How to search stock visuals and add them to the video?

Though Pictory's AI assigns visuals to your text automatically, if you want another image that you think is more suitable to the text, you can search those from the Pictory Library. We have unlimited visuals from Storyblocks and Pixabay free library.

Here are quick steps to search for suitable images:

Previewing Individual Scenes

Reordering Scenes

For each scene, you will notice a settings option in the lower right-hand corner.

By clicking on this, you will be given several options (if applicable) that can be applied to all scenes or just the scene you are on.

Though many of these options are self-explanatory it may be helpful to review the Image zoom & pan. Image zoom & pan is used for still images that you may not want automatically zoomed in and panned. When zoom and pan is enabled, the image will automatically be zoomed in to fit the entire background of the scene and panned accordingly to show the main parts of the image.
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Option Enabled

When it is disabled, the entire image will be shown and the remaining parts of the scene will be filled with black bordering. This may be especially useful for images in which all parts of it are vital to your scene.
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Option Disabled

Pictory's AI will automatically choose visuals for all scenes that have keywords, based on the keywords. Meaning, that if a scene has a keyword of boat, then it will be automatically assigned a visual relating to boats. However, the preselected visuals may not fit your vision so you may choose your own visuals using the Visuals tab.
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To insert a visual into a scene, begin by navigating to said scene using the Story tab and then clicking on the scene whose visual you would like to change. Next, click on the Visuals tab which is on the left side of the storyboard. It should look like this.

You can choose to search Pictory's library of visuals, both still images and videos, to insert into your scene.
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Using the search bar, you can find a variety of visuals that may better fit your desired vision for your scene. When searching you will be given suggestions for similar queries.

You can also filter your search using the drop-down options under the search bar. The filters will allow you to select either images or videos only, as well as choose from different categories that can help narrow your search.
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Once you have found a visual you like, click on it, and it will be applied to the scene and its sub-scene if it has one.
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If you like a visual but want something slightly different for your project, press on the search similar option in the bottom right-hand corner of the visual you like. You will then be shown similar visuals. You can stop searching for similar visuals by pressing the 'x' option on the right of the 'Search for similar visuals' box at the top.

Please note that selecting a visual will not alter anything in the scene besides the visual itself, so feel free to test out visuals to see how they look in your scene.
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Pictory's library offers over 3 million visuals that are already licensed for use in your videos.​

Please check out our Adding Texture and Solid Color Background article for more information.

You can also choose to upload your own images if you cannot find a satisfactory one in Pictory's library.
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Navigate to the Uploads tab. From here you can drag and drop a file or select one from your computer's library. The visuals you upload will stay saved in the Uploads tab for further use until deleted.

Visuals that are in video format play from the beginning by default when the scene begins. You may want a specific portion of the video visual to play instead. To achieve this, you may use the 'Trim Video' feature which is located right under the scene. Please note this option is only for visuals that are in video format. Begin by clicking on 'Trim Video.'

You can now use the blue sliders to trim the video to your desired length and position in the video.

You can use the play button on the left to preview how your trimmed video will look before applying the changes. To apply the changes, simply click anywhere on the grayed areas of the screen.

To favorite a visual, hover over the visual you want to favorite with your cursor and a red heart will appear in the bottom right corner. Click on this red heart and the visual will be added as a favorite and will be saved under the favorites tab which is the rightmost tab with the heart icon.

Pictory also offers a Recent tab so that if you are creating multiple projects that are similar or you wish to use the same visual more than once in a project, they are easily accessible within this tab. The history of this tab is quite large, so even visuals you selected a while ago will still appear here.
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