How to watermark you videos!

How to watermark your videos!

Ok so my PC is a low-end PC and I work with next to nothing for a budget on anything I do. So I always look for the cheapest and easiest ways to do everything. I have two big free programs I use for a lot of my work. I use both Gimp and Shotcut. For me I found these to be both very easy to use, and pretty darn good for being free. Here is where you can find both of these programs.
Official Gimp Site
Official Shotcut Site
Now I am not 100% sure I have the most up to date version of Gimp. I do know it is the 2.8 version. Now I do not know if that will make a big difference, but we will work through this little learning experience and I will show you the easiest way I know how to make a watermark for your videos. So let's get this started! Just a small bit of advice. This is my first time trying to make one of these so please bear with me!



Part 1: Find your video's Screen Resolution

First, if you do not already have shotcut, then now would be a good time to get it. After you have it installed and up and running you will see a screen similar to this. DO NOT PANIC! Yes, there is so much going on here but with a little bit of knowledge, this will be easy to navigate!

Ok, now in the upper left corner is where you will find the icon where you can open your video into the video editor. Click on open and load your video into the editor. You can also press Ctrl + O to open a file as well. So no open your video into your editor.

Once you have your video loaded into the editor it will play the video so you can make sure you have the right one. Now down in that lower left corner that is highlighted, you will see a tab that says properties. That is what you will want to click next.

Once you have that tab selected you can see the properties of your video including the resolution of the video. The resolution is the size of the area that your video takes up in a sense. For the easy little intro animation, a made for this little project my resolution is 1920 x 1080. This is important to remember! So be sure to write it down if you need to. Or you can just always come back and you will know where to find it again. So now we know our resolution (size) that we will need for the next part.

Part 2: Creating your watermark

Now for this part, you will need Gimp. If you have not downloaded it yet this would probably be a good chance to do so.

Ok so once you have GIMP up and running you should see something like this. Again PLEASE DO NOT PANIC! So many things, and fun stuff to play with yet so little time to teach it all. Trust me with a little patience you can easily learn this program as well.

Now in the upper right corner, you will see where it says file. Click File to open the drop-down menu then select New. You can also Press Ctrl + N to just open a new project.

When you create a new image a window will pop up asking you about the size you want to make the canvas. Do you remember that resolution size? This is where you will want to put it in at. DO NOT CLICK OK after you enter your image size in. There is one more thing we need to do first! The first number in your resolution size is the width, and the second number is your height.

After your image size is set then click the little + next to Advanced Options to open the window up with even more options to choose from. I never set my X or Y resolutions, so you do not need to worry about them for this.

Now in the Fill with section make sure you have it set to Transparency. You will need a transparent background for a later step in this project, and honestly, it's just easier to set it now then have to go through and edit out the background later. After you have it all set you can click OK.

Ok if your project looks like this then you are heading in the right direction! This is the size you will need for your watermark. You are doing great so far! Congratulations!

Ok so now we need your logo. Do not close out your current window. You will be working on that image so you can just leave it up in the background. Click on File in the top left-hand corner again and select open. You can also press Ctrl + O to open a project as well. I mostly use my shortcut keys when working on projects myself. Everyone is different so the choice is yours on how you choose to do it. Once you click open, find your logo and then open it.

Ok, now that we have our logo opened we need to copy it for our watermark image. For this little teaching or tutorial project, I will just use my own logo.

Ok now on your logo image you need to go up to the Edit pull-down menu and select copy. You can also press Ctrl + C to copy the image as well.

Ok, now that you have your logo copied you can minimize the window and focus on your watermark image. Once your back on your watermark image, click on the Edit pull-down menu and select paste. You can also Press Ctrl + V.

This will stick your logo in the center of your image. Now you are either thinking your logo is too big, too small or maybe not even in the right spot. I will teach you how to resize the image and move it to where you need it. Before you are ready for this make sure you know a good spot on your video where you can place it so it does not cover up anything important. Me personally I pick one of the lower corners depending on the logo or watermark I use.

Ok so over there on the side where I have it kind of highlighted is a tool called the scale tool. This is the tool you will be using to change the size of your logo to whatever you might need. So go ahead and select this tool.

When you have your scale tool selected go ahead and click on your image. Your image should then be covered by a grid. This grid shows you what will be resized. There will also be a small pop up window that you could use to resize your logo as well. If you notice on the grid each corner and at the center of each outer line there will be a bigger square. If you click and drag these squares around you can just manually resize the image as well. Most of the time that is what I do to resize my images.

So go ahead and move around your image and try to find a size you are comfortable with. Something that will not overpower your video. DO NOT CLICK SCALE just yet. There is one more thing I would like to show you before you finish resizing your logo.

When you get your image to a comfortable size if you move your cursor to the center of the resized image you will notice the cursor changes. If you click and hold onto the center you can drag your logo to a place you would like it. For me, I drug my logo to the lower left of my image. After you find your size and the place you would like your logo, click on Scale on the little pop-up window.

Great we are almost done! If you have made it this far then you are doing great! See it was not so hard, was it!

Now here is a something a bit different then your typical save your work step? Go to the top left, click on File, go down the drop-down menu, then select Export.

When the save window pops up make sure you name your watermark and also make sure you add .png. So your title would be something like watermark.png. Just do not forget the period between the name and png. This will ensure that your file gets saved as a transparent image for your video.
Now you are set and ready to add your watermark to your video!

Part 3: Adding your watermark to your video

Ok so now that your watermark is made and that you are happy with it, you are done with gimp. Now head back over to Shotcut.

Ok so now that we are back on Shotcut click and drag your video clip at the top to the timeline at the bottom.

If it is done right it should look like this on the timeline. Wow! You are doing great. Just a few more steps and you are done!

After your video is in the timeline you see an area just above it that says, Master. LEFT not right, click on this area and select add video track. This new track will be where we add our watermark.

Now that your new video track is added go to the top, click on File and select Open in the drop-down menu. When the window pops up, search for where you saved your watermark image and open it.

Now that your watermark is opened you should be able to see the image where your video was.

Go ahead and drag the image into the new video track that same way you did with your video.

Now you should see something similar to this. There is only one more thing to do before you are done adding your watermark. If you look down at your two tracks you will notice that your image track is far shorter then your video track on the timeline. If you leave it like this then your watermark will only show on that part of the track. You can drag it up and down the timeline and set it to only one section you want it to be seen or you can stretch the track out to be seen through the whole video.

If you click and drag the very edge of the image you added to the new track you can stretch it to fit the whole timeline. If you want to add it to the whole timeline go ahead and stretch it now.

Awesome job! You have now added a watermark to your video! I am sure you can guess what is next! Exactly! It is time to export that video and show off your new watermark! Please do not try and confuse exporting with saving. Saving your progress now only saves it as a file you can return to later and use in this editor. It will not be a finalized video. So let me show you how to export your video!

Click on this little tab to get you to the Export tab. Simple enough so far right?

Then click on this Export button.

Ok so now your Export window should pop up. Now, this part is important so you do not lose your work. When exporting make sure you name your project and add the extension. I always save my video files as .mp4 because for me it is very easy to use in my animations and various other projects. Just make sure you use whatever extension you typically use. Just do not forget the period between the name and the extension. After you have it named properly click save!

After you click save give the editor time to save it to your PC. You will know when it is done by the little green check mark next to your project. Now with as old and as slow as my PC is, a fifteen-minute video can take me up to forty-five minutes to save. That all depends if I am adding audio and various other things though. Great job you have just successfully watermarked your video! Get on out there and show off that video!

You can also use this watermark trick to add text, small pictures, and many other things to your videos. It is after all just a simple overlay. When you get the hang of making your watermarks you should be able to do them in less than five minutes. For me, I blow right through them fairly easily because I make tons of watermarks for all of my stuff. I will be working on a new how-to video for making your logos slightly transparent. That way you can still see the video partially through your logo. So tune in next week for the next how to! Thanks for reading and I hope I explained this well enough for everyone to understand!
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them in the comments below!

If you are looking for someone to do some editing, logos or any graphics please feel free to hunt me down at
MMS Designs
Or you can contact me at
My E-Mail
Thank you all again for reading and I hope you have a creative day!