Hilfilm is
a video effect app specialized in green screen effects, fire and explosion,
fire smoke, rain, fallen debris, and basically everything you need to create an
action film. If you have video camera, creative brain and some patience, it can
be the best kind of entertainment you can have with your computer.
Keying is a
technical term used for green screen effects and Hitfilm's effects that are
more complex than tools preset into consuming editing packages. Spill Removal
is especially useful, it helps to remove green leakage
that reflects from the screen to objects' edges. It is a bit disappointing due
to no option to makemask's edge lighter - this feature is used for Hitfilm
Ultimate, $342. However, you can draw a mask to manually remove frame's areas,
so green screen background does not need to fill up the frame. Keying is very
useful to drag an actor to another environment, but it has another use in
Hitfilm. Because particle effects - fire, rain, fallen debris - are created in
3D mode, isolating actor through keying means that these effects can be
arranged behind and around the actor. You have big control on these effects.
Fire
simulator includes 4 parameters including size and live-coal chaos in a fading
fire and smoke density. Almost all controls can be keyframed to change settings
in time. Interface is quite complex, but its layout is thoughtfully considered.
We had to visit help and guide video a few times. It was very useful when
preview performance was extremely fast, which made the 1080p AVC video's
playback smooth with many particle effects on our Core i7 PC.
The main challenge was to make our special
effects look like real and move convincingly. The software provides tools to
make this happen, but it is not accompanied by premade samples. However, this
is quite all right for us: we prefer to be stuck in advanced controls and find
ways to do everything.
Effect
library is added by some familiar effect groups grouped into folders such as
Color, Blur & Sharpen, Distort and Stylize. You can also use Hitfilm for
general editing tasks, but we will not suggest this; performance was much worse
when we input long AVCHD clips. You had better use Hitfilm with normal editor
software like Sony Vegas Platinum (both Sony and FXhome sell package combining
both of them).
Hitfilm
Standard is not cheap, but is in the reach of those who have strong passion
with it. Trial version is not limited in time and has enough features, but
output is restricted with YouTube at standard sharpness. If you are keen,
certainly you will prefer Hitfilm Ultimate, which adds more keying options and
additional effects. It is the best when Ultimate includes particle generators
that can be designed at first with particles arising or lying on 3D surface,
together with the ability to follow objects so that effects and particle source
can keep track of objects’ positions in the video. However, Hitfilm Standard is
a wonderful starting point for those who are very interested in making film and
have much free time.
Summary
Verdict. Effects are especially complex, and
interface is fast and subtle - Hitfilm Standard is time-consuming but extremely
interesting.
Video
effect app. Windows XP/Vista/7 (64-byte Windows
7 should be used), Petium 4 or 1.4GHz Athlon 64, 2GB RAM (2.4GHz Core 2 Quad or
4GB RAM Phenom X4 is recommended), 300MB space disk, 512MB OpenGL 2.0
graphic (GeForce 7900 or Radeon X1900 XT or above).
Ratings: 
Price: $126
Website:
www.hitfilm.com
