 |
 |
| News You Can Use |
June 2008 | Issue 36 |
|
| Letter from the Editor: Things I learned about scripting |
Return to Top |
|
|
|
Do you ever get so crazy busy that you stop taking the time to better yourself? I hate that feeling...
We just wrapped up a huge push to get SnagIt 9 out the door, and managed to grab a few moments to reflect on lessons learned before rushing off to the next thing. Here are a few insights I gleaned from scripting the two marketing videos for SnagIt.
1. Step away from the computer. (To brainstorm and storyboard.) Garr Reynolds, in his book Presentation Zen, suggests going analog during the early stages of scripting. His Post-it note storyboarding technique is a great way to capture your best ideas and organize them into a compelling narrative.
2. Spell everything out in detail. Yes, everything. Don't just write the narration. Describe what will be happening on screen—in painstaking detail. This forces you to grapple with timing and transitions. If you put all your effort into the "tell" and don't plan the "show" you'll end up with a video that's very tedious to watch.
3. Do "prototype" recordings early on to identify trouble spots. As soon as you have a rough script, record yourself reading it. Your ear will pick up on things like awkward phrasing and boring details. Likewise, do a rough recording of the visuals (where possible) to pinpoint spots where the action is slow, choppy, or out of synch with the narration. It's easiest to fix these things while the script is still malleable.
4. Leave room for improvisation and innovation. No matter how thoroughly you script and test, when it comes time to put everything together something won't fit. Necessity is the mother of invention, so think of these as opportunities to make a video that's even better than you planned.
If you like "making of" details, be sure to check out the Director's Commentary that explains some of the tricks and techniques used to make the SnagIt 9 videos.
Daniel Foster
Newsletter Editor
|
|
|
|
SnagIt 9 is here: Top 5 uses of SnagIt in screencasting |
Return to Top |
|
|
|
SnagIt 9—a major new version of our screen capture tool—was just released.
How might you use SnagIt alongside Camtasia Studio? Let me count the ways...
1. Create fancy title slides. Combine a background, logo, and text. Then use our free output accessory to send the title slide from SnagIt to your Camtasia Studio project with just a click.
|
Explore SnagIt 9 | Download free trial |
2. Make your own custom callouts. Want to overlay an image on your video? It could be a smiley face graphic, an OK button, or a photo of David Hasselhoff. No matter. Use SnagIt to capture, edit, and save the image you want to use. Then turn it into a custom callout inside Camtasia Studio that you can use and reuse in your video projects.
3. Keep track of digital assets. If you're working on a complex video or a series of videos, you can end up with a lot of images. Use SnagIt 9 to tag your images with descriptive keywords...and find them again in a jiffy. (SnagIt also keeps track of when and where you captured images, so you can instantly find one from "last week" or "amazon.com."
4. Capture video thumbnails. I use SnagIt to capture all the video thumbnail images you see in this newsletter. I just pause the video on the frame I want to capture, then use SnagIt's "object capture" to grab a screenshot that includes the whole player, including the controls at the bottom, so it looks like a video. Simple!
5. Use images in Camtasia Theater. With the new Camtasia Theater, you can include custom images at the top of the table of contents pane. (This tutorial explains how...) SnagIt 9 has all the tools you need to capture, crop, and resize images to use in Camtasia Theater.
A good image-editing tool can take your screencasting to the next level. I hope you'll give the new SnagIt 9 a try...it may be just the thing to round out your visual communication toolkit!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Screencast.com is out of beta and on to version 1.0. It's the ideal place to host all those videos you're making in Camtasia Studio...
What makes Screencast.com uniquely useful?
- upload files directly from Camtasia Studio...it's super easy!
- organize videos into folders and control who sees them
- share content easily with a direct link, an email invite, or embed videos directly into a blog post or Web page. Group videos into playlists. Invite viewers to subscribe to your "feed" via RSS or iTunes!
Perhaps best of all: Screencast.com doesn't mess with the quality or size of your videos. What you upload is exactly what people see...no ugly compression here!
Try Screencast.com free for 60 days or find out more by taking the product tour.
|
|
|
|
|
Martin Knapp, Director of Marketing & Education, Pixologic |
|
|
Have you seen the recent movie Beowulf? Pixologic's 3D sculpting and painting software ZBrush was used in creating the truly terrifying monster Grendel.
As director of the marketing and education effort at Pixologic, Martin Knapp creates video tutorials that help ZBrush users grow their skills as digital artists.
Martin records his tutorials with Camtasia Studio and hosts them at Screencast.com. To read about his work and watch some sample ZBrush training videos, check out our interview.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When TechSmith puts out a new marketing or training video, we often hear "how did you do that?" We thought it would be fun—and hopefully useful to you—to share some details of how we made the new SnagIt 9 marketing videos.
First, watch the two brief SnagIt videos if you haven't already.
 |
 |
| Overview - Bird's eye view of the product for someone who may know nothing about screen capture. (02:08) |
What's New in v9 - Introduces existing users to the new features, and the new concept, of SnagIt 9. (03:31) |
Then, watch the "director's commentary" version to hear about some of the tricks and techniques we used in creating the videos. A lot of people worked on them...but our sound booth is small, so you get to hear from video production specialist Kelly Rush and me.
Director's Commentary Video (06:09)
Hardware & techniques used in the SnagIt videos
Software & sites used
Correction: In the director's commentary, I make it sound like all the photos used in the SnagIt 9 What's New video were taken by our staff. Two exceptions are the photo of "Julie" and "The Boss" which are stock photos.
|
|
|
|
|
Matt Pierce, Training Manager |
|
|
Join me for a quick, guided tour of Screencast.com.
In just four minutes, you'll see where to find the essential features...and how to use them!
Whether or not you decide to use Screencast.com, you can benefit from a couple of general screencasting "tips" videos we made. Check out the tutorials Getting Better Audio and Slow Down. |
 See how to start using Screencast.com |
|
|
|
|
|
Ryan Eash, Instructional
Designer |
|
|
A couple months back, I showed you how to get started with the new Camtasia Theater (which is part of Camtasia Studio 5.1). Ready to take the next step?
At the top of the table of contents (TOC) pane in Theater, there's space to display an image. You could insert a title graphic, a photo of the presenter, a logo, you name it.
What's more, you can use a different image for each video within the Theater.
|
Learn how to add TOC images and more
(Note: we covered Theater basics in an earlier newsletter so this link goes straight to the new stuff.) |
So if your Theater production contains three videos from three different presenters...you could include a photo for each video that shows who is speaking.
In these tutorials, I'll show how to add images to the top of the TOC...and customize other Theater options like colors, page title, theme, preloader, and more.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
SnagIt
Screen Capture and Sharing
|
 |
 |
Screencast.com
Media Hosting
|
|
| |
 |
Camtasia Studio
Recording and Presentation
|
|
 |
TechSmith Lapel Microphone
High Quality Sound
|
|
| |
 |
Morae
Usability Testing
|
|
 |
UserVue
Remote User Research
|
|
|
|
|
Privacy Statement
We're happy to have you on our list, and since we want to keep you all to ourselves, we never share your email address with anyone. Period.
Manage Your Subscription
You are receiving this message because you requested to receive information about Camtasia Studio, including announcements about new versions and new information on our Web site.
Unsubscribe or change your subscription
TechSmith Corporation
2405 Woodlake Drive
Okemos, MI 48864-5910 USA
+1.517.381.2300
www.techsmith.com |
|
