Make your own Star Wars special effects with Hitfilm 3 Express Special Edition
Make your own Star Wars special effects with Hitfilm 3 Express Special Edition
Note: This article was first published on 10th December 2015. It's still applicable today.
If you've always wanted to do some neat visual effects but were always held back with the high price of design programs, we have some good news for you. Hitfilm, the creators of the Hitfilm special effects suite, is releasing a special edition of their Hitfilm 3 Express program for free.
They're naming it the Hitfilm 3 Special Edition: The Force, but it's actually their Hitfilm 3 Express program with a few Star Wars project files as added extras. Hitfilm 3 Express was originally free as well, though optional paid expansions can enhance the base software's functionality. The Force special edition of the software is especially geared for teaching users how to create Force lightning and lightsaber effects.
While we've no prior experience with Hitfilm 3 Express (we usually just use AfterEffects), there are a ton of tutorials out on Youtube as well as the main site itself. From what we've seen, it's not that different from AfterEffects, so it shouldn't be too hard for a novice to pick up and use.