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Aug 12, 2011 Video Editing: Fun, Creative, Easy With the price of basic camcorders falling to less than $100 and the inclusion of video recording capability in many still digital cameras, it’s now easier than ever to record video. Even better, you can now have a lot of fun assembling those video clips into a video that includes music, narrations, titles, special effects and more. To do this, you need a video editor. Although simple video editors may be included with your video camera, we recommend using an editor that can make it easy to create a terrific video from your clips and that also has enough features to allow more advanced editing as you gain experience.
One such editor is VideoStudio Pro X4 (Corel, www.corel.com, $49.99). The program includes three ways to archive and/or share videos: burn a DVD directly from your digital video camera, use Instant Projects to quickly create a complete movie, or use the VideoStudio editor to fully control how your movie looks. The program can also create fun slide shows, and–even better--supports HD from transfer to burn, including burning Blu-ray discs. First you need to transfer your videos into your computer (the program helps with this job). For a quick edit, just use Instant Projects, choose a design template for your selected video clips and burn your movie. The Instant Projects module also offers a multiple overlays feature, which takes the first clip from your movie to automatically create a cool opening sequence, complete with music and motion. For the maximum in editing flexibility, use VideoStudio Editor. Here you select the scenes you want and, if desired, choose a template. Then trim individual clips for time or content, select transitions, add music, sound effects and narration, choose from a wealth of special effects, and add a title and end credits if you want. The Timeline display lets you trim audio to match the scene length and adjust the volume of music and narration separately. When finished, burn your project as a DVD movie, complete with menus, chapters and such. An amazing feature is the inclusion of SmartSound Moods and Quicktracks, which offer easy selection and matching of background music and the ability to control individual musical layers. Don’t like the drums? Reduce their volume or take them out without affecting the other instruments. Another new feature allows direct online uploading of your productions to Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and other online sharing sites or transfer to your iPad, iPod, smart phone or other portable video devices. Other new features include stop motion animation for creating your own animated features, 3D movie creation from your 2D movie (glasses included) and enhanced templates for quick and easy movie creation. There’s a learning curve associated with some of the advanced features, but help is available from tool tips, online and web tutorials and forums. You may need to spend some time learning the advanced features, but the results will be well worth your efforts. |
