Advertisement Apple computers have long been aimed at the creative professional, with emphasis on photo and video editing. The only problem is that industry-leading packages like, and Apple’s own series aren’t cheap. Since iMovie is no longer free, decent Mac video editors are hard to come. Nothing is quite going to match the premium might of Adobe and Apple’s in-house software, but there are a few free video editing applications to sink your teeth into. The Studio version of Da Vinci Resolve costs nearly $1,000 — but the basic version is completely free.
It is a Multimedia authoring software for capturing, editing, organizing, processing, and exporting video, audio, and text to create DVD quality movies and slide shows, and features a groundbreaking 'trackless' workspace that allows the free manipulation of an unlimited number of video, audio, stills, and text tracks. The Best Mac Desktop Publishing Software to Buy in 2019. PhotoScape for Windows: a Fun Free Photo Editor. Need a Free Video Editor? These Are 2018's Best Video Editing Programs. The Top Tools for Managing Digital Photos. Free Open Source Image Editors for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Lifewire Get the Most From Your Tech With Our Daily Tips.
Better still it includes the same high quality image processing abilities as the pricier version, a powerful video editor, some of the best color correction capabilities on the planet and even works with external hardware panels for faster editing. There are limitations of course, the main one is that Resolve can only output in SD, HD and Ultra HD (only!) which is likely going to be more than enough for most users. There are limitations on some of the more advanced grading and tracking tools too of course, but these limitations are mainly in place to convince professional users that they need to upgrade. There may be quite a learning curve, but Da Vinci Resolve is one of the most powerful video editing suites on the planet and you get a hell of a lot for free. Verdict: Powerful, feature-rich, with limitations that are mostly aimed at professional commercial users. Definitely worth a shot for free. Built with the aim of providing a stable, free, and accessible video editor, OpenShot is a cross-platform open source video editor that’s been around since 2008.
The project last received an update in August of 2016, with version 2.1 being released to the public. The has grown over the years to include great support for a variety of formats, keyframes for animation, unlimited video and audio tracks, transition and compositing support, titles, and a heap of extra features you’d expect from a modern video editor. Past criticisms have cited OpenShot’s reliability, but it’s still worth a shot for free. Verdict: A great cross-platform open source option, with an impressive list of features. The interface feels a bit old-hat, which may put some users off. Another free, open source, cross-platform video editor; Shotcut is still very much under active development. The features are just as impressive as OpenShot, but Shotcut also features a great-looking interface that more closely resembles a pro-tier application than a free open source effort.
In addition to supporting a wide range of video files and formats (including 4K video), Shotcut also includes great support for working with audio, an impressive list of video effects including compositing and transitions, and a flexible UI from which to work. Verdict: Shotcut is definitely worth a look if you want a free and feature-rich video editor but can’t afford to drop hundreds on a premium package. Blender is a free 3D modelling and compositing application that’s been used in some Just like its previous short films online, the Blender Foundation used only open-source or free software to produce movies of at least 10 minutes. What many don’t realise is that it’s also a capable non-linear video editor, provided you’re willing to take the time to learn.
We’ve Completely free, and a tool that has dozens of applications allowing you to try your hand at the challenging world of computer-generated artwork. Did I mention it's free? At MakeUseOf, though with a focus on the 3D modelling aspect with only a brief mention of Blender’s potential as a.
It might not be pretty, it’s not exactly easy, and it won’t match the top-tier packages — but it’s not bad at all for free. Verdict: Not purpose built, but powerful if you have the time to learn.
Lightworks is one of the most powerful apps on this list, and I’d happily recommend it above all other packages if it wasn’t so restrictive for the free user. The free version includes video effects, multicam editing, titling, as well as the usual multi layered timeline approach you’d expect from a comprehensive editor. Unfortunately rendering (exporting your project) is limited to 1080p output on Vimeo, and 720p output to YouTube. You can also render to Lightworks Archives, but there’s no proper H.264, MP4, or even DVD export options. So while the toolkit is vast, Lightworks isn’t a very appealing free editor unless you’d like to thoroughly try it out for free and upgrade at a later time. Verdict: A powerful editor with plenty of features, but rendering is restricted to 1080p on Vimeo and 720p on YouTube until you rent for $24.99 per month or buy outright at over $400. Better known for its compatibility with Linux (of which it’s one of the better video editors), Kdenlive is a free and cross-platform video editor that will probably mean more to your average Linux user than Windows or Mac types.
If you're searching for a decent, all-in-one solution for editing video on. can be compiled to run on macOS from source, with packages available via. While developed has moved full-steam-ahead on Linux, the Mac packages available are currently over a year out of date. Kdenlive has developed quite a bit over the years, and now looks more like a professional editing suite than the it used to. The latest version features multi-track video editing, support for a large number of video formats, effects and transitions, the ability to add titles, support for keyframes and a customizable interface. While there are a lack of features found in the big commercial suites, Kdenlive is a straightforward and functional non-linear editor with plenty of friendly folks to help you out if you get stuck. Verdict: Great range of features for free, but Mac packages are outdated so some features won’t be available.
(CineFX) Jahshaka, previously known as CineFX, combines video editing, 2D and 3D animation, compositing, color correction, and video effects into across-platform over Mac, Linux and Windows package. It is probably best compared to in terms of what it delivers, but for free it might be worth a punt. The doesn’t seem that active, but it’s still nice to see a truly open source cross-platform stab at a market dominated by Adobe. Developers have recently set their sights on the VR market with the launch of a new toolkit called. Many of the tutorials on the website date back to 2013, so you might want to spend some time experimenting on your own to get the most out of the latest version.
Verdict: More of a video processor than an editor, Jahshaka focuses on effects rather than providing a non-linear workspace. It’s also a bit outdated, but appears to be under active development.
Another oft-listed Linux variant is Avidemux, and though it’s basic in nature it works well for simple editing tasks and supports a wide variety of input and output formats. The project undergoes several updates a year, with development continuing at a steady pace. Parity is maintained between all three major versions, so you won’t miss out on any features if you opt for the Mac package. The last time I used Avidemux for any kind of project it was capable, fiddly, and crashed on a semi regular basis.
Six years have passed since then, and things are considerably better, though it’s still lacking in features you might expect from a modern video editor. Verdict: A capable freebie, but lacking in polish and features. One to watch: Still in the early stages of development, VideoLan Movie Creator (VLMC) is a non-linear editor based on the daddy of all media players, VLC. The project still isn’t available for general release, it’s not even reached beta stage at the moment. You can compile VLMC from source yourself if you really want to, but there are no binaries available at present to simply download and try out. If you’re scratching your head at the mention of VLC then you might want to familiarise yourself with the.
Verdict: A promising-looking open source free application that’s not quite ready yet. The Rest There were a few video editors that caught our eye but either don’t qualify as free, or don’t seem to be actively under development any more. You might want to check them out though:. — free to try, simple to use, cheap enough at $70 for a lifetime license. — free to use, unclear as to whether it’s still under development.
Emphasises “chaos over order” and compositing. — Apple’s own entry-level video editor, used to be free but now costs $22.99. Mixed reviews but simple enough to use. Conclusion Judging by the available software, the reputation that Apple’s desktop and laptop computers have earned as all-in-one video editing stations has a lot to do with the commercial software available.
With all the money, time and development resources the respective companies have to throw at their video products, it’s no wonder. Da Vinci Resolve is surprisingly feature rich, Blender is open source and powerful but complex, and the rest provide some free and open source alternatives that will never quite match the might of Adobe and other creative powerhouses. Which video editor do you recommend for Mac? Image credit: Explore more about:,.
Michael Muchmore The Best Video Editing Software for 2019 Whether you're a weekend GoPro shooter or a full-time video professional, you need editing software that's powerful but easy to use. Here's how the best video editing software stacks up.
Edit Video on Your PC Nothing makes an impression like moving images with sound. That's why digital video continues to grow in importance online. Couple that trend with the ever-increasing availability of devices capable of high-resolution video recording—smartphones, GoPros, DSLRs—and the case for ever more powerful video editing software becomes clear.
Further, the software must be usable by nonprofessionals, and it has to keep up with new formats such as HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding), 360-degree VR video, and 4K and above. Increasingly, new capabilities trickle down from professional-level software to the consumer category. That's a good thing for nonprofessional movie editors, since the more-consumer-oriented software makes formerly difficult procedures a cinch for them. Read on for a survey of the latest trends in video editing software and our top picks in the field. Multicam, Motion Tracking, and Yet More Motion Advanced abilities continue to make their way into accessible, affordable, and consumer-friendly video editing software as each new generation of software is released. For example, multicam editing, which lets you switch among camera angles of the same scene shot with multiple video cameras, used to be a feature relegated to pro-level software.
Now this and many other advanced effects are available in programs designed for use by nonprofessional enthusiasts. Another impressive effect that has made its way into consumer-level video editing software is motion tracking, which lets you attach an object or effect to something moving in your video. You might use it to put a blur over the face of someone you don't want to show up in your video. You specify the target face, and the app takes care of the rest, tracking the face and moving the effect to follow it. This used to be the sole province of special effects software such as Adobe After Effects. Corel VideoStudio was the first of the consumer products to include motion tracking, and it still leads the pack in the depth and usability of its motion-tracking tool, though several others now include the capability. The 4K Factor Support for 4K video source content has become pretty standard in video editing software, but the support varies among the products.
For example, some but not all of the applications can import Sony XAVC and XAVC-S formats, which are used by Sony's popular DSLRs, camcorders, and professional video cameras. The same holds true for the H.265 High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard. Most of the applications here now can import and export HEVC, though there are still a few holdouts. 360-Degree VR Support. Several of the products here (Adobe Premiere Elements is a notable exception) still support 3D video editing if that's your thing, though the this has been replaced by 360-degree VR footage like that shot by the as the current home-theater fad. As is often the case, our Editors' Choice, CyberLink PowerDirector was the first product in this group to offer support for this new kind of video media.
Other programs have jumped on board with 360 VR support, including Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut Pro X, and Magix Movie Edit Pro. Support varies, with some apps including 360-compatible titles, stabilization, and motion tracking.
PowerDirector is notable for including those last two. Final Cut offers a useful tool that removes the camera and tripod from the image, often an issue with 360-degree footage. Video Editing 101 Of course, none of the extras matter if an app can't do the most basic editing tasks. At this point, however, all of the products included here do a good job of letting you join, trim, and split video clips. They also let you make use of special effects such as animated transitions, picture-in-picture (PiP), chroma-key (the technique that lets you place a subject against any background, often known as green screening), and filters that enhance colors or apply creative effects and distortions. With most of them you can add a multitude of timeline tracks that can accommodate video clips, effects, audio, and text overlays. LUTs and CLUTs One of the capabilities that has been making its way into consumer-level video editing software is support for LUTs (lookup tables), also known as CLUTs (color lookup tables).
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This staple of pro-level software lets you quickly change the look of a video to give it a specific mood. For example, think of the dark blue look of thriller movies like The Revenant. You can download LUTs for free from several sites or use those included with some video software to give your video a specific look. One well-known LUT type is the kind that can make a daytime scene look like it was shot at night.
Where the Action Is Many video editing apps now include tools that cater to users of such as the GoPro Hero7 Black. For example, several offer automated freeze-frame along with speedup, slowdown, and reverse time effects. CyberLink PowerDirector's Action Camera Center pulls together freeze frame with stabilization, slo-mo, and fish-eye correction, and color correction for underwater footage. Magix Movie Edit Pro Premium includes the third-party NewBlue ActionCam Package of effects. And Wondershare Filmora lets you subscribe to new effect packs on an ongoing basis.
Titles That Zing. I've been seeing a lot of attention paid to creating title effects in the applications over the past year. Apple Final Cut Pro X has added 3D title creation, which is pretty spiffy, letting you extrude 2D titles and rotate them on three axes. Corel VideoStudio in its latest version also adds 3D Titling, though not as powerful as Apple's. PowerDirector's Title Designer offers transparency, gradient color, border, blur level, and reflection in titles; Magix has impressive title templates, complete with animations. Premiere Elements offers a nifty title effect in which your video fills the text characters. Look for an application that lets you edit titles in WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) mode, so that you can type, format, and time it right over the video preview.
Gathering Speed Video editing is one of the most computing-intensive activities around, so you'll want the or desktop you can afford if you're serious about cutting your own movies. Most applications help speed up the editing process by creating a proxy file of lower resolution, so that normal editing and previewing aren't slowed down by the huge full-resolution files. Particularly intensive is the process of rendering your finished product into a standard video file that will by playable on the target device of choice, be that an HDTV, a laptop, or a smartphone.
Most of the software can take advantage of your computer's graphics processor to speed this up. Be sure to check the performance section in each review linked here to see how speedy or slow the application is. In rendering speed testing, CyberLink and Pinnacle have been my perennial champs.
Other measures of performance include startup time and simple stability. Again, video editing is a taxing activity for any computer, involving many components.
In the past, video editing programs took longer than most other apps to start up, and unexpected shutdowns were unfortunately common, even in top apps from top developers such as Adobe and Apple. The stability situation has greatly improved, but the complexity of the process, which increases as more powerful effects are added, means crashes will likely never be fully eliminated, and they often raise their ugly heads after a program update, as I found with the latest version of Pinnacle Studio. Free Video Editing Software If you don't want to invest a lot of money and effort into your video editing exploits, there are a few free options.
Of course, if you use a Mac, the excellent iMovie comes with it. For PC users, 's Photos app (as of the Fall Creators Update) lets you join, trim, and even add background music, 3D animated effects, and titles to video. There are also some free video apps on the Windows Store, including, PowerDirector Mobile, Movie Maker, and Magix Movie Edit Touch. Some of these are quite basic, but the Magix app is fairly capable, with clip joining, transitions, and effects, in a very touch-friendly interface.
Free video editing software often comes with legal and technical limitations, however. Some widely used codecs require licensing fees on the part of the software maker, meaning they can't offer free software that can handle these standard file formats. That said, the impressive open-source does a lot of the same things that the paid applications in this roundup do, including things like chroma-keying and picture-in-picture. Shotcut is completely open-source and free, while another free option, Lightworks has paid options that remove a 720p output resolution limit. Note also that both Shotcut and Lightworks run on Linux as well as Windows and Mac. What About Apple?
Though Mac users don't have the sheer number of software choices available for PCs, Apple fans interested in editing video are well served, by four products in particular. At the entry level, the surprisingly capable and enjoyable-to-use iMovie comes free with every Mac sold since at least 2011. IMovie only offers two video tracks, but does good job with chroma-keying, and its Trailers feature makes it easy to produce slick, Hollywood-style productions. In the midrange, there's Adobe Premiere Elements, which is cross-platform between Macs and PCs, and offers a lot more features and lots of help with creating effects. Professionals and prosumers have powerful, though pricey options in.
Final Cut is a deceptively simple application that resembles iMovie in its interface and ease of use, but it offers massively deep capabilities, and many third-party apps integrate with it for even more power. It also makes excellent use of the Touch Bar on the latest MacBook Pro, as shown in photo above. Premiere Pro uses a more traditional timeline and adds a large ecosystem of companion apps and plug-ins.
![Freevideo Editing Software For Mac Freevideo Editing Software For Mac](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125351686/457937488.jpg)
It also excels in collaboration features. Audio Editing We still live in the days of talkies, so you want to be able to in your digital moves as well as the images. Most of the products included here offer canned background music, and many, such as Pinnacle Studio, can even tailor the soundtrack to the exact length of your movie. All of these programs can separate audio and video tracks, and most can clean up background noise and add environmental audio effects such as concert hall reverb. A couple of the products have an auto-ducking feature, which lowers background music during dialog—a definite pro-level plus.
What's Not Here There are more video editing software applications than we can fit into this roundup of the best options, which includes only software rated three stars and higher. The best known among them is probably, which was recently acquired by Magix from Sony. Sony's product used a very cluttered interface that more resembled high-end professional video editing software from the early days of the craft. Magix has made some progress in simplifying it and bringing it up to par with the competition, but more work is needed for it to be included here. Another program, simply has too outdated an interface, making common tasks difficult. Longtime pro video editors will note the absence of Avid Media Composer, which is simply too unwieldy for PCMag's primarily consumer audience.
There are a couple of more interesting applications—NCH VideoPad and AVS Video Editor among them—that we simply haven't tested yet. The Finish Line The video editing application you choose depends on your budget, the equipment you're using, and how serious you are. Fortunately, you're spoiled for choice with the products available.
Peruse our in-depth reviews of enthusiast-level video editing software reviews linked below to see which is the right one for you. Pros: Clear, flexible interface. Lots of organizational tools.
Responsive speed. Ultimate power in video editing. Rich ecosystem of video production apps. Excellent stabilization. Unlimited multi-cam angles. Cons: No keyword tagging for media.
Some techniques require additional applications such as After Effects or SpeedGrade. Bottom Line: An expansive professional-level digital video editing program, Premiere Pro CC has everything today's pro video editor needs, particularly when it comes to collaboration. Pros: Wide selection of fun video-creation tools. Clear, simple interface. Support for 360-degree VR, 4K Ultra HD, and 3D media. Multipoint Motion tracking. Multicam editing.
HTML5 video page creation. Stop-motion tool. Cons: Middle-of-the-road rendering speeds. No search for effects or media. Only 20 video overlay tracks.
Bottom Line: Corel continues to offer one of the most feature-packed consumer video editing packages around. The 2018 update adds even more including 360-degree support, 3D titles, and action-cam lens correction. Pros: Clear interface.
Edits 360-degree VR content. Fast rendering performance in testing. Tons of effects. Multicam editing. 4K and H.265 support.
Tagging and star ratings for media. Good audio tools. Cons: Motion tracking issues on one test PC. Occasional crashes in testing.
Uneven 360-degree VR implementation. Bottom Line: Pinnacle Studio is a fast, full-featured, near-professional-level video-editing application with support for 360-degree VR, 3D, and multicam edits. New color grading and four-point editing make it even more appealing, though our testing uncovered some instabilities. Pros: Lots of video effects. Good titling tools.
Trailer-like movie templates. Solid audio editing tools. Strong disc authoring. Fast rendering. Good stability. 360-degree media support. Cons: Not much help with difficult procedures.
Lacks import and organization tools. Extra costs and coded downloads for some video formats.
Bottom Line: Now with faster rendering, Movie Edit Pro offers solid stability, up-to-date support for 4K, 360-degree, and multicam editing, but it trails other video editing software in ease-of-use. Pros: Magnetic, trackless timeline. Superior organization tools, including libraries, ratings, tagging, auto analysis for faces, scenes.
Support for 360-degree footage and HDR. Multicam support. Fast performance. MacBook Touch Bar support. Cons: Nontraditional timeline-editing may turn off longtime editors. Can't import projects from previous versions without a third-party plug-in.
No stabilization or motion tracking for 360-degree video. Bottom Line: Apple's professional-level video editing software, Final Cut Pro X, brings a wealth of power in an interface simple for pros and consumers alike. Recent highlights include rich support for 360-degree content and improved stability. Pros: Inexpensive. Plenty of video effects. Good audio tools. Solid file format support, including H.265.
Compatible with 4K content. Burns DVD, Blu-ray, and AVCHD. Cons: Light on features. Outdated, unconventional interface. No 360 or 3D support. No motion tracking.
No direct output to social networks. Bottom Line: For less money than the competition, Nero offers a wide array of enthusiast-level video editing capabilities, but the interface is dated and it trails in support for new formats and techniques.
Pros: Beautifully simple interface. Color matching for consistent movie looks. Classy themes. Great chroma-keying tool. Lots of audio tools.
Theater feature shares movies to all your Apple gear. Cons: Not as flexible as some PC video editors. In the name of simplicity, some useful controls are missing. Does not support tagging. Lacks multicam or motion tracking capabilities.
Limited to two video tracks. Bottom Line: Apple's excellent entry-level desktop video editing application can turn your footage and photos into impressive productions.