Recommendations for Video Editing Software for Game Trailers?

Unity Courses Talk
#1

I regularly capture gameplay footage of small scenes from things I’m learning or GameDev games I build in tutorials. I use OBS and typically grab 45-second to 1-minute long videos to share with my friends and get their feedback.

I’m reaching out to see if any of you have personal recommendations for good, free video editing software. I’m looking for something user-friendly that can handle splicing these clips together effectively. Something I could even use down the lines for trailers.

I promise I will be very thankful for the suggestions, and I’m like 99% sure my friends will ‘thank’ you for the barrage of videos they are going to get.

#2

It all depends on your budget.

Corel Video Studio is affordable and relatively inexpensive. There’s Pinnacle Studio which is similar. Both have Ultimate editions as well. Then you have After effects by Adobe and of course Premiere which has the advantage of you being able to pay for a month when you need to use it. The one I use is Vegas Pro Edit (previously by Sony, now Magix) and is not cheap by any means.

Thing is, none of these I’ve felt are particularly intuitive to use but once you get the basics down, they are all fairly easy to work with.

If you don’t mind renting, look at adobe, otherwise depending on your budget, pick one. The higher end ones are an investment but they are worth it.

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#3

Hi, i edited professionally for about 6 years with the big expensive boys. maybe 5 years after i had stopped editing my wife became a streamer. i recommended premier to her. it really is the right move over the long term for a million reasons id be happy to expound upon if they matter. but your key thing here is FREE. in that case id recommend two options and it will depend on your comfort in the suites.

  1. Davinci resolve: it has a free version with enough effects/transitions to get you bye. it is much closer to a professional software so there isa bit of a learning curve at the beginning but the skills will transfer over to a professional suite in a much more meaningful way than option 2. my chief con with resolve is a recent update made it to where they really push add ons and the pro version in the free model so when you are scrolling through transitions it can be annoying

  2. capcut: capcut is super easy to use and very user friendly. it is rather limited compared to other platforms and i feel was really designed for ticktockers n stuff. but it does a really good job, is not resource intensive on your PC, and has a free version. if you are only showing to your friends its fine, but their watermark in the free version is large and tacky(IMO). also the skill transfer to a more robust platform is not as good.

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#4

sorry… for more context as far as time investment . my wife is rather technical and rather stubborn. so she didn’t want much help from me learning to edit. at the beginning of editing her clips id say davinci took her about 5 hours and capcut took about 1 per minute of film edited. she has sped up quite bit since then and prefers DaVinci for everything except captioning which she prefers capcut for. id say she doubled in speed over the first month with DaVinci and its pretty clear her stuff she edits in it is much better( but at this point she has clearly invested more time in it then capcut).

#5

I missed the free bit, sorry. Honestly, you do get what you pay for however.

#6

yeah premier is absolute gold. but its a lot to learn and if you are already committing time to gamedev it might be a waste to learn premier just to show friends clips. i LOVE premier and have loved it for a very long time. since well before it started to overtake avid and final cut. but its a big beefy boy and it takes real time

#7

These are all great, thanks for the information. I appreciate it. Premiere wont break the bank cause it is monthly, so Ill take a look at both Premiere and DaVinci, thanks again.

#8

if you get stuck send me a ping i can try to help a bit if i have time.

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#9

I’ve had a great experience with DaVinci Resolve. It’s surprisingly powerful for a free tool and quite user-friendly once you get the hang of its layout. It’s perfect for editing those clips into something polished to share with friends or even showcase your GameDev progress.

If you’re looking for something a bit simpler and more straightforward, especially for just starting out, you might want to check out this free movie maker. It’s an excellent choice for beginners and can handle the basic editing tasks like splicing clips together effectively. Plus, it’s a good stepping stone before moving on to more complex software.

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