Does anyone know of any good digital video editing programs? Need more than a non-linear editing application.

Question

I want to be able to add special effects (like making my friend's eyes look like they are just blue lights) and to remove identifying background details like store signs and license plates by blurring them out or pixellating them or just putting a black box in front of them or whatever. Is anyone aware of any software that will allow me to do this? When I search on "digital video editing" all I ever find is non-linear editors which I already have. I need video effects editors that let me do more than just add a title or transition effect. I need to be able to modify frame contents. I don't a huge budget so the cheaper the better. Free would be great, but I'd be happy to pay for something that will allow me to do what I want to do. Thanks in advance!!!

Answer 1

I recommend the Pinnacle Studio10 program. To block out things or put blue dots on the eyes of your friend, you would use an overlay title and use drawing tools instead of the Font tools used for normal titles.

The program is reasonable, about $70.00, but drawing puts stationary items on your video, if there is any movement, you will have to edit the frame to make the added parts stay with the movement in the video.

I haven't used the version 10 much yet, but there may be a blur effect you can use as well.

Another option is to create a jpg file in a photo editor and place it on the overlay area. If you create the photo with a transparent background you can us photo overlays to do the effects you want.

Answer 2

What you are looking to do is called Rotoscoping. Essentially you want to paint an effect over a frame of video. There are several programs that allow you to do this. If you have the time, the best way to do it is by hand, making each frame a still outputting it to photoshop and painting in what you want, essentially animating it. This is how they did the original light saber effects in Star wars. (Well, similar they didn't use video and they didn't have photoshop but you get the idea.)

I believe you can do something similar with After effects from Adobe or with motion from apple, but those are not really designed to edit video and can get expensive.

I believe what you really need is Effectslab from FXhome. It is realatively inexpensive and while it is not an editor, it will work with just about any editing program out there. I have not tried this version of the program but I did use a trial version of the older program called Alam DV and it was amazing, easy to use and fast.

This combined with premiere from adobe would make for a very good special effects editing package. I plan on getting it for my comercial business once I get it up and running.

Tony

Answer 3

I have used several Editing Suites in my video production buisness (I do wedding, commercials, infomercials etc.) and I have really enjoyed Adobe Products. I recently purchased the new Adobe Creative Suite, and it has been wonderful. Now it is a little over your price range of "A little Bit" and a Lot over your price range of "Free", the price I paid was $1600. I would only get it if you are planning to do a lot of productions. Another one, and cheaper is the Adobe Premier Elements, which is a basic version of the Adobe Premier 2.0 which is included in the Adobe Suite. I believe it is under $200. It does not give you near as many options, but I believe you should be able to do what you are trying to do. If you would like any help on trying to achieve this effect once you find the right software, or have any other questions. Just let me know..

Blake Adams

Answer 4

If you are using a PC Adobe Premier is the best, on a Mac get Final Cut Pro. You can do most of the things you mentioned on software like Pinnacle Studio or Roxio Videowave, but will have improvise. If you want to do it the easy way, shell out a few bucks and get some good software like that mentioned above.