Here’s a list of the best visual effects software for beginners and professionals, including paid and free ones.

Motion tracking with mosaic blur, 360 degree video editing, split screen video, stop motion animation, etc. Are just some of the features that this software manage to offer. The Pinnacle Studio 21 boasts over 1500 effects, titles and transitions that users can choose from. Jul 18, 2019  HitFilm Express is another free video editing software for videos and is an advanced and undoubtedly one of the best all-round free video editor. It contains all the features that every editor want to use including, over 180 special effects, splicing, trimming, audio editing and many more.

Visual effects (or VFX) is the process of creating and manipulating computer-generated imagery. VFX is already an important part of filmmaking and is becoming more and more important these days. There are several types of visual effects such as modeling, animation, compositing and rotoscoping. Thanks to visual effects software, things can be a lot easier.

The best VFX software for beginners

If you are looking for an easy-to-use video editor with special effects that allows you to do some basic VFX, then Wondershare Filmora can be the best choice. Filmora comes with over 300 built-in effects, not to mention the professional visual effect sets and packages offered by its Filmstocks effects store. With them, even beginners can create amazing videos. It’s available for both PC (Windows 7 or later) and Mac (macOS 10.11 or later).

Easy for beginners

Many visual effects software programs used in the production of Hollywood blockbusters are node based. Unlike them, Filmora is layer based, which makes it’s easy to get started. Its interface is simple, intuitive and easy to navigate. Novices can benefit from its mild learning curve, and advanced users can efficiently achieve the effects they want with high flexibility.

Tons of visual effects available for instant use

Sometimes, things can be as easy as drag-and-drop. Before diving into something more advanced, let’s take a look at the video effects that are already available for use. The said VFX video editing software provides categories of effects for different scenarios. For example, there are blockbuster effects.

• Electricity
• Explosions
• Destruction
• Lasers
• Bullets
• Bullet hits
• Suppressed gunshots
• Small gunshots
• Rifle shots
• Front gunshots
• Bullet pass
• Big gunshots
• Blasts
• Meteors
• Massive explosion
• Fire
• And more…

Use it for compositing

As the best VFX software for beginners, it allows you to easily do green screen compositing. Drag the green screen video and your background footage into the program. Right-click former in the timeline and choose Green Screen. Now you can find the Chroma Key (Green Screen) feature. Tweak the setting until you are happy with the result. It’s that easy to key out green screen. If needed, you can crop out the unwanted part of the green screen video using the Crop feature.

You can also use it to easily layer your video, get picture-in-picture effect and add lens flares and light leaks to your video, among other things.

Use it for animation

This program also offers a set of powerful animation tools. There are preset animation effects, which you can directly drop into your footage. Some of them are Center Wipe, Evaporate and Linear Wipe.

Also, it’s easy to change and animation parameters using key frames.

What can Filmora do?

• Do visual effects such as green screen compositing
• Allow you to add up to 100 media layers for complex projects
• Provide more than 300 easy-to-apply special effects
• Trim, crop, rotate, layer and manipulate your video footages
• Support all popular video, audio and image formats
• Add text, titles, subtitles and captions
• Add motion graphics
• Apply filters and overlays
• Do video stabilization, speed control and audio separation
• And much more…

Top 5 commercial visual effects software

#1 Autodesk Maya

OS: Windows, Mac, and Linux

Price: $195/month, $1,545/year, or $4170/3 years

Commonly known as Maya, it can be the best VFX software for Mac, Windows and Linux. It is widely used in the production of movies, TV series, video games and other works. Coming with a rich array of features, this VFX software program is great for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, motion graphics and more. It does a good job of allowing users to add details, lighting, colors and other effects to 3D models. The user interface is intuitive, allowing users to create and manipulate models in an efficient approach.

#2 NUKE

OS: Windows, Mac, and Linux

Price: $4,758 for NUKE, $8,853 for NUKE X and $10,248 for NUKE Studio

It is a VFX and compositing software program available for multiple platforms. There are three editions: NUKE, NUKE X and NUKE Studio. It’s a powerful tool coming with great tools for compositing, rotoscoping, particle effects and more. The industry standard compositing software has support for 2D and 3D. Professionals will benefit from its considerable amount of visual effects capabilities. NUKE is node based, which makes it very efficient especially make it comes to big projects.

#3 Autodesk 3ds Max

OS: Windows

Price: $195/month, $1,545/year, or $4170/3 years

This powerful versatile visual effect software tool is designed for 3D modeling, animation, and rendering and is widely used in industries like architecture, design and video games. It excels at 3D modeling for both characters and objects and offers high performance when it comes to rendering. With it, users can expect high level of reality and detail of their works. For new users, it can be a bit difficult to learn. As one gets more experienced, one can explore endless possibility and make the most of this tool.

#4 Cinema 4D

OS: Windows, Mac, and Linux

Price: $59/month, billed annually

As one of the most popular visual effects software programs, Cinema 4D is widely used for organic and non-organic modeling, animation, rendering and other VFX tasks. It is commonly used in design, graphic design, animation, broadcast and other industries and is easily one of the best providers of 3D modeling and rendering solutions. In addition, it’s also good at creating animations with impressive textures. Compared with some other VFX software, this one is very easy to learn. It offers a lot of useful plugins, which can make your work easy.

#5 Houdini

OS: Windows, Mac, and Linux

Price: Free and commercial versions

When it comes to visual effect software, we can’t ignore Houdini. It is used by many big VFX companies such as Pixar and DreamWorks Animation. There are six versions, which makes the pricing a bit complicated. The free version is called Houdini Apprentice. It’s free for non-commercial use only. Designed to be a visual effects and 3D animation tool, Houdini has been widely used in filmmaking video games production. The node-word workflow makes it popular among VFX professionals.

3 free open-source visual effects software

Commercial VFX software often comes with high price. The good news is that there are also some free, open-source alternatives.

#1 Blender

OS: Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD and Haiku

Despite being free, Blender is powerful and versatile. It provides rich sets of tools for visual effects, 3D modeling, ragging, simulation, compositing, vide editing and match moving other tasks. It offers a complete set of tools for any type of 3D tasks. One of the great things is that you can download templates online and use them for your projects in Blender. Compared to most other VFX software, it’s relatively small and lightweight. In addition, it’s very customizable and flexible.

#2 Blackmagic Fusion

OS: Linux, macOS, Windows

This VFX compositing software program has a free version and a commercial version. It has been used in the productions of tons of Hollywood big movies such as Iron Man and 2012. Despite being free, the free version allows you to use it for commercial projects. It excels at visual effects, virtual reality and motion graphic tasks. Just like some similar visual effects software, it’s node based, which allows high flexibility.

#3 Natron

OS: Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, Windows

Free, open-source and node-based, this freeware visual effects tool is easily accessible and easy to use. If you are a Nuke user, you will find its interface very similar to that of Nuke. It offers a number of functionalities for video tracking, keying, rotoscoping and keyframe animation. In addition, you will also find basic tools for image editing and painting.

Conclusion

If you are new to VFX and want to create a video or short film full of cool effects with the least efforts, you can use Filmora, the best video editor with special effects. You can do amazing video editing and compositing without leaving the app. It offers a great number of basic and advanced features and tools for all users. Most visual effects software programs are powerful, versatile and expensive. Thanks to the free open-source alternatives, everyone can have the opportunity to dive into the world of VFX.

Wondershare Filmora Review: All Details and Alternatives (2020)

It’s not a surprise why many people look for dedicated video editing software. As we already know, video marketing is [...]

Windows Media Video or WMV is a container format that stores a combination of still images, digital audio, video streams. Although WMV is a great windows media file format, it is hard to play this format across cross-platform devices, operating systems, and native video players.

Microsoft designs and offers special multimedia players so that users can play WMV files on their respective devices. But there is no guarantee that these apps or software will work. Therefore, users need to convert WMV files using a free WMV converter or website to convert the video into a different file format container. Let's take a peek on a few of the best WMV converter software for Windows devices.

What You Will See in This Page

Free WMV Converters for Windows

There are some effective WMV converters that are compatible with the Windows system. Take a look at them and choose one to use.

TOP 1. EaseUS Video Editor

EaseUS Video Editor, recognized as one of the best, is a pro-level video editing software for both beginners and professionals. Its interactive UI has attracted fans all over the world. The software is suitable for both incoming and outgoing formats of video files. The video files can be cut, divide, and rotate with a click. Though free version ads watermark to exported videos, which can easily remove by getting paid version of EaseUS Video Editor. The editor is loaded with an array of effects and transitions which makes the video editing a very exciting process.

There are some features of this program, they may help you gain a deeper understanding of it.

Features:

• Allows to choose from an array of transition effects and texts
• Color-level, brightness and speed adjustments while editing the raw footage
• Drag-Drop option for video and audio editing
• High-quality transitions, overlays, and effects to tweak from
• Import and export any file format without losing quality
• Convert almost any multimedia file of any format, to any desired format for free

To Convert WMV Files to MP4 using EaseUS Video Editor successfully, you need to follow the steps below.

Step 1. Import the source file

Launch EaseUS Video Editor. On the home screen, you can import the source file by either clicking the 'Import' option or simply dragging the video to the appropriate area.

Step 2. Add to project

You need to add the imported file to the track by choosing the 'Add to Project' option, or you can drag and place the file to the track as you want.

Step 3. Export the source file

Now you can click 'Export' on the main menu on the top.

Step 4. Save as MP4

Under the 'Video' tab, choose MP4 as the desired video file format.

On the right pane, you can edit the file name, customize an output folder and settings, and then click 'Export'.

TOP 2.VLC media player

VLC is the ultimate cross-platform open-source and free software that can play most video, audio, and multimedia files. It can convert various media files without losing their quality. Besides playing, it allows you to add transitions, filters and supports for playing DVDs, CDs, VCDs, and several streaming protocols. It supports a wide range of input-output media formats. The VLC media player has a very interactive UI that can potentially attract any user from any machine. They get almost the same functionalities everywhere.

Features:

• Can play on cross-platform OSs
• Can play most media files with no restriction
• No ads, no trials
• Lifetime updates with futuristic design
• Can play from any media, magnetic and online sources
• Tools and equalizers with customization features

Pros

• Open source and free
• Compatible with cross-platform operating systems
• No ads, trackers or malware and Uses HW acceleration
• Easy-to-use and child-lock interface
• Convert and edit video/audio for free

Cons

• Struggles while playing from DVD, CD
• Requires highly stable internet for streaming and podcast
• Struggles while playing 4K & 8K videos
• Distorts sound quality

TOP 3.Freemake Video Converter

Freemake is a freemium freeware available for only Windows machines to convert videos and movies into various container formats. Sources say that Freemake can convert your videos into 500 different video formats, including WMV and MP4 formats, for free. However, you may need to understand several things before you can convert your files. The UI of the software is simple but not beginner-friendly. There are several ways on its UI to convert files, and it includes videos, audios, DVDs, Photos and can also download from the internet.

Features:

• Can convert several kinds of file containers
• Can convert for various devices and systems
• Free to convert the files to its native file details
• Can add a watermark to the videos
• Allows to edit, trim and resample a video file

Pros

• It is a freemium product
• Equipped with basic UI
• Support add or remove subtitles

Cons

• A permanent pop-up ad from freeware
• Not very beginner-friendly
• Misleading titles

TOP 4.HandBrake

Handbrake is an Open Source Video Converter software for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux machines. This software can convert any video container format to your desired file type within its supported codecs and formats. It can be downloaded for 32 and 64-bit machines. It takes videos from your device and converts them into a usable file format that can be used in all devices and players. It is completely free and requires no logins or trials to convert the video.

Features:

• Free and open source
• Available for cross-platform devices
• Available for both 32 and 64-bit machines
• Includes documentaries
• Can be used to convert any multimedia file

Pros

• Free and open source
• Available for cross-platform devices
• No ads or pop-ups

Cons

• Not beginner's friendly
• Challenging GUI features
• Supports only a few formats

Free WMV converter for Mac OS

There can be several circumstances when you may need to convert your multimedia file formats to other file formats. This allows them to run on cross-platform devices. Introducing three of the best video converter software for mac devices.

TOP 1.QuickTime

QuickTime from Apple is almost equivalent to Windows Media Player in several ways. But while Windows Media Player can convert a Windows Media Video file, QuickTime can convert Windows media Video to MP4 for free. It does not require can resource to do so. QuickTime has an option to select resolutions while exporting the video and can deliver synchronized graphics and multimedia. Apple's freemium product, support for which was ended by Apple from the macOS Mojave update.

Features:

• Exclusive apple product
• Quick conversion rate
• Can convert resolutions and compress files with ease
• Delivers synchronized graphics, sound, video, text, and music
• Freemium product by Apple for several uses and ease-of-access features

Pros

• Preinstalled in mac
• Basic interface and easy-to-use features
• Allows to choose from several resolutions
• Delivers synchronized graphics and multimedia

Cons

• Lacks batch processing
• Limited codec support and features
• The free version is no longer supported by macOS Mojave

TOP 2.FFmpegx

FFmpegx is a free Linux/Unix-based GUI WMV converter/editor. It isavailable for free for mac and windows users that can convert video and other multimedia files without losing quality. It is compact, compelling, and comfortable to use. It has a subtitle converter .vob to .srt format using OCR. The user interface looks seriously basic, but is interestingly professional and can preview every video before converting so that you know how your video shows up. It contains audio lossless coding for every video editing works.

Features:

• Linux/Unix based GUI video editor
• Source video and audio processing tools
• Available on cross-platform devices
• ALS feature for floating-point sample decoding
• Looks modern and has a wide range of supports for various multimedia formats
• Easy transcoding, and faster exporting rate

Pros

• Free and popular
• Available on cross-platform devices
• Allows several video customizations features
• Drag Drop interface

Cons

• Not beginners' friendly
• No batch processing
• Limited codec support and features
• Hard-to-understand features and documentation

TOP 3.MPEG Streamclip

An easy-to-use file that is easy for beginners with its drag and drops UI feature, MPEG Streamclip can export files into the desired output. It can edit, add effects & transitions. You can edit audio and video bitrates, date rates, framerates, resolutions. You can also include whether to zoom-in or zoom-out, crop, make adjustments, and make several more changes and edits. It's hard to describe all the features so you can read a documentary to understand its usefulness.

Features:

• Has plenty of options to convert the file
• Can edit audio and video bitrates, date rates, framerates, resolutions
• Documentary available
• can edit, add effects & transitions
• Support available for TV screens

Pros

• Powerful conversion
• Can do basic and pro editing functions
• Has plenty of options to convert the file
• Can edit/convert video and audio files

Cons

• Not beginner-friendly WMV converter
• Boring design
• No batch processing
• Limited codec support and features as WMV converter

Free WMV Converter Online

Converting WMV files offline has a lot of drawbacks and requires resources to do so. An online WMV converter can save you from this resources-hungry software at the expense of your data packs. As we have discussed earlier, WMV files need to be converted to enable them to play in cross-platform devices., or need a special multimedia player.

TOP 1.ZAMZAR

An online, freemium WMV converter, ZAMZAR, can convert your WMV files. It has a basic UI and information about the two file formats that the user wants to convert from-and-to on its page. It can convert your multimedia file into 28 different multimedia video formats, including MP4. The site also contains information regarding how to convert each file into another format. The site is so futuristic that the icons also show what the source file-format and destination file-format are.

Features:

• also contains information regarding how to convert
• freemium WMV converter
• basic UI
• contains 28 different multimedia video formats
• futuristic design

Pros

• Easy-to-use WMV converter
• No pop-ups, disturbing ads on WMV converter
• Can email the file or download directly

Cons

• Requires stable internet
• Slow upload and conversion speed
• Requires uploading before conversion

TOP 2.Online-Convert

Online Convert is an online, free WMV converter that has more options that a basic functionality-enabled software. Online convert can convert any multimedia file format to the desired format. It has no restrictions to use, and the site has no pop-ups or ads that can interrupt your overall user experience. It can convert into over a dozen different containers and can do this simultaneously. You can select the resolution, codecs, pixels, resize and presets, and upload your converter file to your cloud storage.

Features:

• Fast upload and very fast conversion speed
• Video bitrate, frame rate, edit, trim, rotation, flip, cropping and deinterlacing
• No pop-ups, disturbing ads on WMV converter
• Can upload your converter file to your cloud storages
• Easy-to-use WMV converter

Pros

• Too many options to choose from
• Fast upload and very fast conversion speed
• Allows you to change resolution, aspect ratio
• Video bitrate, frame rate, edit, trim, rotation, flip, cropping and deinterlacing
• No pop-ups, disturbing ads

Cons

• Data hungry requires a stable internet
• Not beginner's friendly
• Only a few conversion formats available
• Requires uploading before conversion

TOP 3.Cloud Convert

Cloud Convert is an online file converter that can freely WMV converter nearly every kind of multimedia, text files, documents, spreadsheets, and libraries. Unlike other online video conversion websites, Cloud convert provides data security. It does not store any data that you upload to their database.

It supports hundreds of file containers and has a powerful API. It converts terabytes of files every single day. Even though the conversion process is very easy, the site contains documentation to help beginners use it as a WMV converter.

Features:

• Can convert nearly all types of multimedia and libraries
• Provides data security
• Beginner's friendly and contains documentation
• Allows selecting various tools and features, codecs, ratios, framerates, rate factors, etc.

Pros

• Free and easy-to-use
• Can convert nearly all types of media files
• Too many options to select from

Cons

• Free up to 25 conversions a day
• May seem like a virus due to its pop-ups
• The API may slowdown

TOP 4.Files-Conversion

File-Conversion is an online video converting application,WMV converter with basic design and UI. The interface is so simple that a kid can also use the site to convert any container files. However, the site is supported and filled with ads and pop-ups that can potentially annoy a beginner. File-Conversion allows you to choose whether you want to resize the video file size, making it easier to share the video file over social media with ease. It supports a dozen different file containers.

Features:

• Simple UI
• Basic conversion
• Faster upload and conversions speeds
• Can change quality and file size
• Not restricted to search engines or browsers

Pros

• Beginner-friendly
• Bunch of options to choose for file size
• Can convert a low-end video to high-end or vice-versa

Cons

• Full of pop-ups and ads
• Misleading titles
• May seem like a virus due to its pop-ups

Conclusion

So here we are with the top free WMV converters, including EaseUS Video Editor. Every software has its ups and downs. The crucial part of video conversion is speed and quality. Make sure your software does not cut down on one while promoting the other because the presence of both makes the video watchable. However, for Windows users, EaseUS Video Editor is definitely the best choice. If you are interested, you may download it from the blue button here.

Frequently Asked Questions

There are some frequently asked questions related to free WMV converter, you may read them and see if they can help you solve your problems.

1. Can you convert WMV to MP4?

Yes, WMV can be converted to MP4 using dozens of free software that offers high-quality codecs and fast conversion. Either you can use software to do so, or can visit a website for the same. Both will offer the same results.

2. How do I convert WMV to MP4 for free?

Special Effects Software For Mac

There are hundreds of thousands of free WMV converters in the windows app market and on the internet. A few good apps like VLC Media Player are available for Windows and Mac devices. Similarly, Online Convert is one of the best websites to convert WMV files for free online. We can use

Special Effects Video Editing Software Free Mac Free

3. What will play a WMV file?

There are several apps available for Windows, Android, macOS, iPhones, and Linux based devices to play a WMV file. VLC Media Player is available for all environments and can play a WMV file. However, Windows Media Video can play WMV files like it's nothing. Software like RealPlayer, M-player, Media Player Classic, VLC, and KMP can also play a WMV file.

4. Is WMV better than MP4?

WMV is a lossless video format container developed by Microsoft, which is used to store very high-quality videos. However, MP4 is a newcomer and part of MPEG-4 part 14, which can contain all kinds of video codecs. WMV and MP4 cannot be compared because both are best in the market, but only mp4 can be run on several platforms without hassle.