RaceRender is a video editing utility that specializes in videos made with multiple cameras and racing clips as it also provides additional features for road course tracking. Multiple versions are offered, including a free one with some limitations like the product’s logo on videos.
Installation & Requirements
There is no installation for the application. After you download its executable file, you just have to run it and accept its license agreement. It will automatically create desktop shortcuts and you can then run it any time you want. The supported operating systems are Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8x as well as Mac OS X 10.7 and higher. Microsoft’s .NET Framework 3.0 is required in Windows.
Interface
The racing video influences are apparent pretty much everywhere. As if the name and logo were not enough indications of what this application is aimed for, the main window also shows you thumbnails of various racing videos as sample project templates that you can use. You can create a blank project if you so desire of course but using a pre-existing template is just faster, easier and more likely to produce good results.
After all, using the templates is so simple that anyone can do it. You pick a template, insert your video/s (depending on the template you have chosen) and then go on to edit it however you want. The cool thing here is that you can pretty much set the application to suit your own needs. If you just want to merge two videos together into one of the templates on offer, just keep on clicking next and you can get it done in a few minutes.
If you want more advanced options, you might be a tad disappointed. The application offers enough things to satisfy the above average crowd but not nearly enough options to substitute a video editing suite. There are quite a few things to work with, like trimming the video, adding effects and more but they are all quite basic. Enough to satisfy the purpose of creating neat, elegant videos on the spot without technical knowledge but there are some obvious limitations.
As I already said, the results do look very nice. Messing around with more technical options would be a trap for the casual user so this design choice works in favor of the program. The developers know their crowd and more complexity would not be a good thing here I reckon. The integrated utilities work well enough that nothing else is needed. Features like uploading your projects immediately to YouTube are very welcome additions that will probably be appreciated by the program’s audience.
Pros
-Minimalistic installation
-Ready templates
-Very easy to use
-Satisfying results
Cons
-Lack of advanced features
Conclusion
RaceRender wants to provide an easy way for people to create awesome racing and other kinds of videos and it succeeds in that. Bear in mind that this is supposed to be a simple way to produce videos and you should be fine.
