In the last few years, from time to time, I have been asked to edit some videos for my employer. The edits mostly consisted of trimming off bits and pieces of the video as well as adding intros etc. Since the edits were relatively small the built in Windows Movie Maker (Window Live Essentials) was always good enough for our needs.
However in January of 2017 Microsoft removed the download link from the site so after a clean install of a PC I was unable to download it. And even though I was able to find the setup files from my prior computer it would no longer install on the version of Windows 10 I was running. So I did a little searching and found there is a replacement coming called (I think) Microsoft Story but it is in beta now and I needed something that was ready to go right now.
After trying a few commercial programs like Pinnacle and Coral Visual Studio I decided on the Pinnacle program and almost made the purchase. The only thing that held me back was the licensing, which only allowed one install on one computer. I regularly use three different computers depending on where I am at, which meant that I was going to buy three copies. I decided to hold off and look for a open source solution.
I found a few but nothing that really impressed me much. I was almost ready to pay the money for Pinnacle when I heard about Black Magic Design’s DaVinci Resolve from the SMR Podcast.
I immediately downloaded and tried it and was blown away with the features. Oh and I forgot to mention. It is free. There is a pay version but the only features missing from the free version are some collaboration and 3D tools so this was perfect for my needs. And if you have read this far into this post I suspect that Resolve will be perfect for your needs also.
After playing with it for a few minutes and being overwhelmed by the interface I went to the training link on the Davinci Resolve’s site and found there is a book available, which can be purchased in the Kindle format for only $2.99. The book is for the 12.5 version of Resolve but I am 5 chapters into it and haven’t found any difference in versions that I couldn’t resolve by poking around the menu a little bit.
By the way the book is the Definitive Guide to Editing with DaVinci Resolve 12.5 (Blackmagic Design Learning Series)
Another great place to find help is You Tube. There are plenty of videos available and I can recommend Casey Faris’s videos specifically
So if you have any interest in video editing and have not tried out Davinci Resolve I recommend you do so right away.
