- Preparation for Effective Tutorials
- Narrating and Annotating Screen Captures
- Setting Options for Best Results
- Capturing and Loading Video into the Editor
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Capturing and Loading Video into the Editor
When you're ready to capture (with options set and demo file visible), you can click the red Record button or press F9. The timer will count down three seconds, you'll see a 3–2–1 countdown on the screen to be captured, and then you're on.
Be prepared to start your narration and demonstration after about a beat. You can use any program that's fully open, and your onscreen movements and voice narration are all recorded (see Figure 6).
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SmartFocus tracks your mouse movements and places a blue arrow in the Timeline of your production to suggest zoom and pan effects during postproduction.
You can open other windows on the screen that you've designated for capture. (Later you can cut out unwanted recording portions in which you close or open other programs and windows.)
Keep in mind that you can redo various portions of the recordings to correct errors; you don't necessarily have to start over. If you're a few minutes into a segment and you make a mistake, pause, wait a second or two, and then repeat the beginning of the mistaken section as a cue to yourself, this time doing it correctly.
The most important rule is that you will be able to fix many mistakes in the editor.
When you've finished recording a segment, press F10. Depending on the length of your recording, you might see a slider as the recorded file is saved temporarily (see Figure 7). Then a set of options will appear at lower right, as shown in Figure 8.
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You can use the displayed options to do any of the following:
- Delete the file and start over.
- Produce the file immediately—saving it in a distributable format (covered in Part 2).
- Place the file in the Clip Bin of Camtasia Editor, which opens automatically. This option is generally preferred.
At this point you can name the *.TREC file (see Figure 9), if you enabled that option as discussed previously. The file goes into the Clip Bin of the Editor and appears in the first Timeline track. (SmartFocus will probably display tips about where you might want to zoom and pan.)
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After saving the file in the Clip Bin, you can continue to the postproduction process, which is covered in Part 2.
TechSmith FUSE: The Latest Camtasia Feature
You can now get video or stills from most mobile phones by using TechSmith's FUSE app, a free download that lets you wirelessly import your mobile assets directly into Camtasia Studio. This feature is helpful if you need to record segments from a mobile device and integrate them into a video project; for example, if your classroom has no video setup, or you're working in the field. (Importing and loading a mobile file from a phone into the editor are summarized in the accompanying video importFUSE.mov.) In the video, for example, I am "interviewing my cat," and then I use FUSE to transfer the video from my mobile phone directly into Camtasia Studio Editor.
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The FUSE app lets you capture video directly to the interface, using the mobile device's video camera.
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After capturing the video, you can continue recording or begin the transfer process. (Note that the red callout number at right is part of the screen capture on the camera.)
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FUSE can send the video to Camtasia (C), Snagit (S), or TechSmith Relay (R) on your PC. For this example, we're concentrating on using Camtasia.
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On the mobile device, when Camtasia is selected for transfer, a window opens with a square inside the camera's viewfinder
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At this point the video will move wirelessly from the mobile device into the Clip Bin of the Editor in Camtasia Studio. If you selected multiple videos, all of them will be transferred.
With the video(s) in the Clip Bin, you can edit the mobile video along with other captured video in the Camtasia Editor, as described in Part 2.