Why Filmora?
Before I get into the WonderShare Filmora review proper the first thing that needs to be addressed is why Filmora has a place in the world.
So here’s the deal.
Over the past few years the average consumer level video editor has become more and more feature rich which is a bit of a “good news – bad news” type of thing.
On the upside this kind of “feature race” has resulted in the main software companies improving their products at a furious pace to at least, “keep up with the Jones'” or at best to edge ahead of the pack.
The downside is that every time they add some new feature they also have to add access to that feature and access to the settings of that feature. (Not to mention I have to do a new review!)
This invariably leads to a complication of the user interface resulting in software that is more like the control console of a space shuttle!
Another downside and one that nobody really wants to discuss, is that in many cases the added new features are not necessarily things that everyone wants or needs.
Because of this I have noticed more and more people searching for something simpler and easier to use.
Enter Wondershare Filmora
The key to Wondershare Filmora is that it has quite successfully managed to strike a balance between maintaining simplicity whilst at the same time providing ample tools and features that the average person would actually use.
They have kept the user interface clean, modern and uncluttered yet still offering easy access to the features and functionality of the program.
Wondershare Filmora comes in versions for both Windows and Mac and is my top choice for an easy or simple video editing software.
To get an idea of how it looks and behaves take a look at the video below before you continue with the rest of this Wondershare Filmora review.
Enter Wondershare Filmora
The key to Wondershare Filmora is that it has quite successfully managed to strike a balance between maintaining simplicity whilst at the same time providing ample tools and features that the average person would actually use.
They have kept the user interface clean, modern and uncluttered yet at the same time offering easy access to the features and functionality of the program.
Wondershare Filmora comes in versions for both Windows and Mac and is my top choice for an easy or simple video editing software.
To get an idea of how it looks and behaves take a look at the video below before you continue with the rest of this Wondershare Filmora review.
Getting Started
When you open the program each time you are first presented with the simple splash screen below.
Here you can make a few choices as to what you want to do exactly and to set the program to suit your needs for that project.
1. Choose the aspect ratio of the project you want to make based on the aspect ratio of the video you will be working with.
Most modern devices will be 16:9.
2. Full Feature Mode
Takes you into the full editing interface.
3. Action Cam Tool
Takes you into a separate module with tools specifically designed for dealing with action cam footage and the kind of “action” project this type of footage is used for.
4. Instant Cutter
A tool for loading footage and as it suggests offers the ability to instantly isolate segments of that footage and render immediately to a new file.
5. Easy Mode
Easy mode launches the program into a semi-automatic mode which makes use of style templates that you add your video, images and audio to.
You then follow a step-by-step- process through to a final video.
The User Interface
As you can see from the image below the Filmora interface is very simple with no hidden menus or endless menu trees of features.
Quite literally what you see on the screen is what you get.
Access to everything is represented by a simple icon that indicates what it is used for whether it be video, audio, effects transitions or whatever.
Just don’t be fooled by the simplicity of it.
Hiding behind there are over 300 special effects, objects, overlays, sound effects, music tracks and transitions you can use.
Editing is a simple drag and drop process to add things to the timeline with the timeline itself running on a “magnetic” system which causes assets to automatically stay together.
This means that you are not endlessly repositioning clips and audio tracks and images every time you change something.
It has an advanced color tuning feature to allow great control over video and images that you want to give a certain “look” to or to correct video that is not quite right.
On top of that there are 45 color presets to further enhance your footage and the program even supports loading 3D LUTs (Lookup table files) for tuning the color of videos and images.
There is a dedicated Pan and Zoom feature for adding and customizing animations for still images as well as being able to customize and animate text.
It has motion elements so you can drag and drop moving graphics on to your video and a seprate motion tracking module as well.
You really only have to look at the buttons to understand what it is for and that intuitive nature carries on throughout the entire program.
You can cut in the middle of a file by placing the playhead at that point and (obviously!) clicking the little scissors icon.
You can lengthen or shorten a file by placing your cursor at the end, clicking and dragging.
Click and drag items on to the timeline, select and hit delete to get rid of them.
If you are just a beginner or get stuck somewhere just hit the help button and another separate module will open up as below.
In this module you have access to 11 specific videos that will play inside the module explaining step-by-step how to learn and use the program.
If you are already up to speed with it but come across something you are not sure of you can just scroll through the video thumbnails, find the one you need and watch it.
All the videos are very well put together, easy to understand and very straightforward.
Video Creation
By hitting the Export Button a new module opens offering 12 different formats in which you can export your project.
It also offers 12 preset formats that are arranged by device so if you really have no idea what format you should be creating but you do know the device it will be played on, you are covered.
You can also automatically upload your final video to FaceBook, YouTube or Vimeo and all of these have presets to make sure your video gets online at the highest possible quality.
The same goes for DVD with a simple pre-set system for directly burning to DVD or to an image file and burned later.
Stuff Even I was Surprised to Find!
I have already mentioned that everything in Filmora is tucked neatly away so that the interface stays clean and uncomplicated however there are few little secrets tucked away as well and it wasn’t until I had been using it for a while that I found them!
A Screen Recorder!
Yes, just like most of the $130 to $400 video editing software programs, Filmora actually has a screen recorder built into it!
You can launch it from inside the program and start recording whatever you are doing on your screen to make demonstration videos.
Green Screen
Filmora also has the ability to handle green screen or chroma-key footage in your video projects.
Motion Paths
It comes with face detection technology so you can automatically attach objects like speech bubbles to a face or to an object that is moving and have it follow along.
Video Stabilization
It has quite an effective stabilization filter that offers auto setting that you can also adjust to get your videos as stable as possible.
Audio Equalizer
You can use this to fine tune your audio tracks prior to export to get your soundtracks polished.
Summary
Probably the word that best describes Wondershare Filmora is intuitive.
It doesn’t really seem to matter what it is you want to do with the program, all you need do is look at the interface and pretty soon it seems obvious what it is.
The real problem in writing this review is trying to communicate the simplicity of the program without making it sound as though it is somehow crippled or lacking in features which is simply not true.
Filmora is ideal for the person who wants to quickly and easily edit their videos without all the bells and whistles they will probably never use.
I bought Filmora last year because I have one project, turning my old home movies into interesting videos with titles, music, etc. There are 3 files, each at least an hour in length maybe more. I worked with it for several weeks but then had a several month interruption so I am starting all over. I couldn’t seem to get the hang of cutting out frames and I felt that I had too much on my timeline to deal with. I also had trouble saving what little I was able to accomplish. Is there a glossary for the meaning of initials? Since I bought Filmora, I’m sure there have been updates. Do I need to pay for updates? How do I go about getting the updates.
Thank,
Caro
Hi Carol,
OK so first of all there are many video tutorials and a full help section on the Filmora website that can show you how to do those things… especially the basic stuff like cutting.
All of it is accessible through the HELP button when you have the program open.
Cutting out frames is easy, just load the clip on to the timeline, place your cursor at the beginning of where you want to cut and click the little scissors icon. Then place the playhead at the end of where you want to cut out and click the little scissors again.
Now just click on the section that you want to cut so it is highlighted and either right click and selct Delete or just hit the Delete button on the keyboard.
There probably have been updates to the program since you bought it and yes, they are free.l
Just go to the Filmora website, download the program again (It will be the latest version) and just install it.
It will detect the ealrier version as well as your existing licence and you will have the new one installed on top of the old.
Lance, hi. Thanks for all your answers to questions here. I have one too.
last night I used the internal ‘record video’ feature in Filmora to make a little video of a friend speaking. However, it appears to be very choppy. Is that as good as it gets? Or is there a way to adjust settings? Or does it smooth things out when I save it?
Any idea?
Hi Patricia,
OK, the possibilities here are endless!
Filmora has two recording modes.
One is to record the screen and the other is to record from a webcam attached to the computer.
So the question is were you on some kind of chat program and you recorded what was happening on the screen or did you use a webcam to record the person?
In a general sense the quality of the recording basically will come down to the quality of what was capturing that recording.
Jumpiness could be from an internet connection not quite keeping up with the stream, a computer with not quite enough resources to keep up with things, a camera recording at a very low quality, a connection that was unsuitable for recording and on and on…
You will notice I am not mentioning the software itself!
Filmora can do what you want but to do it it has to tell everyone else in the chain (camera, screen, operating system, computer) what to do.
It is entirely another matter as to whether everyone else can do it or at least do it on time!
If you want to debug this hit the contact button on the site and we can talk directly rather than have this go on and on in the comments section here.
Lance
Hi Lance. As mentioned in your review, there is a ““magnetic” system which causes assets to automatically stay together”. But occasionally I don’t want this “magnetic” feature since I want to leave a few seconds of “space” or “black screen” between 2 clips. Do you know how I can do this? Thanks in advance.
Hi Dennis,
No you can’t stop that behaviour because you can’t have a “nothing” in a project… if that makes sense!
If you want a clip to fade to black or just snap to black then have the next clip appear just place a black color block on the timeline between the two clips you want to separate.
The you can adjust that black color block to the length you want depending on how long you want the “gap” to be.
You can also add a crossfade transition at the beginning and end of the black color block to create the “fade through black” effect.
Lance great review. I am out of space on my laptop. Can I store all video to a fast external drive? Including the video clips that you import into the program. Do not want to store any video on laptop. Thanks in advance!!!!
Hi David,
Thanks for the nice words!
You can absolutely use an external drive attached to your laptop to store assets and in fact it is a good idea to do it regardless of the circumstances… BUT!
Doing that may introduce problems unless you understand what is happening.
So the first thing to understand is that Filmora (or any editing software) does not ever actually touch your files regardless of where they are.
All they do is locate the file, record the path to the file and store it then create a thumbnail in what you see as the library.
So it doesn’t matter where the files are on the computer.
However, when you are working with the files they have to be loaded (copied) into the computer’s RAM so the software can display it and the changes or adjustments you are making.
What becomes key to all of this when you are using an external hard drive is the connection between the computer and that hard drive.
If you are connecting using USB 2.0 then there may be times you need to just take a deep breath and slow down a little.
If you have USB 3.0 you will probably see no difference at all and may even notice a little “speed up” due to the internal hard drive not having to work so hard.
If I download the free version of Wondershare Filmora, would any of the features be omitted? I just need it for a school project, so buying it would be too much of a commitment for one time use.
Hi Alyssa,
The free trial download is fully functional with all features intact BUT!
Notice that was a big “BUT?”
When it comes to rendering (outputting) your final project it will have a big ‘ol “Filmora” watermark all over it.
Hi, I have bought Filmora and I am trying to extract a frame to a still image (jpg, png, …), for further elaborations (adding a moving arrow, then putting the resulting video back into the main video). But while there are various places which show how to select a single frame (snapshot tool, etc.), none seems to allow saving it as a still image. Is there a way you know of?
Hi Roberto,
Yes.
Just load the clip into the timeline then use the preview window to get to the frame you want.
There is a little “Camera” icon under the preview window to the right.
Click that and the image is then saved and added to the library.
You can then find where the program saved the actual file by right clicking it and selecting Find Target.
Then you can change it how you want.
Full instructions here: https://filmora.wondershare.com/guide/video-snapshot.html
Is the images cropable or resizeable on the screen? I mean when images were inserted it comes up in the full-screen ..I afraid I have missed the image resizer tool somewhere.
Hi Suanlian,
Just drag or add the image to the timeline.
Then right click it and all the Crop, Crop and Zoom and other tools are available.
I’m currently wanna jump into video creation. I talking to the camcorder and record here and there.
As a noob in video editing stuff, I need something that the easiest possible.
I first used Premier, but end up giving up because of the tons of thing on its interface. I was wrong; it’s not for novice nor noob like me.
I guest this software would fit best with. I’ll buy it right away!
Thanks for the review!
Hi Jame,
Thanks for dropping by!
Make sure you download the free trial first to see if you like it.
I am basically looking for a video deshaker for my action cam footage.How efficient is Filmora in this respect?Any chance to see a demo footages comparision?
Hi Jim,
Although there is a stabilizer inside Filmora it is very, very basic.
The problem with stabilization is that a “one size fits all” iteration like the one in Filmora may or may not be effective depending on the type of movement present in the first place.
If you need this as a major feature then I would go to CyberLink PowerDirector or Magix Movie Edit Pro because they include stabilizing modules specifically intended for action cam footage.
You get WAY more control over exactly how the module approaches the problem.
Lance thanks for the quick reply,
The size is 2592 X 1944. I was primarily going by what I see when I view them on the computer. When viewed through the computer full screen, the images seem sharper. As I said I was just playing around and for some of the pictures I used the (video wall & TV wall filters) and they were awful in the full screen mode. I imagine these filters degrade an image considerably.
Thanks again,
Jim
Hi Jim,
PK, so there is nothing “small” about those images!
I am guessing that when you load an image into the Filmora timeline it creates a copy for use in editing.
Remember that all editors don’t actually touch the files you are editing… it is all virtual until the very end when you export to a new file.
Anyway, when it creates that “working image” it is probably optimized to be at the size best for the editing screen, not full screen hence what appear to be degradation.
I down loaded the free version to check it out. I installed a few pictures that are of decent quality and when I viewed them full screen through the software they were of poor quality. They were fine in the small screen in the work area. Is this because it is the free version or would the paid version be the same?
As a disclaimer, this was my first time using any video editor. I am looking for an editor that is easy to use but I also want quality. I enjoyed your review an definitely needed the guidance. Thanks!
Hi Jim,
OK, the way the images are appearing having nothing to do with whether or not it is a trial or paid version.
In fact the way the images are appearing has nothing to do with Filmora or any other software you are using!
What you are describing is what happens when an image of a certain resolution (pixels wide x pixels high) gets displayed at a higher resolution.
The effect is like the picture that has been blown up too much so it loses quality as far as definition (sharpness) goes.
When you say the images are of good quality can you let me know what their size is.
Just right click them in Filmora and select properties and the details will appear.
Had a friend suggest Filmora and was looking for a detailed review before purchasing. thanks for the thorough post & video…
You are welcome and thanks for dropping by!