Any suggestions for free video editing software for the PC? I’m doing some pretty straightforward edits so I don’t need anything fancy. Eg, Premiere would be way more than I needed.
VirtualDub is kind of unwieldy if you’re splicing sections together, though.
Windows Movie Maker comes free with Vista, I think. It might get the job done though I haven’t played with it much, as I prefer to use extremely expensive video editing software…
Also, Premiere may be overkill, but there’s probably a free trial if you want to try it. I think most/all of the Adobe CS stuff has 30 day trials.
The QuickTime media player can be used to edit video in a pinch, though I think most of the editing features you’ll want are in the Pro upgrade ($30).
Yeah that’s true – you can edit in Quicktime, although the interface isn’t set up for it. I think you basically select clips and then use copy/paste commands. A teacher in one of my video classes showed us how to do it, then I promptly forgot the specifics. Versatile little program, that.
If you’re still on XP, Pinnacle VideoSpin is better than that version of Windows Movie Maker. I’m not sure how it compares to the Vista version, which I’ve been told improves on the XP Movie Maker in many ways.
I always found that you can accomplish anything frame-by-frame with VirtualDub, Paint.NET, Audacity, and any free encoder as long as you have the patience. You’d essentially rotoscope all of your effects–even simple ones like text.