user10405: I am absolutely new to VFX designing and I have tried my hands on Blender, which I find quite useful. I tried After Effects, but couldn't do anything due to its complexity. I want to know about a program with which I can do simple editing cool stuff like say, create a virtual light-saber, or an action movie effect like plane crash etc. in my videos.
Thank you!

user6476: After Effects is probably the easiest if those are the types of effects you want. 
It's not free, but I'm pretty sure it's cheaper than most alternatives for effects or compositing & has tons of online resources to learn with. Premiere Pro has some similar features (masks, shape layers, animation w/keyframes, etc), but not as robust or easy to use. 
You could also look into Apple Motion - it's geared toward FCP X users and motion graphics. Not sure about effects & compositing (I haven't used it). It's also not free & doesn't seem to have as much community support, but it is cheaper than AE. Blender's the only decent free 3D program I know of. 
If you're a student, look into the Autodesk Education Community - they have free education versions of Maya, 3DS Max, and most other tools. Adobe also has discounted education versions. 
For AE, start here: http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/
It's maybe a bit outdated, but the concepts are good, and VideoCopilot is a really great (free) resource for learning AE. 
He has about 120 detailed tutorials covering all sorts of topics: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/
Before bothering w/software, consider how you might create or shoot those effects w/just a camera & props if you had no computer at all. You mentioned that you're already making videos - do you consider (and keep detailed notes about) how you stage them? Where the camera goes and how it moves? Where the light comes from & how it affects the scene? What makes a shot look dramatic, or soothing, or creepy? How a person moves when they use a normal sword? What happens to dirt when you drop something heavy on it (if not a plane, then a big rock)? You don't have to actually DO all of that, but at least think through it.
It's really easy to learn a software program's interface and follow tutorials, but you're stuck being a copycat unless you have a grasp of basic filmmaking & some real-world equivalents. If you haven't already, look into books/websites about cameras work, lighting, physics & motion, and practical special effects.  

user6685: In general you can't create visual effects within a single application, because there are too many different departments like:

Match moving 
Keying / Rotoscoping
Modeling
Texturing
Animation
Simulation
Lighting / Rendering
Compositing

Some of them are more artistic and other very technical tasks. For every task there are 2+ specific applications to solve the issue, because in order to achieve best results in the predetermined time it's key to use a confortable application with no or less limitation to complete a task. To connect the work of all departments the industry hires technical directors. In most cases these are computer scientist, trying to built so called pipelines for a solid studio environment.  
The idea of Blender is to do everything in it, but Blender also has known limitations like:

Scene Assembly - Issues to display large amounts of geometry
Compositing - Compositor is quite slow, missing nodes like denoise or deep compositing
Rendering - Cycles is not very good at rendering caustics at the moment
Simulation - Bullet Engine is not fully integrated at the moment

These are very special and more professional cases - therefore, I think it is a very good idea to dive into visual effects with blender and learn about your interests.

Related:

Sean Kennedy - Using Blender for VFX in Hollywood
Tears Of Steel - Official VFX Breakdown 


10405: <p>I am absolutely new to VFX designing and I have tried my hands on Blender, which I find quite useful. I tried After Effects, but couldn't do anything due to its complexity. I want to know about a program with which I can do simple editing cool stuff like say, create a virtual light-saber, or an action movie effect like plane crash etc. in my videos.
Thank you!</p>
 6476: <p>After Effects is probably the easiest if those are the types of effects you want. 
It's not free, but I'm pretty sure it's cheaper than most alternatives for effects or compositing &amp; has tons of online resources to learn with. Premiere Pro has some similar features (masks, shape layers, animation w/keyframes, etc), but not as robust or easy to use. </p>

<p>You could also look into Apple Motion - it's geared toward FCP X users and motion graphics. Not sure about effects &amp; compositing (I haven't used it). It's also not free &amp; doesn't seem to have as much community support, but it is cheaper than AE. Blender's the only decent free 3D program I know of. </p>

<p>If you're a student, look into the Autodesk Education Community - they have free education versions of Maya, 3DS Max, and most other tools. Adobe also has discounted education versions. </p>

<p>For AE, start here: <a href="http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/" rel="nofollow">http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/</a>
It's maybe a bit outdated, but the concepts are good, and VideoCopilot is a really great (free) resource for learning AE. 
He has about 120 detailed tutorials covering all sorts of topics: <a href="http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/" rel="nofollow">http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/</a></p>

<p>Before bothering w/software, consider how you might create or shoot those effects w/just a camera &amp; props if you had no computer at all. You mentioned that you're already making videos - do you consider (and keep detailed notes about) how you stage them? Where the camera goes and how it moves? Where the light comes from &amp; how it affects the scene? What makes a shot look dramatic, or soothing, or creepy? How a person moves when they use a normal sword? What happens to dirt when you drop something heavy on it (if not a plane, then a big rock)? You don't have to actually DO all of that, but at least think through it.</p>

<p>It's really easy to learn a software program's interface and follow tutorials, but you're stuck being a copycat unless you have a grasp of basic filmmaking &amp; some real-world equivalents. If you haven't already, look into books/websites about cameras work, lighting, physics &amp; motion, and practical special effects.  </p>
 6685: <p><strong>In general you can't create visual effects within a single application</strong>, because there are too many different departments like:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Match_moving" rel="nofollow">Match moving</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compositing" rel="nofollow">Keying</a> / <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping" rel="nofollow">Rotoscoping</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_modeling" rel="nofollow">Modeling</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texture_mapping" rel="nofollow">Texturing</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_animation" rel="nofollow">Animation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation" rel="nofollow">Simulation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_graphics_lighting" rel="nofollow">Lighting</a> / <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendering_%28computer_graphics%29" rel="nofollow">Rendering</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compositing" rel="nofollow">Compositing</a></li>
</ul>

<p>Some of them are more artistic and other very technical tasks. For every task there are 2+ specific applications to solve the issue, because in order <strong>to achieve best results in the predetermined time it's key to use a confortable application with no or less limitation to complete a task</strong>. To connect the work of all departments the industry hires technical directors. In most cases these are computer scientist, trying to built so called pipelines for a solid studio environment.  </p>

<p>The idea of <a href="http://www.blender.org/" rel="nofollow">Blender</a> is to do everything in it, but Blender also has known limitations like:</p>

<ul>
<li>Scene Assembly - <em>Issues to display large amounts of geometry</em></li>
<li>Compositing - <em>Compositor is quite slow, missing nodes like denoise or deep compositing</em></li>
<li>Rendering - <em>Cycles is not very good at rendering caustics at the moment</em></li>
<li>Simulation - <em>Bullet Engine is not fully integrated at the moment</em></li>
</ul>

<p>These are very special and more professional cases - therefore, I think it is a very good idea to dive into visual effects with blender and learn about your interests.</p>

<hr>

<p>Related:</p>

<ul>
<li>Sean Kennedy - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOWzn64bOU8" rel="nofollow">Using Blender for VFX in Hollywood</a></li>
<li>Tears Of Steel - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nawbpZOKpD8" rel="nofollow">Official VFX Breakdown</a> </li>
</ul>
