates.

3

Review clip candidates

Preview the suggested clips and select the ones you want to export. The AI highlights why each moment was chosen based on engagement scoring.

4

Auto-frame and caption

Speaker tracking reframes your horizontal footage into a clean 9:16 vertical crop with the speaker centered. Word-level captions are applied automatically with your chosen preset.

5

Export and upload to YouTube

Download your Shorts-optimized 9:16 clips and upload them directly to the YouTube Shorts tab. Each clip is sized and formatted to meet YouTube's requirements.

Benefits

Convert any long video into 5–15 YouTube Shorts candidates automatically
AI identifies the highest-potential moments so you don't have to guess
Auto-reframing produces clean vertical crops from horizontal footage
Word-level captions increase watch time and accessibility
Consistent Shorts output fuels the YouTube algorithm
Repurpose your back catalogue for ongoing Shorts content

Key Metrics

5–15

Shorts generated per video

Under 10 min

Time to first clip

3–6 hours

Time saved vs manual editing

9:16 vertical

Output format

Features

AI Viral Moment Detection

AI scores every segment of your video for hook strength and engagement potential, surfacing the clips most likely to perform on Shorts.

9:16 Vertical Export

OpenClip automatically reformats your horizontal footage into Shorts-ready 9:16 vertical clips optimized for the YouTube Shorts feed.

Automatic Speaker Tracking

AI face detection keeps the active speaker centered in every vertical crop — no manual keyframing or repositioning needed.

Word-Level Captions

Choose from 10 caption presets that sync to every spoken word. Captions are safe-zone positioned and styled for maximum retention on Shorts.

Batch Video Processing

Upload your entire back catalogue or multiple new uploads at once. OpenClip processes them all and returns clip candidates for each video.

Feed the Algorithm Consistently

Regular Shorts output signals activity to the YouTube algorithm. OpenClip makes it easy to publish multiple Shorts per week from existing content.

Frequently Asked Questions

OpenClip exports your clips as downloadable files optimized for YouTube Shorts. It does not currently support direct publishing to YouTube — you upload the clips yourself through YouTube Studio.

YouTube Shorts must be 60 seconds or under. OpenClip's AI targets clip-worthy segments in that range and flags the strongest self-contained moments that fit the Shorts format.

Yes. OpenClip's speaker tracking automatically reframes horizontal footage into a 9:16 vertical crop, keeping the active speaker centered throughout the clip. The result looks intentionally filmed vertical rather than awkwardly cropped.

Absolutely. Many creators use OpenClip's batch processing to work through their existing video library and generate a backlog of Shorts from content that's already been published.

OpenClip typically surfaces 5–15 clip candidates per hour of content. A 30-minute video would likely yield 3–8 strong Shorts candidates depending on the density of engaging moments.

The Beast and Pop presets tend to perform well on YouTube Shorts due to their bold styling and high visibility. All 10 presets support word-level highlighting which is particularly effective for Shorts viewers.

The Pro plan is recommended for active YouTubers publishing multiple videos per week. It supports batch processing so you can handle several long-form uploads and their resulting Shorts candidates in one go.

Yes. Tutorial and educational content often contains strong self-contained moments — tips, reveals, or demonstrations — that work extremely well as Shorts. OpenClip's AI is effective at identifying these segments.

Start Turning Your Videos into YouTube Shorts

Upload your next long-form video to OpenClip and have Shorts-ready clips in under 10 minutes.

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