3 minute read
Whether you're just getting started with editing or trying some new software out, online tutorials are a helpful place to learn.
This article is here to aid in boosting your skills with three powerful video editors:
Like our previous learning guide on Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Avid Media Composer we have broken down the resources into four main categories:
1. Official Training: Direct from the software developers themselves.
- Pros: Accurate, often comprehensive, and usually updated with new features.
- Cons: It can sometimes be rather dry, heavily technical, and lack real-world application examples.
2. Third-Party Courses: Structured learning from industry professionals.
- Pros: Often project-based and taught by experienced editors.
- Cons: It can be often be expensive and may be locked to whichever version it was made for. (Which can sting when you pay for it)
3. YouTube Tutorials: Free and easily accessible video guides.
- Pros: Plenty of it, often covering specific techniques or problems.
- Cons: Quality can vary wildly, and they may lack comprehensive coverage.
4. Community Forums: Connect with fellow editors and troubleshoot problems.
- Pros: Great for specific questions and real-world problem-solving.
- Cons: Can be time-consuming to find answers, and quality may vary. People can be unhelpful meanies.
This is by no means a definative list, just helpful starting point to find something that works for you. Please feel free to share any additional recommendations in the comments below!
Pic: Shutterstock.com
Final Cut Pro
Official Training Resources
Final Cut Pro User Guide — A comprehensive, downloadable PDF beast of a document (913 pages!) with everything you want to learn about FCP. I would recommend using the Search In Document feature to find what you're looking for.
Interestingly, Apple's official FCP Resources page links only to approved third parties so I'll just include some key suggestions below.
macProVideo.com - "The Mac Training Specialists at macProVideo.com bring you tutorials for Final Cut Pro and Motion. Get started with nearly an hour of free Final Cut Pro First Look tutorials."
Tech Talk America - "An interactive 12‑part course on video production made specifically for small businesses and non‑profit organisations, presented by David A. Cox"
Ripple Training - Linked by Apple and highly recommended by Redditors, this is a paid course, but many say it's worth the money.
3rd party training
- LinkedIn Learning: Final Cut Pro
- Udemy: Final Cut Pro
- CreativeLive: Final Cut Pro
- SkillShare: Final Cut Pro
YouTube/Independent Training
AV Ultra - "Free high-quality and professional Motion 5 training from Stanislaw Robert Luberda. Learn the basics of animation using behaviours and keyframes, and go further with lessons covering rigging and publishing titles, effects and transitions in Final Cut Pro."
FCP FTW - "Thomas Grove Carter’s video series provides bite-sized tips for editors at any experience level."
https://www.youtube.com/@stalman
“Talking about the creative tools we use for our professional photo and video production.”
- 474K subscribers
- 268 videos
- 47,474,650 views
https://www.youtube.com/@NickKendall
“In my videos, I share the knowledge I've learned over the past 3.5 years as a creator to help you improve your video production quality, in order to help your brand stand out from the crowd, build credibility and gain more viewers, clients and business.”
- 24.7K subscribers
- 474 videos
- 4,186,628 views
Community forums and discussion boards
CapCut
Official Training Resources
CapCut Official Online TutorialsOfficial CapCut Resources Page — A comprehensive collection of official tips and tricks.
3rd party training
- LinkedIn Learning: Capcut (Only One Beginner's Course as of Writing)
- Udemy: CapCut
- SkillShare: CapCut
YouTube/Independent Training
Official CapCut 101 YouTube Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/@CollinMichael
"Helping Entrepreneurs and Information Based Channels grow on YouTube."
- 306K subscribers
- 402 videos
- 31,324,743 views
How to use CapCut Video Editing - Kevin Stratvert - A great kickstart guide.
In Depth CapCut Video Editing Tutorial - Mac & PC 2024 - Content Creators
Community forums and discussion boards
Unfortunately, I could not find any good discussion forums, possibly due to the lower-than-average age range of its users.
Pic: lwks.com
Lightworks
Disclosure: The author of this article and another writer for RedShark once worked at Lightworks making tutorials.
Official Training Resources
YouTube/Independent Training
Official channel: @LWKSVIDEO
Lightworks Official Quickstart Guide - One of my proudest tutorials.
Lightworks Tutoriales by The Edit Club - If you fancy testing out your Spanish (or using YouTube auto-translate), these are great resource.
Lightworks Tutorial for Beginners 2025 by Tutorials by Manizha & RyanCommunity forums and discussion boards
- Official Lightworks Forum - The official forum is by far the best place to go for any expert insight, advice, or troubleshooting.
- Reddit: r/Lightworks
Next Steps
When you first start learning something new, especially something as complicated as video editing, it will feel overwhelming and frustrating as you're not able to achieve everything in your head right away. But as a great magical dog once said, "sucking at something is the first step to being sorta good at something."
I hope these tutorials, at the very least, help temper that overwhelm on that journey to being sorta good.
And if you find any other helpful tutorials, feel free to share them in the comments below.
Tags: Editing Education Training
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