Editing Software What free software do yous recommend?

[Shakmeister5000]

Hi there, I’m not too sure if this thread had been covered before? What free video editing software do you people recommend on the computer?

I’m on a really tight budget and have been using my phone to do the filming and editing. I’d like to use my laptop to edit the videos that way all the footage I took doesn’t take up most of my phone’s storage space. I use CapCut app on my phone to edit the videos and I am very impressed with the capabilities considering it’s free in the App Store. I’d like to take my videos to the next level.

Any recommendations I will be happily to try out

thanks

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

I did a lot of work on Movie Maker years ago and if I had to go free for computer use that is at least an option I would consider

 

[Shakmeister5000]

Awesome! Thanks for the recommendation I’ll definitely give it a try. It’s quite soul destroying when recording a video then it stops and the phone says the memory is too full lol

 

[MattCommand1]

I like free stuff just like anyone else but giving yourself even a small budget will open up a lot more options. IN the world of laptops or PCs, looking for "free" software that actually works well is going to be very tough.

I think someone said the Davinci Resolve is free but then I hear that the hardware requirements is a bit stiff to run it. But even if Davinci Resolve is "free" do you have sufficient hardware to run it? I don't think most laptops can do very much video editing efficiently unless they are smaller projects.

 

[Shakmeister5000]

Thanks! What sort of price range would you recommend if I was to buy a video editing software?

Times hard at the moment in the UK with everything on the rise especially for fuel

 

[Wild Flowers]

I recommend Vita or Capcut, they seem pretty user-friendly and they give a good variety of tools.

 

[Shakmeister5000]

I recommend Vita or Capcut, they seem pretty user-friendly and they give a good variety of tools.

I’m using CapCut at present. Really good as I record all my footage on my phone and using the same device to edit with CapCut

 

[TCC learncanva4yt]

I love ShotCut video editor and it's a free open source editor for windows, mac & linux. I found it easy to get started AND easy to grow with as I got better at editing.

 

[Shakmeister5000]

I love ShotCut video editor and it's a free open source editor for windows, mac & linux. I found it easy to get started AND easy to grow with as I got better at editing.

I need to give ShotCut a try as I’m planning on using my laptop to edit videos soon as my phone’s memory is only 64gb

 

[Karo & Miri]

DaVinci Resolve requires some hardware, but as long as you don't film in 4k its not too bad. The software is amazing though, it can literally do anything the expensive cut programs do, just takes a while to learn.

 

[TCC learncanva4yt]

I need to give ShotCut a try as I’m planning on using my laptop to edit videos soon as my phone’s memory is only 64gb

It really quite simple to pick up. I looked up ShotCut tutorials to figure out

how to set it up with sizing (I was a beginner I had no idea)
how to cut clips (aka cut segments out)
how to size & position clips
how to adjust audio

Then overtime I've slowly figured out other things.

Everything is much gathered around the "filter" button. You can also apply a filter to a whole track or mute an entire track which is really helpful (at least for me).

 

[MattCommand1]

I love ShotCut video editor and it's a free open source editor for windows, mac & linux. I found it easy to get started AND easy to grow with as I got better at editing.

I never heard of ShotCut before but I am going to download it just to see it for myself. I use Filmora 11 but always like to see what options are out there.

 

[TCC learncanva4yt]

I never heard of ShotCut before but I am going to download it just to see it for myself. I use Filmora 11 but always like to see what options are out there.

I love ShotCut. After I decided I needed to try sometihng new (after OpenShot was being so laggy on my computer), I tried a few different ones and my eye balls were bulging out of my head. I finally heard someone talking about ShotCut and when I opened it up I thought well it's a BIT different than OpenShot, but the main layout looks similiar I think I can get this pretty easily. So I spend about 6 weeks getting to know it. I would CUT the main video in ShotCut and then do my fancy edits in Open Shot until I got to the point where I knew ShotCut and didn't need OpenShot anymore. I've only opened that one up once when I was doing a tutorial and wanted to share green screen effect in both programs.

 

[MattCommand1]

DaVinci Resolve requires some hardware, but as long as you don't film in 4k its not too bad. The software is amazing though, it can literally do anything the expensive cut programs do, just takes a while to learn.

I tried DaVinci Resolve and one thing I found frustrating is the timeline cursor is in the middle and stays there (if I remember correctly). And there were two timelines, one at the macro level and one at the micro level. It was tough for me to get into because it is a big departure from what I am used to.

But DaVinci Resolve certain looks like it has a lot of capabilities but I couldn't overcome my frustrations with the very different user interface.

 

[TCC learncanva4yt]

Timeline cursor can be turned off & off the middle in ShotCut. I actually alternate between the two depending on what I'm doing. There is one quirk I don't like is sometimes when you put a clip on the track the time line and clip jumps towards the right and I wish it would stay where I had it. BUT if I'm thinking ahead and keyboard shortcut it to the middle while putting the clip there and then undo that shortcut to turn it off.

 

[AndrewGrey2]

Hi! I join other people's advice and want to say that there are actually a lot of free video editing tools even for budget computers! There is a lot of content about it on youtube! a lot of different videos with tutorials on free editing programs. there are entire playlists with useful information!

 

[dbbc96]

for me, I just started out, but am using imovie (working on a mac) to do most of the video stuff. also testing out a few audio programs that are free. So far not too bad but may look as i get more in depth.

 

[DevilByTheTale]

I used Shotcut years ago on my other channel. The good is that it is relatively easy to learn and is good for quick editing. The bad is that it wasn't stable and was an absolute resource hog. Video render times were ridiculously long, even for 5-10 minute videos. It was incredibly frustrating losing work due to the editor freezing or crashing.

From there I switched to Davinci Resolve upon recommendation and haven't looked back. It may look intimidating, but it is still relatively easy to learn and intuitive. The software is constantly being worked on and has become a film industry standard. Because of that, there are plenty on tutorials on how to use it. The free version is incredibly powerful, and you'd probably only want the paid version if you were doing professional grade work. Here is an article explaining the differences between the two: https://blog.fmctraining.com/blog/davinci-resolve-free-vs-studio

For reference, the hardware I'm using is a Ryzen 2700X, 32GB ram, and a GeForce 1660 Super. I've had the CPU for 4 years, and it was a huge upgrade for editing. I don't know what the price is now, but I believe it was less that $300 when I got it. Also don't know what the modern day equivalent would be as I haven't had a need to upgrade. As for resource use, Resolve ran way better as was more stable.

 

[TheCaptainJJ]

I find Davinci Resolve a nice program to use for my videos.

Use to be able to edit on a laptop before it got over used due to it not being able to handle streaming very well, on the desktop I have no issues with it!