A good video editing program?
- Thread starter nikomas1
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well it all really depends on what exactly you're looking to do.
First of all, what did you capture the footage *with*. Fraps? You will probably want to cut it down to a more manageable kind of file (or codec). Go find VirtualDub. It's free and super powerful. I use it constantly for converting large capture files to smaller, encoded files. Especially if you're going to be putting these files online anywhere, you'll need to encoded it with Divx or Xvid or something, and virtualdub is free, easy, and ultra lightweight.
next you'll want some kind of nonlinear work environment for editing. Since you didn't mention what kind of computer you have, i'm going to assume it's a PC. In this day and age of software-swallow-software, you can't hardly go wrong with adobe. Since the entire suite is fully compatible with the rest of it's products, doing any kind of titling or graphic work in photoshop translates easily to Premier Pro, which is you best bet for all the cut, splice, chop and grunt work associated with the likes of multiple videos in a digital editing world. Plus AfterFX is your #1 special effects work environment.
your pipeline will look like this (raw)->premier->afterfx[optional]->virtualdub->Internet
So in short, if you're just looking to resize or cut a piece out of a video, Virtual Dub is all you need, but if you're looking for something to do titling, multiple video files, or anything more involved than trimming the front and back of a single video file, get premier pro.
First of all, what did you capture the footage *with*. Fraps? You will probably want to cut it down to a more manageable kind of file (or codec). Go find VirtualDub. It's free and super powerful. I use it constantly for converting large capture files to smaller, encoded files. Especially if you're going to be putting these files online anywhere, you'll need to encoded it with Divx or Xvid or something, and virtualdub is free, easy, and ultra lightweight.
next you'll want some kind of nonlinear work environment for editing. Since you didn't mention what kind of computer you have, i'm going to assume it's a PC. In this day and age of software-swallow-software, you can't hardly go wrong with adobe. Since the entire suite is fully compatible with the rest of it's products, doing any kind of titling or graphic work in photoshop translates easily to Premier Pro, which is you best bet for all the cut, splice, chop and grunt work associated with the likes of multiple videos in a digital editing world. Plus AfterFX is your #1 special effects work environment.
your pipeline will look like this (raw)->premier->afterfx[optional]->virtualdub->Internet
So in short, if you're just looking to resize or cut a piece out of a video, Virtual Dub is all you need, but if you're looking for something to do titling, multiple video files, or anything more involved than trimming the front and back of a single video file, get premier pro.
Fraps is a great program, but you might find a bit of a problem getting the videos it makes into certain other programs for editing.
http://www.cccp-project.net/ has a great codec pack for editing and viewing video, and it works well with virtual dub. a minute long fraps video (depending on resolution) can go from 600 megs to about 12 megs on my pc, and it plays a lot better with video editing software. If all you're doing is simple non-linear editing, though, compress it with vdub and drop it in windows movie maker. then to make it portable for the web again, run it through virtualdub a second time to make it an xvid or divx avi, or some sort of standard MPEG format.
this solution is all 100% free and legit.
Glad to help.
http://www.cccp-project.net/ has a great codec pack for editing and viewing video, and it works well with virtual dub. a minute long fraps video (depending on resolution) can go from 600 megs to about 12 megs on my pc, and it plays a lot better with video editing software. If all you're doing is simple non-linear editing, though, compress it with vdub and drop it in windows movie maker. then to make it portable for the web again, run it through virtualdub a second time to make it an xvid or divx avi, or some sort of standard MPEG format.
this solution is all 100% free and legit.
Glad to help.
As already pointed out, CinePaint and VirtualDub are probably your best free / open-source options.
If you only want to test them out however, see if Adobe still offers 30-day fully functional trial downloads for After Effects and Premiere Pro. They are probably both overkill and the learning curve is steep for what you want to accomplish, but if you can learn to use them, the two software packages combined provide you with amazing creative flexibility.
Another free program that you might have overlooked is one you already have - Movie Editor, which comes with Windows XP. If all you are planning to do is splice video, place them in order, add transitions between the splices and perhaps some title screens, then you already have in your posession a perfectly capable application sitting in your hard drive.
If you only want to test them out however, see if Adobe still offers 30-day fully functional trial downloads for After Effects and Premiere Pro. They are probably both overkill and the learning curve is steep for what you want to accomplish, but if you can learn to use them, the two software packages combined provide you with amazing creative flexibility.
Another free program that you might have overlooked is one you already have - Movie Editor, which comes with Windows XP. If all you are planning to do is splice video, place them in order, add transitions between the splices and perhaps some title screens, then you already have in your posession a perfectly capable application sitting in your hard drive.
One thing, Is there some easy guide of how to do or something like that? I'm not good at self learning.ldjosh said:
And crimson, Yeah but can windows MM cant compress stuff properly for like, Uploading on youtube. Because as it stands now a 4 second snip takes about 70MB (!!!!!)
That's pretty close to mine.ldjosh said:
@=Recording, @=Editing, @=Compression
Fraps > RAW AVI, All editing, sound & Modification in Premiere Pro CS3 > FINISHED DECOMPRESSED AVI, VirtualDub, compression with the Xvid Mpeg-4 or DivX Codecs. If it's still too big to go on the internet, off to Windows Movie Maker for WMV conversion > COMPRESSED AVI or WMV, Internet! [http://www.marriedtothesea.com/011307/internet-train.gif]
The decompressed stuff that I sometimes keep on my computer of 3Ds Max Animations are hugest of all of your puny Youtube Videos.
- Average Animation[li]600kB 3Ds Max Scene[/li]
[li]4-20MBSource Files for Animation (Sound files for synchronization, textures, images)[/li]
[li]420kBAverage Size of each rendered frame. Not so much, but it adds up[/li]
[li]1.26GBAmount of space 3000 frames (100 seconds of animation at NTSC 29.97 frames per second) takes up[/li]
[li]2GBDecompressed AVI from Premiere Pro[/li]
[li]60-250MBCompressed AVI from VirtualDub[/li]
[li]3.5GBAmount of junk that has to be deleted when all is said and done.[/li]
[li]PricelessThe wordless enjoyment derived from you being satisfied with your work and the emotion & happiness instilled in the viewing audience. Now you guys know my joy.[/li]
forgot about virtual dub, it's pretty good and works with most codecs you have installed, the only hold out is wmvcrimsondynamics said:
If its just a small montarge (I spelt that right?) windows movie maker is a nice free little tool but if you want to push the boat out and are willing to spend some cash Sony vegas and adobe premier are about the best your going to find you could even get free trial versions if you wish.
There are a number of free or trial wmv converters out there that you can download and try out.nikomas1 said:
Given what you said about requiring a guide, I can tell you none of the open-source or Adobe solutions are easy to use or particularly intuitive for that matter, especially if you are not used to this type of applications. That's another reason to consider Movie Maker - it is absurdly simple to use.
windows provides it's own WMV encoder. if you go adobe, the media encoder it has is full featured, but VirtualDub is still faster and more lightweight. VDub is you source for compression for youtube. And not to be confused, "Movie Editor" for xp is Windows Movie Maker.
@klc0100: It's montage. close.
@klc0100: It's montage. close.
I think Sony Vegas works great, especially after having experience with SonicFoundry stuff, it was really easy to pick up, you can do anything that you'd need to. Maybe try looking for a trial version, but if you get the cash I'd deff pick it up.