# Adobe's New AI Video Tool Stitches Clips into a First Draft: Meet Quick Cut
**Published: February 26, 2026**
You know that feeling when you're staring at hours of footage, knowing somewhere in there is a great video, but the thought of dragging and dropping every single clip makes you want to close the laptop and walk away?
Adobe just felt your pain.
The company has rolled out a new AI-powered feature called **Quick Cut** for its Firefly video editor that promises to do the heavy lifting of first-pass editing for you . Instead of manually sorting through clips, you simply describe what you want, and the AI stitches together a rough cut using your素材 and B-roll.
Let me walk you through what this tool actually does, how it fits into Adobe's broader AI push, and whether it's the time-saver creators have been waiting for.
---
## The Short Version
**What happened:** Adobe added a new feature called "Quick Cut" to its Firefly video editor that uses AI to automatically assemble a video's first draft from raw素材 and B-roll .
**How it works:** You upload your footage and B-roll, then use natural language prompts to describe the video you want. The AI selects relevant clips, arranges them, and creates transitions .
**The catch:** This is a first draft, not a finished product. You still need to tweak, refine, and add your personal touch .
**The timing:** This launch comes as Adobe continues to integrate generative AI across its Creative Cloud ecosystem, following major updates to Premiere and After Effects in January .
**The bigger picture:** Adobe is betting that AI can handle the tedious parts of editing, freeing creators to focus on the creative decisions that actually matter.
---
## What Is Quick Cut? Breaking Down the New Feature
Let's start with the basics, because "AI video editing" can mean a lot of different things.
**Quick Cut** is a new capability within Adobe Firefly's video editor that automates the initial assembly of a video project . Here's what that actually looks like in practice:
**Table 1: How Quick Cut Works**
| **Step** | **What You Do** | **What the AI Does** |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1. Import | Upload your素材 and B-roll clips to Firefly | Analyzes the content of each clip |
| 2. Describe | Type a natural language prompt like "create a 60-second product demo with upbeat pacing" | Interprets your intent and requirements |
| 3. Generate | Review the result and make adjustments | Selects relevant clips, arranges them in sequence, and adds transitions between scenes |
**The key detail:** Quick Cut is designed to work with both your original and B-roll you've uploaded. It can also tap into B-roll footage you've selected and even use Firefly's built-in video models to generate short transition elements .
**Mike Folgner**, Adobe's AI and Next-Gen Video Tools Product Lead, explained the thinking behind the feature: "What we heard from creators and marketing teams is that they need speed, and tips that save them time so they can get to their creative vision faster. Some of the mundane things in video editing, like organizing, are not where creators find joy or differentiation. Their joy is in adding their own style. Quick Cut is designed to help creators quickly find their story and get to a first draft faster" .
---
## The Workflow: From Raw Footage to Rough Cut
To understand why this matters, let's walk through a typical editing scenario and see how Quick Cut changes the game.
**The Old Way:**
1. Import hours of footage into your timeline
2. Watch everything to identify usable takes
3. Manually trim each clip to the relevant sections
4. Arrange clips in sequence
5. Find and insert B-roll to cover cuts
6. Add transitions between scenes
7. Watch the rough cut and realize you need to reorder everything
8. Start over
**The Quick Cut Way:**
1. Import footage into Firefly
2. Type "create a 90-second highlight reel focusing on the product demo, with upbeat music and quick cuts"
3. Let the AI generate a first draft
4. Make adjustments where needed
**What you still need to do:** Quick Cut generates what Adobe calls a "first draft" . The AI can identify good clips and string them together, but it's not replacing the human editor. You'll still need to:
- Refine the pacing
- Adjust transitions
- Add color grading
- Mix audio properly
- Insert custom graphics or effects
- Make creative decisions about storytelling
**Folgner put it simply:** "Quick Cut is designed to help creators quickly find their story and get to a first draft faster" . It's about eliminating the grunt work, not the creative work.
---
## Where Quick Cut Lives: The Firefly Ecosystem
Quick Cut isn't a standalone product. It's part of Adobe Firefly, the company's generative AI platform that now includes a browser-based video editor .
**The Firefly video editor** offers a lightweight timeline where you can:
- Trim and arrange clips
- Add titles and audio
- Generate new scenes from any frame
- Apply transitions
**The partner model integration:** One of Firefly's unique features is the ability to choose from multiple AI models, not just Adobe's own. You can access models from:
- OpenAI (GPT image generation)
- Google (Imagen and Veo)
- Runway
- Flux
This "model agnostic" approach lets creators pick the tool that works best for their specific project.
**The unlimited promotion:** Adobe is currently running a promotion through March 16, 2026, offering unlimited image and video generations (up to 2K resolution) for new Firefly subscribers . If you've been waiting to try these tools, now's the time.
---
## The January Updates: Premiere and After Effects Get Smarter
Quick Cut is the latest in a series of AI-powered video updates from Adobe. In January, the company rolled out major new versions of Premiere Pro and After Effects (version 26.0) timed with the Sundance Film Festival .
**Table 2: Recent Adobe AI Video Updates**
| **Tool** | **Feature** | **What It Does** |
| Premiere Pro | AI-Powered Object Mask | Creates and tracks precise masks of moving subjects with a simple hover and click |
| Premiere Pro | Redesigned Shape Masks | Up to 20x faster tracking with improved creative controls |
| Premiere Pro | Firefly Boards Integration | Import assets from Firefly Boards directly into Premiere |
| Premiere Pro | Frame.io V4 Panel | Collaborate with comments, media, and versioning without leaving the app |
| After Effects | Native 3D Parametric Meshes | Create and customize 3D shapes directly in After Effects |
| After Effects | Substance 3D Materials | Access over 1,300 free materials for 3D models |
| After Effects | Variable Font Animation | Animate font axes with keyframes and expressions |
**The Sundance connection:** Adobe highlighted that 85% of films premiering at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival were created using Adobe Creative Cloud . Notable titles edited with Premiere include "Chasing Summer," "Wicker," and "The Britney Griner Story" .
**Dipah Subramaniam**, Adobe's Vice President of Product Marketing for Creative Professionals, noted: "We are delighted to see numerous filmmakers crafting their own stories through Adobe's industry-leading tools. Adobe will continue to innovate and invest in AI video tools for the next generation of storytellers" .
---
## The Object Mask: A Closer Look
While Quick Cut handles rough assembly, Premiere's new **Object Mask** tackles one of the most tedious tasks in post-production: rotoscoping.
**What it does:** With a simple hover and click, Object Mask can identify and track complex moving subjects—people, cars, animals—throughout a clip .
**The technology:** Adobe developed a new assistive AI model specifically for this feature. Importantly, it runs entirely on-device, and Adobe states that "we never use customer data to train them" .
**Practical applications:**
- Isolate a subject for color grading
- Blur a background for privacy
- Apply effects to specific elements
- Create custom composites
**The workflow improvements:**
- Visual overlays in six colors help preview masks
- Lasso and rectangular editing tools for refinement
- Feather and expansion controls for perfect edges
**Mike Folgner** emphasized the philosophy: "Bottom line: less fiddling, more creating" .
---
## The New Shape Masks: Speed Meets Precision
Premiere's shape masks—the ellipse, rectangle, and pen tools—have also been completely redesigned.
**The speed boost:** Tracking is now up to 20x faster than previous versions .
**New capabilities:**
- Bi-directional tracking: find the perfect starting frame and track forward and backward with one click
- 3D perspective tracking: anchor masks to screens, walls, or rotating faces
- Live tracking previews: see playback during tracking to identify areas needing refinement
- "Frame" track editing mode: make a few adjustments instead of manually tweaking every keyframe
**Creative applications:**
- Blur faces for privacy
- Relight specific areas of a frame
- Apply effects to isolated elements
- Create complex composites with multiple masks and blend modes
---
## The Pricing Picture: What This Costs
Adobe recently restructured its Creative Cloud plans, and understanding the pricing is essential for anyone considering these new tools .
**Table 3: Creative Cloud Plan Comparison (US Pricing)**
| **Plan** | **Price** | **Standard AI Features** | **Premium AI Features** | **Generative Credits** |
|
| Creative Cloud Standard | $54.99/month | Limited | No | 25/month |
| Creative Cloud Pro | $69.99/month | Unlimited | Yes | 4,000/month |
| Creative Cloud Pro (Student) | $19.99/month (first year) | Unlimited | Yes | 4,000/month |
**What "premium features" include:**
- Text to Video in Firefly
- Translate Video and Audio
- Generate Sound Effects
- Partner models (OpenAI, Google, etc.)
**The credit math:**
- 4,000 credits per month can generate up to 40 five-second videos or translate up to 13 minutes of video and audio
- Standard features like Generative Fill use 1 credit per generation
**The unlimited promotion:** From January 23 to March 16, 2026, subscribers to Firefly Pro, Firefly Premium, and certain credit plans receive unlimited generations on all AI image models (up to 2K resolution) and the Firefly Video model .
---
## What This Means for Different Creators
### For Solo Creators and YouTubers
Quick Cut could be a game-changer for anyone producing regular content. The ability to generate a rough cut in seconds means you can iterate faster, experiment with different approaches, and spend more time on the creative decisions that make your channel unique.
The 4,000 monthly credits in the Pro plan should be plenty for most solo creators—roughly 40 five-second videos per month, plus unlimited standard generations.
### For Marketing Teams
Speed matters in marketing. Campaign deadlines don't wait for slow edits. Quick Cut could help teams produce multiple versions of ads, social clips, and promotional videos faster than ever.
The integration with Frame.io V4 also means feedback and collaboration happen seamlessly within the edit environment .
### For Professional Editors
If you're a seasoned editor, you might be wondering: is AI coming for my job?
The answer, based on Adobe's messaging, is no. Quick Cut and similar tools are designed to handle the tedious parts of editing—organizing素材, creating first drafts—so you can focus on the creative work that actually requires human judgment .
**Mike Folgner** put it directly: "Some of the mundane things in video editing, like organizing素材, are not where creators find joy or differentiation. Their joy is in adding their own style" .
### For Students and Educators
The student pricing for Creative Cloud Pro—$19.99/month for the first year—makes these professional tools accessible for learning . Students can experiment with AI-powered editing while building the skills they'll need in the workforce.
---
## The Bigger Picture: Where AI Video Is Headed
Quick Cut is part of a broader trend in creative software: AI handling the grunt work so humans can focus on the art.
**The evolution of editing tools:**
**Phase 1 (Manual):** Everything done by hand. Cutting film with scissors, splicing tape, frame-by-frame rotoscoping.
**Phase 2 (Digital):** Non-linear editing, undo buttons, effects layers. Faster, but still manual.
**Phase 3 (Assistive AI):** Tools that understand content and intent. Object masks that track automatically. First drafts generated from descriptions.
**What's next?** Probably more integration between generation and editing. Imagine describing a missing shot and having AI generate it on the spot, in context, with consistent lighting and camera angles. Some of that is already possible with Firefly's video generation models .
**The Adobe advantage:** By integrating AI across its entire ecosystem—Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop, Firefly—Adobe is creating a workflow where assets move seamlessly between tools, with AI assisting at every step.
---
## The Catch: What AI Still Can't Do
It's important to be realistic about what Quick Cut and similar tools can't do.
**Creative judgment.** AI can arrange clips, but it doesn't understand storytelling on a deep level. It doesn't know which take has the right emotional nuance, or whether a slow build works better than quick cuts.
**Originality.** The AI is trained on existing content. It can assemble素材 in conventional ways, but truly innovative editing—the kind that wins awards—still requires human creativity.
**Context.** AI doesn't understand your brand voice, your audience's preferences, or the subtle cultural references that make content resonate.
**Fine details.** Quick Cut produces a "first draft" . The final polish—color grading, audio mixing, custom graphics—still requires human attention.
**User reviews reflect this.** One Firefly user noted: "Sometimes the image that the AI generates can be less than ideal. It is obvious it combines images from various sources which can lead to illegible output" .
---
## What Real Users Are Saying
Adobe Firefly has generally positive reviews, with users praising its integration with Creative Cloud and image generation quality.
**Table 4: Adobe Firefly User Ratings**
| **Source** | **Rating** | **Key Feedback** |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Software Advice | 4.4/5 (18 reviews) | "Top quality A.I Image Generator & merge of Creative Cloud" |
**Positive themes:**
- High-quality image generation
- Seamless integration with Adobe tools
- User-friendly interface
**Criticisms:**
- Expensive, especially for video generation
- Occasional distortion, especially with people
- Some models need improvement in fine detail
One user summarized: "The tool itself is next level on the quality part, and as we all know quality goes hand in hand with price tags, so it's no surprise that it's expensive, yet...the Firefly package is well worth the money, when used for business purposes" .
Another noted: "Adobe Firefly's strength lies in generating high-quality images from text and its easy integration with Adobe tools. What I like least about Adobe Firefly is that its AI-generated content sometimes lacks fine detail and precision" .
---
## How to Get Started with Quick Cut
If you're ready to try Quick Cut, here's what you need to know.
**What you need:**
- An Adobe Firefly subscription (Standard, Pro, or Premium)
- Access to the Firefly video editor (beta)
**Steps to use Quick Cut:**
1. Go to the Firefly web app
2. Open the video editor
3. Import your素材 and B-roll clips
4. Look for the Quick Cut option (under "February 2026" new features)
5. Enter a prompt describing your desired video
6. Review the generated draft and refine as needed
**The unlimited promotion:** If you sign up before March 16, 2026, you'll get unlimited image and video generations (up to 2K resolution) .
---
## Frequently Asked Questions
**Q: What exactly is Quick Cut?**
A: Quick Cut is a new AI feature in Adobe Firefly's video editor that automatically assembles a rough cut from your素材 and B-roll based on natural language prompts. It selects relevant clips, arranges them, and adds transitions .
**Q: Is Quick Cut available in Premiere Pro?**
A: Currently, Quick Cut is part of the Firefly video editor, which is a separate browser-based tool. However, assets from Firefly can be imported directly into Premiere .
**Q: Does Quick Cut replace human editors?**
A: No. Quick Cut generates a "first draft" that still needs human refinement. The goal is to eliminate tedious work so creators can focus on creative decisions .
**Q: How much does it cost?**
A: Quick Cut is included in Firefly subscriptions. The Creative Cloud Pro plan ($69.99/month) includes 4,000 monthly generative credits for premium features. There's also a promotion through March 16, 2026 offering unlimited generations for new subscribers .
**Q: What are generative credits?**
A: Generative credits are the currency for AI features. Standard features use 1 credit per generation. Premium features like video generation use more credits depending on output length and model choice .
**Q: Can I use other AI models besides Adobe's?**
A: Yes. Firefly lets you choose from multiple partner models including OpenAI, Google Imagen and Veo, and Flux .
**Q: What's the difference between Quick Cut and Premiere's new Object Mask?**
A: Quick Cut handles rough assembly of entire videos. Object Mask is a precision tool for isolating and tracking specific subjects within clips .
**Q: When did these features launch?**
A: Quick Cut launched in February 2026. The major Premiere and After Effects updates (including Object Mask) launched in January 2026 .
**Q: Is my data used to train Adobe's AI?**
A: Adobe states that for features like Object Mask, processing is on-device and customer data is not used to train models .
**Q: What's the unlimited promotion?**
A: Through March 16, 2026, new subscribers to select Firefly plans get unlimited generations on all AI image models (up to 2K resolution) and the Firefly Video model .
---
## The Bottom Line
Here's what I keep coming back to.
Video editing has always had a dirty secret: most of the work isn't creative. It's hunting for the right clip, trimming away dead space, arranging素材 in some semblance of order. The creative part—the storytelling, the rhythm, the style—comes after hours of tedious assembly.
Quick Cut doesn't replace editors. It just does the tedious part for them.
**Mike Folgner** captured this perfectly: "Some of the mundane things in video editing, like organizing素材, are not where creators find joy or differentiation. Their joy is in adding their own style" .
For YouTubers racing to meet upload schedules, Quick Cut could mean more time refining content and less time wrestling with素材. For marketing teams juggling multiple campaigns, it could mean faster turnarounds and more iterations. For professional editors, it could mean getting to the fun part sooner.
**The catch:** It's not magic. The AI generates a draft, not a finished product. You still need to bring your creative vision, your storytelling instincts, your eye for detail. The tools are getting smarter, but they're still tools.
**The pricing question:** At $69.99/month for Creative Cloud Pro with 4,000 credits, it's not cheap. But for professionals who bill by the hour, the time savings could easily justify the cost. The student pricing—$19.99/month for the first year—makes it accessible for learning .
**The unlimited promotion** through March 16 is a smart way to try before you commit . If you've been curious about AI video tools, now's the time to experiment.
Adobe is betting that AI won't replace creators—it will free them. Quick Cut is the latest evidence of that bet. Whether it pays off depends on how well it handles the mundane, and how much time it actually saves.
For anyone who's ever spent hours dragging clips around a timeline, hoping to find a story in the chaos... it's worth a try.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment