Video Editing with NCH VideoPad (Free)

Recently I needed to edit a video and insert still images throughout it and apply a simple cross-fade transition between each media clip. I couldn’t use Windows Movie Maker because it doesn’t include the timeline view anymore. I downloaded and installed NCH VideoPad, which is free for non-commercial use, and it turned out to be a pretty easy video editor. Following is a simple tutorial on how to create a simple video with one primary video, several still images, and cross-fade transitions.

1. Open VideoPad and start a new project.

2. Click “Add File” and browse to a video file to open. Click on the video file after you’ve added it to your project. In the “Clip Preview”, click the green down arrow to add the video to the timeline. The video will be added to Video Track 1 and the audio to Audio Track 1.

3. At this point, the video is linked / grouped to its audio. We want to unlink it so that we can insert still images throughout the video while keeping the audio in sync. Right click on Video Track 1 and in the context menu, click on “Unlink Audio”.

The audio track will appear grayed when the video track is active, and vice versa, indicated that the two are unlinked.

4. Click on “Add Files” and add some still images to the project.

5. Click on an image to see it in the Clip Preview window. The default duration of the image is 3 seconds which is good. Drag the timeline cursor to the point in the video where you want to insert the still image. Don’t worry about not being exactly at the time where you want the image inserted. You can adjusted the time later by dragging the image and video. Next, click the green down arrow and select the option “Place on sequence at cursor”. The image will be inserted in Video Track 1 for a duration of 3 seconds in place of the section of the video that was originally there.

6. Click on the zoom (+) magnifier to zoom in on the section of the timeline containing the image.

7. Go to the Sequence Preview window to preview how the playback of the image looks.

8. Let’s change the duration of the image by

  1. dragging the video clip to the right of the image clip to the right a bit
  2. dragging the right edge of the image clip to the right to expand it
9. Let’s add the common cross-fade transition. At the end of each clip is an icon. Click it to open the context menu and then click on “cross fade”. Accept the default transition duration of 1 second. Do this for both the video clip and the image clip.
You’ll now see a strip of orange where one clip meets another.
You’ll also see a preview of the cross fade in the Sequence Preview window.
10. Repeat this same process for all images. When you’re ready export the video, click the Export Video button and if you don’t know what preset to use, click the Detect button.

 

▲