I’m Axel, from FXhome, and I will be your guide for this orientation.
If you have any experience with video editing, or compositing, you will likely recognize
many of the tools in HitFilm straight away, and this video will help you locate these
tools you already know how to use.
But there are also some great features which make HitFilm unique, and we will take a look
at those, as well.
So, let’s launch the software and take a look.
HitFilm opens to the Home page, where we can create or open projects, access the user guide,
and see the latest tutorials.
If we create a new project, the New Project Settings window lets us choose our formatting
details.
And incidentally, once you are in a project, you can re- access those settings by clicking
the Settings Cog on the timeline, if you ever need to edit them.
HitFilm uses two distinct types of timelines, which are demonstrated in this project.
The editor is a track-based timeline for sequencing media, similar to most video editing applications.
Composite shot timelines are layer-based, with additional tools for blending multiple
layers together, and working in 3D.
The ability to effortlessly switch between these timelines is one of the primary features
that make HitFilm unique.
Let’s look at the Editor first.
In the Window menu, I’ll open Workspaces, and select Editing, then click the Editor
tab on the timeline.
All components of the interface are fully customizable, but the various workspaces are
good starting points, to ensure you have access to the tools required for your current task.
If you find, after working with the software, that you prefer different layouts, you can
create and save your own workspaces.
The Media panel is where we import any media we need.
Video, audio, images, 3D models, and motion tracking data can be imported.
It is also where we store assets created in HitFilm, such as composite shots, templates,
and planes.
We can preview media in the Trimmer, set in and out points to select the portion we need,
then Insert or Overlay it onto the timeline.
And of course, the Viewer shows the contents of our timeline for playback.
On the timeline itself, the selection tool lets us move clips around, and trim them.
We have a slice tool for creating cuts, slip, slide, ripple and roll tools for fine tuning
our edits, and a rate stretch tool for adjusting the speed of any video clip.
We can add more video or audio tracks, by right-clicking in the track title area.
The timeline appearance can be modified in the Track Options menu, where we can change
the track size and preview thumbnails.
The eyeball shows or hides a track.
You can Lock a track to prevent changes, and the Envelopes toggle shows or hides the volume
envelope for audio tracks.
Snapping can be toggled with the magnet icon, and of course the Zoom slider adjusts how
much of the timeline duration is visible.
On the Viewer, we have a text tool for creating basic titles, which can be customized in the
Text panel.
Text is one of the real strengths of HitFilm Pro.
Text created with this text tool can be converted to 3D, and we have a variety of text effects
for creating specific text objects such as rolling end credits.
The included Boris 3D Objects provide additional tools for complex animated titles.
We will get into 3D text and the built-in template system later in this video.
The masking tools can be applied to any timeline object, to control which areas of it are visible
or transparent.
The Options menu provides various adjustments for the viewer, and a control for exporting
the current frame.
The quality menu gives you direct control over the resolution and quality of the paused
image and playback, so you can optimize the balance of quality and performance at any
time.
And there is a menu for the Zoom level, which you can also edit with your mouse scroll wheel.
The Position, Scale and Rotation of timeline objects can be edited directly on the Viewer,
or in the Controls panel.
The Viewer controls make it easy to visually position objects in relation to one another,
and is very intuitive.
But sometimes entering specific numeric values works better, and the controls panel allows
you to do so.
The Controls panel provides access to other adjustments as well, including Opacity and
Blend Mode.
Also, the far majority of these controls can be animated to change over time.
Any properties which have a circle to the left of their name, and not a dot, can be
keyframed.
Click that circle to enable keyframing, and then any time you change the value for that
property, a keyframe storing that value will be logged on the current frame.
Keyframes for the opacity of each visual object, and the level of any audio clip, can be viewed
on the Editor timeline.
For any other properties, you can view the keyframes by toggling the Display Timeline
option in the Controls panel.
This opens a secondary timeline, for viewing keyframes.
As we will see in a minute, a lot of this process is greatly simplified by using composite
shot timelines.
Objects on the timeline can be further modified by applying effects.
HitFilm Pro installs with more effects than any other video application in the world.
Over 900 effects, presets, and transitions can be accessed through the Effects panel.
Transitions for video or audio can be dragged onto the cuts between timeline objects.
Effects can also be applied by dragging, either onto the viewer or the timeline, or just double-click
any effect to apply it to the currently selected timeline object.
Many effects include controls on the Viewer, which make visually adjusting the settings
simple and intuitive.
The controls for each effect can also be accessed in the Controls panel, and keyframing the
properties for any effect uses the exact same process we looked at earlier.
HitFilm Pro supports the OFX and AE formats for third party plugins, so you can expand
the range of tools you have available even further, by installing additional tools from
other developers.
We have looked briefly at the ability to use effects and to create keyframe animation on
the Editor timeline.
But HitFilm has a secret weapon for animation, in the form of composite shots.
Composite shots are layer-based timelines, where you can stack up as many layers as you
need, and blend them together using masking, keying, blend modes, and other techniques
to create your final shot.
This unique ability of HitFilm, to effortlessly move between the track based editor and layer
based composite shots, makes it astonishingly simple to assemble your edit, then select
any shot from that sequence, and convert it to a composite shot (or comp) for fleshing
out any effects and compositing that are required.
As you work on the shot in the composite shot timeline, it is automatically updated in the
Editor as well, so it can be previewed in context of your sequence.
Composite shots can also be used independently, without being referenced on the Editor.
You can create them from scratch, or from a media source, in the Media panel.
Every comp you create exists in the Media panel exactly like a video clip, and can be
added to the editor, or to any other composite shot, just as if it were a media file.
There are some effects which can only be used in composite shots.
They are marked with the Layer Only label.
Generally, these effects include properties which will reference another layer, which
is why they don’t work on the editor, where layers don’t exist.
Referencing layers allows for setups such as using an imported video as the texture
for a 3D model, using 3D models as textures within a particle system using the Particle
Simulator, or reflecting imported layers onto the surface of a title using the Surface Studio
effect.
Composite shots allow you to stack as many layers as you want, so they are excellent
for shots requiring green screen or other keying tools.
Replacing a background, blending multiple images to create a digital matte painting,
adding depth to still images, or blending stock elements such as flames or explosions
onto a video clip are all ideal situations for comps.
By default composite shots are 2D, but any composite shot can be used for 3D work as
well.
2D layers can be converted to 3D planes and positioned in 3D space.
Particle based effects and text can likewise be converted to 3D, we can add lights for
illumination, and reposition the layer or the camera to view it from any angle.
In composite shot timelines, many properties have a Publish option, which allows you to
use them to create templates.
This is especially useful for creating titling templates, where the formatting and animation
is built-in, but the text itself remains editable.
A variety of templates are included with the software, and you can create an unlimited
number of additional templates yourself.
HitFilm Pro includes Academy award-winning technology for tracking a moving camera, so
you can matchmove your effects into moving shots: Mocha HitFilm, from BorisFX, provides
planar tracking, and a custom version of Foundry’s Camera Tracker provides point cloud camera
tracking.
Both are fully licensed and included with every copy of HitFilm Pro.
Also, 3D models can be imported and positioned, even animated, in your 3D scene.
Any timeline in HitFilm can be exported.
Whether you have a 2-hour editor sequence for a feature film, containing thousands of
media clips and composite shots, a simple composite shot containing a two second effects
test, or anything in between, you can easily export it to create a new video file of its
contents.
At the top right of the timeline, the Export button gives you access to immediate export.
Click the button, enter a name for the file, and click Save, to begin exporting using the
default export preset.
Couldn’t be easier.
Also, the File Menu now includes an Export option to immediately export the current timeline.
And if you want to export to a different format or use different compression settings, the
default export preset can be changed at any time, through the Export Menu.
If you need to export only part of a timeline, you can specify a work area in HitFilm, using
the I and O keys to mark an In point and an Out point.
This area can then be looped in playback, or you can Export the In-to-Out area.
HitFilm also has an export queue, for managing multiple exports.
So if you have multiple timelines in a project, and want to export each one of them, you can.
Or if you are working on multiple projects, and want to export them all at night, or after
working hours, you can do that too.
Or, perhaps you have one timeline with several different options, and want to export multiple
copies with the layers or effects in different states, that works too.
Or maybe you want to export multiple copies of the same timeline, each using a different
resolution, or different format or compression settings.
All of these options are easily handled using the export queue.
The export panel lists all the tasks currently in your queue, so you can manage and edit
them, and provides access to your export presets.
Many presets are built-in to the software, for common formats and destinations.
Custom presets can be created as well, either from scratch, or by editing one of the existing
presets.
These are just some of the highlights of HitFilm Pro, to help you get your bearings, so you
can get started using the software and experimenting with its many additional features.
Many of these features are explained further in the hundreds of additional tutorials available
on our channel.
So be sure to subscribe and ring the bell for notifications when we upload.