That’s right! The HitFilm Express 14 release has landed, and with it comes a brand new, simplified export process, new text controls, a ton of new functionality, and a streamlined interface. Keep reading to find out about some of these new features.
Improvements to the export process
The Export Queue has been replaced with an Export Panel and an ‘Export’ button which is available right from the editor timeline (or comp shots). You can quickly export the project or add your contents or In-Out area to the queue, as well as change the default export preset in just a few clicks. We’ve also made some tweaks to improve the export performance and support GPU accelerated hardware decoding on Intel, Nvidia, and AMD GPUs.
New text controls
We’ve added a bunch of new text controls including ‘All caps’, ‘Small caps’, ‘Subscript’ and ‘Superscript’, as well as options for Character Spacing, Horizontal and Vertical Scale and the super-handy Baseline Shift, making Stranger Things-style titles easier than ever.
Usability and workflow improvements
Masking
When you double click the Rectangle or Ellipse tools, a centered mask will be automatically placed to fill the center of the screen. Masks are also now automatically assigned colors as of the HitFilm Express 14 release, which can be changed and used to identify each mask easier.
Composite Button
The new ‘Composite’ button on the editor timeline allows you to drag layers onto it to create a composite shot, drag multiple pieces of media onto it to create a comp for each asset, or a good old fashioned click to create a new, blank comp shot.
Effects
You can now double-click the effects panel to apply to the selected layer, drop 2D effects directly onto layers in the viewer, and some effects – like the Chroma Key and Light Flares – can be dropped on a specific point, or select a specific color to key by.
You can also now favorite ‘effects’ for quick access, easily access your 5 most recently used effects from the ‘Effects’ menu in the toolbar, or click the orange ‘+’ icon next to effects in the control panel to open the insert menu and add new effects.
Other improvements
You can now use Behavior effects from the editor timeline, click-drag across multiple layers to toggle ‘solo’, ‘locked’ or ‘visibility’ settings in one fell sweep, and access templates directly from the media panel with the new ‘Templates’ button. Menus have also been added to the tab of each panel to make customization of the interface easier.
Video textures for 3D models (add-on required)
We recently added the capacity for using video layers as a texture on 3D models to HitFilm Pro. This is now possible in Express if you own the 3D: Model Render add-on pack. This is a gamechanger for mapping interfaces to 3D devices, adding animated bullet holes, cracking glass, or changing textures to your models.
Open Imerge Pro files in HitFilm
Imerge Pro files can now be opened directly from HitFilm as image assets. Any changes made in the Imerge Pro project will be automatically updated with any save, making it easier than ever to change image assets as you go.
Introducing Light Mode
The HitFilm Express interface is now available in Light Mode. If you already have a pre-existing HitFilm Express license, you can change between the dark and light themes by going to Options > Interface and selecting which theme you’d prefer to use, which will apply when you next open the application. If you don’t see this option, restart HitFilm.
There you have it. Just some of the new features available in HitFilm Express 14. Now, what are you waiting for? Go download the update, read about the other awesome additions, and let us know what you think!
