6 ms·

Show HN: I Made a Final Cut for Windows

CinematicStudio 5y ago
It all started with me trying to bring into the spotlight my then photo viewer app. I created a way to animate between the photos in an album. People started to react positively to that (duh!). So I improved on the animations. Added more ways to animate... After roughly 2 months I realized this trumped everything else. So I decided to create a video editor. That was more than 3 years ago. Added more animations, added videos, effects, transitions. Talked to people to understand their pain points... Analyzed other editors for inspiration, spiced it all with a lot of my ideas... Worked on it non-stop, a lot of crazy hours, a LOT of time spent on optimizations, a lot of time spent on dealing with stupid Microsoft APIs. Luckily, I wasn't alone -- my two dogs have been my emotional support through all the ups and downs (https://www.tiktok.com/@lupiandbelasuperstars/video/6995908367256521990 https://www.tiktok.com/@lupiandbelasuperstars/video/69959083...). I love them more than I can express into words -- and of course, a lot of the money I make will be spent on treats and toys, and just making sure those tails never stop moving ;) Finally, I'm happy with the result, and I'd like to share it with you guys! Obviously, there's a discount - 40% OFF , it will last until Sun 5th of December. If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to answer them!
smoldesu 5y ago
I don't really use MacOS anymore, but does Final Cut charge a monthly subscription now?
- CinematicStudio 5y ago
  As far as I know, they don't. But I think I read something a while back that they're actually thinking about doing that.
  - syspec 5y ago
    That's a weird lie
  - CinematicStudio 5y ago
    Seems someone thought I was lying. Here's the article: https://9to5mac.com/2021/02/24/final-cut-pro-subscription/ https://9to5mac.com/2021/02/24/final-cut-pro-subscription/
JesseHercules 5y ago
Looks great! There's a real need for an easier video editor for people making social videos and not 4k movies.
- CinematicStudio 5y ago
  Thanks :) My thoughts exactly :D
russdpale 5y ago
cant anyone just make software that I purchase? I see a subscription model and I click away.
- randomluck040 5y ago
  Same exact thought. I default to the pricing page of software these days to check if I have to add yet another subscription service. I don’t want to take away from the great software that might have been built but I didn’t even click beyond seeing the subscription. For a video editing app. What does make this worth the subscription in comparison to Resolve or FCPX? If it’s less features, then I don’t get it and the mistake is on the side of Blackmagic/FCPX/… and they should offer something more linear as an option to view the interface at least.
  - CinematicStudio 5y ago
    Thanks for sharing! To give you a bit of background -- I'm not trying to compete with Resolve. I'm not targeting experts, but instead targeting beginners and intermediate people when it comes to video editing. And I do offer quite a few features, and my main focus has been on speed from the get go (for instance, Instant Preview everywhere, which as far as I know is only present in Final Cut and nowhere else). Another focus has been removing as many pain points as possible, making your workflow as fast as possible (obviously, this is always a work in progress). And when it comes to competing, try to look at https://invideo.io/ https://invideo.io/, https://animoto.com/ https://animoto.com/, https://wevideo.com https://wevideo.com and so many other softwares, and compare what I'm offering to those.
    - randomluck040 5y ago
      Thank you for elaborating! First of all: good job not bloating your website the same as wevideo and invideo did - I just can't bring myself to spend time to compare anything with that services, sorry. Also I want to say that I don't want to talk your app down or something - when I was skimming through the features just now I think it looks great. When it comes to comparisons, and I only have animoto and single-payment-applications which I personally use to compare to, I think the key difference with animoto is that animoto is web-based. I couldn't find out where the processing happens but if it's on their servers, it (in my opinion) justifies paying for computation time. I understand that your target audience is different when it comes to the advertised features and I understand that your focus is different. This is heavily subjective and maybe I'm too old to get it but I still fail to see why I, as part of your target audience creating videos for social media, should pay a monthly subscription which I'll be locked into for as long as I want to create media when other applications are a one time payment which do the same things (apparently slower) as far as functionality goes. Again: this is heavily subjective and if the subscription model works for you and enables you to further work on the application rather than a single time payment, definitely keep doing it. At the same time I think Windows might need exactly that: something as "straight forward" (if you can call it that) as FCPX with the same snappiness it offers on the M1 chips. Either way: I wish you the best of luck and success with the app!
Mike_Andreuzza 5y ago
Super interesting idea. All my support.
- CinematicStudio 5y ago
  Thank you!

It all started with me trying to bring into the spotlight my then photo viewer app. I created a way to animate between the photos in an album. People started to react positively to that (duh!). So I improved on the animations. Added more ways to animate... After roughly 2 months I realized this trumped everything else. So I decided to create a video editor. That was more than 3 years ago. Added more animations, added videos, effects, transitions. Talked to people to understand their pain points... Analyzed other editors for inspiration, spiced it all with a lot of my ideas... Worked on it non-stop, a lot of crazy hours, a LOT of time spent on optimizations, a lot of time spent on dealing with stupid Microsoft APIs. Luckily, I wasn't alone -- my two dogs have been my emotional support through all the ups and downs (https://www.tiktok.com/@lupiandbelasuperstars/video/6995908367256521990 https://www.tiktok.com/@lupiandbelasuperstars/video/69959083...). I love them more than I can express into words -- and of course, a lot of the money I make will be spent on treats and toys, and just making sure those tails never stop moving ;) Finally, I'm happy with the result, and I'd like to share it with you guys! Obviously, there's a discount - 40% OFF , it will last until Sun 5th of December. If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to answer them!

smoldesu 5y ago

I don't really use MacOS anymore, but does Final Cut charge a monthly subscription now?

CinematicStudio 5y ago
As far as I know, they don't. But I think I read something a while back that they're actually thinking about doing that.
- syspec 5y ago
  That's a weird lie
- CinematicStudio 5y ago
  Seems someone thought I was lying. Here's the article: https://9to5mac.com/2021/02/24/final-cut-pro-subscription/ https://9to5mac.com/2021/02/24/final-cut-pro-subscription/

JesseHercules 5y ago

Looks great! There's a real need for an easier video editor for people making social videos and not 4k movies.

CinematicStudio 5y ago
Thanks :) My thoughts exactly :D

russdpale 5y ago

cant anyone just make software that I purchase? I see a subscription model and I click away.

randomluck040 5y ago
Same exact thought. I default to the pricing page of software these days to check if I have to add yet another subscription service. I don’t want to take away from the great software that might have been built but I didn’t even click beyond seeing the subscription. For a video editing app. What does make this worth the subscription in comparison to Resolve or FCPX? If it’s less features, then I don’t get it and the mistake is on the side of Blackmagic/FCPX/… and they should offer something more linear as an option to view the interface at least.
- CinematicStudio 5y ago
  Thanks for sharing! To give you a bit of background -- I'm not trying to compete with Resolve. I'm not targeting experts, but instead targeting beginners and intermediate people when it comes to video editing. And I do offer quite a few features, and my main focus has been on speed from the get go (for instance, Instant Preview everywhere, which as far as I know is only present in Final Cut and nowhere else). Another focus has been removing as many pain points as possible, making your workflow as fast as possible (obviously, this is always a work in progress). And when it comes to competing, try to look at https://invideo.io/ https://invideo.io/, https://animoto.com/ https://animoto.com/, https://wevideo.com https://wevideo.com and so many other softwares, and compare what I'm offering to those.
  - randomluck040 5y ago
    Thank you for elaborating! First of all: good job not bloating your website the same as wevideo and invideo did - I just can't bring myself to spend time to compare anything with that services, sorry. Also I want to say that I don't want to talk your app down or something - when I was skimming through the features just now I think it looks great. When it comes to comparisons, and I only have animoto and single-payment-applications which I personally use to compare to, I think the key difference with animoto is that animoto is web-based. I couldn't find out where the processing happens but if it's on their servers, it (in my opinion) justifies paying for computation time. I understand that your target audience is different when it comes to the advertised features and I understand that your focus is different. This is heavily subjective and maybe I'm too old to get it but I still fail to see why I, as part of your target audience creating videos for social media, should pay a monthly subscription which I'll be locked into for as long as I want to create media when other applications are a one time payment which do the same things (apparently slower) as far as functionality goes. Again: this is heavily subjective and if the subscription model works for you and enables you to further work on the application rather than a single time payment, definitely keep doing it. At the same time I think Windows might need exactly that: something as "straight forward" (if you can call it that) as FCPX with the same snappiness it offers on the M1 chips. Either way: I wish you the best of luck and success with the app!

Mike_Andreuzza 5y ago

Super interesting idea. All my support.

CinematicStudio 5y ago
Thank you!