Camtasia

Camtasia Tips:

Camtasia Tutorial @http://www.techsmith.com/tutorial-camtasia-mac-current.html

Screencast Website @http://www.screencast.com/help/

When you open Camtasia you will see editor or recording screen
 * Camtasia Preferences: **
 * General - on startup can show editor or recorder (If it opens in the Editor, you open the Recorder by clicking on the red recorder button.)
 * Recording preference
 * prompt to save or open editor??
 * Camtasia auto saves to temp files in the preferences you determine how long to save those
 * Have to do a Save As to save the project permanently

**Getting ready to record - things to think about:**
 * clean up desktop, open the application you are going to talk about, simple background. Be ready to go when you hit the record button.
 * Audio tips: Use a USB mic, does not have to be expensive. Headphone mic will usually pick up your voice and minimize background noise. Think about ambient noise and move to quietest space possible. To edit afterwards: tweak the volume in the properties pane; use audio effects tab- clipping reduction, noise reduction, can also use audio transitions or custom animation to lower volume
 * Check microphone choice and input level in system preferences.


 * Recorder Panel: **

>>
 * Options: screen options, camera options ( if you choose to use camera and then don’t like it later you can separate the audio from the video and take out the video.)
 * Custom region selects part of screen, perhaps just an application window. Click screen button off if you want only audio
 * Camera video - can turn on or off
 * don’t need to record at the size you want, it’s better to wait until you are in Editor
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If you want system audio - install additional Tech Smith component
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Press red button to start recording. You get a countdown of three seconds.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To stop or start use film strip icon at top of screen or use keyboard shortcuts Shift/command/2 to pause and Option/Command/2 to stop. You will mostly use the pause shortcut, stop recording is for completing the recording.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rehearse a few times
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Editing: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Editor interface: - can see your recording three places: preview pane, media bin and timeline. If there is a clip in the media bin that is not in the timeline, drag it down to timeline.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">audio track - show wave lengths so you can see how loud you are
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Can right click on track or click on gear box to show properties pane - here is where you can change how that track or effect looks and acts.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Clean up clips:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Preview - can press space bar to start/stop video
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Shift/click to highlight sections that need to come out. Be sure that if there are two tracks both are highlighted. You really don’t want to delete sections of track once you add annotations.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If section to be deleted is at beginning or end, you can use cursor/double arrow to shorten the clip
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Difference between delete and ripple delete: ripple delete moves the second half over against the end of the first. right click on section to get the menu
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To see the parts of the track more clearly, use the zoom slider at the bottom left of the window to make the track show more detail.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If you have taken a video of yourself and later want to remove it:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Right click to the left of the track and choose "Select All on Track". Pull down the File menu and choose "Separate Audio and Video". This will create two different tracks one for the audio and one for the video. You can then delete the video track or shorten it. If you delete from the middle be sure and choose "Delete" not "Ripple Delete".

>>> to zoom - put playhead where you want the zoom to start, click on Zoom in animation and drag it onto the media clip >>> pan - move video so that the section of the screen you want to emphasize is front and center >>> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">On one of the annotations add a fade in transition to the beginning of the clip and and fade out at the end. Stretch the annotation slide to make it longer. Move playhead to where you want animation to start. Add a custom animation. Then, drag playhead in front of the animation and drag the arrow down and to the right. It will then move from right to left and end up where we want it. May have to use zoom slider at bottom of window to make the track larger. >>
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Add effects: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Annotations:** Pull the annotation you want to the timeline. Can drag it left or right to position it. You have the choice of arrows, text, marker
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Transitions:** transitions are added at beginning or end of clip
 * **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Animations: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">zooms - zoom in when you want viewers to focus on one thing, zoom out when you want them to see context.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You can put zooms in all at once by using Smart Focus effect. It makes the best guess where to zoom and pan. Canvas size must be smaller than the area you recorded. Select all clips - can do this at the very left of tracks by right clicking on that area
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Add zoom manually - choose where you want the zoom to start, drag down zoom in, then choose where you want it to end and drag down zoom out. Add to bright red Create button
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You may want to center the image after adding the zoom. Move playhead after zoom in animation and then move the screen around in the editor to center the area you are focusing on.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Image may be slightly blurry after zooming in to fix - Click after animation - control click on video up on the canvas -- choose scale to fit pixels.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To lengthen zoom, click on the white button at the end of the zoom arrow and pull left.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Be sure to zoom back out.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Add a fade out and then fade in animations where the screens distinctly change.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Video Effects:**
 * A<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">dd device frame fx - adds it to the whole clip. So if you have multiple clips you will need to add it to all.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Freeze region - can get rid of popups, can freeze a region on the part of the web page that is changing (scrolling back and forth). Drag freeze region to the playhead. Then click and drag on the corners of the box to make it big enough to cover the area you want frozen. Move the box using the x in the middle of the box. Once the box is covering the area, drag the effect in the time line to the length you need. The effect shows up under the video clip. Show this from my computer.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mask or spotlight focus attention on a certain area. First, add a shape to the video from the annotations - for instance a square. Then, cover the full screen with it. Adjust length of effect. Go to video effects and choose mask, drag it over the area you want to highlight. Use the properties pane to tweak it. ( May need to click video button at top of property pane to get mask properties.) Change the opacity, Click invert, change blend which changes feathering of edges. Click off. to fade it in and out - in the property pane set a time to fade in and fade out. Can copy and paste it to other areas. Can also animate the mask by adding a custom animation in the middle of the effect. Then, drag box to next area you want highlighted.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">[]
 * **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Audio FX **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">audio only matters if it is really bad
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> use a decent USB microphone - $30 to $60
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> control noise around you
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> headset mic is nice because they usually only pick up your voice.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> adjust volume by selecting the clip and go to the audio tab (waveform icon at top of pane) in the properties pane
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> can add effects - clicking reduction can reduce clicking sounds, clipping reduction can make audio that was way too loud better, noise reduction can affect background noise like fans.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> drag one to the timeline and use properties pane to increase or decrease its effect. (Clicking reduction really does take out trackpad clicks, but the sensitivity has to be pretty high.)