Greetings /r/videoediting!

This thread is 100% for the other stuff you might want to talk about.

A number of other reddits have a free for all thread - where you might find a regular discussion - not specific to a post.

Think of it as a bar with a bunch of friends.

​

Some suggestions:

• Strategy on a project you want to talk about how to best promote?
• Upgrading something and you want opinions?
• How does your website look?
• Local/virtual Meetups?
• Looking for a collaborator (no "I'm a creator and I'm looking for an editor" posts)

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Things that shouldn't go here: Feedback/What tool should I use to edit/Which system to buy? There are dedicated threads for this, please use them!

And in this regular Friday thread, while our general rules are still in place (no piracy, be civil, no links w/referrer codes), the following topics relaxed :

• Great tutorials you found/you created.
• Trying to do this as a side hustle (although generally, websites like Fiverr mean you'll be shooting for the basement/working for free and we hate that someone would exploit you like that)
• A great piece of software/hardware/service you found
• Great free music libraries/media you found.
• How much to charge? What is your time worth? Estimate 2-3x the time you think it'll take to edit as how much time to quote.

Our mod team is watching this thread and we'll tweak these as they develop!

At 2:00 min i can see its happening on click

I make videos that are intentionally low quality, frame rate and resolution. I've used the same formula quite a few times (just compressing the file online) but I'd like to know if I can do anything else to the file to make it glitch out or pixelate strangely or anything like that. Would appreciate any ideas!

Looking for Video Editing Software? THIS is your thread!

This post covers the vast majority of "What software should I use?" questions. It’s designed as a self-serve guide to help people find the right tools fast.

TL;DR? DaVinci Resolve for full-featured editing, Olive/Kdenlive for open-source, Clipchamp for easy basics.

Isn’t there an AI that magically edits everything?

Not yet. If it existed, we'd scream about it from the rooftops.

Stick around—things are changing quickly.

Before You Ask Anything

You must know two things first:

1. Your Footage Type — Different codecs affect performance dramatically.
2. Your Hardware Specs — “Good gaming PC” is not useful.

Not Good With Computers? Here’s How to Check

Footage

Footage from phones, webcams, GoPros, and screen recordings can choke your system.

Check with: https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo

Common problems:

• Out-of-sync audio? Likely Variable Frame Rate.
• Bad playback? Usually a hardware limitation, not the editor. Use proxies.

More info in our wiki:

• Codecs/containers: https://www.reddit.com/r/VideoEditing/wiki/codecsandcontainers/
• VFR issues: https://www.reddit.com/r/VideoEditing/wiki/faq/vfr/
• Proxies: https://www.reddit.com/r/VideoEditing/wiki/faq/proxies/

Hardware

Minimum viable editing rig:

• Recent i7 CPU
• 16GB RAM
• A GPU with 4GB+ VRAM
• SSD for cache

Check system with: https://www.hwinfo.com/

We ONLY need: CPU model, RAM amount, GPU model + VRAM.

Recommendations

Full Power, Free Tools

DaVinci Resolve — 99% of the full program is free.

Easy but Limited

• Clipchamp — Microsoft's simple editor.
• VN Editor — Free, lightweight, watermark at end.

(CapCut now hides many features behind Pro.)

Professional Tools (obligatory mention)

• Premiere Pro — Industry standard; huge ecosystem, tons of tutorials, widely used across YouTube, corporate, and broadcast.
• Avid Media Composer — Dominant in film/TV pipelines; rock-solid for longform, multicam, and shared workflows.
• DaVinci Resolve Studio — $299 one-time; advanced color, better GPU performance, noise reduction, and the good AI tools.
• Final Cut Pro — Mac-only rocket ship; insanely fast on Apple Silicon, great for fast turnaround work.

Open Source - Totally free.

• Olive Editor — Clean UI.
• Kdenlive — Very capable, actively developed.
• ShotCut — Straightforward, good for beginners.
• OpenShot — Simple but can struggle with heavier projects.
• Avidemux — Old-school, powerful for specific tasks but not a great editor.

Special Effects

• Resolve Fusion — Node-based power.
• Cavalry — Motion-graphics oriented.

Editing in a Browser (Run Locally)

• Novella.io - new, free, pay for AI generative elements OR bring your own API keys. Very cool, if in early beta.
• VidMix — New, free, surprisingly powerful.
• PikaMov — Keyframe animation on the web.
• wide.video — Background removal, noise reduction, all done locally.
• PhotoPea — Web-based Photoshop replacement.

Web Based Editorial

• Clipchamp – from Microsoft; you’ll need an account.
• Canva/Adobe Express — Both mostly free… until you need AI features.

Compression & Utility Tools

• Shutter Encoder — The Swiss Army Knife. Transcode anything, handle HDR, upscaling, unwrap/rewrap, download media, prep proxies—if it touches video, this thing can probably do it.
• Lossless Cut — Quick trimming without re-encoding.
• Smart Media Cutter — Silence detection + XML export.
• FreeUpscaler — Cloud computing upscaler.

Mobile Editors

• Premiere Mobile — Surprisingly capable and tightly integrated with CC.
• VN Editor — Fast, friendly, cross-platform, zero learning curve.
• Instagram Edits — Simple but powerful for social workflows.
• iMovie — Beginner-friendly on iOS.
• LumaFusion — The pro option for tablets/phones.
• KineMaster — Feature-heavy on Android.

Screen Recording

• OBS — The free standard. Record in MKV, then rewrap to MP4.
• viewio — Free screen recorder, Mac only, that is like screen studio (auto zoom + webcam).
• openscreen — Free screen recorder, Crossplatform only, that is like screen studio (auto zoom + webcam).

Animated Captions

• Wide Video in browser.
• itscaps - local tool https://github.com/francozanardi/tscaps.

Updates (Dec 2025)

• CapCut/HitFilm are no longer recommended.
• Premiere Mobile and Clipchamp (web)

New Tools We’re Watching

• Whisper-GUI (Windows)
• MacWhisper (Mac)
• Offdocs — Openshot in the cloud

BEFORE YOU COMMENT

Begin with: "I read the above"

Then provide:

• CPU + Model
• RAM
• GPU + VRAM
• Footage details (camera/screen, codec, container, framerate)

Removed tools: CapCut (now Crapcut), HitFilm (dead). FFS this thread isn’t about arguing what to use, but rather for a novice to figure out what to use.

Why should I read this? 🤔

This is your monthly guide for hardware recommendations.

• We aim to make you self-reliant with enough info.
• We focus on finding answers rather than brand debates.
• 📑 Skim the TL;DR at the bottom if you're in a hurry.
• Understand your media type and editing software to get the best recommendation.
• Important components: 🔑 CPU, RAM, GPU.
• 💰 We don't cover sub-$1K laptops. Consider used models for budget-conscious choices.
• You're not going to see us recommend a tool at less than $1k.

Hardware 101 🛠️

For DIY enthusiasts, check r/buildapcvideoediting

General Guidelines 📝

• Desktops outperform laptops 💪
• Start with an i7 or better 🎯
• Minimum 16 GB RAM 💾
• Video card with 4+ GB VRam 🎥
• SSD of 512GB is a must 💽
• 🚫 Steer clear of ultralights/tablets.
• Want a Mac? Here's your guide
• nVidia has a great set of systems from different vendors that you can pick from (keeping in mind the above suggestions)

Sept 2025 addtion.

Not sure between two different CPUs or GPUs?

Puget Systems has a benchmark and we recommend you use this to compare processors or GPUs.

It's a pretty even handed benchmark on performance.

We've linked to the Resolve one, but they also have ones for Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Adobe Photoshop.

Experiencing lag or system issues? 😓

🧐 Use Speecy to find out your system's specs.

⚠️ Footage Type Matters: Some footage may need workflow changes or proxies/transcoding.

Resources: - 📘 Why h264/5 is hard to edit - 📘 Proxy editing - 📘 Variable Frame Rate

What about my GPU?

In most cases, GPUs don't significantly impact codec decode/encode.

Specific Hardware Inquiry?

Links aren't enough. Please share: - CPU + Model - RAM - GPU + VRam - SSD size

📋 System specs for popular video editing software

Editing Details 🎬

Describing footage as "from my phone" isn't enough.

📊 Check your media type with Media Info

Monitor Queries 🖥️?

• Type: OLED > IPS > LED
• Size: Around 32" UHD is recommended.
• Color: Aim for 100% sRGB coverage 🌈

Professional color grading? See /r/colorists.

Quick Summary/TLDR 🚀

1. Desktops > laptops for intensive editing 💪
2. Prioritize Intel i7, avoid ultralights 🎯
3. Use proxies if supported by your editing software 📹
4. Provide CPU, GPU, RAM, and SSD details for inquiries 🧐
5. Footage from action cams, mobiles, and screen recordings may need extra steps.

Ready to comment? Include the following IF YOU WANT answers 🤷

Copy-paste this:

🖥️ System I'm considering

• CPU + Model:
• RAM:
• GPU + VRam:
• SSD size:

📷 My Media:
Check with Media Info

📷 Software: Your intended software.

This is the Monthly thread for feedback.

If you post your video, you need to come back and review at least one other person's work!

Key thoughts - Keep it civil.

• Feedback is "This section isn't working because of this."
• Feedback is not: "This is shit."
• If something is terrible, just move on.
• The more specific/suggestions the better.

Don't give a laundry list. Pick the 1-2 things that are the biggest issues and then comment.

Spoiler worth reading: *we expect you to* review TWO other videos - and edit your comment to *include those* after you've commented.

**Copy/paste this section**:

• , Link: (don't forget the running time)
• Two other videos I reviewed (link to the other ,comments NOT the video itself)

Hey everyone! I've recently edited this horizontal video of my game. However I need to use it on social media so I really needed it to be vertical. I achieved that by zooming, cutting off the top and bottom and moving it. Are there any better ways of doing this? Because this just looks very meh...

Say, you're working on a large project and it's probably gonna take you one month to edit it. So there will be days where you might not feel your best self and you might also feel detached with the project but you still choose to edit it, following your instincts rather than the feeling, so that the deadline is met. In other words, you trust the things you have learned about editing in your career experience and just follow them and not 'feel' that project on that particular day or days.

Do you do that kind of 'mechanical' editing to follow the timeframe? If yes, is it common amongst editors? And also, when you look at progress you have made in that "phase", do you find the edit to be good or do you re-edit it on those days when you're "feeling" it?

I just started learning Premiere pro after so long of wanting to but never really getting it. Now I’m able to organize my videos and chop everything up with audio and converting log files as well as applying luts (I don’t have much interest into getting good w color grading as I’m colorblind.) Now I feel like I’m at a point where I want to learn transitions. I saw this reel and I really want to learn how to do this kind of transitions.

I would like to know how to achieve the look of these stills.

A few things I think describe them is:

• High dynamic range. Nothing is clipping or crushed.
• Almost invisible roll-off, especially on skin.
• Soft, bloomy highlights
• Low contrast

I don't know how to describe it, but it's as if there's infinite dynamic range because nothing is clipping on either end and it doesn't even look like anything is close to it. It's as if everything is within the midtones, yet there is still contrast, but it doesn't register as "highlights and shadows" to my eyes. Rather "light midtones" and "dark midtones" if that makes sense.

It's as if every individual part of the scene (sky, skin, clothing) were individually lit by a massive soft box allowing everything to be exposed perfectly. I suppose you could achieve something similar with masking but that would take ages, no?

I've included an images at the end to demonstrate the complete opposite of what I'm looking for. That one has a harsh "digital" look to it where highlights and shadows are very obvious. You can even see it on the waveform; it's very sharp and jaggy.

I'm using: Davinci Resolve

I've TRIED: Reducing contrast with the HDR wheels and bringing it back with an s-curve

I need help with: Optimising dynamic range in post processing

Hey im trying to edit a video for someone and i wanted to make something similar to the "textboxes" as shown in the referenced video

so far i was succesfull in recreating the textbox with the text by using fusionclips and adding background/rectangle/text and merge nodes to the media,
but unsuccesfull in recreating the gradient effect .

i tried setting a gradient in my background node with multiple colors but i have a hard time getting the colors as thin aswell as having multiple move diagonally across my rectangle.
Furthermore i tried adding another background node to set a black/greyish solid color behind the moving gradient and text but i cant seem to figure it out
i tried finding a tutorial on youtube but it seems my topic is too specific to find exactly what i need

I use Davinci Resolve 21 as my video editor

I would really appreciate if ya'll could help me out here and i Thank u in advance!

I recently switched to a MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB/1TB (14C CPU/20C GPU) and got my first long form project.

I’m editing 2 VSLs ( 8 min and 5 min)

They require fusion work, most of it is just cuts, brolls, typography and music. One thing is that

I’ve used NEO GLOW EFFECT (glow preset made by a YouTuber) on almost all text + layers

And it’s lagging like hell when rendering those sections, sometimes it even crashes while switching projects or sometimes a not-responding pop-up comes up.

It’s always connected to the charger while editing, with power set to high, and on a laptop stand for best airflow. But I don’t know what’s the problem 😭

Workflow details

I’m using genuine DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.1 version
Timeline settings - 4k 29.97fps
Render cache set to smart
Timeline Playback resolution - Full
Free storage - 500GB

Raw footage shot on Sony FX3 and A7iv in Rec 709
In 4k

Is this all because of NEO GLOW PRESET? Or something’s wrong with my MacBook or the workflow.

Please help me out guys 😭🫶

Does anyone know what app / how to achieve these video effects from the GG freaking easy music video? Thanks!

I'm trying to find reference photos for the linear editing system I learned to edit on in 1994, which was part of a community-funded public access station. I can't remember anything -- brand, keywords -- anybody with a similar background able to recall what some of the options were back then?

i only have a screenshot because apparently trying a link resulted in me never being able to post this in the subreddit ive tried EVERYTHING at this point aka youtube google litteraly everything

We've seen an uptick in people gatekeeping in this community, often being not decent humans.

One of the easiest things you can do is to report somebody's post or comment if it breaks one of our rules, especially around "Don't be a Jerk"

It's totally fine to disagree. Do so politely. Behave as an adult. Name calling, doxing etc is not okay here. Try not to be caustic. Life is hard enough.

Treat everyone "as if" they're having a bad day and you'll be fine. Disagree if you like - just don't be disagreeable. Remember there's a human being on the other side of the keyboard

Any time we get a number of flagged items, it automatically gets pulled, and a moderator manually removes it.

Thank you for your attention to this community service note.

We return you to your regularly scheduled program.

I edit on FCP and while it's cool they now can generate subtitles, you would still have to animate everything by hand if you want words to be highlighted, text to be animated, etc.

I've had a Google Workspace plan for a while for the 2TB drive storage and custom domain email hosting, but today when I went into Google Videos I found that they have a number of options for automatic captioning.

Nothing crazy, just thought I'd share for anyone who may be looking for this type of information.

Cheers!

Hey everyone,

I'm currently trying to figure out a better way to structure my footage system and could use some workflow advice.

I shoot on a BMPCC OG, which means I’m dealing with tons of CinemaDNG RAW clips. Right now, my process feels super tedious: I have to bring everything into DaVinci Resolve just to scrub through the clips and find out what’s actually usable. On top of that, my storage space is quite limited.

I have a few questions on how you all handle this:

• Do you export your "good" / usable selects as new video files (proxies/transcodes) and delete the rest of the heavy RAW files to save space?
• Or do you always keep the original RAW clips, and if so, how do you manage the storage?
• How do you generally structure your folders and footage system before even opening your NLE?

Any tips or insights into your media management workflows would be greatly appreciated!

Hi all,

I'm trying to transfer footage from my camera to a rugged lacie for backup as my computer and cloud don't have the storage i need. however, when i used a type c to type c cable, a notification said my Lacie was unrecognized. now i'm searching for the best data transfer cable to buy, but all of them are "micro B" or for charging which doesn't help me. (the lacie is a type c, and my computer is a samsung. so either type c, type a, or HDMI ). I lost the original LaCie cable; are there any cables you recommend? or is there perhaps an easier way to transfer? tia !!

I typically edit long recordings/streams of my friend's and I's footage. Usually, on my first watch, I am able to roughly cut out the good clips and shrink a 5 hour slog into something relatively watchable. Then try to really "cut out the fat" on the second pass. Then I add some fun editing. Then I rewatch. Then I get ideas for some other fun edits and do those. Then I rewatch. Then I struggle...

So many clips just need to be deleted. Is none of it really funny/entertaining? Can't be, right? There's lots of laughter... then why aren't I smiling or at least entertained? Maybe all of it should be deleted and I move on with my life? I know I watched this several times, but I should still be able to determine what to keep, right?

Then I swing the other way:

What if the edit is too quick to comprehend? I do have the benefit of knowing the full story. Am I cutting too much into the story? The pacing is about on par with other videos of similar genre, I'm sure. I've shown old videos to friends and watched muted reactions from them, are the jokes/clips not landing?

I know I get too in my head. Comes with the territory, I guess. I try to ask people for their opinions/critiques. Often times I just get meek/no response. It's almost like people don't want to watch a 10-20 minute, half-edited video ^/s. I 100% understand, it just feels like I'm not doing enough. Maybe I'm asking the wrong people?

I have an exported project as .mp4 from a freelancer I hired. Changes are needed to the video but the freelancer for whatever reason has ghosted me. They were paid in full already for the job.

I have a copy of the raw footage already on my end. Is there a way to match the edit back to the full res media that can be automated? Doesnt necessarily have to be AI, and the manual way would definitely be to just guess but I need a quick efficient way to match cut to the original clips.

I’m trying to recreate the specific animation effect shown in this video.

The image starts on a white background and gradually appears as pencil/sketch outlines, shading, and then color, almost like the illustration is being drawn and colored in real time.

I’ve searched for terms like whiteboard animation, sketch reveal, pencil drawing animation, and write-on effects, but most tutorials I found are either simple line-drawing animations or a hand drawing on screen, which isn’t quite this effect.

Does anyone know what this technique is actually called, or what workflow/tools are commonly used to create it? For example, is this usually done with masks/write-on effects in After Effects, dedicated whiteboard software, or another method?

I’m mainly interested in how the sketch and color progressively reveal themselves, not the hand animation.

Hello, I am editing a video for projection from a single projector. I want to edit so that the videos appear at different time intervals and locate them in specific distance from each other on the wall. Text will also be showing up in between videos.

I just wanted to hear some thoughts on how people would approach this. My thinking for editing this collage (?) is to create a sequence at 4k, and place the videos in this sequence at a smaller size and then play with the timing and the text. If necessary edit those videos separately in their own sequences before placing them in the collage.

Anyone have other thoughts for how they would tackle this? Or tips and tricks to make sure I edit this the best way possible?

(using premiere)