Free video creation /editing software recommendations

UrBaN963

UrBaN963

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So my girlfriend is a teacher.

She's currently teaching from home and makes videos for the kids to follow along, with activities.

Essentially it's a Powerpoint slideshow with (so slides, effects, etc) with recorded videos interspersed. Then a song overlaid on this.

Her current procedure is:
1) Record her videos of explanations etc
2) Create the slides, transitions, effects etc
3) insert everything, set the timings etc
4) Export to video
5) Use Windows Movie Maker to add a background song over the whole thing (it has built in music you can use)
6) Export as video
7) Compress with Handbrake
8)Upload to Google Classroom


She does this for about 10 videos a week and I would really like to help her speed up the process as she does a great job and her kids and parents love it, but fok it's a lot of work. Her lockdown schedule is 7:30-10:00pm.

Another issue is that lately the videos go out of sync. She has about 3 videos embedded in the .ppt and the last one is always the one that goes out of sync. Seems to be an issue with the video export.

So, any suggestions for video editing software that will allow me to take the video Powerpoint exports (which is usually fine) and then overlay the music track without ruining the syncing?

Needs to be free as the school isn't paying for anything.
 
I'd bin the whole notion of a powerpoint slideshow and do everything in something like Davinci resolve or similar. The slideshow elements can be built in the timeline using multiple video tracks to stack images with a transparent background (or regular images if you don't need the transparency). Those elements can be animated with very straightforward move animations.

This means you can work in a single app to do everything - the powerpoint elements, adding the video, the transition effects between elements, the audio track and recording any overdubbing etc. And render out to video.
 
I've never used this - how would you rate the usability? She's not an IT person, though she did figure out 80% of the above so she's good at learning.
 
+1 for Resolve

Spend some time figuring it out, should make your lives a lot easier
 
UrBaN963 said:
I've never used this - how would you rate the usability? She's not an IT person, though she did figure out 80% of the above so she's good at learning.
Click to expand...
It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. There are also hundreds of online tutorials to help
 
I have used the free version of hitfilm for the few videos I have made.

Seems to work well, you may have to get some royatly free music to use tho.
 
Hitfilm Express is a lot easier to use than DaVinci Resolve.

The reason her videos are going out of sync is probably due to the fact that she's exporting the videos as a variable frame rate from handbrake. Make sure the frame rate is set to a constant 25p or 30p depending on what frame rate it was recorded at.
 
last video editor software I used was Avidemux, and Sony Vega that came with the camera.
Avidemux was a lot easier to stitch together something, and Sony Vega had some of the effects I used.
difficulty was quite high, although Sony Vega seemed easier to use than Avidemux
 
Polymathic said:
That maybe too high a learning curve for most people and besides Resolve is buggy as hell, I wouldn't recommend it to the average person.
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I've never encountered bugs (use it daily), but its definitely aimed at the more professional user with a fairly steep learning curve.
 
-1 Davinci resolve - overkill.
 
Polymathic said:
That maybe too high a learning curve for most people and besides Resolve is buggy as hell, I wouldn't recommend it to the average person.
Click to expand...
17 beta seems to have fixed a lot of annoyances from previous versions...especially nice that audio is available in Fusion tab now.

My second option would be one of the older versions of Sony Vegas (I like 12). But eh - Resolve isn't that bad once you dig through a few youtube tutorials.

 
UrBaN963 said:
So, any suggestions for video editing software that will allow me to take the video Powerpoint exports (which is usually fine) and then overlay the music track without ruining the syncing?

Needs to be free as the school isn't paying for anything.
Click to expand...
You can do that in three clicks with Shotcut (drag video to timeline, drag music file to timeline, click export to mp4 with avc as codec quality 60%, job done)

Davinci Resolve is overkill

edit: shotcut is a non-linear editor like Davinci Resolve / After Effects/ Premier Pro, but free and only the timeline cuting and editing (which is all you really need)
 
Yeah, Davinci is overkill for the average user. But if she's enjoying the process of creating content and enjoys the creative process - Davinici will provide a lot more creative avenues to explore. Sounds like she enjoys using the software which is why I'm suggesting something that's gonna give her plenty room to grow. Not sure why I'd want to suggest basic software to someone who's already hit the ceiling with what they're using.

But yes. The more general point is play around with a few video editors and see what works rather than using powerpoint.
 
There is a bunch of open source apps but I havent used any of them enough to review for simplicity.
 
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