Recommended Video Editing Software

[NathanOtano]

To me, if you need a free software you should use DaVinci Resolve from blackmagic right away : https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/fr/pro ... ciresolve/
It's professional grade, and beside editing can comp and color edit too.

For paid editing I'm really fine with premiere cause it's simple and powerful and we alwys have a creative cloud license somewhere at the studio, + it works well with other adobe products like after effect and photoshop

[Paul Fierlinger]

I am a big time user of NLEs and can't understand why more animators shy away from them. My preference for the past 15 years or so is Vegas-MAGIX, formally Vegas-Sony, which is quite expensive for good reasons. I believe it's in the $900 or even $1000 range by now but they have a smaller version called MOVIE that is just a slimmed down version of the full blown NLE. I strongly suggest that you take a look at it because MAGIX is turning out to be a very solid German company that operates in the U.S. A good reason to go for one of these baby versions of the giants is that if you ever get into the commercial use you will have already passed your training wheels with the small ones. This is of course why they exist. The Vegas MOVIE I believe is in the $ 100 range which is very reasonable. As you have found out already, the free ones can be pretty useless.

I think Premier has a small version too. If you are looking to a commercial end future I suggest you try one of these because NLEs can do a lot more for animators than just string individual clips together. One example would be creating cross dissolves, an effect every amateur will want to use pretty early on. Vegas does that just by dragging two clips together so that they overlap and that's all you do. In Premier you have to do more than that the last I used it. This is one aspect to look for when looking for an NLE. I can name you several more but first need to know if you can consider the @100 dollar range cheap.

[schwarzgrau]

To me, if you need a free software you should use DaVinci Resolve from blackmagic right away : https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/fr/pro ... ciresolve/
It's professional grade, and beside editing can comp and color edit too.

I second that. I myself usually edit in Premiere, but a lot of studios I worked for use DaVinci Resolve for editing, since the editing workflow should be really great.

[Paul Fierlinger]

I went to Vegas Movie studio and found this review compelling. The author says it doesn't do enough special effects and qualifies those as the flashy stuff I personally hate. He then goes on to say how intuitive it's GUI is and how stable the software is in general and that in my opinion is what counts. To his review I would add that it gets timely updates which I doubt free software can reliably offer. See what you think:
https://www.softwarehow.com/vegas-movie-studio-review/

[schwarzgrau]

To be fair I never used Davinci Resolve for editing, but while it's kind of free, it's Pro version is actually the most common grading software, which just seems to have a great editing engine build into.

[Paul Fierlinger]

What one has to become aware of is who praises an NLE and who hates another NLE. These reviews are all conducted by videographers and many of them are the least refined ones, hacks, big on techie talk and none on over all esthetics, in other words meaningless to the needs of animators. I would divide them by ease of learning and simplicity of GUI. If you aren't up to putting any money into one than why even bother..? Eventually, if you really find yourself using one everyday as you work with TVP than you will gradually become more discerning and will end up buying one of the low cost ones which is all you need. I prefer Vegas because our films are in the 30 minute to 80 minute range aiming for the public venues where the demand for high definition quality becomes a huge issue. For that kind of work you need to get a high end product.

My most immediate need for working with NLEs is in the sound editing department. I typically start out with an animatic, skipping the story board stage unless the film is commissioned by a well paying group intense on creative control.
I keep in touch with my composer at the animatic level and he begins by sending me his first runs of music composed to picture. I place these against the animatic and after making a few editing adjustments I select a sequence of clips with the soundtrack to start animating to music or narration or both. This is the part most important to me for making a film so I want an NLE that will handle the export and import tasks with ease by which I mean I want the two software to function well together. For this reason alone I have started with DPS Velocity, then moved to Premier and from there ended up with Vegas which has become very flexible for my TVP needs. I never even look at the splashy stuff some of these NLE's can do to impress hacks. For me it is all about trimming edits with sound. There is nothing more satisfying to work with, playing back video and sound with absolute ease of editing.

As I work on a sequence of say 3 to 6 minutes I might export and import my WIP between the two dozens of times per day. It is important for me to watch and listen to not just the immediate frames I am working on but to playback a couple of minutes at a time. This is difficult to do well in TVP because it goes beyond the nature of drawing motion. This is why I don't understand animators who want to make films only in TVP. Back in the days of pure film I had three editing tables just to be able to work on three shorts at the same time without having to string and throw apart reels of film and sound tape. Sound and image have to be worked on in tandem.

[slowtiger]

I agree with Paul here. Instead of quite meaningless descriptions like "professional" or "easy to use" I'd start with a list of features I definitely need when editing animation. Mine would start like this:
- easy trim and placement at single frame level
- basic transitions and fades, adjustable duration
- ability to import image sequences (and turn them into easy-to-hadle clips)
- stacking clips with transparency
- basic compositing tools, animatable
- ability to organize clips in tracks (so you can easily switch off video or sound of a whole track)
- export not only whole movies but also small bits

Unfortunately you'll rarely find detailed info like this on the vendor's site, but you can ask users in forums about it.

Anecdote: Only after buying FinalCut X I found they had changed it so much to the needs of live action production that I didn't even found a way to really create aptly named project files. It didn't help that it comes without a manual - that's quite strong from a 600.- € software. Turns out that the root of all projects is called a "date" (coming from live action filming?), in this there's a "library" (all your imported assets) and besides that one or more "projects" (the actual WIP movie). Apple, I have lots to complain about this version, but my biggest is the absence of tracks and being able to place stuff in time and it stays there.

[Paul Fierlinger]

I agree with what you say about FinalCut. It has a reputation because pros in Hollywood use it for its reliable bug free operation but anyone from an NLE video background will say it lacks some of the most basic assets such as easy cross dissolves. It seems to be hopelessly behind modern NLE's which is made up by wonderful bug free reliability and ease of use. Strange.

[hadserub]

DaVinci Resolve from blackmagic did not work for me. I want to immediately turn to those who have used this service as much as possible for video editing. Here is my problem: I am making a video and I need to upload it to Instagram or TikTok. It does not fit the size. There are a lot of advantages like youtube editor, but they are not always active for big videos.I don't want to trim the video, but to reduce the size like joincombo. It has more resizing options, but no additional features.

[hadserub]

It doesn't take a long time to learn how to use the editing programs. Thanks to the intuitive and straightforward interface, you can edit your recording almost from the first run. If any difficulties arise in working with the program, there are quite a few instructions and recommendations on the Internet on this subject. But all users have different goals and requirements for video editors: some want to use a simple and easy-to-use application, while others want to create high-quality products. All programs have a straightforward interface. When I download a video from YouTube with the converter https://loader.to, I immediately process this video in the video editor.

[Paul Fierlinger]

No, as it takes no time at all to drive an automatic shift car. It just takes a long time to become a good driver and even longer to keep a car in long term running order with a minimum of repairs.

[Jeremy Richard]

Hello everyone,
here is my first contribution to this forum.

A feature that might be of interest is the ability to create several timelines/sequences within one project file. Not all editing software have this option.
In TVPaint terms, it would be like if there was the choice between a version where you can create multiple clips, and another one that would allow us to just create one clip per .tvpp project file.
This option is useful if you want to create several versions of a same edit or you wish to edit different sequences separately but to keep them in the same project, for example.

The specs below show I'm a mac user but if anyone can suggest any video editing software that is either free or budget friendly I would appreciate that.

As for a recommendation if you wish to just pay once (as opposed to a monthly payment), Lightworks (https://lwks.com/lightworks-tech-specs/) might be an option. For a free software and on Mac, Davinci Resolve (as mentioned before) might be another option (https://www.toolfarm.com/tutorial/in-de ... e-version/). There is also Kdenlive with the Mac version not quite there officially but is being tested (https://kdenlive.org/en/2021/10/kdenliv ... y-version/)

A list of free editing software (amongst others):

• (as mentioned before) DaVinci Resolve, free version limited to 4K UHD (3840×2160), can't export to 4K DCI (4096 x2160)

• Kdenlive, one timeline per project file and Mac version just started to be properly tested. Kdenlive has an Intel version available for Mac. And since version 23.04.0 it is possible to work on several timelines within the same project.

• Blender, one timeline per project file (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxHGY_ZaQuQ)

• Lightworks, the free version is limited to 720p export (https://lwks.com/lightworks-tech-specs/), can create several timelines/sequences in one project

• Olive, still in beta and no Mac version but Windows and Linux. Can also create several timelines/sequences in one project (https://olivevideoeditor.org/nightly.php)

A list of non-free editing software (amongst others):

• Avid Media Composer, not cheap and maybe one of the hardest to get one's head around but a very good tool

• (as mentioned before) Premiere Pro can create several sequences in one project

• (as mentioned before) Vegas, Windows only, one timeline per project but the nested timeline option can be used as some kind of second sequence (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_xPLqy3JYU)

• Edius, Windows only (https://www.edius.net/x.html), several timelines per project (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kseXI4fHl38)

• Lightworks has a Mac, Windows and Linux version (Debian type distributions and Fedora)

I hope it can help.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Are you an animator because you like to and you actually know how to draw anything you want. or are you a person who is just searching for a place to feel comfortable in making all sorts of films? If you are a graphics oriented person by all means pick at first one of the easier and low cost editors such as Movie Maker in the lineup of the Vegas MAGIX versions. As an animator it is quite likely that that is all you will ever need to put your TVP films together and to give it some solid, good soundtracks. If you begin to find yourself asking, only if I could do this thing with just one click of a mouse instead of having to go through a tiring set of routines, then you have become a candidate for the full line but pricey versions. Even if you have enough money to jump into the full line version I would recommend you start with the Movie Maker because all the big time editing systems are so bloated with complex and rarely needed gadgetry to achieve special effects or just to keep track of everything to make a feature film, even file management can become a new sub science when tackling that level of film making. The person who said earlier that it doesn't take a long time to use any editor could have said Marry has a little lamb to say as much. Now I see this person has expanded on that initial one sentence remark. There is so much competition between developers of such products in this market that they have gotten themselves into a weapons race of self demolition.

[cinemak]

When making a video, it is often necessary to upload it to an online platform, such as Instagram or TikTok. Because these sites have different size requirements, it can be tricky to upload a video that fits the site's specifications. I had this problem and found that JoinCombo is an ideal solution. Not only is it easy to use, but it has more resizing options than Youtube Editor, although Youtube Editor is more stable.

[Tylos]

Hitfilm express also free (its very simlar to premier and after efects.)
Resolve Davinchi is free an not bad.. at my compiuter it crash a lot. on free version you are limited to full hd I think. But it's profesional software.

I also think finale cut is about 299.99eu.. but I don't have mac at moment to check.

For windows I used "Vegas Movie Studio" for 10 years it was cheap 35eu and great.. now I upgrated to Vegas pro.