Another piece of fun news this week is the latest FREE version of the effects/editor Hitfilm Pro, HitFilm 3 Express Special Edition, which will be available for a limited time only. The Hitfilm crew is celebrating the release of the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens.

HitFilm 3 Express Special Edition includes Star Wars-style effects, including lightsabers and lightning, for free – but you’ll have to jump through a social media hoop to get to the download, which is available from Hitfilm.com for the month. It seems they’re hoping for fan films with spaceship battles, lightsaber duels, blaster fire, hyperdrive, and authentic title crawls. 

The main features include :

• Free editing and visual effects software with no time limit and no subscription fee.
• Free tutorials, community forum, and dedicated customer support
• Free light saber and lightning effects
• Includes both editing and 3D compositing 
• Available for both Mac and PC
• Developed to run on consumer level laptops as well as more pro hardware
• GPU acceleration
• Regular software updates
• 120+ built-in 2D and 3D effects available including greenscreen, color grading, and more
• Powerful software add-ons also available in the ​HitFilm store.​

There’s more advanced features available in the parent app, Hitfilm Pro 4, which was released just 2 weeks ago. Enhancements to the Pro version were made to the 4K-ready video editor, plus greater realism rendering 3D scenes, more advanced animation controls, and a variety of refinements in the interface.

In addition to the interesting particle engine, true 3D compositing environment, & the colorist toolkit, Hitfilm Pro 4 includes HitFilm Ignite (140 plug-ins; for use in third party software too), mocha HitFilm (for mask and 3D camera tracking), and BorisFX 3D Objects for titling and basic shapes.

There’s also a few tutorials with project files for HitFilm 3 Express Special Edition: 

 .