Wondershare’s use of simplicity to encourage creativity means Filmora X is an attractive, accessible application, and the new features give great results. But it’s not for you if you want precise controls.
For
Attractive interface
Easy to learn
Great motion tracking
Several new features
Against
Features lack manual adjustment
No audio keyframing
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Apple’s iMovie and Adobe Premiere Elements are perhaps the most popular choices for novice editors seeking the best video editing software, but Wondershare Filmora is also worth considering. From the moment you open its interface –instantly more attractive than that of Premiere Elements – you can appreciate Wondershare’s approach of encouraging creativity without requiring expertise.
Its features have sometimes fallen behind those offered elsewhere, but its 10th version, Filmora X, was released in October 2020 and includes some major new additions that users had been calling for: motion tracking, keyframing, color matching, and audio ducking. In our Filmora X review, we assess these latest features and help you decide whether this is the right application for you.
Filmora X: Motion tracking
Perhaps the most exciting new feature of Filmora X is motion tracking. To track an element within a clip, you activate tracking in its effects panel, drag a box around the element, then set the tracker going. You can then link this tracker to any other media aligned with the clip in the timeline.
Like many of Filmora’s features, this is simple to use but achieves good results. The tracking is accurate, and it’s easy to link an object to the tracked clip and adjust placement. It’s a really useful way to add visual flair to your videos, such as having a caption follow a person across the screen.
You can make a text caption follow a moving video element (Image credit: Filmora)
Filmora X: Keyframing
Every video clip in the timeline has a new animation panel, with which you can add keyframes. The keyframes appear as green dots along the clip in the timeline, and there are buttons to jump to the next or previous keyframe. You can adjust the position, scale, rotation, and opacity of the clip at each keyframe, and Filmora then adjusts all frames in between to create a smooth animation.
So you can make a static shot more interesting by zooming into it, create your own fun transitions, animate captions and graphics, and more. Like the motion tracking, it’s simple but effective. However, the keyframing does have limits. It’s a shame you can’t yet keyframe other video effects or audio levels. Also, you can’t apply keyframing to shots that already have motion tracking, or vice versa.
Add motion to a static shot by zooming using keyframes (Image credit: Kieron Moore / Filmora)
Filmora X: Color correction
There’s a large number of preset color filters, but if you want more precise color controls, the tools are quite basic. Each clip has a color tab, where you can adjust sliders like contrast, brightness, and color temperature, or let the application automatically adjust color and white balance – though in our tests, we weren’t impressed with the choices the automatic functions made. It’s also lacking separate RGB sliders, which competitors including Premiere Elements have.
A useful new tool in Filmora X is color matching. You select a clip in your timeline, then, using a split-screen comparison view, select another clip to match it with. The first clip is adjusted to have a similar color palette to the second. Though the results may need some refinement, this works quite well and is a quick way of getting a consistent look across multiple clips.
Color matching gives two clips a consistent color palette (Image credit: Filmora)
Filmora X: Audio tools
To any audio clip, you can adjust the overall volume, add fades in or out, apply various EQ presets, adjust the pitch, and apply a denoiser. Like with color, these are effective tools, though will be too simple for many users. It would be nice to keyframe volume or manually adjust the EQ, for example.
New in Filmora X is audio ducking, which lowers the volume of other clips aligned with the selected clip. So if you have a music track across your project, and only some of your video clips include speech, you can apply ducking to these clips and the music will lower so the voice is audible. It’s an easy and effective tool, useful for videos that combine musical montage with speech to camera. But again, more manual adjustment options would be welcomed.
Audio ducking can lower music volume around clips with voice (Image credit: Filmora)
Filmora X: Should I buy it?
Filmora X is a solid choice for novice editors who want to have fun making videos. It’s got an attractive interface, is easy to learn, and has a number of features designed to enhance creativity.
But because a lot of its features are designed for simplicity, they lack the manual controls to fine-tune edits. If you want to be precise, Adobe Premiere Elements may be a better option, or if you’re confident enough to try a more complex option, Pinnacle Studio.
That said, this latest version of Filmora adds a few big features that, while still limited, enable more control. The motion tracking in particular is impressive in how easily it functions and the quality of results it achieves.
Filmora X costs a one-off fee of $79.99 – a good price for this level of software, cheaper than Premiere Elements’ $99.99. You can also get it for an annual subscription of $54.99. But the only extra thing the subscription gives you is access to updates beyond Filmora X, making it poor value for money after the first year.
Wondershare’s use of simplicity to encourage creativity means Filmora X is an attractive, accessible application, and the new features give great results. But it’s not for you if you want precise controls.
Kieron Moore is a freelance writer based in Manchester, England. He contributes to Future sites including TechRadar and Creative Bloq, focusing on subjects including creative software, video editing, and streaming services. This work draws on his experience as an independent filmmaker and an independent TV watcher. He can be found on Twitter at @KieronMoore, usually when he’s meant to be writing.
