Video software?

[Arendos]

Here's the deal: Me and some of my friends want to make a movie - a silly one, mostly based on inside jokes between us. It's kind of a Star Wars spinoff, in the same universe but the characters are different. Namely we're members of Bimberium (We're polish and Bimber is a polish word for amateur-made potato vodka ), we're evil, we shoot lightinings from our fingers (and toes! ).

And I'm the one in charge of special effects.
I already learned to make lightsabers in Sony Vegas Pro, and i'm learning Particle Illusion for explosions and hadoukens (don't ask, this is one of those inside jokes ).
So, what software will i also need? Any suggestions? And is there some nice way of computer-creating battles, spaceships and things like that so they don't look awful, or would we need a real studio and crew for that?

 

[PC Hobbyist]

This won't directly answer your questions, but it might give you some ideas and help you out in your project. Check out www.revision3.com/filmriot if you don't already know it.

Unfortunately I know very little about video editing and special effects. Hopefully someone else here can help you with that. I just wanted to pass on the link in case you find it useful.

 

[zblowfish]

I always have liked Vegas but I think its a bit out of your price range for a few videos

 

[The_Other_One]

Cinelerra for Linux might be worth looking into. I stumbled across it while searching for a Premiere Pro alternative that could handle HD videos... Though I ended up building my new PC to handle Premiere Pro and the 1080p videos ^^;

 

[Arendos]

Oh yeah... Something that can create realistic lightnings? :O

 

[TekkyNASekky]

You can try MovieStorm, it has Green Screen for it's characters and it's free. So this way you can use Windows Movie Maker or another form of movie maker to add that file to whatever scene you want for them. Also, you can try Anim8or. It's a free 3D animation engine. Have fun! I love that stuff. Also Xtranormal.com is another site.