Whether you're editing home movies to send to family and friends, or you're planning your web video takeover of YouTube, it's important to have the right tools to edit your videos before you put them where the world can see. This week we're going to take a look at five of the best video editing tools, based on your nominations.
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OpenShot is a free, simple to use open-source video editor for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It is a good video editor for beginners to learn and train video editing skills. It is a good video editor for beginners to learn and train video editing skills. Five Best Video Editors. 12/04/11 11:00am. (Mac OS) Apple's consumer-end video editing package is so ubiquitous that you can tell if a video has been edited with iMovie just. Pixlr Editor was once available as a downloadable desktop app for Windows and Mac, but earlier this year its developer announced that the free photo editor would be going online-only.
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Earlier in the week we asked you which tools you used to edit video, regardless of what that video was intended for. Whether you're a semi-pro looking to show off your skills, or you just want to throw together a video for your YouTube subscribers, there are tons of great options. We couldn't possibly highlight the over two dozen nominees you offered, but here's a look at the top five.
Best Video Editing Tool?
Whether you're making professional-looking video for the web (like we showed you how in this…
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Update: The poll is closed and the votes are counted! Check the final standings in our Hive Five followup post to see who took top honors!
Most Popular Video Editor: Adobe Premiere Pro
Whether you're editing home movies to show the family over the holidays or you're getting …
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iMovie (Mac OS)
Apple's consumer-end video editing package is so ubiquitous that you can tell if a video has been edited with iMovie just by looking at the opening and closing screens and the type of cuts and swipes used over the course of the video. That said, a skilled video editor can make great looking videos with it, it's incredibly easy to use, and the drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to apply effects, titles, soundtracks, and other tweaks to your video and then sit back, preview it, and export it to burn to DVD, upload to YouTube, or save in HD for big-screen watching. iMovie is part of iLife, and ships on every Mac. If you don't have it, it can be purchased with the iLife suite for $49 USD.
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Sony Vegas Pro (Windows)
Sony Vegas Pro is pricy, starting at $599.95, but that price gets you serious power and professional-level features for the video editor that's looking to take their videos out of Windows Movie Maker and up to the next level. Vegas Pro offers Blu-ray disc authoring, editing tools for standard def, high definition, or even 3D video, support for multi-camera video editing, and support for more audio and video formats than you could possibly need. In addition to its video editing tools, Sony Vegas Pro also offers professional audio editing tools to match, and a drag-and-drop interface that makes getting started with the tool deceptively easy considering the power that's under the hood.
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Final Cut Pro (Mac OS)
Whether you prefer the newest version, Final Cut Pro X, or the previous 'classic' version before Apple's many changes to the product, Final Cut Pro has been a staple in video editing for years. The tool is considered by many to be the perfect bridge between consumer-level and professional-level video editing products, thanks to its easy-to-understand interface and powerful editing tools. Final Cut Pro has broad file format support for audio and video, multi-track editing that allows you to see all of your audio and video tracks in the same view, an media organization window that shows you all of your available video and audio clips in one view, a preview mode that lets you try your edits on for size before you commit them, a comprehensive clip manager, and more, in all resolutions, from standard def to HD and up to 4K. Power doesn't come cheap though, Final Cut Pro will set you back $299.99.
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AVID (Windows/Mac OS)
AVID Media Composer is a professional-level video editing tool, and has been used to produce more than a few big box office films, as well as music videos, TV shows, commercials, and everything in between. AVID Studio on the other hand is the home and pro-sumer version of the award-winning professional product. AVID Studio will set you back $169.99, where AVID Media Composer is a much priceier $2,499.00. Both products have more than enough power to get the job done, but the one you want will depend on what you're editing video for. AVID Studio is best suited to users looking to make home videos, produce home films or independent films (while getting some exposure to the professional toolset in AVID Media Composer), and need comprehensive media management and editing tools to help make their independent movies look as professional as possible. AVID Media Composer on the other hand is a video and audio editing powerhouse used for professional video production, with a feature set to match—one that includes all of the features of the other suites in the roundup.
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Adobe Premiere Pro (Windows/Mac OS )
Adobe Premiere Pro is part of the Adobe Creative Suite of design and media applications, but can be purchased stand-alone as Adobe Premiere Elements for $99, and Adobe Premiere Pro for $799.99. Despite its price tag, Premiere Pro is a video editing standard for many, and offers integration with other Adobe products, more video effects than you could possibly want, native file format editing (and, it's worth noting, supports a wealth of video, image, and audio formats without forcing you to convert first), 3D video editing, automatic color and image corrections, multi-camera editing, and more. Premiere Pro is a favorite among people making original mashups and creations from a collection of other video, but the tool is just as effective when it comes to edit your own creations.
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How to install vim in ubuntu. Now that you've seen the top five nominees, it's time to vote for the overall winner.
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What's The Best Video Editing Application?
This week's honorable mention goes out to Lightworks (Windows), a free, open-source, and incredibly powerful editing tool with remarkable file format support. Lightworks has professional-level tools and a steep learning curve, but if you're looking for an affordable option to help you make professional films, Lightworks has a lot to offer. It doesn't hurt that it's a favorite for professional video editors in and out of Hollywood.
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If none of the above meet your fancy, there's a great comparison guide at Wikipedia to all of these options and more to help you find the best video editing tool for you. Have something to say about one of the contenders? Want to state the case for one that didn't get enough nominations to make the list? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at [email protected], or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.
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Even if you can't afford to purchase photo editing software, you can still find free software to create and edit images. Some are developed by individuals, and some are feature limited or an earlier version of a more advanced program. In some rare instances, there are no strings attached, but most often you will need to provide information to the company by registering, or endure ads or nag screens.
Though these are all stand-alone applications you also might want to take a look at the free mobile apps from Adobe. They include:
Also don't forget there are also mobile apps from SketchGuru, Skitch, and a number of other Android and iOS imaging apps such as Instagram which gives you the ability to play with images by applying a variety of preset effects and filters to your images.
Finding the Best Photo Editing App for You
The key decision behind using any imaging application lies with what the requirements are for the task at hand. You need to closely research the product and get really clear on both the product's strengths and its weaknesses. Also, take the time to look at the work others have created with the product. For example, if you are looking to create simple graphics or to touch up family photos, then an application without a serious number of filters and effects may just fit the bill. On the other hand, if you want to do compositing and add effects then a limited feature set may not be ideal for your needs.
Also, it is important that you check out whether the application has been updated recently. A lack of updates is the first clue that this software may just be on its last legs. Also just doing a simple Google or Bing search around the application will tell you volumes. For example, Picassa, one of the apps mentioned in this piece has been withdrawn. That's the bad news. The good news is its feature set has been folded into Google Photos which is free.
GIMP for Mac OS XWhat We Like
What We Don't Like
GIMP is a popular open-source image editor originally developed for Unix/Linux. Often lauded as the 'free Photoshop,' it does have an interface and features similar to Photoshop.
Because it's volunteer-developed beta software, stability and frequency of updates could be an issue; however, many happy users report using GIMP for OS X without significant problems. GIMP is not compatible with Mac OS 9 and earlier.
Pinta
Pinta is a free pixel-based image editor for Mac OS X. One of the most interesting aspects of Pinta is that it is based on the Windows image editor Paint.NET.
Pinta offers the basic drawing tools that you'd expect from an image editor, as well as some more advanced features, such as layers and a range of image adjustment tools. These features mean that Pinta is also a viable tool for users looking for an application to allow them to edit and improve their digital photos.
Image Tricks
Image Tricks is a fun and easy to use free image editor for Mac OS X. It is an application that encourages experimentation and offers the ability for a wide range of effects to be combined and applied to pictures.
At $649, FontLab Studio opens up the whole gamut of type design, from designing a single font to crafting a whole typeface library. Html editor for mac. FontLab is expensive but is it worth it? Pros: • Imports and exports fonts with support for up to 65,535 glyphs in a wide range of font formats • Offers an extended toolset • Can be used for a wide range of tasks, from outline editing to TrueType manual instructing • Scriptable • Runs on Mac as well as Windows Cons: • Steep learning curve • Updates come rarely • Can be buggy • Documentation is less than satisfactory • Limited OpenType (no support for Arabic features, for example) • No native UFO file format support • Expensive 02. Native to Windows, FontCreator's feature set makes it suitable for professionals, with a straightforward interface making it accessible to users at any skill level. Boasting over 4.5 million downloads to date, FontCreator is a popular font editor among creatives Boasting over 4.5 million downloads to date, FontCreator is a popular font editor among creatives.
Image Tricks is an ideal application for less experienced users to achieve creative results, thanks to the range of filters and masks that are available. There is also a paid Pro version that offers more filters, though you can see the effects that they produce in the free version, without saving them.
GraphicConverter XWhat We LikeFree Video Editor For Mac
Free Open Source Video Editor For MacWhat We Don't Like
GraphicConverter is a multi-purpose graphics tool for converting, viewing, browsing, and editing hundreds of image types on the Macintosh platform. If there is a file format or image processing task that your existing software can't handle, chances are that GraphicConverter can do it if you're willing to tackle the learning curve.
GraphicConverter is a worthwhile tool to have on hand but needs some serious work in the usability department. The application is not free, but you can use the shareware without time limitation if you don't need batch processing features.
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