Media Video Editing Software

Flygondrb

Proud Leader of Team Ozone
Member
Hello everyone.

I have a new video show on Youtube and I don't have any video editing programs. I need one thats cheap or free and legal. What I mean by video editing programs, is like when Jwittz isn't on camera and when he does tournament reviews and it has all of the cards and everything. I appreciate any help.

Thanks!
 

Chariblaze

When you add it all up...
Member
Since you seem to want a dead simple ability (layering stuff on video or static images with added sound), a dead simple program can be used, depending on your OS:


For Windows, try Windows Live Movie Maker (like I said, dead simple).

For Mac, try iMovie (it should already be installed).

For Linux, try Pitivi (usually easily installable from a package manager, if not already pre-installed).

Wikipedia seems to have a good list of video editing software, so you might want to investigate that.


Since you probably have Windows (going with statistics), I'll go into more depth. If you don't want Windows Live Movie Maker, and you don't see anything that tickles your fancy on that Wikipedia page (for Windows), you may want to try a Linux distribution that comes with Pitivi. If you're at all interested in this, PM me (too much to type right now!).

Oh, and JWittz is on this site, if you'd like to ask him what he uses.
 

Gary Walsh

The Pride of Pallet Town
Member
From my own experience, I use iMovie extensively, and if you want a simple solution on the Mac it's the solid basic standard. You get (at least for a free or preinstalled program) a wide array of tools to work with with editing, stuff like basic titles and transitions, video effects (i.e. color correction and playback speed, filters, etc.), and even a small number of audio effects, though for audio I'd recommend working in an solely audio program if you want a focus on quality (i.e. GarageBand, FL Studio, or Audacity, the last being open source and thus guaranteed free regardless of OS). If you're going to use iMovie in particular however, from my own experience I'd warn against using one of the newer versions ('09 and after), because unless you've learned how to edit video on one of those versions, the interface will make you want to rip your hair out :p; Apple tried to make it so user-friendly that it's counterproductive, I found it to be a really painful overhaul. I'd recommend something along the lines of iMovie 6, which is very easy to understand and let's you drag and drop among other easy functions (believe it or not they got rid of something as simple as that in '09 and on; not only that but you have to have a file/video in an "event," like a "vacation" folder or something, meaning a designated folder that isn't even a root folder for technical organization. It's as if they expect you to be a constant traveling college student or stereotypical suburban family on vacation like the people they show in their ads…). Also, if you have an HD camera and want to shoot/export in HD, iMovie is very fussy with that (same goes for widescreen, you have to mess around in Quicktime first I think).

In addition to those woes, one big component that's missing from iMovie (the same can be said for Movie Maker I'm sure), is the ability to render two different video clips in different positions/orientation at the same time on your project (for example how the news will often have a small box with an image/video in it when introducing a story; basically having two files playing at the same time on the same screen). So if you were planning on having perhaps multiple images fading in on top of each other like Jwittz commonly does (showing multiple cards in a deck at once with different files for example), you'd be at a loss unless you can find a plugin made by an independent developer or third-party that allows for something like that. To that end, you can't green-screen like Jwittz either, as that's a more advanced function that would normally be included as a plugin with a professional/studio program, such as iMovie's professional counterpart Final Cut that includes components like Apple Color (color correction), Apple Motion (particle effects), Soundtrack Pro (audio), etc. that let you engage in that high level of editing. But using a green screen that kind of stuff I would assume isn't integral for your purposes anyway, meriting something more like iMovie.

I've also heard a lot of good things about Sony Vegas, which is a great program if you want a more advanced build, though at a cost of around twenty bucks for the basic consumer version (the others are mostly studio/industry versions that go for hundreds of dollars).


I should also mention that, for cards and other images, you'll probably need image editing software to crop out white areas or resize things. If you don't have/can't afford Photoshop, try GIMP.
 
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