How To Get Started As A Professional Video Editor

Basic video editing isn’t that hard to do. Anyone can get started with the right software and edit a video. But the nuance is harder. Editing isn’t just about chopping up clips, it’s about timing and pacing. And it’s about creating a look, a colour grade, and adding in graphics where needed. In order to be a good editor, you need all of these things.

Luckily, there are lots of online resources for learning to edit for free. Today, we’ll talk about one of those resources, Motion Array.

First, you’ll need good editing software. One recommendation is Adobe Premiere Pro. Premiere Pro is an industry standard for editing all sorts of videos from wedding videos to Hollywood films. It’s part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, which includes several other packages like After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Audition just to name a few. The entire package comes in a month subscription for $49.99 a month. If you just want to try your hand at Premiere Pro first, you can get a monthly license for a single Creative Cloud application for $19.99 a month.

Once you have your copy of Premiere Pro and you’re ready to jump in, check out the tons of free Premiere Pro tutorials from Motion Array.

A great place to start is with a tutorial like “5 Tips To Help You Edit Faster In Premiere Pro”. Here’s you’ll learn some interesting editing techniques and ways to edit faster and more efficiently right out of the gate.

Tutorial: 5 Tips To Edit Faster In Premiere Pro from Motion Array on Vimeo.

Other tutorials like “Importing Premiere Projects Into Premiere Projects” and “Using Dynamic Link with Premiere Pro and After Effects” will also help you learn workflow within the program and how all of the elements work together.

Once you have a handle on editing basics, you can move into tutorials like “Create Smooth Animation In Premiere Pro” and “Premiere Pro Tutorial: Shuffle Effect” to learn some cool techniques that will make your edits pop. Adding in graphics and animation can really bring your edit to a whole new level.

Tutorial: Smooth Animation In Adobe Premiere Pro from Motion Array on Vimeo.

Speaking of animation, once you have a good handle on Premiere Pro, it’s not a bad idea to get to know After Effects as well. After Effects is a widely used program for animation, motion graphics, and visual effects compositing. If you ever need to get into animations with more control and complexity than Premiere Pro, After Effects is your go to. And if you have the standard Creative Cloud membership, After Effects is included.

Motion Array has several After Effects tutorials as well. They include everything from basics to specific animation techniques. A good starter is “10 Things I Wish I Knew About After Effects”. Once you’ve learned how the program works and you get some animations under your belt, you can move on to “Easy Type Animations With After Effects” and “Create Simple 3D Photos In After Effects”.

If you spend a little time practicing and working with the software, then pair that with some great tutorials, you’ll be editing in no time.

Create Simple 3D Photos In After Effects Tutorial from Motion Array on Vimeo.

Motion Array is a creative asset marketplace featuring After Effects templates, Premiere Pro templates, stock music, stock video, and motion graphics. They currently have nearly 16,000 files for download and more are added daily.

Motion Array offers a subscription membership where users can use download credits for assets each month. The Lite plan is $19 a month with 4 download credits. The Pro plan is $49 a month with 20 download credits. And there is the Plus plan in between. All of Motion Array’s tutorials are free to the public.

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