Hey all, lately I've been trying to stream a bit more and my brother and I have been recording videos at home. We would like to start putting some of this online, but neither of us is really sure where to start with video editing. We don't know where to start with software, or how to go about learning. I tried lightworks but didn't get very hard, although I could try harder to learn that. I don't really know where to start or look, so I thought I could ask here.
What software is good for a beginner? We don't have crazy good equipment, nor do we need to have a super polished end product, just something nicer than a raw, unedited video.
What software has a short learning curve or is easy to work out the gate? At this point I'd rather start putting out content than making everything perfect?
Hopefully there is some free software available, any ideas guys?
I use SonyMovieStudio13 for editing. You can go the easy way with it or go all in depending on how much time you want to spend.
if it's anything like sony vegas I need to acquire it soon
Although from a review I'm reading it doesn't have live preview playback?
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/sony-movie-studio,review-2533.html
I am lacking terms here, what does "Live preview playback" stand for?
The article you linked misses a lot of points and the numbers for video conversion seem oddly strange to me.
Like, playing back the footage you've edited together, in the preview window, changes and all, is it smooth for the most part? Support I shouldn't expect too much for 50 bucks, but if it's close enough to like Vegas Pro 9/10/11 that'd be a solid video editor
Wait WHAT?! The preview quality can be selected to fit the machine you are using. I never had any issues.
I just noticed something... I have the "Movie Studio 13 Suit" version.
This might help to clear some things up. http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiopp/compare
That's what the review said lol, had to render footage before scrubbing
also there's a demo here for @The_Drugs
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials/moviestudiope
"Includes NewBlueFX 3D Titling and Video Effectsx
Includes BorisFX video effects unitsx
Includes Tutorial DVDx"
Those appear to be the only major differences from platinum to studio
That doesn't seem to include a non linear video editor though, really just about all of the free non linear editors suck the big one, I tried blender for a bit, and video playback was horribly slow, while sony vegas worked fine, probably just needed to play with blender though
Personally I like light works if you are looking for free software there is a limited free version of this.
http://www.lwks.com/
I use resolve 12 though it is more program than I need.
hey dere filthy frank, use adobe premiere. i use it almost exclusively. i depend on trials though. i believe i snagged the 3 months free and finished all the editing i needed to in that time.
there are also a ton of tutorials online. once you get the hang of it. its so simple to use.
also if money is a problem and the subscription model pisses you off, you know where to go ;)
i can neither deny nor confirm that it works perfectly ;) i use it in a vm environment though. ymmv
also if you want something dead simple try filmora. i have family members who use this with great success. videos are decent and they know better than to slap 300 filters and transitions in every video. its the simplest to use by far.
lightworks is 'free' idk i used it for abit then gave up on it. seems pretty cool though.
It's almost exactly like Vegas Pro minus some of the more "Pro" features. For example, it does Chroma Key without issue, but it does not support masking at all which is kind of a dealbreaker for some. It does not really do 3D text well, at least not without an extension. But it's a good video editor for the price (I'd say don't pay more than $100 for the Suite) and it isn't too different from Vegas Pro except that there's a few buttons and dials missing. It's really not even that different from Premiere; I watched a view YouTube tutorials and read some articles and I could do just about everything I could do in Vegas inside Premiere.
TLDR - If you want a basic editor to learn on, Movie Studio is a great option, especially for the price. If you're trying to start a serious production company or something, or you're used to Adobe CC, don't even bother with it.
Blender
SERIOUSLY
Its about the same difficulty as Adobe premier and is laid out similarly.
Oh and its free... FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
If you have anything towards linux pick up KDenLive. It's easy to learn and there is a lot to master. Blender also happens to have a competitive video editor to Adobe. Also shotcut has something to be looked at but eh.
Just an update, I started playing with lightworks again, and I'm going to be playing around with blender and maybe one of the sony programs this weekend. I'll report back with my inexperienced opinion and share what I liked and didn't! Thanks for the suggestions so far guys.
Just to hop in to this dissucion on the late end no matter what software you use there will be a learning curve. my personal prefrence is that if you are going to look at paid software go Adobe over Sony. Adobe is a bit more flexible in terms of doing lots of different workflows.
Reguardless of which software you use learn about Pro level intermediate Codecs that your software preferred as it will make your work go faster and the software will be more stable working in those codecs.
HItfilm express 3 is a great option too. Its free and does a ton of things you wouldnt expect out of a free video editor.
@The_Stealth_Shadow I'll add that to the list!
@Thanatopsis what do you mean by "pro level intermediate codecs"? A quick google search didn't help me much here. I've looked at adobe products before but last I checked the price is just too high for the amount of video I edit right now. Maybe down the line if I do more with video then I'll take a look, unless I'm mistaken about the cost.
This.
I've been using Adobe Premiere Pro, but for my next project I'll be switching to Davinci Resolve.
The free version appears to only be missing some 3D stereoscopic, motion blur, and noise reduction stuff.