Jim Roseberry

BrianSzep
PS, they also have a free VFX program: Fusion 8. It's been used in many Hollywood films. 

If you use Fusion 7 or 8, my advice is to save often.  
Crashes at the drop of a hat...
After Effects and Hit Film Pro are far more stable for VFX.
 
Vegas Pro and Premier Pro are both pretty stable NLE applications.
 
For 3D Rendering/Animation, Cinema 4D is very stable.

 
Hi Jim,
I have done somethings in both and haven't had a problem. Maybe I'm not pushing them to hard. I also have a 3gb GTX card so maybe those with crashes are having memory problems?
 
The OP was asking about good/better/best options so I was putting software out there that maybe not everyone knew about.
 
Another 3D animation program to check out is Blender 3D. Free and open source.
 
Brian

BrianSzep
Hi Soundwise,
 
With Resolve 12.5 they changed the GPU compute requirement. Your graphics card needs to support CUDA 2.0 now.
Go here to check if your graphics card is a legacy card.
 
If it doesn't support CUDA 2.0 then you could try the older Resolve 12.3.2 to see if you even want to update. You'll need to scroll down the list to March 18 to get the download link.

According to the table from the link, my Quadro 600 supports CUDA 2.1, and I downloaded a stable 12.3 release, not the latest beta 12.5. So everything should work fine, but in reality something's not quite right with the Resolve software, at least on my system.

Kuusniemi
And then there's of course Lightworks: https://www.lwks.com/
 

Lightworks use to be good till they crippled the free version.

JohnEgan
Thanks all, I appreciate all the feedback, albeit I may be overwhelmed with all the options now, LOL.
The Davinci Resolve  looks very impressive but $$$$, (I always hesitate, when something is said to be a "free" version?).
Anyone have any experience with Cyberlink Director, it appears somewhat impressive/features in the lower cost range?
 
Cheers

A couple of thoughts on Cyberlink:
 
PASS! I started with PowerDirector and wound up with the entire suite over the years. Last year, when my subscription came due, I passed, and uninstalled the entire suite. PowerDVD was the worst. No way to stop it from cataloging EVERY SINGLE MEDIA FILE ON EVERY DRIVE, INCLUDING THE CLOUD. Yeah, I want my DVD/BD app to know where all of my tens of thousands of loops, samples and MIDI files are. NOT.
 
And the incessant slide-in windows prompting you to upgrade (To what? I was on the top tier of every single app!). Infuriating.
 
PowerDirector is a pretty good app that they have cleverly designed to sort of require their audio and color apps. Bastidges. Saving my money.
 
But...
 
If you do go ahead and buy PD, I've got a BUNCH of FX add-ons for it that I'd LOVE to sell to you.
 
I just went with a simple, all-in-one solution, iSkySoft's Video Editor. They also have ported the Filmora editor to Windows if you prefer that. You get a LOT for $40, and you don't get bugged to BUY, BUY, BUY!
 
Just in case I haven't been clear...Cyberlink SUCKS as a supplier. Think Studio One marketing/rah-rah-ing on steroids. Yeah, that bad.