If you record crowds of people, places, landscapes, closed nature reserves and cities from high above, use special drone video editing software to improve or simplify your drone flying and video shooting.
Perform color grading or add cinematic visual effects, learn how to edit footage step-by-step and level up your skills choosing one of the following drone video editing software.
In the article below you will learn about the most popular software for editing videos taken with FPV drones and other quadcopters. Overlay color LUTs, soundtracks, add effects, perform color grading, cut and combine several videos of various sizes before you post the result on YouTube or another platform.
Verdict: Adobe Premiere can be called the best drone video editing software because it works almost with every existing video format. Developers enhanced Adobe performance with source footage editing and better multi-camera functionality. 8K editing has been a standard for a long time.
You may add unlimited video and audio tracks, overlap them and add effects. A LUTs Grading makes your frames impressive without the necessity to be a professional in the color correction.
You can also use text templates in real time, automatic backup to Adobe Cloud, close integration with After Effects, expanded tracking and masking options as well as the possibility to export into many standard branch formats.
Verdict: Final Cut Pro is professional software with the biggest base of third-party plug-ins and support of all possible file formats. One of the most unique functions is the technology used to reduce the size of the final video without influencing the quality.
You will find a range of useful functions and well-developed tools making this drone video editing software maximally intuitive, including the preview of the effects and magnet time scale that allows you to code clips and overlap video lines for complex video editing.
There are also functions for professionals, such as multifunctional video and audio editing enabling to mix various frame sizes, frame frequencies and formats into one project.
Verdict: DaVinci Resolve is a non-linear video editor featuring advanced color correction tools. It uses the mechanism of parallel editing enabling to assess colors in up to 2K resolution.
DaVinci Resolve drone video editing software boasts exclusive tools for color correction and the most effective curves. It also features a set of filters. It is possible to use an unlimited number of video and audio tracks. The sound mixing feature deserves special praise. You can process up to 1000 soundtracks simultaneously, using the equalizer and dynamic controls.
This software for drones supports all popular video formats, including Quicktime. You may edit videos with up to 8K resolution but export settings are limited to 3,840 x 2,160 if you upload video directly to YouTube or Vimeo.
Verdict: After Effects is the best drone video editing software if you want to add realistic cinematic effects, like smoke, explosions, gradient transfusions, etc. It also functions as a simple non-linear video editor, music editor and transcoder for multimedia.
There are thousands of built-in effects that may be united to create an unlimited number of combinations, add rain, wind, sun glares, abrupt transitions, mosaic, etc. If it is not enough, you can upload third-party plug-ins.
The tool supports scripts and layouts that will help you combine several sources to create a final scene. For example, for one VFX frame, you have to combine a piece of a green screen, background, some explosion elements, dust and smoke into one scene.
Verdict: Cyberlink Power Director is a great option for owners of 360-gradient aerial drones. It allows editing videos from several drones and synchronizing it.
It supports all drone cameras, stabilization tools, movement tracking, titles, transitions and View Designer for cool effects, such as Little Planet.
This video editing software for drones has updated color tools, like color matching, LUTs, division of tones and HDR effects. Animated templates and automatic sound muting to lower the level of the background sound also debuted in the previous version.
Among unique features, I want to mention a double preview that allows you to have one window showing the contents of the library and the other ‒ the project results in 4K.
Verdict: Filmora is rather new drone video editing software including its own media library, 4K support and boasting a simple learning curve.
To improve colors, you may adjust the white balance, apply LUTs, standard HSL exposition, fix brightness, contrast, and saturation. What I like most is that you can watch the video in the “compare before/after mode”.
The unique feature of this program is that it offers 4 separate video editing modes, and their names indicate the focus of the program ‒ Action Cam, Full Feature, Instant Cutter and Easy Mode. You can synchronize audio with video and automatically correct color without wasting time. You may also add various built-in templates of titles/tags to highlight the key info.
Verdict: GoPro Studio is a perfect choice for beginner video editors since it provides drag-and-drop options and excessive learning materials.
The software offers eye-catching presets and useful functions, like merge, trip, slo-mo and fast-mo. This video editing software for drones allows outputting your projects on various platforms, like YouTube, Vimeo, UHD4K and more. You may highlight epic scenes and slow them down to attract the viewers’ attention to your videos.
Since this program is really easy to master, it doesn’t have any sound editing tools; experienced users are not likely to appreciate it.
Verdict: Despite its discontinued support, Windows Movie Maker is still one of the most popular free drone editing software. It doesn’t get any updates anymore but users like its convenient functions and many effects to experiment with. An XML code allows users to change existing transitions and effects or create completely new ones.
Movie Maker uses a simplified version of the standard time scale of the video editor with clips presented as “long sketches”. What I really like about Movie Maker is that majority of the effects, transitions and themes are viewed automatically when you simply hover the cursor over them.
You may stabilize video, combine, cut, and add soundtracks, video effects, adjust toning, add transitions and animated captions.
Verdict: Apple iMovie includes great tools for multimedia organization, color grading, green-screen effects, narration and background sound in your digital films.
It is not the best drone video editing software with the support for new formats ‒ it still doesn’t support 360-degree video; however, it works with 4K and HEVC. iMovie may also boast of one of the best tools to create video clips on the basis of storyboard ‒ trailers and movies. Moreover, you are likely to appreciate the integration with other Apple devices, like iPad and iPhone.
There are numerous step-by-step manuals created to help you master iMovie while its intuitive interface will make video editing simple and convenient.
