Video editing software or avideo editor is software used for performing the post-production video editing of digital video sequences on anon-linear editing system (NLE). It has replaced traditional flatbedcelluloid film editing tools and analog video tape editing machines.
Video editing software serves a lot of purposes, such asfilmmaking, audio commentary, and general editing of video content.
In NLE software, the user manipulates sections of video, images, and audio on a sequence. These clips can be trimmed, cut, and manipulated in many different ways. When editing is finished, the user exports the sequence as a video file.
NLE software is typically based on atimeline interface where sections moving image video recordings, known as clips, are laid out in sequence and played back. The NLE offers a range of tools for trimming, splicing, cutting, and arranging clips across the timeline.
Another kind of clip is a text clip, used to add text to a video, such astitle screens ormovie credits.[1] Audio clips can additionally be mixed together, such as mixing asoundtrack with multiplesound effects.
Typically, the timeline is divided into multiple rows on the y-axis for different clips playing simultaneously, whereas the x-axis represents the run time of the video.[2]
Effects such astransitions can be performed on each clip, such as acrossfade effect going from one scene to another.
Since video editors represent a project with afile format specific to the program, one needs to export the video file in order to publish it.
Once a project is complete, the editor can thenexport to movies in a variety of formats in a context that may range from broadcast tape formats tocompressed video files for web publishing (such as on anonline video platform orpersonal website),optical media, or saved to mobile devices.
To facilitate editing, source video typically has a higher resolution than the desired output. Therefore, higher resolution video needs to bedownscaled during exporting, or after exporting in a process known astranssizing.
As digital video editing advanced, visual effects became possible, and is part of the standard toolkit, usually found in prosumer and professional grade software.
A common ability is to docompositing techniques such aschroma keying orluma keying, among others, which allow different objects to look as if they are in the same scene.[3]
A different kind of visual effects ismotion capture. Software such asBlender can perform motion capture to make animated objects follow an actor's movements.
Most professional video editors are able to docolor grading, which is to manipulate visual attributes of a video such as contrast to enhance output, and improve emotional impact.[4]
Some video editors such asiMovie includestock footage available for use.
As video editing puts great demands on storage and graphics performance, especially at high resolutions such as4K, and for videos with manyvisual effects, powerful hardware is often required.
It is not uncommon for a computer built for video editing to have a lot ofdrive capacity, and a powerfulgraphics processing unit,[5] which optimally hashardware accelerated video encoding.
Having sufficient disk space is important since videos can take up large amounts of storage, depending on the resolution and compression format used. Each minute of aFull HD (1080p) video at 30 fps takes up 60MB of space.[6]
When visual effects are used, aserver farm can be employed to speed up the rendering process.
Video editing software can be divided into consumer grade, which focuses on ease-of-use, along with professional grade software, which focuses on feature availability, and advanced editing techniques. The typical use case for the former is to edit personal videos on the go, when more advanced editing is not required.
While most video editing software has been separate from the operating systems, some operating systems have had a video editor installed by default, such asWindows Movie Maker inWindows XP, or as a component of the default photo viewer, such as thePhotos app oniOS.
Somesocial media platforms, such asTikTok andInstagram may include a rudimentary video editor to trim clips.
