I’ve done a number of these for various projects over the years and I’ve learned that if you do the capture first you can spend time writing script for what you’re doing on a single visual slide instead of trying to write out the entire script for the whole process – plus sometimes in the capture you realize that things change or are different then what you imagined in the scripting process.įor the workflow you outline here, it’s a lot of work with a lot of tools – if you have to make changes it could add a lot of time to the project. The most common export is a Flash file (SFW) and can build out the HTML and flash audio/visual player for the UI as well. Captivate also keeps the file size small because it only records changes in the visual and actually animates mouse movements instead of trying to capture them too. Think of something like an event timeline for audio as well as effect transitions. If you screen capture first you go through the whole process and can narrate audio over slides and the amount of time spent on a slide is dictated by the audio. Well, I’ve always been a fan of Adobe Captivate, I now have version 3. If you (or your readers) care to help us beta test it later this summer, shoot me an email at t dot stein at (email obscured to minimize spam).Ī friend sent me this article and I was writing a response to him so I thought I’d include it here if anyone found it of value. We hope to have it out by the end of this year. Troy Stein, Camtasia Studio Product Manager, writes: Camtasia for the Mac under way. You can enter your email address there to receive updates. Update: TechSmith, the makers of Camtasia, will “soon begin” Mac development. Just for kicks, I recorded one version of the Tasks video narration with way over-the-top enthusiasm (think Monster Truck Rally commercials). Don’t be surprised if it takes a lot of takes to get it right. Something positive sounding but still conversational. I suggest aiming for the tone of how you’d talk to a friend. ![]() Too enthusiastic and you come across overly salesy, like ‘ol Gil on The Simpsons. Too serious and you make the product seem somber. It’s an interesting challenge to try to find the right tone when narrating videos. For the detailed tour/blank slate videos, we go with full size screens and no music. (Btw, where’s the killer screencasting tool for Macs? One that can handle zooms and pans and do what Camtasia does? Seems like there’s a big opening in the market there.)įor the marketing-oriented videos, we use the zoom/pan feature (where you can slide around the focus of the screen) and add in some background music too. That’s why I prefer to do everything I can in Mac-native programs before entering Camtasia. It’s a thoughtful app but running it on a Mac is rather unwieldy/slow. I run Camtasia, which is PC only, on Parallels on my Mac. ![]() It came out alright but I prefer nailing the audio first and then shooting the video second, if possible. So, for that one, I shot the video first and then added narration after the transiton fades had been added to the video. For the recently made video demo on creating a page in Backpack, we needed some fades between screens that had to be added at the end. (I imagine it’d be awfully frustrating to spend forever nailing a perfect combined audio/video take only to find out that the script needs to be changed or some other tiny thing in the video is off.) Running through this process in small chunks this way means you can solicit feedback from others along the way and retrace your steps relatively easily. avi file into Camtasia for final editing, adding zooms and pans, exporting to Flash, etc. Combine audio and video in Quicktime Pro. ![]() (This step can require some adjustments in spacing on the audio track to make sure things sync up properly.)Ĥ. I use Snapz Pro, shooting at 15 fps, for this. Shoot the video while listening to the voiceover track. Create a fake account flush with data so the video shows how an account looks when it’s active (but without revealing anyone’s confidential data).ģ. Leaving extra space at the beginning helps ensure you’re ready to shoot when the audio begins.ģ. ![]() Logic Express is helpful for moving tracks around, evening out volume levels, compressing tracks, adding background music, etc. Record the voiceover in Logic Express and export as MP3. Here’s the process I used to create these screencasts:Ģ. Did you guys follow a tight process, or just kinda wing it? Any info you could give a would be screencaster would be swell. I’ve got Snapz Pro and Final Cut Studio 2 at my disposal, but I’m really not sure where to start. I’m going to be working on some for the new app my company just finished, and I was curious if you could drop any wisdom. Hey guys, kudos on the new intro videos you just unveiled.
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