Hello and welcome to HitFilm 3 Express.
I’m Simon Jones and in this video I’m going to be talking to you about the editing
tools.
Now if you’re completely new to filmmaking and just want to know about editing concepts
I do recommend you look up editing theory on the internet.
In fact, check out past Film Riot episodes because they’ve covered all kinds of really
great editing techniques.
We’ll make sure we put some links up on the screen and down in the description.
Make sure you’ve grabbed the project files, which include some video footage to play with.
Or you can use your own stuff, it’s up to you - this tutorial isn’t so specific that
you need to use particular video clips.
There’s an info card on this video which links right to the project files, or you’ll
find them on the HitFilm website or in the YouTube description.
So you’re working on your first HitFilm project.
The Home screen is where you always begin, and the first thing to do is hit the New Project
button.
This is where you set up the resolution, framerate and other settings - check your camera’s
settings to see what kind of video it shoots.
There’s a bunch of presets, too.
to make setting up easier.
If you’re using the project files we’ve provided, choose the 720p HD template at 23.976
fps.
That will mean that everything is set up and ready to go.
Hit Start Editing and you’ll be switched over to the Edit screen.
This is where you do all of your editing and visual effects work in HitFilm.
At this point the project is a blank canvas.
From here you can create short films, documentaries, music videos, animations, visual effects shots,
title sequences….so what do YOU want to do?
Have a think about that, because HitFilm is an incredible creative tool and it can do
pretty much anything you want it to do.
For now, let’s start by importing some videos.
You can’t edit without something to edit, right?
You can bring videos in by clicking the Import button and locating them on your computer.
Alternatively, if you already have a window open with the clips, simply drag them into
the Media panel.
HitFilm brings in the clips and displays them here, ready for use.
One thing to note is that when you import a video, or an image, or an audio file, any
changes you makes inside HitFilm will NOT affect the original video file, so you’re
never going to be at risk of losing stuff.
The Media panel has all kind of features for organising and filtering.
As you work on larger projects you’re going to want to figure that stuff out, so you don’t
get confused and in a mess, and we have other tutorials that cover these topics in more
detail.
When you click on a video in the media panel, it pops up in the Trimmer.
This is where you can preview your clips before actually using them in your project.
It’s also where you can trim your clips in advance, hence the name.
When you shoot your film, you’ll usually have stuff on the start and end of a video
clip which you don’t want in the film itself - you shouting “action!”
and “cut!”, for example.
To choose a specific section from a video, simply move the playhead to the correct starting
point and click the In Point button.
Move to a later frame and click the Out Point button and you’ll see that the chosen area
is a different colour.
You can also press the I and O keys, which can be faster.
So now you can now add the trimmed clip to your timeline.
To do this, hit the Insert button.
This adds the clip at the playhead’s current position on the main timeline.
You can see that I’m using these controls down the bottom left of the timeline to change
the preview size of clips and to zoom in and out of what I’m looking at.
You can use these at any time to get a better view of what you’re working on.
Let’s add another clip.
I’ll select it in the media panel, trim it down to the bit I want, and then instead
of clicking the insert button I’ll drag the Trimmer video down to the timeline.
As with most things in HitFilm, there’s usually multiple ways to do stuff, so depending
what you’re doing you’ll change techniques to whatever makes most sense at the time.
This is the basic process for assembling your edit.
Carry on adding more clips until you’re familiar with how the Trimmer works and the
general process of doing it.
It’d be pretty unusual for you to get your edit perfect straight away.
Once you have your clips assembled on the timeline, you then want to go in with the
editing tools and fine tune all the cuts, because that’s where editing really starts
to shine - when you refine everything down until it’s absolutely perfect.
On the left side of the timeline there are seven tools, plus this little guy down at
the bottom.
Getting familiar with these tools is essential for editing quickly and easily in HitFilm,
so let’s take a look at ‘em, one by one.
The arrow is the Select tool.
This is a multi-purpose tool and is the one you’ll probably find yourself using the
most.
You can use it to grab clips and move them around on the timeline.
If you drag out a box you can select multiple clips and move them all at the same time.
No decision is final when editing on a computer, so you can always move things around and change
your mind.
Still with the Select tool, if you hover over the end of a clip you can trim its start or
end point.
This is essentially the same as what you were doing in the Trimmer panel, except you’re
doing it right here on the timeline.
Moving and trimming clips are the basic building blocks of editing.
If you can do that, you can edit.
Everything that comes after that is about making hte process faster, easier and more
efficient.
For example, let’s say I wanted this clip on the left to finish earlier, so that this
second clip started playing quicker.
Based on what I’ve just told you, you could use the Select tool to trim the Out point
of the left clip, then use it to move the right clip over.
And that’s fine.
But you know what’s easier?
Using something called the Ripple edit tool.
I’m going to use the history panel to jump back a couple of steps, before I did that
edit.
I’ll now select the Ripple edit tool, which is this double-ended arrow, and I’ll drag
on the out point of the first clip again.
As I make the edit, hitfilm automatically moves the clips to the right, making sure
no gap appears.
The end result is the same as with the first technique, but this time round it only required
me to do one thing.
Each of these tools offers those kind of speed boosts.
The Slip tool makes it easy to change the in and out points of a clip without changing
its overall duration OR its timeline position.
It’s entirely possible to do the same thing with the Select tool, but it’d take a lot
longer.
When even a short film consists of hundreds or thousands of edit points, speed is essential.
The Slide tool is used to move a clip left or right on the timeline, without moving any
surrounding clips or creating any gaps.
Note that with all these tools the Viewer switches to show you useful information while
you’re performing the edit.
So in this case you get 4 previews.
The top two frames show the in and out points of the clip you’re sliding - these aren’t
changing because the contents of the clip don’t change during a slide edit.
The frames at the bottom show where the clip is being moved to, by showing the frames either
side.
Then we have the Roll edit tool.
This is used to simultaneously change the out point of one clip and the in point of
the next.
One editing technique is called cutting on motion - for example, you might cut as an
actor goes through a door, or picks up an object.
By cutting around the action you maintain continuity between shots, which helps the
audience know what’s going on.
The roll edit tool is really useful for adjusting exactly when this cut takes place, without
altering the timing of the rest of your sequence.
The razor icon is for the Slice tool.
This is used to split a clip into two clips.
All of these tools have keyboard shortcuts which are worth learning, so that you don’t
have to keep moving your mouse over here to switch.
Instead you can just hit R for ripple edit, then V to go back to Select, or C to enable
the slice tool.
In fact, you don’t even need to switch to the slice tool - hitting Ctrl+Shift+D (Cmd+Shift+D
on Mac) will immediately slide the currently selected clip wherever the timeline happens
to be.
If this is all sounding a bit overwhelming, don’t worry.
You don’t need to learn and remember all this right away.
Over time you’ll pick it up as you edit more projects, and you’ll start to figure
out your own preferred way of editing.
Many editors swear by keyboard shortcuts and hardly touch the mouse - but it’s your call.
The last tool up here is the Drag tool.
This is used purely to navigate around the timeline - which can be handy as your timeline
gets longer and longer.
Unlike the other tools, you can’t actually do any editing with it - the whole point is
that you can use it to move around, without accidentally clicking on a clip.
Finally we have the Snap tool, in the form of this little magnet.
This can be toggled on and off with the S key, which is definitely worth remembering
as you’re likely to want to switch it on and off multiple times during editing.
With Snap turned ON, clips automatically link to each other.
This makes sure that you don’t have any accidental empty frames.
Most of the time, this is super handy.
But occasionally you’ll want to move a clip with more precision, and snapping can make
that tricky.
That’s when you want to turn it off, so you can move clips frame-by-frame without
interruption.
There’s still more to discover with HitFilm’s editor - you can have multiple video and audio
tracks, for example.
Having multiple video tracks means you can add titles and even do simple compositing,
while having multiple audio tracks lets you create a more interesting soundscape, complete
with sound effects and music.
In this example you can see how multiple tracks have been used to overlap video and audio,
creating a more interesting edit in which dialogue bleeds over the cuts, creating a
better sense of continuity.
The Meters panel lets you monitor your audio to make sure it isn’t peaking - though audio
is a topic for another time.
Transitions are another thing we haven’t even touched upon yet, and you can find those
in the Effects panel.
Again, we have tutorials which go into this stuff in more detail, and we’ll link them
up on screen.
What we haven’t done in this tutorial is talk about visual effects.
Make sure you check out our other tutorials if you want to dive right in.
An important thing to realise about HitFilm is that it is an editor AND a visual effects
compositor.
That’s pretty unusual, to have them together in one program.
In fact, the compositing features are integrated really tightly, so if you’re working on
your edit and decide that a shot needs some VFX, all you need to do is select it on the
timeline, then hit the Make Composite Shot button.
That converts the clip into a composite shot and opens up a new timeline, where you can
get to work creating awesome VFX.
The best thing of all is that you can then just switch between your VFX shots and your
edit by clicking the tabs at the top of the timeline - exactly like switching tabs in
your web browser.
It really is that easy.
No need to switch between entire programs or learn a completely new interface.
Many, many thanks for watching this tutorial.
If you’re brand new to filmmaking, or to HitFilm, then you’re about to embark on
an incredibly exciting and rewarding creative journey.
And if you want some company on that journey, make sure you head over to the HitFilm.com
forum, where you’ll find a whole bunch of friendly filmmakers and artists more than
happy to share their tips and tricks.
We have a load more tutorials on our YoUTube channel, so if you want to know more, check
‘em out.
Until next time.