Corel have bounced back with their latest release of Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 and, in my opinion, re-stamped their authority on this section of the home video editing software market.
Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 marks what could be described as the first version of VideoStudio wholly developed under the Corel banner. One upside to this, at the consumer level, has been the integration of the discontinued Ulead Media Studio Pro's more advanced features into Corel VideoStudio Pro.
Interface
New in VideoStudio X2 is a more pleasing graphical interface in modern slate grey tones, greater controls over effects with enlarged effects configuration windows, the ability to overlap video's on the timeline so they crossfade automatically and finally the ability to apply transitions to clips in the overlay tracks.
Launching VideoStudio Pro X2 presents you with three choices: VideoStudio Editor, Movie Wizard, and DV-to-DVD Wizard. The Movie Wizard and the DV-to-DVD Wizards do exactly as they suggest taking you through a simple point and click automated process for creating you movie or DVD. It offers a good range of themes and templates and is a simple solution for those who have no great interest in the tedium that is video editing! In the VideoStudio Editor you can choose between four different layouts and can resize each component of the layout as you choose. In the VideoStudio Editor seven tabs line up across the top of the interface in the approximate order you would follow in a normal editing process. 1.Capture 2.Edit 3.Effect 4.Overlay 5.Title 6.Audio and finally 7.Share which covers all types of final output. It's a very intuitive layout that walks you through your project but is flexible in that switching from tab to tab or function to function is seamless. As an added benefit the preview screen in VideoStudio X2 is still one of the biggest in the business and is a godsend when doing finicky work without having to squint for hours at a computer screen.
Special Effects
The big news here is the addition to VideoStudio Pro X2 of Painting Creator. This an advanced tool that allows you to draw over a frame or video and have the results appear as an animation or still image. You can draw things like an animated arrow that is pointing to someone in the video and moves with them or a whole host of other applications. The only limit with this new tool is going to be your imagination. Picture-in-picture effects have been greatly improved allowing video to play within a frame that can be a simple shapes. You can add a border and adjust its thickness and color to your liking. Green or blue-screen special effects (Chroma Key) has been a feature of VideoStudio for some time now and remains as a feature. It performs very well in VideoStudio Pro X2 as it has done in previous versions.There are corrective effects for color, brightness, and backlighting which all work well. As with many video editing packages now there is a motion correction feature to clean up any shakey shots you may have. None of these consumer level anti-shake filters will produce miracles and all will induce some degree of picture degradation in reducing the motion. VideoStudio Pro X2 is no exception and I would rate this feature as no better or worse than anything else around in its class.VideoStudio Pro X2 has increased the size of the effects configuration windows so that the ability to use unlimited key-frames is actually a reality. Previously the windows were so small it was nearly impossible to do very fine work. This is no-longer the case with the configuration windows being able to be enlarged to almost the full size of the screen. This all a considerable improvement and is combined with the ability now to switch the effects on and off for comparison purposes.The titling tool remains pretty well as it has in past versions although VideoStudio X2 has added a second titling track to the timeline and a few more preset title animations. More importantly it now lets you insert a customizable image or backdrop behind the title text to make it more readable.
Review
Overall VideoStudio Pro X2 remains at the forefront of the consumer level video editing software market. It offers the widest possible range of input and output formats and handles them very well. The program has been juiced up to take advantage of modern processors yet has been kind enough to have a feature (proxy editing) to help those of us that are resource challenged! Despite getting a rude wake up call from PowerDirector 7 this year Corel has maintained it's advantage.VideoStudio Pro X2's final "ace in the hole" is not part of the program itself. It is actually the User to User forum run by Corel and manned by VideoStudio users themselves. Whilst it could be said that the "new" customer support is, in fact, these forums, in the case of VideoStudio this is very true. It is one of the most active forums on the internet both for problem solving and sharing of ideas. It is manned by many but the core of the forum is a group of about 10 people spread out in time zones all over the world and they represent a vast storage of both knowledge and experience. There is nothing forbidding or elitist about the board and is place where good manners and the spirit of helping others prevail.
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