Tech Questions

[lola]

 Hi all! It's time to talk about technology! Let's crowdsource our knowledge and use this as a place we can connect to each other to figure things out.

For those of you have already decided on your editing software, what are you planning to use?

And for those of you just starting out,  For those of you just starting out, what hardware (Mac, PC, chromebook, ipad?) are you planning on using? Have you tried any editing software before? 

Here are some resources we shared last year.... let's update this list as we go! (We've also added a few specific tutorials for some of the vexercises...)

Here are a couple of lists of software options: 
Free
Full list with prices listed

FWIW, last year for the vexercises I (Lola) used Davinci Resolve and actually really loved it. It's free, and just as powerful as Premiere, but felt more intuitive to me. 

I've also heard good things about Wondershare Filmora as a somewhat affordable and intuitive first step video editing software. 

A few decent tutorials on YouTube: 
Excellent Davinci Resolve Tutorial
Another Davinci Resolve Tutorial
A whole tutorial playlist on Filmora 
LumaFusion Tutorial for Beginners

Also, there are some great affordable tools for screengrabbing and downloading (like, from YouTube).

4K downloader is stellar for getting HQ files from YouTube, though I'd recommending getting premium to get the 1080p HD files...
and Movavi is great for screencapturing things, well, playing on your screen

We can add to this list as we find more and get a sense of what software folks are using!

Comments

[extrapenguin]

I am living the Linux life, and I used kdenlive to do the vexercises last year! It is reasonably intuitive, though the clipping/selecting from larger sources is a touch tedious. My personal challenge this year is to use the more "advanced" features, like the frame-in-frame/cropping stuff, in at least the "basic" vexercises.

[alexseanchai]

…I cannot remember why I uninstalled Resolve, except that it was well before I got this laptop. Which is better specs than its predecessors.

Let's see if I do better with Resolve.

[hardboiledbaby]

I made one vid years ago, with Shotcut. I now have Vegas Pro 14. Alas, most of what I learned before has faded away and now I'm trying not to be intimidated by what feels like a pretty steep learning curve. It's probably too much program for a noob like me, but I shall give it a go :)

[seekingferret]

Lately I've been mixing and matching between Kdenlive and Resolve, depending on a few factors of the project.

[allheadybooks]

I’m using Premiere Pro (wife is a graphic designer & has the whole Adobe suite)! It is extra complicated and it took me a while to get a good workflow going—Lim’s tutorial videos were really useful for that, just watching her flip between windows and interact with timelines helped demystify it a bit.

[naye]

I'm using Adobe Premiere - I've been using Photoshop and Lightroom both for fandom/hobby stuff, so I found Premiere really intuitive. Since the last round of Vexercises I've figured out a few more techniques, but the nice thing with Premiere is that there's usually a tutorial around for exactly the thing I want to do. I still haven't done anything with masks - I feel like that's a next level skill, even if I'm decent at them in Photoshop at this point.

[nu_breed]

I started vidding last July on iMovie (hooboy I could never now, eeeesh), moved to FCPX and then Premiere in December last year which I really credit with pushing my vidding up a notch, I love it.

Because I'm exclusively vidding in CQL right now I have a master project set up with my WIPs and all the source which is partially fully clipped (I'm getting there - about halfway now). It means I can work on multiple timelines at a time and just flick between them.

I feel like I need to start pushing myself into learning some more challenging effects (like Naye above I really do want to get a handle on masks and blending but I'm also writing a thesis this year so time is a factor!)

Also, wow, why have I not been using 4K downloader? It's amazing, Lola, thank you!

[avawatson]

Thanks for this post! I'd seen 4kdownloader around before, but I got it on your recommendation finally. Does the free version not let you download 1080p though? I feel like it's been letting me download 1080p on the free version.

I'm using Adobe Premiere Pro, since I already have the creative suite for work. I found Adobe Premiere Rush software to be a lighter weight and more intuitive interface (I only taught myself how to vid over New Year's and I've only done like...three videos or so, including two edits that I only did in the last couple days) but it's definitely less powerful, as to be expected. It's all part of the same subscription suite though so...same level of annoying to obtain tbh. I don't have any other video editing experience really.

[nu_breed]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good app/website for ripping from You Tube to mp3? I tend to use dodgy sites and it would be great to have a more reliable means of ripping.

[shopfront]

Another one dropping thanks for the recommendations! It's been so long since I vidded and I wasn't sure quite where to start for software. I used to use iMovie ages ago, back before they stripped out the useful features to make it more friendly to first time users.

I remember I also used to rip DVDs and clip my source with separate pieces of software (although I never really figured out a good system for doing.) Do people still pre-clip as a general rule instead of importing the whole source? I'd welcome any software recs or tips for what works for other people if anyone has any to share. I'm currently trying out Davinci Resolve and I'm on Mac.

[amedia]

In case anyone else is in the same boat I am, I thought I'd share my journey through panic to joy!

Aaronantium did a mini-seminar on vid-making a while ago at a DC Slash house party (they're online, LMK if you want deets) (that's "DC" as in the city, not restricted to that universe), and recommended both Filmora and Resolve, with a slightly higher rec for Resolve, so I downloaded it, and when I decided to do the Vexercises, I unpacked it and installed it.

Well, it SAID it installed. But it wouldn't run, and gave me a lot of really weird error messages, until finally I figured out that it doesn't run on Windows 7.

Yes, I still have Windows 7. Look, I'm a medievalist by training. Also I'm saving up for a gaming computer.

I was panicking so hard that I forgot about Filmora. Then I remembered it, downloaded it and installed it and it opened right up quite happily! Yay!

TL;DR - if you're still running Windows 7, Filmora still works.

[nu_breed]

This isn't so much a tech question, more a process question (though I imagine it counts) but where do people get their music ideas from? I mostly have been using a combo of Spotify suggestions (Discover Weekly/Release Radar etc.) and Bandcamp but am wondering if there are other places I could be perusing.

[snycock]

I am using Davinci Resolve 17, but I'm really struggling to figure out how to make clips from the episode I am using. Most of the tutorial videos I have watched skip over the cut tab and go right to editing with the clips they already have. Does anyone have a link for a good tutorial on cutting clips out of a larger source?

[trickytricky]

I do vidding on my Mac and use Final Cut Pro X. I tried out Premiere Pro waaaay back when (back in the days when you could actually...buy it, not just borrow it on an expensive monthly subscription basis...), and the learning curve on the rendering/technical side was just too steep for me to have fun with it. FCPX I've found to be way more user-friendly and intuitive and the built-in effects/features are pretty awesome with it.

(Happy to chat more about it as an option if anyone is shopping around/curious for more details.)

[salamandras]

I'm not sure where to ask this, it's more of a organization or process question.

How do people organize clips, or do people organize clips before beginning a project? I just started, and my first inclination was to make a clip library of similar things before I started putting things on the timeline, which was frankly overwhelming, but I imagine building a library of well labeled clips would be so useful.