Video Editing Tool on MacOS/Windows for Beginners

Question

I'm aware of Adobe After Effects and how good/expensive it is. My requirements for a good open-source tools are:

• Easy to use (I want a friend of mine, who's 11 be able to use it, if possible)
• Open-Source
• Can convert into the most common formats (.mpg, .avi, .mkv, .mp4 etc.)
• Available for both MacOS/Windows
• Some nice features for cool effects would be nice (optional)
• Some good tutorials on how-to (optional)

Since I'm no expert here, I'm only guessing when I look at tools. Therefore can you recommend a good software?

Answer 1

Open source option I know are Natron and Shotcut

Both run on Windows Mac and Linux, and seem relatively easy to learn, or at least standard enough in terms of UI though from those I only ever used Shotcut once for a short while.

There is also Blender that while not a dedicated video editing application it does include a module for that functionality.

Now Blender is infamously difficult to learn and it's video editor is slow and dated, but I find my self returning to it despite its asinine workflow and poor performance, because it is far more capable and feature complete than the open source competition I have tried.

Answer 2

My 12 year old manages to do stuff to his drone videos using LightWorks. Pro grade but free, easy to do the basics of splicing and transitions, etc. Multi-channel non-linear editor though. Oh, and cross platform - my son prefers running it under Linux (runs better on his hw than on the other side of his dual boot set up for Win10)

Edit - note that it is free but not Free. I prefer Free for system and core stuff, but I'm not a stallmanite. So free works just so I don't have to worry about licensing issues for end applications...