Introduction/Comparison of Mainstream Post-production Workflow Software: How Should Beginners Choose, and What Do Presets/Templates/LUTs Mean?

There are many post-production software options. If you’re a beginner just entering the field, this article will help you quickly establish a direction and find the software that works for you.

When producing a film, regardless of its length, everything essentially revolves around four core modules: editing, VFX, audio, and color grading. The table below lays out the mainstream software framework to help you quickly build a macro-level understanding.

In recent years, with the explosion of short videos and new media, CapCut has risen rapidly. Note, however, that CapCut focuses on making clips and short videos, and excels at variety-show-style / internet-style effects and packaging. For long-form content, it cannot compete with PR, FCPX, DaVinci, or AVID. Among these, AVID is a professional editing software dedicated to films and TV series, so it’s not mainstream for the general public. All things considered, the best mainstream software choices in post-production right now are PR, FCPX, and DaVinci (although DaVinci’s main battlefield is color grading, in recent years its editing panel has been continuously optimized and its efficiency can now rival the other two). In short, these three can handle long-form projects (a large portion of theatrical films and web series are now completed with these), and they can also handle short-form videos without any problem.

Considering the many stages of post-production—for example, after editing you still need audio, color, and VFX—Adobe Premiere Pro is, overall, an excellent entry point. Its value lies not only in its own features, but also in its role as the “collaboration hub” of the Adobe Creative Cloud ecosystem.

PR is developed by Adobe. It integrates seamlessly with Adobe’s other specialized software like PS, AE, and AU, all within the same version pipeline. That means when you want to process a piece of footage (e.g., remove noise, add effects, etc.), you can copy it directly into other Adobe software without having to pre-render and export first, which significantly improves workflow efficiency.

Collaborative Workflow Centered on PR

After completing a rough cut in PR, you can seamlessly call upon the professional tools in the Adobe suite for detailed refinement.

Auxiliary Elements That Extend PR’s Capabilities

Thanks to its large user base, PR enjoys a rich ecosystem of third-party resources, which can greatly boost both efficiency and creative results.

How to Start Learning

• If you’re just getting started:
  It’s recommended to begin with the PR + AU combo, focusing on telling a good story (editing) and handling sound well (audio). This is the most fundamental core.

• If you want to enhance visual impact:
  After you’ve mastered the basics of PR, start learning AE. Begin with motion graphics and text animation, then gradually move into compositing and VFX.

• If you’re interested in film-level color work:
  Once you’re familiar with the editing workflow, you can dive deeper into DaVinci.

To sum up, there is no absolute good or bad when it comes to software; finding what suits you best is what matters. Some people are devoted to Apple’s macOS ecosystem and thus always use FCPX for editing; others are used to Windows and stick with PR. But the underlying logic of editing software is essentially the same and does not change.

The software is not what truly matters—what always matters is your way of thinking.