Australian company Blackmagic Design offers their video editing application DaVinci Resolve for a wide range of high quality ultra HD effects, render queue, and video uploading options among other features.
$0
Free
Final Cut Pro
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Apple offers Final Cut Pro, a video editing platform featuring optimized for a high performance machines and supporting a wide range of quality effects.
DaVinci Resolve is perfect for any video editing needs. It provides a lot of tools to control images, logos, text, transitions, as well as any other imported media that has been dragged to the timeline. It lets you create deliverables of very good quality and control every single detail from setup to final video export. It might not be the best option for a quick, simple video edit if the user does not how to use it because it will take a while to get on board on how to use it, even for simple edits.
It is a one-time cost, great for aspiring video creators, and has a low barrier to entry to get started financially. There are lots of tutorials and plug-ins available online. Whether you are creating short or long-form content, FCPX is easy to use. Keep an eye on your library files since they can grow large and take up a lot of space on the hard drive.
Resolve isn't extremely difficult to learn, at least from a UI perspective. I've found learning the node system isn't a steep learning curve. Users who can visualize how they want a grade or match to look can find their way around the software and use simple tools to get close to their result. People can do this without a lot of experience with the software.
Resolve provides extremely complex color grading opportunities, depending on how deeply you wish to use the software. One can fine tune an image, or use a plethora of masks, camera tracking, effects, and small tweaks to get images precisely where they want. It's a versatile software with so many options for every color grading scenario.
Resolve is free to use. I'm not too familiar with the NLE function of the program, but as a free software, one can accomplish a lot of work without needing to pay. Noise reduction can be a critical element of Resolve, so in that case, you'll need to purchase the full version to utilize the software to its fullest.
Resolve is popular enough that the internet provides many resources, forums, and tutorial videos to better learn the software. This is a big deal for helping to navigate Resolve's capabilities.
Da Vinci Resolve is up there amongst the big, professional video editing packages like Apple's FinalCutPro and Adobe Premier Pro. To just be included in this league, the package needs to have a plethora of features that the common man does not need. In essence, this overwhelming amount of features makes the product tricky to learn, but once you have the hang of it, it is a dream.
I am very much impressed with the overall dependability and reliability for the professional edit. Timeline supports multiple formats of the video and delivers best and high quality outputs. When integrated with motion ( product by Apple) gives you optical frame generation making it more powerful
Not only do they have classes available in Los Angeles, but they'll also allow you to work from home with the manual and demo materials, and then let you test out to get a certification. They get back to you quickly when you email, and they've got a "family" approach to customer service, they make you feel like you're important to them.
Apple offers decent support, but if you're really stuck go to Twitter or various online forums. There are HUGE numbers of very avid Final Cut Pro X editors who will gladly talk through any issues you might have, point you in the right direction on the forums, and even help you troubleshoot. The community is great.
Implementing Final Cut Pro into the organization was a smooth transition from what we didn't had. We felt we went from zero to hero with this software, due to all the great features that we learned. We took some time in training staff on how to use the software but at the end, this was very useful and important.
I learned so much from this instructional exercise, and I appreciated how the educator is an expert all-day colorist. The section on sound reduction was particularly instructive. I noticed a few inconsistencies between certain methodologies in this instructional exercise and approaches suggested in the Advanced Color Grading in Resolve 15 instructional exercise (e.g., where to place sound reduction in the hub tree), but this is to be expected given that there is no one right way to do any of this. I also learned a lot about Resolve's "Restoration" modules for working with authentic film. This instructional exercise will come up again and again in my work.
Adobe Premiere is similar to Final Cut Pro in terms of quality and usability. Several of my friends and partners use Adobe Premiere, and we all agree they are identical. The fact that I use Apple computers made the choice easy, as Final Cut is fully integrated with the other tools I use. Final Cut is much more advanced than iMovie. However, I use iMovie directly on my iPhone in some cases. There is no accurate comparison.
Davinci Resolve allows us to make quick edits and improve the sound on our company webinars and demo videos. This adds a lot of polish, and since we can do it in-house, it's cheaper and allows us to post and share those videos quickly.
We've used the software for some flashier marketing videos, and that does drive some positive attention and business our way. Most of that higher-level work is handled by outside agencies, but the fact that we can do some of it in-house saved us money.
