When you want to make a strong impression, there’s nothing quite 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 powerful video editing software becomes clear. The software must be usable by professionals and nonprofessionals alike, and it needs to keep up with newer formats such as HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding), HDR, and VR. It also must work with 4K video, since common devices are now capable of producing 4K content and sometimes even higher resolutions.
Increasingly, tools trickle down from professional-level software to the consumer category. Multitrack editing, motion tracking, and advanced color grading have all made the leap. This trend is a boon to nonprofessional movie editors and vloggers, since the more-consumer-oriented software tends to simplify procedures that are complex in the pro-level software. It also means you’ll have more familiarity, should you move up to a professional application. In another plus for consumers, features that, in the pro world, are relegated to separate apps for motion graphics and color grading are often included in one package at the consumer level, making for a more integrated editing experience.
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.
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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 place a blur over the face of someone you don’t want revealed in your video, or to display a text box next to a moving object. You mark the object you want to track, specify the effect or text, and the app takes care of the rest, following the marked object.
Motion tracking 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 (even including multipoint tracking) though several others now include the capability.
Does the Software Support 4K Video?
Support for 4K video source content has become fairly standard in video editing software, and pro software already supports up to 8K, which isn’t practical unless you’re running a full-size movie theater. The support for 4K formats varies among the consumer 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, mirrorless cameras, 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, but there are still a few holdouts.
If you plan on working with 4K video content, choose a video editing application capable of creating files (See Gathering Speed section below).
How Can You Edit Video on a PC?
None of the extras matter if an app can’t do the most basic editing tasks. At this point, all of the products included here do a good job of letting you join, trim, and split video clips. Most also provide extensive tutorials, help, and guided editing tools. You can make use of special effects such as animated transitions, picture-in-picture (PiP), chroma-key (often known as green screen), and filters that enhance colors or apply creative effects and distortions. With most products, you can add a multitude of timeline tracks that accommodate video clips, effects, audio, and text overlays.
Some video editing applications now include seamless transition tools. Picture a scene showing people at a beach, and suddenly the sky zooms in and you’re in Rome or Paris, but it looks like you’re in the same place because the transition glued the two scenes together using the sky. There are plenty of other examples of seamless transition; this magnificent video shows a good selection of them and is partly responsible for starting the trend.
What Are Color Grading and LUTs?
One of the capabilities that has made its way into consumer-level video editing software is more-detailed color grading. Color wheels, curves, and histograms give editors control over the intensity of every shade. Related to this is support for LUTs (lookup tables), also known as CLUTs (color lookup tables). 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 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 action cameras such as the GoPro Hero9 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 throws in color correction for underwater footage. Magix Movie Edit Pro Premium includes the third-party NewBlue ActionCam Package of effects.
Titles That Zing
I’ve been seeing a lot of attention paid to creating title effects in the applications recently. 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 also includes 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, and Corel followed suit with a similar tool in VideoStudio. 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.
