Creating Video Projects

You have a variety of options for editing your video. If you already use a video editor, feel free to use that. If you would like to learn a new tool or haven't edited video before, the options below are some of the more highly recommended free options available.

This is not an exhaustive list and you are welcome to use any program that you prefer, but the following are all programs that are free for you to use for your next project. However, there are very few completely free options for video editors. Cal Poly Humboldt students, staff, and faculty also have access to some otherwise expensive options for free, which are also included in the list below. If you are looking to pay for software, we recommend that you try some of these free options first to see what you like and learn about the features you want in a paid program.

You can access most of the software available on campus computers from off-campus using the Virtual Lab (VLab). This includes MS Office, Adobe Creative Cloud, Camtasia, and many more programs that would otherwise be expensive to purchase. If you are having issues accessing these services, visit the ITS System Status page to make sure they are working properly.

VLab (all computers with internet access) allows you to login to a virtual desktop that includes software typically available in Cal Poly Humboldt computer labs (current list of VLab software). Does not require any connection software.

VideoProc Vlogger is a completely free (proprietary) video editor that works with a variety of video formats and has several features for bringing your editing to the next level. If you're annoyed with the lack of features in OpenShot but don't want to take the deep dive in DaVinci Resolve, VideoProc Vlogger is probably what you're looking for.

Their guides offer extensive text and video descriptions on how to use the many features, including syncing to music, color correction, and reframing options for various social media aspect ratios.

The main downside to using VideoProc Vlogger is the lack of support for creating captions. For captioning, we recommend using YouTube, Canvas Studio, or Panopto (all free to Cal Poly Humboldt students, staff and faculty).

Clipchamp is an easy to use and fully featured video editor for Windows and is also available as a browser-based Chrome and Edge webapp. It allows you to create videos with all of the basic features you'd want. Including openly-licensed content like music, images, and even video clips that you can use in your project.

The browser-based version of Clipchamp is great on Chromebooks and has all the features you need for small projects but working on big projects with multiple files over a browser may cause playback lag and other unwanted issues. The browser-based version also has freemium content that you want to avoid so that you can use it for free. Premium content is marked with a diamond icon, so avoid that to keep your project free.

The programs above are great for most video projects but if you find yourself wanting to get into more advanced video editing and film making, the options below are all professional quality programs that you can access for free. These will take considerable time to learn and will be overkill for most class assignments. But if you are ready to immerse yourself in editing and want to get to the next level, these are great options.