Video Editing Workflow Best Practices
As a beginner video editor, it’s important to have an excellent video editing workflow in place.
Without one, bad things might will happen.
Here are some of them:
- your software will crash, losing you precious minutes of unsaved work
- your audio and video tracks will de-synchronize, you having to sync them again (no fun!)
- you have to figure out how to edit a new video everytime
With a video editing workflow, you know what to do with each new video.
You won’t have to re-invent the wheel.
Below you have a simplified version of the video editing workflow I’m using:
My Personal Video Editing Workflow
- Screen Recording -> OBS
- Audio Editing -> Adobe Audition or Audacity
- Format Conversions -> ffmpeg from the command-line (or Handbrake)
- Video Editing + Exporting -> Camtasia
Recording Screencasts With OBS
Make sure you have OBS installed.
Make sure you record in mkv format, not in mp4!
After you finish recording the screen, remux the mkv to mp4 (from inside OBS).
Extracting The Audio Track
In this step, we separate the audio track from the video one.
Why? Because we want to edit the audio outside of Camtasia.
Camtasia has some decent audio editing capabilities.
But it doesn’t compare to Audacity or Adobe Audition.
We can edit the audio track outside of Camtasia.
It will stay in sync with the video file, as long as we don’t modify the length of the audio track.
This opens the way for proper audio compression (done in Audacity or Audition).
Here’s How You Extract Audio From A Video
Removing Background Noise
This can be done in two ways.
My favorite one is via Adobe Audition.
In case you don’t have access to Adobe Audition, there’s a perfect alternative solution for that.
Audacity.
We’re only removing background noise from the track.
Make sure not to cut the audio track in any way, because you will lose audio-video synchronization when you import in Camtasia.
Now open the audio file with an audio editor. If you don’t have access to Adobe Audition, you can use Audacity, it’s free:
- capture noise print
- apply to whole audio
Careful! you must do these steps before you start editing! once you chop the video, it’s harder to tend to the audio, you must make sure the sync remains.
Move the following files to a specific folder:
- VIDEO.mp4 (Remux from OBS)
- AUDIO.wav
you can leave VIDEO.mkv for backup purposes, in case something goes wrong.
Create a new project in Camtasia, and add only the VIDEO.mp4 to the project:
Right click on the video track and select separate audio and video.
now delete the audio track that was separated from the video.
Now add AUDIO.wav;
Now you can start editing the actual footage.
Video Editing With Camtasia
Camtasia is great for video editing.
It’s user-friendly and has an easy learning curve.
But it’s finnicky sometimes.
Make sure to check my Camtasia Video Editing Best Practices!
Double check these steps:
- you did not add or cut the audio file in any way shape or form
- you did not convert mkv to mp4 with any other video conversion software. Remuxing with OBS is very fast and that is why we’re using it.
Start a new project.
Drag and drop the video in (must be .mp4)
Drag and drop the audio in (the one we extracted)
Make sure they align.
If you didn’t change the length, they should align perfectly!
You are now ready to edit video like a pro with Camtasia.
When cutting footage, make sure you cut both on the audio and video track at the same time.
This to keep synchronization.
A lot of video editing best practices have been packed in this tutorial.
Use, discard or modify the steps as you see fit.
If you have to add audio compression from Camtasia, do it before you start editing on track audio.wav
And when you load the project in Camtasia again, it should be picked up immediately with the changes to the sound track.
Voila!
What does this video editing workflow accomplish?
By separating the audio track, you can edit the audio outside of Camtasia.
And when you open up the project again, the changes are immediately picked up!
You can silence parts of the audio, remove background noise, add effects.
It’s best if you love to edit audio with a different audio editing software.
This video production workflow keeps you organized.
You don’t have to re-invent the wheel everytime you must edit a new video.
It works on every video.
