VSDC Christmas Updates Bring Joy to Video Creators

Updating VSDC during the holiday season has become a tradition, and this year will not be an exception. We’re thrilled to introduce VSDC 6.6 packed with over a dozen new features designed to spark joy and creativity. We hope that the brand-new Chroma Key toolset, the Optical flow reframing mode, a quick-and-fun way to add masks to a face in a video, the particle effect, and the enhanced free shape feature will keep you busy for a while.

Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at these updates.

Create video postcards in no time using upgraded Chroma Key

Of all new features, Chroma Key has received the biggest overhaul. Both versions – VSDC free and VSDC Pro got updated and now there is not just one but three background remover modes to choose from:

• HSL chroma key color (Pro)
• YUV chroma key color (Free)
• By chromakey mask (Free)

Experienced video creators are familiar with the challenge of removing background colors from a video with poorly lighted areas or tiny, thin objects like strings or hair. That’s why these new modes were designed with one goal in mind: to help you cope with that task effortlessly.

If you want the fastest and most precise way to remove colors from the video – consider using the HSL color space. Instead of picking a single color that needs to be removed, it enables you to select a range of color tones located close to each other on the Hue, Saturation, and Brightness spectrum. This approach allows you to get rid of the entire video background even if there is a tone difference.

Those using the free version of VSDC, get an updated YUV mode which is now capable of removing a video background more precisely due to additional colors and the Adaptive alfa settings.

Finally, we’ve implemented a completely new approach to remove colors from a video. It is called “By chromakey mask”. This mode suggests that you upload an image to the project and use it as a “chromakey mask”: the software will compare colors in the image and in the video and remove the matching ones.

Get festive wearing animated face masks

Another new tool to make you excited is called Face landmarks. It allows you to quickly place a pre-designed mask on a face using a face detection and tracking algorithm. When you apply the Face landmarks effect, VSDC places several control points on the face – each point assigned to a particular face area: left eye, right eye, forehead, and so on. Next, based on the location of these points, VSDC places a pre-designed image that will follow face movements – just like in Instagram or Snapchat.

There are a few ready-made mask collections already available to you, but you can upload your own images and use them as a face mask as well. This is just the first version of the Face landmarks effect, and we’re determined to expand its functionality. Stay tuned!

Capture magic in slow motion with new reframing modes

The following mighty update will bring joy to the slow-motion video fans. If you’ve ever tried to achieve a perfect slow-motion effect, you probably noticed that the more you reduce the playback speed, the choppier the video gets. This is a common issue easily explained by a drastic frame reduction: the lower the speed is, the fewer frames are displayed per second and the bigger the gaps between frames are.

With the new reframing modes called Blending and Optical flow, stutter becomes an issue of the past. Both will help you quickly achieve a smooth slow-mo effect: the former – by duplicating and overlapping frames; the latter – by using AI to create the missing frames from scratch. Naturally, Optical flow is more efficient, yet it’s also more resource-demanding. You can see how it works in the video below:

Let it snow with the Particle video effect

Particles is a new eye-catching effect located in the “Nature” section of the Video effects menu. It enables you to create an illusion of falling particles, such as leaves or snowflakes. Like most VSDC effects, this one is highly customizable, which means you’ll be able to change the size of the particles, the “wind” direction, the speed they are falling at, and their location in the scene: background, foreground, or mid-distance view.

There are several templates for this effect already available, but you can also upload your own images and use them as particles.

Other important updates

There are a few more features we’d like to include in this post. Some of them might be slightly less noticeable but they are also long-awaited and exciting updates:

1. AV1 (or AOMedia Video 1) is now in the list of supported formats
2. Video transitions can now be made much smoother due to the Alpha channel
3. Whenever you change video playback speed, you’ll be able to change audio tempo as well
4. Subpixel resolution is now available in the free version of VSDC
5. Video effect rendering has been optimized to increase speed and reduce memory usage
6. You can now zoom in on a scene by holding down the Ctrl key and scrolling up on the mouse wheel

To top it off, the free shape feature got a serious upgrade, too. We couldn’t find a better way to demonstrate it than by recreating the annoying orange effect. Enjoy watching it!

Download the latest version of VSDC here and feel free to shoot us an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have any questions.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the VSDC team,

Ho ho ho!