Video editing is widely used by marketing, communications, and video professionals. Whether you're a marketer or an aspiring filmmaker, video editing courses provide you with skills for crafting your own videos that you can share online, via social media, or through broadcasting. Here’s what you can expect to learn in video editing classes.
Learn Video Editing Skills
A video editing course equips you with essential skills necessary for creating professional-quality videos. You'll start by learning how to add, edit, and trim video and audio. In most apps, you’ll learn to do this in a timeline. These foundational skills lay the groundwork for video storytelling.
You will learn to apply transitions to clips, making your videos more engaging and interesting. You’ll also learn to create titles and add images into your videos, including imported graphics from Photoshop and Illustrator.
Advanced video editing courses teach more sophisticated techniques such as using Trim View and nested timelines. In these courses you find out how to apply different mattes and masking techniques, crafting advanced transitions. To make your videos more consistent and professional, the advanced video editing courses also cover color correction, color grading, and other standardization techniques so that shots and audio look consistent across an entire video. You will also discover efficient workflows for exporting and encoding digital video, so that your videos are able to play on any device.
Learn Video Production and Planning Skills
The fundamentals of video production and planning are as critical as the editing and post production. In a video production class, you'll also learn how to plan and organize a video shoot, whether it's for marketing, social media, training, sales, or any other common use. Learn storyboarding, scripting, and effective planning so that you have high quality video by the time you reach the editing phase of your projects.
Understanding the different types of video footage, along with the essentials of cameras, audio, and other equipment are also important to your success. In video editing courses you’ll also learn about composition and other elements that help you to create visually appealing and compelling video. Of course video editing courses cover planning as it relates to the post-production process, so that your video content is well organized and easy to edit. This makes it easier for you to apply your video editing skills and adapt your raw footage into completed video.
Learn Video Editing Tools
Learning video editing tools is a key part of any video editing course. Depending upon your preference, you will become proficient in using industry-standard software apps such as Premiere Pro, After Effects, Final Cut, or DaVinci Resolve. These video editing apps are your gateway to producing high-quality video that you can share online, through social media, film, or broadcast.
Video editing courses cover basic through advanced skills. You can learn everything from foundational skills of how to import raw video, how to navigate the software interface, and A Roll vs. B Roll footage. You'll also find out about editing techniques including cut-ins, cut-aways, cutting on action, and working with multiple video tracks. The process for adding and deleting tracks, as well as working with clips in the timeline will become second-nature as you work with these processes in projects and exercises.
Transitioning and adding effects to video and audio, as well as incorporating graphics are a part of the courses. Creating pre-roll or post-roll credits, and adding titles and lower-thirds are also covered once you’ve learned the basics. Video editing courses also teach techniques for controlling speed of video and also titles. After learning to import graphics, you’ll also discover how to adjust their position, scale, rotation, and opacity. In short, you’ll become highly skilled in working with video editing tools so that you can create the video content you’ve envisioned.
Learn to Use Video Effects
Another component of video editing courses is video effects - sometimes called visual effects, vfx, or motion graphics. Understanding and using video effects is a crucial part of the video editing process. Video editing courses that are focused on effects, such as After Effects courses, teach the process for animating static clip effects, as well as adjusting position, scale, rotation, and opacity for video. You also learn how to apply video effects to clips. You'll learn to work within timelines and use the project panel. The video editing courses also teach you how to easily work with greenscreen footage.
Video editing classes that focus on effects are not always about creating interesting or mesmerizing visuals. Some video effects covered in the courses are for more mundane tasks that are equally important, such as stabilizing shaky footage and standardizing audio levels, and working with audio formats to produce videos that look and sound professional.
Video editing courses for effects start with basic topics like importing and organizing media, creating and managing projects, adding audio and video. The classes then move into creating titles, animations, and effects.
Video editing classes including hands-on projects and exercises offer a way for you to gain the skills and knowledge needed to create your own high-quality video projects. Whether you're just getting started, or are looking to expand your skills, there are video editing classes suitable for all levels so that you can create more engaging and professional quality videos.