Avid Media Composer is a Non-linear editing (NLE) software, it’s widely adopted by professional editors in the films, television, and broadcasting industry. The software is packed with features like; Animatte, 3D Warp, paint, Stereoscopic editing abilities, Color Correction toolset, SpectraMatte, Timewarps with motion estimation, Tracker / Stabilizer and many other features. There are are many alternatives for Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere and Final Cut are two of the most commonly used of these alternatives.

Learning Avid Media Composer can be helpful for anyone working in the movie industry. This post is a road map for anyone willing to start learning Avid Media Composer online for free from scratch, the post will present and compare between the best online sources where beginners can start from and follow along, it’s worth noting that this article is only covering Avid Media Composer.

If you just want the bottom line (the road map to learn Avid Media Composer) and you don’t wish to read the entire article then go to the “Bottom Line” section at the end of the article.

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Avid Blogs

Avid Blogs is the first free online outlet where beginners can start learning Avid Media Composer online for free through video tutorials, you don’t have to register to have access to the training.

Structure: The training is divided into 5 video tutorials, each video tutorial covers a certain section of Avid Media Composer.

Interface: The interface is quite simple, just click on the lesson you’re interested in and you’ll be directed to the page where the video resides.

Now, the pros and cons:

Pros

1. Free.
2. The Training is well-structured and organized for beginners.

Cons

1. The training doesn’t cover Avid Media Composer thoroughly enough.

Verdict: This is the best outlet to learn Avid Media Composer online through video tutorials.

Creative Cow

Creative Cow is the second free online outlet where beginners can start learning Avid Media Composer online through video tutorials, you don’t have to register to have access to the training. It’s worth noting that the videos of this training are created by the same instructor who created the videos on Avid Blogs (Kevin P. McAuliffe).

Structure: The training is divided into 93 video tutorials, each video tutorial covers a certain topic in Avid. This training covers more topics than Avid Blogs.

Interface: The interface is very simple, just click on the lesson you’re interested in and you’ll be directed to the new page where the video resides.

Now, the pros and cons:

Pros

1. Free.
2. The Training is well-structured and organized for beginners.
3. The training covers most of the topics beginners should be familiarized with in order to start using Avid Media Composer.

Cons

1. The training cover an old release Avid Media Composer, though that won’t be a problem for beginners.

Verdict: If you don’t mind the old release of Avid Media Composer covered in this outlet then this is the best outlet to learn Avid Media Composer online through video tutorials.

ProMAX

ProMAX is the third free online outlet where beginners can start learning Avid Media Composer through video tutorials, you don’t have to register to have access to the training (webinar).

Structure: The training is divided into 12 video lessons, each video lesson covers a certain topic in Avid Media Composer.

Interface: The interface is very simple, just click on the lesson you’re interested in and you’ll be directed to the new page where the video resides.

Now, the pros and cons:

Pros

1. Free.
2. The Training is well-structured and organized for beginners.

Cons

1. The training cover an old release Avid Media Composer, though that won’t be a problem for beginners.

Verdict: This is a good outlet to learn Avid Media Composer online through video tutorials.

Avid Screencast

Avid Screencast is the fourth free online outlet where beginners can start learning Avid through video tutorials, you don’t have to register to have access to the training.

Structure: The training is divided into 6 sections, each section is divided into video lessons, each video lesson covers a certain topic in Avid Media Composer.

Interface: The interface is very simple, just click on the lesson you’re interested in and you’ll be directed to a new page where the video resides.

Now, the pros and cons:

Pros

1. Free.
2. The Training is well-structured for beginners.

Cons

1. The training cover an old release Avid Media Composer, though that won’t be a problem for beginners.
2. The training isn’t well-organized for beginners.

Verdict: This is a good outlet for Avid users but it’s not suitable for complete beginners.

New Blue FX

New Blue FX is the fifth free online outlet where beginners can start learning Avid through video tutorials, you don’t have to register to have access to the training.

Structure: The training is divided into 66 video tutorials, each video tutorial is a hands on training for Avid.

Interface: The interface is simple, just click on the lesson you’re interested in and the video will start in a new window.

Now, the pros and cons:

Pros

1. Free.
2. The Training has a big number of video tutorials.

Cons

1. The training covers an old release Avid Media Composer, though that won’t be a problem for beginners.
2. The training isn’t well-organized for beginners.

Verdict: Though there is a huge number of tutorials in this outlet but the training isn’t well-organized for beginners.

Avid Tips

Avid Tips is the sixth free online outlet where beginners can start learning Avid through video tutorials.

Structure: This outlet is more of a YouTube for Avid, that you can search and discover training videos about Avid.

Interface: The interface is very simple, just search for the topic you want to know more about.

Now, the pros and cons

Pros

1. Free.
2. The outlet has a big number of video tutorials.

Cons

1. The training isn’t well-organized for beginners.

Verdict: This outlet has the same problems of the above two outlets,  the training isn’t well-organized for beginners.

Bottom Line

The recipe for learning Avid online for free

1. Avid Blogs and Creative Cow are the best free online outlet where beginners can start learning Avid  through video tutorials.

Remember that the first step is always the toughest step, and the aim of this post is to provide you with resources that will help you take your first step in Avid Media Composer.