Video Software/Tutorial Making Question (+lots of screengrabs)

[Jaded]

Howdy y'all, apologies if this is in the wrong place- happy to have it moved somewhere more appropriate if it is!

Does anyone have any solid recommendations for free or cheap video editing software for making a build tutorial? I've been into photography for a pretty long time & have only more recently been getting into shooting video. I still have yet to get into the editing side of things so I'd really like to get a feel for it before I consider shelling out cash for better software.

I'm doing a frame-up build of a Surly Disc Trucker with a BBSHD & 14s7p bag-mounted battery setup for long distance eBike touring. While working on my bike I've been collecting a ton of detailed footage & have been strongly contemplating putting together a build video & tutorial or perhaps even a few tutorials on various parts of doing a frame-up build like this. I'm especially interested because it seems like there's not a whole ton of information out there yet for touring-specific builds, and that's really my jam, so I thought it might be something I could personally contribute to a bit.

Here's some random screengrabs from parts of the footage I've collected so far.

 

[lufihengr]

DaVinci resolve is a legit free option. Unless you want to produce HDR videos, use a resolution above 4K or use multiple GPU's for acceleration, it's solid. If you have a Mac, iMovie might also be enough.

Of course there' the usual suspects in the paid realm like Premiere, Vegas, Final cut(Mac) etc.

 

[AngryBob]

There are many, many.

Gonna hip you to a website that is to video on the PC as the Sphere is to ebikes.

Videohelp dot com. Also known as DVDHelp and VCDHelp. Been around 20 years, very, very good information.

Capture, edit, effects, sound, formats, etc. More than you will ever need to know. Complete list and reviews of numerous free programs.

 

[Jaded]

DaVinci resolve is a legit free option. Unless you want to produce HDR videos, use a resolution above 4K or use multiple GPU's for acceleration, it's solid.

DaVinci looks like it might be ideal for me as a beginner/just getting into it. It looks both decent & easy to use. Thanks!!
(I am using a Windows 10 PC, not a mac, BTW.)

Gonna hip you to a website that is to video on the PC as the Sphere is to ebikes.
Videohelp dot com. Also known as DVDHelp and VCDHelp. Been around 20 years, very, very good information.

I'll check them out at some point after I'm done my bike build! Thanks!! I'm uh, definitely not a video buff anywhere near as much as I am into bikes so I'm sure it'll take some knuckle-cracking for me to get into the wealth of information that's available in that realm :lol:

 

[Dauntless]

These guys might be more useful to you because they are NOT TV professionals. But I'll muddle in anyway.

When you get the free version you can keep, normally they can do very little compared to the packages you pay for. And that might be enough for you. DaVinci I understand to be permanently free, although a scaled down version. The free Premiere is a 7 day trial, but the full version.

The first concern with DaVinci is that a current version has a reputation of demanding a currently fast computer. And that includes that if you have a new computer today but you update your software, you'll eventually leave you computer behind and look at the spinning wheel a lot. If your computer is already several years old, it could be a problem from the start.

I know Premiere better than DaVinci, which I know has a good reputation. But it is known mainly for color correction, Premiere is supposed to be better for just your editing.

If you're going to buy, the DaVinci is $299. Premiere is a bit more complicated. You can go with Adobe Premiere Elements for $60 for the next few weeks rather than $100, or you can include Photoshop Elements at $90 for both. You'll like having Photoshop. You can do video effects with it. (Oh, don't use a wipe in any year past 1979. Video pros who read this are already laughing.) Elements are not quite the full subscription Pro versions, but you might never get past what you can do with it. Much cheaper.

https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere-elements/buying-guide.html

https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/free-trial-download.html

I don't know if the Elements has audio compression, easy enough to learn and very helpful, I think you need a plugin for DaVinci but I'm not sure. This brings up an important thing. You THINK you just want something simple, either of these can probably do more than you understand TODAY. But you don't want to start hitting your head on the ceiling too quickly. I did replays for the Anaheim Stadium Jumbotron, (Big Screen) and I'd play the OTHER TEAM chasing the ball in the outfield at more than 30 frames if the Angels got a hit, then I'd slow the runner down. If the Angels were fielding the ball it would be under 30 frames until the throw to first, which I'd speed up like a rocket. If you shot the guy on the bike off a jump, you'd like to let him hang in the air a bit, right? You'll start finding uses for these functions if you have them.

Oh, Lynda.com has some great videos on how to do lots of things and how to use lots of software. Local and county libraries often can give you a year free.

 

[HolgiB]

Most solutions out there (even the free one) are geared to somewhat semi-professional or even professional production.
This is true for things like DaVinci, OpenShot and the other stuff. Personally I like working with videos for private stuff (tour movies, VLOGs, Youtube) and have often used OpenShot: https://www.openshot.org/

It is available for a lot of platforms and I worked with it both on Linux and Win10 as well without issues. You are missing some sophisticated stuff such as solid GPU-supported codecs for export but its much easier to use without a big, steep learning curve.

 

[Jaded]

Most solutions out there (even the free one) are geared to somewhat semi-professional or even professional production.
This is true for things like DaVinci, OpenShot and the other stuff. Personally I like working with videos for private stuff (tour movies, VLOGs, Youtube) and have often used OpenShot: https://www.openshot.org/

It is available for a lot of platforms and I worked with it both on Linux and Win10 as well without issues. You are missing some sophisticated stuff such as solid GPU-supported codecs for export but its much easier to use without a big, steep learning curve.

Thank you for the tip! I'll check that out!!

 

[amberwolf]

Interestingly this thread came up (though I don't see why) when I was doing some searching on a problem with Openshot when I tried using it about a year ago.

Probably no fixes to be found here, as there aren't any (that can actually be used) from Openshot themselves or any of the users responding to the problem report I made
https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues/4620#issuecomment-1172765794
), but as the only existing thread discussing OS here on ES:

I only need it to create a single-still-frame-display video file of the music I compose so I can post it on Youtube (which doesn't have any options to post an audio-only file and just display a single-frame title screen for the entire length of the video, which is all I am doing with Openshot).

However, it won't use any audio device on my system, so I cannot preview the file to be sure the audio is positioned / timed / etc correctly (which it sometimes isn't, so I have to edit and re-render it). Because I use the system for a number of things including creating this music, it has multiple audio devices attached, each of which is setup for that specific usage, and has it's own speakers, volume settings (and/or controls), etc.

Those cannot be changed, disabled, etc., just to make OpenShot work correctly--it is not practical--but that was the only possible-to-do suggestion provided. An impossible suggestion was to change the device setting within Windows itself, for the specific application, but in Windows 10 there is no way to do anything like this (perhaps there is in 11, but I don't have that and wouldn't want it, as any form of system update will screw up or change things I need to work exactly the way they do now).

None of the audio devices have any form of any problem in any of the other programs they are used with on the machine, nor does Windows itself have any problem with any of them, so the problem is entirely within Openshot itself.

I have uninstalled, cleaned out all files/folder/settings/etc for it numerous times, and even tried newer and older versions, but it doesn't change the problem.

I can still create files with it...but since I have to render them first (which takes quite a while) then play them back in another program to verify everything, it's too time-consuming to deal with. I ended up putting the project on hold because I had gone back to work back then and was too worn out from that to go back to it...but I am enough better at this point that I'd like to give it another go.

Before I just try a completely different (free, preferably opensource) editor, does anyone have any suggestions for what I might do with / in OpenShot to fix it's problem? I expect there is nothing to be done at the user-end, that it would require rewriting it's code to correctly choose from and use one specific audio device on systems with more than one.