Friday, April 29th, 2016 Posted by Jim Thacker

FXhome releases HitFilm 4 Express for free

FXhome’s trailer for HitFilm 4 Express, the free version of its all-in-one editing, compositing and effects software. You can find a tutorial for the Iron Man HUD effect on its website, including project files.


FXhome has released HitFilm 4 Express, the latest update to the free cut-down edition of its editing, compositing and effects software, adding new animation, audio and editing tools.

New animation, editing and audio tools
The new tools in HitFilm 4 Express made their debut in the Pro version of the software, released last year.

Highlights include the new animation value graph for editing animation curves, standard JKL editing controls, and a range of new audio options. You can read about them in detail in our original story on HitFilm 4 Pro.

In addition, the update adds preset effects previously only available in the Pro edition, including curves, end credits crawl, lightning and action cam lens distort.

Lacks the advanced features of the Pro edition
The Express edition doesn’t include Boris FX’s $299 3D Objects titling plugin, bundled with the Pro edition for free; or the Pro edition’s particles or rendering functionality.

And as with HitFilm 3 Express, other feature sets from the Pro editions are only available as paid-for add-ons, although these “carry over to the new version”, so they shouldn’t need paid upgrades.

In addition, HitFilm 4 Express retains the other restrictions of its predecessor: rendering is capped at 1080p, there is no support for 16-bit or OpenEXR export, and OpenFX plugins cannot be used.

You can find a comparison table for the two editions here.

Pricing and availability
HitFilm 4 Express is available now for 64-bit Windows 7 and above and Mac OS X 10.9 and above. The core application is free, while individual content packs cost between $10 and $50. HitFilm 4 Pro costs $349.

To download the software, you’ll need to be logged into the website. Registration is free, but you have to provide your email address, and FXhome asks that you share the news on social media before downloading.


Read more about the new features in HitFilm 4 Express

Download HitFilm 4 Express for free