Finding the best video editing software for beginners is very important. With the ubiquity of cell phone cameras and the relatively easy level of access for even high quality video recording cameras, the entry barrier for shooting and producing your own videos is lower now than it ever has been. The Best Photo Editing Software for Beginners Before you can upload your images to your personal blog, social media page or website, it is key that you first edit your images. Nowadays this is a step that you cannot afford to skip if you want your photos to be taken seriously. The key to editing is choosing the right video editing software to the process as seamless as possible. Find Out the Best Video Editing Software For Beginner. There are numerous Video Editing software is available in the market but the good software is the one that is cost-effective and user friendly. As a beginner, your budget and usability. The Best Photo Editing Software for 2020. Whether you're a casual smartphone shooter or a professional using an SLR, software can get the most out of your images.
- What Is A Good Video Editing Software For Beginners For Beginners
- Good Video Editing Software For Beginners
- What Is A Good Video Editing Software For Beginners Step By Step
- What Is A Good Video Editing Software For Beginners Free
- What Is A Good Video Editing Software For Beginners Tutorial
What Is A Good Video Editing Software For Beginners For Beginners
From importing unedited clips to rendering a final project, this video tutorial gives you a step-by-step guide to video editing in the best free software option, DaVinci Resolve.
If you’re a marketer, a small business owner, a content creator, or a 2020-hybrid of all three, you’ve probably heard the phrase “Video is king.” Since about 2016, every expert on digital media has been talking about the unique power of video to connect with audiences and promote a brand. But video is also hard to make. Even a vacation photo slideshow in iMovie can take a beginner several hours to make. And though there are plenty of video apps with growing capabilities that can help you craft a video easily, still nothing can top the quality and limitless creative possibility you can achieve in professional-grade editing software.
YouTube is inundated with tutorials and guides on video editing. However, finding the right tutorial with clear and concise information can be a task within itself. Everyone getting started with video editing doesn’t necessarily want to become an expert, and the first steps these users take should be different from those of an aspiring editor. So, we made this straightforward editing basics tutorial, specifically tailored for non-editors.
Let’s say you’re brand new to editing and need support for those initial steps, or you have no passion for editing but you’ve been tasked with editing a “simple” video, like a social media project. The tutorial below will help you with every step from importing unedited clips to rendering a final project.
When we produce a write-up of a video tutorial, we often compose it in a manner so you can digest the information whether you’re watching the tutorial or reading the article. However, due to the nature of this tutorial’s step-by-step process, along with auditory and visual playback examples, we recommend you watch the video above to receive the full benefit of the explanation. You’ll find passages from the tutorial beneath, but note that some sections refer to the playback of the video.
Why DaVinci Resolve?
Good Video Editing Software For Beginners
If you’re just starting out with video editing, you don’t want to spend money on something that you might not use often, or that you might not like, or that is simply too complex for the task at hand. DaVinci Resolve is the best option in this case because it’s free and intuitive. I’m also a certified DaVinci Resolve editing trainer.
You’ve probably heard of Final Cut Pro or Premiere Pro — these are also great applications, but they’re not free to use. If you’re not sold on DaVinci, though, you can check out our list of the best free video editing software. To some extent, the information in this tutorial can translate to any editing software because these programs all function in similar ways using a timeline.
Importing Media
First, let’s open the software.
We’re initially greeted with the project manager, which is the window that houses all your projects. Just like a folder on your computer, you can separate projects into individual folders, but for now all we need to do is select Untitled Project.
This brings you to the media page, which might make you feel like you’re looking at the control board of a rocket ship — very overwhelming. However, we’re only going to focus on the editing page and the delivery page for a simple edit.
Although, to explain the Media Pool on the edit page, I need to give you a rundown of this media page. This is a page for organization and importing media into the project. You can go through all your connected drives, bring in all the video footage from various folders, then create a concrete folder hierarchy within Resolve for your edit. To do this, you find the folder with your footage, select the clips, then drag them into the Media Pool, which is the area that stores all your editable media. And, when you bring the files into Resolve, don’t worry — it’s non-destructive. This means your original media files remain untouched throughout any form of editing.
From my point of view, if you’re brand new to editing and are putting together a basic video for a social media feed, or a quick YouTube presentation, I don’t think you need to learn this page. It’s only essential when you’re editing with a lot of media clips and audio files from different hard drives.
So, let’s jump straight to the edit page.
The Edit Page
This is the edit page. It’s where we’ll be assembling our edit — putting footage together to make a complete video. It looks daunting with all the buttons and gizmos, but don’t fear, you’re not going to have to touch most of them.
The Media Pool is a mirror of what we have on the Media Page. If you were to bring in a video clip from the Media Page, it will appear here also. A more user-friendly approach is to open a desktop folder with the footage and audio you’re using, select them, and place them in the media pool.
To get started, we need to create a timeline. A timeline is where we’ll place our video clips and audio clips to be edited.
To do this, go to File>New Timeline.
A pop-up menu will open, and for the most part, you can go ahead and click OK. But, I quickly want to introduce you to the Custom Settings, then over to Format.
Here are the properties for the timeline, which should correlate with the properties of your media. If your video clip is 30fps, you want to set a timeline to 30fps, as well. Now that we have a timeline created, we can finally start editing our media. However, before we do so, let’s quickly run over the user interface.
We have the Effects Panel opened by clicking the respective icon to the right of the Media Pool. In the Effects Panel, you can access the Effects Library, where you can apply video transitions, effects, and text to your video.
What Is A Good Video Editing Software For Beginners Step By Step
Next to that, we have what is called a Source Viewer. This is where you would typically preview the clip before bringing it onto the timeline — in a complex edit, you don’t necessarily want to drag a media clip from the pool to the timeline. That can create problems. In the Source Viewer, you’d employ three-point editing, and while that’s something you want to learn, to keep things simple, we’re going to omit that process here in the basics tutorial.
To the right of the source, the viewer is the Preview Viewer or Timeline Viewer. This will only display what’s on the timeline, or more notably, it’ll display the media that your red playhead is currently positioned over.
Above the Preview Viewer is the Inspector, which is essentially the Swiss Army knife of the edit page. We can change all the properties of both video and audio, which we’ll be coming back to a little later.
With the geography of our workspace covered, we can finally get to work and look at editing. But, as I said earlier, we want to make this video appropriate for people who’ve never edited in their entire life, so I don’t think it’s going to be beneficial to tell you what each button does and what happens if you press a certain keyboard shortcut, as you could just read a manual to find that out. Instead, we’re going to present a hypothetical situation in which we must construct an edit for the reopening of a coffee house. And, in doing so, walking you through the process step-by-step may be more beneficial.
Using the Timeline
To illustrate how editing works, I’ll present a hypothetical project that a video editor might receive.
We’ve received an email from our coffee shop client that reads:
“I want a twenty-second video to post to Facebook. There’s a variety of clips to work with, but I want each clip to be four seconds long — you choose the order. But, we need our new opening times at the start. I’d like an acoustic background track, but can we have café chatter under the music track? Also, could you make sure our logo appears on the final clip and fades in?”
With several things to work with, let’s jump back into Resolve and onto the timeline.
What Is A Good Video Editing Software For Beginners Free
The timeline is our cutting board. It’s where we assemble our edit. It’s composed of video tracks and audio tracks, and a track is where we’ll place our content to be edited. You can have an infinite number of tracks, and each one can be individually disabled.
Now that I’ve downloaded the clips from the boss, I’m going to open from the folder on the desktop, select all the clips, and import them into the Media Pool. With such a small quantity of clips, there’s no pressure to create folders to organize the media, but if you wanted to, you could right-click and select Add Bin (in Resolve, folders are called bins).
To start, I’m going to bring in the clip from the Media Pool and place it onto my timeline. All you do is select the clip and place it onto the empty track. And, when in selection mode, move the clip around by selecting and holding the left-click on the mouse.
And again, I’m going to place a second clip onto the timeline. Timelines work linearly, so the first clip on the timeline will be played first, then the proceeding clip, and so on. However, any media that’s positioned above the foundation tracks will take precedence.
With the two clips on the timeline, we have a problem that needs to be addressed. The boss wants each clip to be four seconds, and these aren’t. So, let’s look at two ways to reduce each clip’s length, which is essentially the foundation of editing. Finding the best moment of each clip to promote the story or message you want.
We could at first look to slice this clip, which is done with the Blade Editing tool. First, we need to select the Blade Tool, then move four seconds in, and left-click on the mouse. In doing so, we create an edit by cutting the sixteen-second clip into two clips, which are five and eleven seconds in length. We can then delete the surplus material by selecting it and hitting backspace.
However, and more preferably, as that was one too many clicks, what we could do is select the endpoint of the clip — make sure you’re in the selection mode, which is noted by this icon — then we’re going to pull the clip inward to decrease its length. Likewise, you can also do this at the start of a clip.
Now, we’ve shortened its length and can click Play to preview the edit. Great! Time to do this with the remaining three clips.
With the final three clips on the timeline, I’ve noticed two problems. First, with this clip, I don’t like the framing. I want to see less of the man and more of the coffee being made.
So, we need to adjust it. To do this, we’re going to select the clip and open the Inspector (a clip is inspected when highlighted red).
First, I’m going to adjust the clip’s position so I can move the framing. But look, we’ve adjusted it too far, and we’re showing negative space. Therefore, I need to increase the zoom, and after a small tweak, we have it perfect.
Secondly, if we look at the playback again, we have an error with this first clip. Our boss has filmed this backward, and we don’t want them to be closed but open. Well, with some editing magic, we can correct this by reversing the clip. What we’re going to do is right-click on the clip, select Change Clip Speed, then reverse speed. Now this clip plays in reverse, making it look like the shop is open.
This is editing. It’s piecing together a puzzle. Sometimes it feels like you’ve found the right piece, but it doesn’t work. Or, it’s the right piece but just needs to be flipped around. With our video selection complete, we can now move to audio.
Adding Audio
I’m going to go back to the Media Pool and import the audio to the first audio track. The section for the audio track is directly underneath the video, and it operates in the same manner, except for the way that the tracks take precedence. Because we can hear multiple sounds at once, if we were to layer several different music tracks, they wouldn’t stop and play in order of their positioning. Instead, we’d hear all tracks play at the same time. Not so great for applying numerous music tracks, but perfect for sounds effects.
With the music track placed on Track One, we can see that it’s too long. Therefore, using the methods we just learned, let’s decrease the length of the track, so it appears as the same length as our video content.
Now, if we listen to the last five seconds, we have another problem. It abruptly cuts.
Therefore, to fade out the audio, I’m going to extend the audio track height (which you can do on any track by just pulling it down in the track menu), move the end of the audio track, select and hold this white handle, and pull inward. Now when we play back the track, it fades out nicely. These handles are great for applying fade-ins and fade-outs, not only to audio but video, as well.
Our boss also wanted some background chatter, so I’m going to add this to a second track to play at the same time as the music, but starting from the second clip.
All you need to do is place the second piece of audio underneath, and a new track will appear automatically. Again, using the methods we learned about in the video section, I’m going to decrease the audio length so it appears only when we’re inside of the coffee shop, and I’m going to fade in the chatter with the white handles.
Now, to review our edit, let’s playback the timeline. The audio for the chatter is a little too loud, we just want it to be subtle. So, we need to lower the chatter volume. There are three ways in which we can do this. The first is to go back up to our Inspector and lower the volume. Alternatively, we can lower our audio levels on the clip itself by lowering this white line. Of course, increasing the height will increase the volume.
Alternatively, we can open the mixer, which is done by hitting this button. This opens the mixing panel where we can review the audio levels for the entire edit. We can lower the fader knob of Audio Two as our final way to lower the volume. However, please note that the other operations only lowered the volume of the selected clip. Using the mixer reduces the volume of the entire track. Or, if you lower the main mixer, it lowers the volume of every track. As a reference, you want the overall mix to be from -10dB to -14dB.
We have two out of four tasks completed. Chatty for facebook 2 4 0 download free.
Adding Text
The third is the text. To add text, we need to open the Effects Library and scroll down to the Titles. In many editing programs, titles act as individual media clips. Meaning, we’re not adding titles to a specific video clip, but we’re going to layer the titles above the media clip. Because the titles are generated on an Alpha channel, meaning that the layer is transparent, other than the text itself, we’ll see the text and the video beneath.
We’re going to take titles and place them above the second clip. But the thing is, it’s a bit plain, boring, doesn’t sell the edit. We could do with some animated titles. However, if you’re not an editor, animating titles is an entirely different ball game.
What Is A Good Video Editing Software For Beginners Tutorial
Thankfully, Resolve has built-in animated titles that we can use. Therefore, I’m going to select a Title Slide in from the center line and add it over the second clip, then decrease the length so it coincides with the length of the clip underneath. Our edits will always snap to fit with the playhead or other clips because the snapping is activated. By deactivating the magnet, you’ll find clips will move more fluidly, but perhaps with less precision.
Now we need to edit the text, can you guess where? Yeah, the Inspector. Nine times out of ten, if you want to adjust a property of any element found within the timeline, it can be done so within the Inspector.
I’m going to open the Inspector and switch the left text to We’re Open, and the right text to the Times. I’m also going to adjust the color of the right text, which can be done in the color pallet.
Exporting Your Finished Video
Finally, to conclude our presentation. We need to take our video to the Delivery page, which is where we render all of our media into one media file. I think the best way to describe rendering is like baking — you have individual ingredients that you mix and layer, then place into the oven to bake as a single product. To render is to take all of our elements — audio, video, graphics, and text — and placing them into one file that you can then upload.
To get here, we’re going to select the Delivery tab.
First, we need to select a filename for our new video and choose a destination folder. This is where the video will be saved. We then have a variety of different export options, and when I was starting, if there was anything less confusing than editing itself, it’s the render settings.
Thankfully, Resolve has several built-in presets that are based on some of the most popular online encoding options. One being H.264. So, we can just hit H.264 Master, keep everything as is, then select Add to render the queue.
And finally, press Start Render to have a completed video.
Tutorial Recap
So, today we’ve covered the core basics of editing in Resolve. Importing your footage, editing your footage, adding music, text, and graphics, then rendering. I won’t try to hide the fact that editing can be difficult. It is, and today we only skimmed the surface. We also skipped a few obstacles. Still, I’m relatively confident that if you’ve never edited before in your life and you’ve downloaded Resolve to start, you should hit the ground running with this tutorial.
If you think editing is for you and want to develop your skills further, check out my DaVinci Resolve Playbook series on Shutterstock Tutorials. It covers the tools and techniques you need to know to master this video editing software.
Cover image via ittoilmatar
2018-12-02Finding the best video editing software for beginners is very important. With the ubiquity of cell phone cameras and the relatively easy level of access for even high quality video recording cameras, the entry barrier for shooting and producing your own videos is lower now than it ever has been.
Best Video Editing Software for Beginners
Product | Info | Features | |
---|---|---|---|
PINNACLE STUDIO 20 | Click to see Price and more Info | -Easy to Use -Great Built in Functionalities -Affordable | |
CAMTASIA STUDIO 8 | Click to see Price and more Info | -Compatible for both Mac and Windows -Easy to create dynamic videos and share them across any platform -Free trial available |
With this ease of access, however, comes a glut of video editing software that can leave the aspiring new video editor reeling – where should you begin, where should you invest your money, and what should you learn?
We’re here to take a look at some of the best video editing software for beginners, software which will help you hit the ground running with your video production needs and be well on your way to producing excellent videos.
Pinnacle Studio 20
Official Website: www.pinnaclesys.com
Pinnacle Studio 20 offers a wide variety of features and options for a low price, at the time of writing (including a copy of WinZip 19 as well). Pinnacle Studio is a step above Windows Movie Maker’s basic tools; it offers drag and drop editing, video speed-up and slowdown, and audio editing capabilities like Windows Movie Maker, but also includes hundreds of effects, titles, and templates aimed at speeding up and improving the quality of video production. These additional premade effects, when placed well in your videos, can mean the difference between a decent video and a truly professional looking one, and Pinnacle Studio 20 is an excellent way to learn how to use those effects.
Pinnacle Studio also offers some more precise video editing than Windows Movie Maker, including six tracks of frame by frame editing – a cut above the more basic editing capabilities of Windows Movie Maker and an ideal way to learn more advanced methods of video editing. The software also offers the capability to work with footage from two cameras, helping make the video editing process simpler and create a more dynamic and visually appealing end product.
Pinnacle Studio 20 also comes with a free thirty-day trial of StudioBacklot.tv, which offers several courses and training methods geared toward Pinnacle Studio as well as a large royalty-free library of stock footage. The software advertises its uploading capability like Windows Movie Maker does, but as mentioned earlier, you’ll soon find that this isn’t necessarily a selling point when you’re shopping for video editing software for beginners – doing it yourself often allows for more control and precision with the content.
Pinnacle Studio 20 offers several ways to jump into the workflow of a professional video editor and manages to do so for a very reasonable price, but since there are so many different types of video editing software available, there are several options for aspiring editors at this skill level. Let’s take a look at another tool in the video editor’s toolbox, Bootstrap Video Wizard.
Video Wizard
Official Website:www.bootstrapdevelopment.com
Bootstrap Video Wizard offers several conversion techniques to make your videos fit the ideal format for any application, including straight to your iPod or iPhone or as source videos for editing in Pinnacle Studio 20.
Offering a direct link to download from their website, Bootstrap Video Wizard is a tool that is incredibly easy to access and use. One of its major flaws is that it isn’t available for Mac computers, and since many video editors swear by the Apple operating system, a large part of their potential market is being lost to this lack of compatibility.
If you’re using a Windows computer and are looking for a quick, simple video conversion tool, one offering DVD conversion capabilities as well as a wide variety of potential formats to convert to, Bootstrap Video Wizard is well worth a look. Its ease of access and broad array of capabilities make it an excellent addition to the toolbox of any serious video editor. While not necessarily the best video editing software available for beginners, Video Wizard is an excellent utility for any video editor.
Windows Movie Maker, Pinnacle Studio, and Bootstrap Video Wizard make up several pieces of the puzzle for traditional video editing – but if you’re interested in one of the hottest new forms of video creation and editing, you may want to take a serious look at another piece of software called Camtasia Studio.
Camtasia Studio 8
Official Website: www.camtasiastudio.com
Camtasia Studio offers extremely powerful screen recording capabilities, an essential component for anyone looking to make videos in the hugely popular Let’s Play genre, computer tutorials, or any other application that requires recording the output of your computer screen. At just under $300, this is the most expensive of the video editing software options, but its power and versatility make it well worth the price – aside from recording videos of your computer screen, it also features a powerful suite of video editing tools for the intermediate and advanced beginner video editor.
With a powerful green screen module, several tracks available for video and audio editing, tutorial video creation features like “callouts” (visual indications of areas of interest, like arrows, circles, and pointers) and “smart focus” (automatic zooming in and focus on mouse clicks and other areas of interest), and more, Camtasia’s focus on screen recording and tutorial video production is clear, leveraging its capabilities into a powerful and versatile video creation and editing suite of tools. For the aspiring screen recorder, Camtasia is some of the best video editing software available.
Windows Movie Maker
Official Website: windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/movie-maker
A quick and easy way to get started making your own movies, Windows Movie Maker features an undeniably low price point – it’s free! – as well as several powerful features to get started editing your own videos. As free software included with Windows Essentials, Movie Maker is the best point for any raw beginner to get started. You’ll be able to trim, speed, and slow your videos, splicing together different cuts and adding your own soundtrack and other audio. These are all of the features you’ll be using in more powerful and advanced forms of editing software, so learning the basics for free is an excellent idea and a cost-effective way to get started in the world of video editing.
Windows Movie Maker also offers the capability to publish online direct from the program, although this is less of a selling point than it used to be. With sites like YouTube significantly simplifying the video uploading process, there’s no real need to focus on uploading videos to the Internet directly from the editing program. In fact, as a producer of your own videos, you should get used to the process of creating and uploading videos to your own channel on YouTube – the direct upload capability should become an unnecessary shortcut for aspiring editors.
Windows Movie Maker makes excellent video editing software for beginners – but what if you’re a little bit more experienced, or you’ve picked up a thing or two already and want to expand your skills? In that case, you may want to take a look at Pinnacle Studio 19, whose broad array of features and low price make it an ideal candidate for the beginner looking to delve a bit more deeply into the art of video editing and creation.
Summery: Best Video Editing Software for Beginners
- Pinnacle Studio 20
- Camtasia Studio 8
- Windows Movie Maker
- Adobe Premier Pro
- Sony Vegas Pro
- Final Cut Pro
- AVS Video Editor
- Corel VideoStudio
Which form of video editing software for beginners you choose depends on what you need from the software. If you’re just getting started, the free Windows Movie Maker and easily accessible Bootstrap Video Wizard make for excellent tools to show you the ropes of video editing and help you develop your own unique workflow.
From there, you can decide which area of video editing you want to specialize in, and choose the software you graduate to accordingly. If you’re interested in working with traditional video editing – trimming and splicing video that you’ve already shot with a camera – Pinnacle Studio 19 will likely be the better choice, as its full set of features and relatively low price can easily recommend it for most traditional video editing tasks.
If you’re looking to record your computer screen, however, be it for video game videos or tutorial videos, the specific feature set of Camtasia Studio will be a no-brainer – its powerful capture and editing tools are geared directly toward these uses and will give you a serious leg up in the video creation and editing process.
No matter which video editing software for beginners you choose, prepare yourself for the exciting expression of creativity that comes with creating and editing your own videos. You’ll soon find the habit a difficult one to stop, but one that manages to be as fulfilling as it is fun – seeing your own videos online and sharing them with friends and family is a delightful part of the process.
Whether you focus on traditional video editing or the unique varieties that have popped up to go along with the digital age, you’ll be able to find software and tutorials to suit your needs. Do your research, jump in, and get started – there’s no better way to start your new life creating and editing your own videos!
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