Hello, welcome to this short guide dedicated to EditShare Lightworks 2020,
a free-to-use video editor with everything you need to create and edit
your own videos!
Remember to check our YouTube channel and our website for extras, tips and
amazing giveaways!
When opening Lightworks the Project browser opens, showing all your most
recent projects if you have. You can use Create a new project.. on top
to start from a new project setting name, frame rate and metadata.
Lightworks has a total of four workspaces listed on top: to start realizing
your project open the Edit one. This shows the Navigation panel on the
left, collecting media files; the Video Preview on the right and the
Timeline at the bottom, where you edit and modify media.
You can import videos, images and sound files by either browsing for these
from the Libraries section or dragging and dropping these from any folder
directly inside Lightworks. At this point you can double-click on any file
to check it on the Source Viewer and adjust its metadata with the Log
workspace.
To start working with these files just drag these onto the Timeline. These
appear as blocks called segments, complete with file name, audio waveform
and visual thumbnails. Dedicated Tracks collect the segments on the
Timeline, such as Video Tracks for visual content and Audio Tracks for
sound, music and speech, doubled to welcome stereo channels. To add,
rename or remove Tracks, right-click on the left side.
You can zoom in and out on the Timeline by holding down the CTRL (or CMD)
key and using your mouse wheel.
All these segments together make a composition called Sequence, which is
the single piece of video that you export and render. Inside Lightworks
you can also work with multiple Sequences: in this beginner tutorial
we will create and edit only a single one.
You can check the Sequence content from the Video Preview on the right,
that shows the frame that is under the main playhead on the Timeline. You
can place or drag it to check the frames you want or use the player to
playback in real time with audio.
Let's see how to edit the Timeline segments. You can move any in time by
dragging it within the same Track or in another one. Videos with audio get
both content moved, unless you right-click and uncheck the Auto track sync
option.
If visual segments overlap in time on different Tracks, the ones placed
on the top Video Tracks are shown in front of all the others on lower
Tracks. You can also click on the Track names to lock these, hiding their
content and also preventing any modification on these.
To create fast copies of any segment just hold down the CTRL (or CMD) key
and drag from it. To remove any segment from the Timeline, click on it to
select it and use the Z or the Delete key. You can undo any action by
using CTRL (or CMD) and Z.
To split any segment in two, place the playhead on the interested point
and use the C key.
Lightworks has an advanced way to stretch segments and manage the time
gaps between them. When you hover over any segment, its edges get
highlighted towards the internal or the external side. You can click
on any side to select it in yellow color and start editing by dragging it. If
you drag an internal edge, you stretch the segment in time by saving the time
gaps. Pay attention that this operation cuts part of the original
video or audio content.
When dragging an external edge, you only adjust the time gaps between the
current segment and the others.
If you drag both the internal and the external side, you stretch
the segment freely, without saving the time gaps.
Whereas if you enable both the internal sides, you time-shift the segment
content, without moving it on the Timeline.
These edits can be also applied on multiple clip edges at the same time.
You can disable any edge selection with the Tab key.
To add visual effects and pieces of text you have to use the VFX workspace.
Here you can place the main playhead on the interested media to check its
effect panel on the left side. By default all segments have the Colour
Correction effect applied, useful to adjust color intensity, brightness
and contrast levels.
You can find other effects by going to the Plus button above, browsing
through several categories and applying any effect by double-clicking on it.
This gets listed under the Settings panel with its name, its properties you can
customize and a green light you can use to enable and disable the
effect. With the Gears icon on the right you can reset or remove the
effect.
From the Text category you can add several kinds of titles, such as pieces
of Text, Crawls or Rolls. These can be edited under the Settings panel just
like the visual effects. You can adjust the text content, its style
and properties, set its transparency level with Opacity, its color under Face
and add Shadow or Outline effects. You can also click and drag the text
to move it directly on the Preview.
The effects and the titles added on any segment are also bound to it,
since they move and last in time following the segment itself. But if
you place the playhead on a blank area you are able to add effects and titles as
independent segments, contained inside a dedicated FX (Effects) Track.
This Track is placed at the very top, so all the effects and titles
are applied in front of all the media from the Video Tracks.
These FX segments can be moved and edited just like standard clips.
From the Mix category you can also add visual transitions. By default
these are applied to the whole segment, going from 0% to 100% of the
transition progress. You can use the Graphs panel to adjust its evolution
in time, inverting its progress or adjusting its time duration, applying
the transition at the beginning or in the end of the segment content.
Just make sure to get the timer icon turned ON if you do not see
any graph for the transition.
You can switch to the Audio workspace to apply audio corrections and sound
effects. On any segment you can pull up or down its line to adjust its
volume level or drag from its edges to add linear volume transitions.
In addition you can use the Mixer in the top right corner to check and
balance the volume coming from each Audio Track, including the LR Track,
which collects the entire sound content of the project.
With the Effects panel on the left you can also add sound effects to all
the segments inside the Audio Track interested, such as the Equalizer
for audio filtering.
As you work on your project, Lightworks saves it automatically. You can
come back to the main Project browser with the button in the top left
corner.
Whereas to render your current Sequence just right-click on the left side
and go to Export. The free Lightworks version only renders .mp4 files up to
720p HD. For 1080p HD, 4K or other video formats you have to upgrade
your license.
On the Export dialog box set the video frame rate, its size, name and
destination folder. The sequence will be rendered through its entire
length, until the end of the last segment in time.
Thanks for watching this tutorial! Make sure to check our YouTube channel
to discover other outstanding and free video editing software!