IntroductionWelcome| 00:00 | (Music playing)
| | 00:03 | Hi! Welcome to Screencasting for
the Mac. I am Chris Breen.
| | 00:06 | In this course, we are going to
look at the techniques I use to create
| | 00:09 | screencasts, which are
instructional videos and podcast.
| | 00:12 | In this course, we will talk about two
kinds of videos, traditional screencasts,
| | 00:16 | which are essentially videos of the
computer screen, with you narrating what
| | 00:20 | you are doing on the computer, and
scenecasts, which are shortish movies that
| | 00:23 | include not only your images from your computer
screen but also live action and still captures.
| | 00:29 | In the coming videos, we will talk
about the equipment you need to do this,
| | 00:33 | software tools for capturing and editing
your work, lighting techniques, ways of
| | 00:38 | putting together scripts, your audio
and visual presentation, and methods for
| | 00:43 | editing and delivering the final product.
| | 00:44 | Throughout these lessons, I'll
present the material using the very same
| | 00:48 | techniques that we are discussing,
the idea being that if I tell you that
| | 00:52 | technique X is a good one, I
should be using the same technique to
| | 00:55 | demonstrate how this is done.
| | 00:57 | Obviously, we have a full-blown studio
here with great lighting, cameras and
| | 01:01 | microphones, and a bunch of people
working on this behind the scenes.
| | 01:04 | But even without that stuff, you can
produce solid videos without spending a ton
| | 01:08 | of money by using the
techniques I am about to offer.
| | 01:10 | Now let's get started.
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 | If you are a Premium Member of lynda.com
Online Training Library, or if you're
| | 00:04 | watching this tutorial on DVD-ROM, you
have access to the exercise files used
| | 00:09 | throughout this title.
| | 00:10 | I have a very few exercise files on the desktop.
| | 00:14 | They include a smattering of still images,
motion captures, and audio files that
| | 00:18 | you can drag into iMovie.
| | 00:19 | There is also one graphic that we use as a
watermark in the movie on using screenflow.
| | 00:24 | I haven't included any live action
footage, because you're the star of this
| | 00:27 | screencast, instead use
footage that you have shot.
| | 00:31 | And that's it, because it's just that simple.
| | 00:34 | If you are a monthly subscriber or
annual subscriber to lynda.com, you don't
| | 00:37 | have access to the exercise files,
but you can follow along from scratch
| | 00:41 | with your own assets.
| | 00:43 | Now let's get started.
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1. GearIntroduction to the gear| 00:00 | Before you start making your videos you
obviously need the equipment to do the job.
| | 00:04 | The kind of equipment you need depends
on the kind and video you are making.
| | 00:08 | If you intend to make traditional
screencasts that include just screen captures
| | 00:11 | from your computer and narration, you
can get by with a computer, some software,
| | 00:16 | a microphone and headphones.
| | 00:17 | If you are interested in making
scenecasts complete with live video, your
| | 00:21 | equipment needs are greater.
A camcorder, microphone, and possibly lighting are
| | 00:25 | in the cards for you.
| | 00:26 | As for the computer, I am going to
talk strictly about the Mac because I am a
| | 00:30 | Mac guy and it's also a
great multimedia computer.
| | 00:33 | The vast majority of techniques I am
going to show you are applicable to Windows
| | 00:36 | PCs as well, but the software
tools I use are for the Mac only.
| | 00:40 | And which Mac? Quite honestly, just
about any Mac made in last couple of years
| | 00:44 | will do and that can include a
Mac Mini, the MacBook, or an iMac.
| | 00:49 | The one Apple computer that I'd
consider avoiding is the MacBook Air.
| | 00:53 | It's a little underpowered.
| | 00:54 | It doesn't have enough storage, and
it lacks FireWire and a media drive.
| | 00:58 | Although you can get along just fine
with other tools and configurations, I am
| | 01:02 | going to suggest that you have at least
2 gigabytes of RAM or more, at least 60
| | 01:06 | gigabytes of free storage, and a
copy of iLife 09 installed on your Mac.
| | 01:11 | Additional RAM can make your Mac run
more smoothly, videos eats up a lot of
| | 01:15 | space, and iMovie 09 is a far more
capable version than its predecessor, and
| | 01:20 | that covers our computer.
| | 01:21 | In the rest of this chapter, we
will look at all the other gear.
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| Choosing a camera| 00:00 | Let's talk about cameras.
| | 00:02 | Camcorders come in two flavors:
standard-definition and high-definition.
| | 00:06 | Standard-definition camcorders shoot at
a resolution of 720x480 pixels, which is
| | 00:11 | an aspect ratio of 4x3, just
like you would see on an older TV.
| | 00:16 | HD is offered in a 16x9
widescreen ratio, using one of a couple
| | 00:20 | different standards:
| | 00:21 | 720p, which is 1280x720 pixels,
or 1080p, which is 1920x180 pixels.
| | 00:29 | As you probably know, the more pixels
you have, the better looking the video, but
| | 00:34 | HD video files are quite a bit larger
than standard-definition videos, which
| | 00:38 | matters to you because of the storage space
required to hold them and the bandwidth
| | 00:42 | necessary to deliver them over the Internet,
both of which could cost you more money.
| | 00:46 | Standard-definition camcorders, such as
this DV camcorder, are on their way out,
| | 00:51 | and they are, because High-Definition
camcorders have become more affordable as
| | 00:54 | has the cost of delivering HD content.
| | 00:57 | However, if you're on a budget, you
already have a standard-definition camcorder
| | 01:01 | and you don't care about delivering HD
videos, that's one less thing to buy.
| | 01:05 | Camcorders used to transfer methods:
| | 01:07 | DV Camcorders use FireWire and HD
Camcorders use USB2, each has a mini connector
| | 01:13 | that goes into your camera.
| | 01:14 | Here is a FireWire mini connector on the
left and the USB mini connector on the right.
| | 01:20 | The other end that connects to
your computer has a larger connector.
| | 01:23 | Here, we have FireWire 400 found on
older Macs, FireWire 800 which is used on
| | 01:28 | most of today's Macs and USB2.
| | 01:31 | Some DV cameras also have USB ports,
but they are for transferring still images
| | 01:35 | that these cameras take.
| | 01:36 | If you have a Mac and lacks FireWire
and that would be some models of the
| | 01:40 | MacBook and all models in the MacBook
Air, you are pretty much out of luck.
| | 01:44 | You will either have to find a Mac
with FireWire or use a camera that outputs
| | 01:47 | video via a USB connection.
| | 01:50 | HD is the future and if you
anticipate producing a lot of videos now may be
| | 01:54 | the time to jump in.
| | 01:56 | Also, many HD camcorders can store hours
of video where a tape on a DV Camcorder
| | 02:00 | can store just an hour of video.
| | 02:03 | Now let's talk about what
to look for in a camcorder.
| | 02:06 | Regardless of the kind of camcorder you purchase,
make sure you get one with a microphone jack.
| | 02:11 | When recording a scenecast with
live video, you want to use an
| | 02:14 | external microphone.
| | 02:15 | We will look at microphones in the next video.
| | 02:18 | This microphone jack requirement
pretty well illuminates today's pocket
| | 02:21 | camcorder such as this Flip MinoHD.
| | 02:24 | It's a very cool camcorder for the price,
but its onboard microphone isn't going
| | 02:28 | to produce the kind of quality audio you need.
| | 02:31 | Your camera should have a
tripod mount on the bottom.
| | 02:35 | You use that camcorder to shoot
yourself and to do that you need a tripod.
| | 02:40 | This needn't can be fancy as you will
rarely use it to shoot a moving object.
| | 02:43 | Just get one strong enough to
hold your camera at the right angle.
| | 02:46 | When shooting yourself, you want to be
sure that you're in the center of the
| | 02:49 | frame, and to do that you need to
be able to see yourself in the LCD.
| | 02:53 | Make sure that your cameras LCD
can be positioned to face you.
| | 02:57 | Your camera should include a remote
control that not only switches the camera in
| | 03:01 | and out of record, but lets you zoom in and out.
| | 03:05 | Jumping up and down to adjust the
camera is just going to ruin the flow.
| | 03:09 | In regard to HD camcorders, you have
several choices, the first is resolution.
| | 03:14 | All HD camcorders can shoot 720p video,
but newer cameras have moved to 1080p.
| | 03:18 | 1080p isn't necessary at the moment, as
online services such as Vimeo and YouTube
| | 03:24 | offer 720p HD anyway.
| | 03:27 | But again, looking toward the future,
1080p will be the standard and you're not
| | 03:31 | paying a terrible premium for it now.
| | 03:34 | Storage is another consideration.
| | 03:36 | HD camcorders store video on hard
drives, removable media such as SD cards, or a
| | 03:41 | combination of each.
| | 03:42 | If you intend to shoot hours and
hours of video without stopping, if you're
| | 03:46 | recording day-long presentations for
example, a hard drive camcorder is the
| | 03:50 | better way to go, as you can press
record and leave the camera alone for
| | 03:54 | the rest of the day.
| | 03:55 | But removable media has the
advantage that it's portable.
| | 04:00 | You needn't to take the camera offline
for hours at a time to transfer its video
| | 04:04 | to your computer, instead just swap
in a new SD card or DV tape and you're
| | 04:09 | shooting again within a matter of minutes.
| | 04:12 | However, the amount of time you can
shoot on removable media is far more limited.
| | 04:16 | A DV camcorder's tape is good for an
hour and you get only a few hours of
| | 04:20 | high-quality video from an SD card.
| | 04:23 | These are the basics.
| | 04:24 | You can find cameras that have better
manual control over focus, color, and
| | 04:28 | lighting, as well as cameras
that do better in low light.
| | 04:31 | If you need those features, any number
of websites can direct you to the camera
| | 04:34 | that best suits your needs.
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| Choosing microphones| 00:00 | Time to take a look at audio and microphones.
| | 00:03 | There are two kinds of
microphones that we will examine.
| | 00:05 | The first is the microphone you use
when on camera and the other is the mic you
| | 00:09 | use when recording narration.
| | 00:11 | These are not the same microphones, and
the reason they're not is because, as you
| | 00:16 | can see, speaking into a tabletop
microphone while on camera looks funny.
| | 00:20 | It's great if you're hosting a talk
show, but completely bizarre if you are
| | 00:24 | hosting a screencast.
| | 00:26 | When recording a camera, you use a lavalier
microphone, much like the one I am wearing now.
| | 00:30 | It clips to your shirt and
it's largely unobtrusive.
| | 00:34 | If you're on a budget, you can get a wired
lavalier microphone from RadioShack for under $30.
| | 00:39 | The sound is perfectly fine for
scenecasts, and you can simply run the cable
| | 00:43 | under your shirt, so it's not seen.
| | 00:45 | A wireless lavalier microphone is useful
if you are going to be moving around a lot.
| | 00:50 | A decent wireless lav
cost between $300 and $500.
| | 00:54 | These microphones are connected to a
wireless transmitter that you clip into a
| | 00:58 | pocket or attach to your belt, and
they broadcast to a receiver that's
| | 01:03 | connected to your camera.
| | 01:05 | You can also use these lavalier
microphones with your computer, but you get
| | 01:09 | better sound from a larger mike.
| | 01:11 | Which larger mike you use depends a lot
on your budget and how much trouble you
| | 01:15 | want to take with your audio.
| | 01:16 | Your first choice is whether to use a
headset microphone or a desktop mic.
| | 01:21 | The advantage of a headset
microphone is that your mouth is always a same
| | 01:24 | distance away from the mike so
you will get consistent volume.
| | 01:27 | Also, with a headset microphone, you
have little chance to accidentally bump the
| | 01:31 | microphone as you could
with a tabletop microphone.
| | 01:34 | The disadvantage of a headset mic is
that they are hard to place in exactly the
| | 01:38 | right position, particularly if
you purchase an inexpensive model.
| | 01:42 | I can almost always tell when someone
has recorded a podcast or screencast
| | 01:46 | with a headset mic. The sound is a little
windy and thin and it can add pops and sibilance.
| | 01:52 | A desktop microphone can produce a richer sound.
| | 01:55 | The difficulty with the desktop microphone is
that you have to learn where its sweet spot is.
| | 01:59 | If you get too close, you risk
overpowering the microphone or popping p's and
| | 02:03 | b's, which leads to unbalanced audio.
| | 02:06 | Too far back from the microphone
and the gain isn't strong enough and the
| | 02:09 | microphone picks up the sound of your
voice bouncing off the room's walls.
| | 02:14 | To eliminate those popped p's and b's,
known as plosives, get a pop filter.
| | 02:19 | This is a hoop with a mesh material inside
that sits between your mouth and the microphone.
| | 02:24 | It eliminates the plosive wind
that comes with peas and bees.
| | 02:27 | Pop filters cost less than $20, and
to avoid table and cable noise, get your
| | 02:32 | microphone off the table and
suspend it from a microphone arm.
| | 02:36 | This not only removes the table and
cable from the equation, but it allows you
| | 02:40 | to more easily position the microphone.
| | 02:42 | These can be had for between $50 and $125.
| | 02:46 | Now comes the question of
whether to get a USB microphone or a
| | 02:50 | conventional microphone.
| | 02:51 | A USB microphone can be mighty
convenient because it plugs directly into your
| | 02:55 | Mac and you don't need an
additional audio interface to use the mic.
| | 02:59 | At one time, audio pros look down on USB
microphones because their quality wasn't very good.
| | 03:04 | That's changed.
| | 03:05 | This MXL 009 USB microphone, for
example, sounds really good, as good as some
| | 03:10 | professional microphones I have used.
| | 03:12 | One problem with USB microphones is
that your choices are fairly limited if you
| | 03:17 | want a great sounding microphone.
| | 03:18 | If you instead use a conventional
microphone, you can use any mic you like, from
| | 03:23 | the tried-and-true Rock 'n' Roll SM58
to something like this Vintage AKG 414.
| | 03:29 | In order to use a conventional
microphone, you need some kind of audio interface.
| | 03:34 | This can be a multi-input USB interface
such as this, or something smaller, like
| | 03:38 | Centrance's $150 MicPort Pro, a
USB interface that attaches to the
| | 03:44 | microphone's XLR connector and
provides a USB port and headphone jack, as well
| | 03:49 | as input and volume controls.
| | 03:51 | I am keen on the conventional microphone
approach because of the flexibility it affords you.
| | 03:57 | You can find exactly the microphone
that suits your voice, but budget is
| | 04:01 | important, and if you don't have a lot
of money to spend, a USB mic may be the
| | 04:04 | better option and that covers our audio needs.
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| Setting up a budget lighting system| 00:01 | Video shot with normal
house lights doesn't look very good.
| | 00:03 | It's full of shadows and often yellow.
| | 00:05 | Without spending a lot of money, you can
purchase lighting gear that will vastly
| | 00:09 | improve the look of your indoor video.
| | 00:11 | Professional lights, like the ones that
are currently surrounding me, are expensive.
| | 00:14 | They are too expensive for typical scenecasters,
but there are ways to do this on the cheap.
| | 00:19 | That way is to purchase halogen work lights
like these at your local Lowe's or Home Depot.
| | 00:22 | 250 watt bulbs provide plenty
of light for this kind of thing.
| | 00:27 | You want to soften that
light with some kind of diffuser.
| | 00:30 | That's a material that absorbs the brunt
of the light and passes a softer light.
| | 00:34 | One diffuser you can use is a
common white shower curtain or bed sheet.
| | 00:38 | Just shine the light through the
material and you produce a flattering light.
| | 00:43 | You can see that I've set this up here already.
| | 00:45 | We'll switch that light on in a moment.
| | 00:46 | When hanging the curtain, be sure to
hang it a couple of feet away because these
| | 00:50 | lights can get really hot.
| | 00:52 | As an alternative to the shower
curtain technique, you can get professional
| | 00:56 | diffusing material from your local
camera shop and I have some right here.
| | 01:05 | Now that you have your lights, you
need to think about how to position them.
| | 01:08 | The tried-and-true method
is Three-Point lighting.
| | 01:10 | Three-Point lighting starts with the key light.
| | 01:12 | This is the brightest light and is
positioned to the side of the camera so that
| | 01:16 | it illuminates the side of the subject.
| | 01:18 | The second light is the fill light.
| | 01:20 | This is placed on the other side
of the subject and is less bright.
| | 01:23 | It fills in the part of the subject
that's in shadow, but still leaves some
| | 01:27 | definition, because it's
less bright than the key light.
| | 01:30 | The last light is the back light.
| | 01:31 | This is placed behind and pointed
at the subject, which is likely you.
| | 01:35 | This adds a nice rim light, which
separates you from the background.
| | 01:38 | It's also less bright than the key light.
| | 01:40 | Let's run through them here
in the studio. Lights out.
| | 01:43 | Man, it's dark in here.
| | 01:46 | Let's bring a little light to the
subject by turning on the key light.
| | 01:49 | And here's how it looks,
and we've set it up over here.
| | 01:53 | Next, the fill light, and
here's the fill light over here.
| | 01:59 | And finally, let's move to the back light,
and there's the back light behind me.
| | 02:06 | Controlling the amount of
light each shows is important.
| | 02:09 | You can do this by using bulbs of
different wattage or adding a dimmer switch to
| | 02:12 | the fill and back lights, but you can
also manage it simply by moving the fill
| | 02:16 | and back lights farther away.
| | 02:18 | When using work lights, you want to get
them off the floor to avoid that vampire
| | 02:22 | kind of look you get when
shining the light from below.
| | 02:24 | I generally put them on a nearby table
or stool, but you also go all out and
| | 02:28 | purchase a few lighting stands
like we have here in the studio.
| | 02:31 | As I said, these lights can get
hot so be careful when touching them.
| | 02:35 | Also don't use a cheap power strip for
them, get a good quality strip and make
| | 02:39 | sure you can pull 15 amps without
blowing a fuse or tripping a breaker.
| | 02:43 | Naturally, you want to shoot some test video
to be sure the lights aren't too dark or harsh.
| | 02:48 | It can take some time to get your lights
set up properly, but once you find the
| | 02:51 | setup that works for you, you've
conquered what may be the stickiest problem for
| | 02:55 | the solo screencaster.
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2. ScriptingWriting a script| 00:01 | There are people in this world who are
wonderful speakers, able to converse in
| | 00:04 | complete sentences and stringing
together thoughts effortlessly.
| | 00:08 | I'm not one of those people.
| | 00:10 | Left to my own devices, I'll stutter
and stammer and take off on tangents.
| | 00:14 | If you're like me, you should strongly
consider creating a script for your video.
| | 00:19 | With a script in hand, you can jot
down not only what you intend to say, but
| | 00:23 | also note the actions that will take
place as you speak, which will certainly
| | 00:26 | help with the planning of your video.
| | 00:28 | You don't need to purchase a
screenwriting application to do this.
| | 00:31 | I create my scripts with Microsoft Word,
putting the actions I want to show in
| | 00:35 | bold and then place the dialog that
will accompany those actions below.
| | 00:40 | For this project, we're
using lynda.com's Script Template.
| | 00:43 | In the first column of this three
column template, you enter the dialog.
| | 00:46 | The second column is where you note the
appearance of screen captures, graphics,
| | 00:50 | titles or animation.
| | 00:51 | What you are watching now is an
example of a panning screen capture.
| | 00:56 | And the third column is for live action
video, such as the opening video for this lesson.
| | 01:01 | My simple Word script is fine for my
purposes, because I'm the only person
| | 01:05 | working on the video.
| | 01:06 | I know what I mean when I write
something like Ken Burn's photo of dog.
| | 01:10 | But here at lynda.com, we have a whole
crew working on this production, and
| | 01:14 | everyone from the people behind the
cameras to the folks editing the final video
| | 01:18 | need to know exactly what to do.
| | 01:19 | For this reason, the lynda.com
template includes directions for specific
| | 01:24 | transitions, title types, and camera shots.
Which you choose is completely up to you.
| | 01:29 | We'll talk about how you present your
material in another video but for now, here
| | 01:34 | are a couple tips to keep in
mind when creating your script.
| | 01:38 | For on camera stuff, keep it short.
| | 01:40 | You may find that you perform better
when you memorize your material.
| | 01:43 | If you don't have much to say, you
have better odds of getting it right
| | 01:47 | the first time or two.
| | 01:48 | When scripting material that you'll save for
screen captures, don't write so much dialog
| | 01:53 | that you run out of video
content before you finish your speech.
| | 01:55 | There will be times when you need to
sit on a graphic for a little while to
| | 01:59 | finish what you need to say, but
try to keep it as short as possible.
| | 02:03 | Editing will be easier and the
pacing of your video will be tighter.
| | 02:07 | Try to avoid writing long
paragraphs that include lots of steps.
| | 02:11 | If you do that, you'll find that you
need to rush your on-screen actions to
| | 02:15 | match your words and that may not
allow the viewer enough time to absorb
| | 02:18 | what you are presenting.
| | 02:20 | Regardless of how you proceed, script at
least the opening and closing of your video.
| | 02:25 | If you know your material and speak
while off-the-cuff, feel free to use bullet
| | 02:29 | points for the stuff in between and
refer to them so you don't get off track.
| | 02:33 | A scripted opening allows you to
clearly introduce what you'll show in the
| | 02:36 | video, and a closing script helps
ensure that you don't wander off at the end
| | 02:41 | and say, "Okay, done!"
| | 02:43 | Instead, you can bid your viewer a fond
farewell and summarize what you've had to say.
| | 02:48 | For example, I might say, "And there you
have it, a few tips for creating scripts
| | 02:53 | "for your screencast."
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3. ScreencastsIntroduction to screencasting| 00:00 | It's at this point that we
split the two kinds of screencasts.
| | 00:03 | I'll define that that split as
traditional screencasts which involve narrating
| | 00:07 | the actions you perform on a computer
screen, and scenecasts which are along the
| | 00:10 | lines of what you see in these videos:
| | 00:12 | live action, screen captures and still captures.
| | 00:16 | In other videos, we will talk about
those traditional screencasts, how you can
| | 00:19 | best present them, and the tools you can
use to capture the action on your Mac screen.
| | 00:24 | Now, let's look at presentation.
| | 00:28 | When I recorded my first lynda.com
title, I got some very good advice from my
| | 00:31 | producer and that advice was
describe exactly what you are doing.
| | 00:36 | So for example, here is my Mac screen.
| | 00:39 | If I were sitting down with a friend
showing them how to make the Macs cursor
| | 00:42 | larger, I'd normally do something like this.
| | 00:45 | Click up here, choose System
Preferences, click over here, click this tab
| | 00:51 | and move this slider.
| | 00:53 | While my actions demonstrate what to do,
you teach more effectively when you
| | 00:57 | reinforce those actions
with specific instructions.
| | 01:00 | So instead I say, "Click on the
Apple menu. From that menu, choose System
| | 01:04 | "Preferences. In the System Preferences
window that appears, click on the Universal
| | 01:09 | "Access Preference, which you
find filed in the system row.
| | 01:12 | "In the Universal Access window, click
on the Mouse tab. Near the bottom of
| | 01:16 | "the window, locate the Cursor Size
slider and move that slider to the right
| | 01:21 | "to enlarge the cursor.
| | 01:22 | "Its size will change as you move the slider."
| | 01:25 | Yes, it takes longer to say all that,
but odds are that the viewer is going to
| | 01:28 | have a far better idea of what they need to do.
| | 01:31 | It's common to find screencasts that
display the Mac's entire screen and that's
| | 01:35 | fine if you know that the viewer is
going to be able to play your screencast at
| | 01:39 | full screen resolution.
| | 01:40 | But if that video will be displayed in
a small window or on a device like an
| | 01:44 | iPod, it's likely that the viewer
would be unable to pick up the details.
| | 01:48 | So rather than show the entire screen,
capture just the window you want to
| | 01:52 | focus on, or if you want to
demonstrate moving an item from one place to
| | 01:56 | another, configure your screen capture
utility to follow the progress of the Mac's cursor.
| | 02:01 | In upcoming videos, I will show you
how that is done with a couple of tools.
| | 02:05 | Another thing to consider is whether you
want to record video and audio at the same time.
| | 02:09 | If you are a competent speaker and,
unlike me, don't throw a lot of 'ums', 'ahs', and
| | 02:13 | 'you knows' into your speech when left
to your own devices, go ahead and record
| | 02:17 | narration as you also record video.
| | 02:19 | If you have some problems in
this regard, record audio later.
| | 02:24 | When recording the video portion,
narrate as you go is kind of a guide track.
| | 02:27 | This isn't the track you will keep.
| | 02:29 | This helps ensure that the video will
be paced reasonably, then go back to
| | 02:33 | record a narration track in iMovie.
| | 02:36 | Also, if you make a mistake, click on
the wrong menu, close the wrong window,
| | 02:40 | or launch the wrong program, keep
recording, undo what you did, and start over
| | 02:44 | from the point where you made the mistake.
| | 02:46 | You can always edit out that bit later.
| | 02:48 | When scripting material that you will
say over screen captures, don't write so
| | 02:52 | much dialog that you run out a video
content before you finish your speech.
| | 02:55 | There will be times when you need to
sit on a graphic for a little while to
| | 02:59 | finish what you need to say, but
try to keep it as short as possible.
| | 03:03 | Editing will be easier and the
pacing of your video will be tighter.
| | 03:06 | And that covers the
basics of capturing screencast.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Recording with QuickTime| 00:00 | If you are running Mac OS 10.6
Snow Leopard, you are in luck.
| | 00:03 | Snow Leopard's version of QuickTime,
QuickTime 10, includes a built-in
| | 00:07 | screen capture utility. Let's take a look.
| | 00:10 | To launch it, I will just click on the
spotlight icon in the upper right corner
| | 00:13 | of the screen, type 'quicktime' and press Return.
| | 00:16 | To record a screen capture with QuickTime,
just choose New Screen Recording from
| | 00:20 | the File menu as I am doing now.
| | 00:22 | When you choose this command, a
screen recording window appears.
| | 00:25 | Click the downward pointing triangle and
you see you have control over three options:
| | 00:29 | the audio source, the quality of the movie,
and the location where the movie is saved.
| | 00:34 | We will leave the default options of no
audio, high-quality capture and saving
| | 00:38 | to the Movies folder for now.
| | 00:40 | Click the red Record button and, no,
you don't get to start the capture yet.
| | 00:44 | Instead, you see the sheet that
tells you how to stop the capture.
| | 00:48 | To do that, you can either click the
Stop Recording button that appears in the
| | 00:51 | menu bar or press Command+Control+Escape
on your Mac's keyboard.
| | 00:55 | Keep that keyboard shortcut in mind.
| | 00:57 | There may come a time when the menu bar
is so crowded with icons that the Stop
| | 01:00 | Recording button isn't available.
| | 01:02 | In such cases, you will
use the keyboard shortcut.
| | 01:05 | Okay, let's finally record something.
| | 01:07 | You do that by clicking
the Start Recording button.
| | 01:09 | When you do that, the recording window
disappears and the only indication that
| | 01:13 | you are recording is the Stop
Recording button that appears in the menu bar.
| | 01:17 | Do what you like with the
Mac and it will be captured.
| | 01:20 | When you are finished, just
click Stop Recording or press
| | 01:23 | Control+Command+Escape.
| | 01:25 | When you stop the recording, QuickTime
will open the movie of your actions.
| | 01:28 | Click the Play button to take a look.
| | 01:32 | From the Window menu,
choose Show Movie Inspector.
| | 01:36 | The resulting window will tell
you how the movie was recorded.
| | 01:39 | You will see that the movie was
captured at a low frame rate, using the H.264
| | 01:44 | video codec and AAC audio codec.
| | 01:47 | H.264 is a codec that produces
good-looking videos that don't consume a lot
| | 01:52 | of hard drive space.
| | 01:53 | Normal video runs at a frame rate of
just under 30 frames per second, and it
| | 01:57 | does so because, to the human eye, 30 images
shown in a second appears as smooth motion.
| | 02:03 | The kind of frame rates that we are
getting looks a little choppy, but it also
| | 02:06 | consumes quite a bit less
storage than full motion video.
| | 02:09 | Unfortunately, QuickTime doesn't give
you the option to capture at a different
| | 02:12 | frame rate or to choose a different size.
| | 02:15 | It always captures full screen video.
| | 02:17 | As you saw earlier, you have the
option to record audio while you are also
| | 02:21 | capturing the screen.
| | 02:22 | You can use this feature to
record narration as you speak.
| | 02:25 | So to record from my USB microphone, I
plug it in and you see that its sound
| | 02:30 | level appears below.
| | 02:31 | Click the red button to start the recording
process and finally click Start Recording.
| | 02:36 | Audio Recording: Hello there! This is a test recording
using Quicktime 10 and my USB microphone. And here's Safari.
| | 02:45 | I then click Stop
Recording and here is my movie.
| | 02:47 | I click Play and you see the capture as
well as hear the audio from the microphone.
| | 02:52 | Audio Recording: Hello there! This is a test recording
using Quicktime 10 and my USB microphone. And here's Safari.
| | 03:00 | Unfortunately, there is no option to
capture the sound the Mac makes, but
| | 03:04 | there's a way around that.
| | 03:05 | That way is to download a copy of
the free Open Source audio routing
| | 03:09 | utility, Soundflower.
| | 03:10 | I have now installed Soundflower on my Mac.
| | 03:13 | You can see it available
within the Sound System Preference.
| | 03:16 | To configure the Mac so QuickTime can
capture the audio it makes, I click on
| | 03:19 | the Output tab within the Sound System
Preference, and choose Soundflower (2ch).
| | 03:25 | I then switch back to QuickTime and
start a recording where I also want to
| | 03:28 | capture the audio my Mac makes.
| | 03:33 | To do that I will launch iTunes, play a
bit of audio and record it as it plays.
| | 03:38 | Unfortunately, I can't hear what's
playing, because Soundflower has taken
| | 03:41 | over the audio output.
| | 03:43 | When I am ready to play I just return
to the Sound System Preference, choose my
| | 03:49 | regular output destination, and then
return to QuickTime and play the capture.
| | 04:00 | (Drums playing)
| | 04:07 | Before we leave QuickTime capture, I
should mention that if you want to trim
| | 04:11 | what you have recorded, you can do
that by choosing Trim from the Edit menu.
| | 04:16 | When you invoke that command, a bar
full of thumbnails appears at the bottom
| | 04:20 | of the movie window.
| | 04:21 | Those thumbnails
represent frames from your movie.
| | 04:23 | To trim the beginning or end of the movie,
just drag the handle on either end of the bar.
| | 04:28 | The action on screen will
indicate where you are in the movie.
| | 04:31 | A time counter appears in a bubble above.
| | 04:34 | When you've made the adjustments you
are after, click the Trim button and the
| | 04:37 | movie will be trimmed and ready to save.
| | 04:40 | Your capture is now complete.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Recording with Snapz Pro| 00:00 | It's now time to look at Ambrosia
Software's $69 Snapz Pro X. This is an
| | 00:05 | application that's been around for years
and it's a very popular screen capture tool.
| | 00:09 | We use it routinely here at lynda.com.
| | 00:12 | Not only it can capture stills,
but also motion along with audio.
| | 00:15 | Let's take a look at the interface.
| | 00:16 | We will launch the Snapz Pro application.
| | 00:22 | When you launch Snapz for the first time, you
will see the splash screen and nothing else.
| | 00:27 | In order to see its interface, then
press Shift+Command+3 and up pops the
| | 00:32 | interface and from there, we
will click the Preferences tab.
| | 00:36 | If you like, you are welcome to change
the key combination used to invoke Snapz.
| | 00:40 | So, click the Modifier pop-up
menu and you can choose to enable the
| | 00:44 | Command+Shift+Option and Control keys.
| | 00:47 | You can then select the Hot Key field
if you like, and type the key you would
| | 00:51 | like to use in combination with
any modifier keys to invoke Snapz.
| | 00:55 | I will leave it at Command+Option+3,
as this is the Mac's default
| | 00:58 | screenshot command.
| | 01:00 | The area below lets you assign
applications to open various image file formats.
| | 01:04 | I find the default preview choice
fine, but if you would rather open all
| | 01:08 | JPEG and BMP files in an image
editor, for example, feel free to choose a
| | 01:13 | different application.
| | 01:14 | Below the File Creator area is a place for
automatically assigning names to your captures.
| | 01:19 | By default, Snapz will assign the name
of the foremost application followed by
| | 01:23 | ScreenSnapz and then a number,
iTunes ScreenSnapz 001.jpg, for example.
| | 01:29 | We can leave that alone now because I
am going to show you a way to assign your
| | 01:32 | own names to files in a minute.
| | 01:35 | Finally, there are a couple of
important options in the Miscellaneous settings
| | 01:38 | area at the bottom of the window.
| | 01:40 | The Dim selections option is useful.
| | 01:42 | When it's invoked, it looks like this.
| | 01:47 | Everything you haven't selected is dimmed.
| | 01:49 | This makes it easier to
create a precise selection.
| | 01:56 | I am going to leave the
FatBits window option off.
| | 01:59 | When this option is enabled, Snapz
produces a small window that offers a zoomed
| | 02:02 | in view of the cursor's location
and the pixels around it, like this.
| | 02:13 | It's useful when you need to do precision
work, but I find that it gets in the way.
| | 02:16 | If you need that kind of
precision, feel free to leave it on.
| | 02:19 | Now let's look at Snapz capture options.
| | 02:23 | Click the Snapz Pro tab at the top of
the window and you will see a few options.
| | 02:28 | First, you can choose where you
would like to save your images.
| | 02:30 | For our purposes, the
Pictures folder is just fine.
| | 02:33 | Then there are three checkbox options
to the right: Open after saving, Choose
| | 02:38 | file name, and Stick around.
| | 02:39 | When Open after Saving is enabled, as
soon as you take a screenshot or screen
| | 02:43 | capture the picture or movie will open.
| | 02:45 | I find this really distracting,
so I turn this option off.
| | 02:50 | I always turn on the Choose file name option.
| | 02:52 | This allows me to name any captures
immediately after I shoot them and it looks like this.
| | 03:00 | I invoke a capture and then Snapz pops up a
window where I can enter a name for my capture.
| | 03:04 | This is useful in a couple of ways.
| | 03:06 | First, I can give the capture a specific
name, such as iTunes icon, so that later
| | 03:11 | I know what it is without having to open it.
| | 03:13 | It also allows me to number my
captions in the order they will appear in my
| | 03:16 | project, so, itunesicon.01,
itunesvisualizer.02, itunesimportsettings.03, for example.
| | 03:24 | If you number your captures now, it
will save you time inserting them in the
| | 03:27 | proper order into your project
when you are ready to assemble it.
| | 03:31 | Now let's look at the Capture Options.
| | 03:34 | The Snapz window includes four capture
options: Screen, Objects, Selection and Movie.
| | 03:39 | The first three are for capturing still
images and the last is for motion captures.
| | 03:44 | They shake out this way.
| | 03:46 | Click on Screen and Snapz highlights
the Mac's entire screen and produces an
| | 03:50 | Object Settings window.
| | 03:51 | For our purposes, we need to look
at only a couple of these settings.
| | 03:54 | The first is File type.
| | 03:56 | We are going to change that to JPEG.
| | 04:00 | We do this because iMovie likes
JPEG images and we don't need massive,
| | 04:04 | high quality images.
| | 04:05 | If you want to increase the
quality, use the Quality pop-up menu.
| | 04:12 | We don't need to touch the Scale setting.
| | 04:14 | If you want the cursor to be visible
because you want to use it to point at
| | 04:17 | something the viewer will be
interested in, enable the Cursor Visible option.
| | 04:21 | To take your screenshot, just double-
click on the screen. Up comes the name
| | 04:26 | window because we set that preference.
| | 04:29 | I don't want to save that image
right now so I am going to click Cancel.
| | 04:33 | You use the Objects button to
select discrete objects on the screen, a
| | 04:37 | window for example.
| | 04:39 | Click Objects and the front
most window is highlighted.
| | 04:42 | You can add other objects simply by
holding down the Shift key and clicking on them.
| | 04:47 | To unhighlight objects, hold down Shift
and again, click on the object that you
| | 04:52 | don't want highlighted.
| | 04:54 | Again, you see the Object Settings window.
| | 04:56 | You may wish to make one change here.
| | 04:57 | If the object you are shooting is small,
increase the scaling on the object to 200%.
| | 05:04 | Sometimes iMovie won't scale a
small image to fill the frame.
| | 05:07 | Scale it during the capture and the
image will be large enough to fill the frame.
| | 05:11 | Again, if you need to see the cursor,
enable that Cursor Visible option.
| | 05:16 | And now the Selections button.
| | 05:18 | You use the Selections button to select a
portion of the screen, as I will now do here.
| | 05:25 | When you click Selections, an
Image Settings window appears.
| | 05:28 | This one has some
options we haven't seen before.
| | 05:33 | The Selection Style pop-up menu offers three
options: Normal, Fixed size and Aspect ratio.
| | 05:39 | Normal means that you can select
anything you like, just click and drag to
| | 05:43 | create a frame around what you want to capture.
| | 05:45 | Choose Fixed size, and you enter
specific width and height settings.
| | 05:49 | You'd use this if you want your capture to
fit exactly in something like a 1024x768 frame.
| | 05:55 | Finally, there is Aspect ratio.
| | 05:57 | I use this a lot, and I do because it
allows me to create captures that fit
| | 06:01 | exactly in an iMovie project, regardless
of how many pixels the capture might have.
| | 06:06 | For example, if I am creating a
standard definition project, I choose Aspect
| | 06:10 | ratio and then I enter 4x3.
| | 06:16 | And if I am working on a high-definition
widescreen project, I enter 16 and 9 to
| | 06:21 | conform with the aspect
ratio of just such a project.
| | 06:27 | When you choose Aspect ratio, the frame
you draw will be confined to this ratio.
| | 06:31 | Because it is, you may need to arrange
the objects on your screen so they fit
| | 06:35 | within the frame you draw.
| | 06:38 | And here is a 16x9 selection.
| | 06:41 | Again, if you are capturing a small
portion of the screen, scale your capture.
| | 06:47 | Again, we don't want to capture,
so we'll cancel out of there.
| | 06:51 | Finally, there is the Movie button.
| | 06:53 | This is the gateway to
creating motion captures with Snapz.
| | 06:57 | Click the Movies button and a
Movie Settings window appears.
| | 07:01 | As with Selections, you have the
option to choose a Normal, Fixed size or
| | 07:05 | Aspect ratio capture.
| | 07:07 | The first option, Camera mode,
determines how Snapz's virtual camera moves.
| | 07:11 | Fixed Camera means that the screen doesn't move.
| | 07:14 | The frame won't change from
the selection you first made.
| | 07:17 | When you choose Follow Cursor,
the camera does exactly that.
| | 07:21 | The action follows where the cursor travels
with the cursor in the middle of the video.
| | 07:25 | This is one way to show a close-up of
moving an item from one place to another.
| | 07:30 | The Smooth Pan option is very
similar to the Follow Cursor option.
| | 07:34 | The difference is that Snapz smoothes
out the action so you don't see as many
| | 07:38 | abrupt twists and turns as
you might will Follow Cursor.
| | 07:41 | This is a good choice if you don't have
the steadiest hand and you are trying to
| | 07:44 | make a precision movement.
| | 07:48 | Snapz lets you choose the
frame rate you capture with.
| | 07:50 | The higher the frame rate, the smoother
motion, but the larger the file size.
| | 07:55 | For most screencasts, 15 frames per
second is a fine compromise, but if you need
| | 07:59 | the smoothest movement possible,
choose 30 frames per second.
| | 08:07 | Again, you can choose to scale your
movies, a good idea if the area you are
| | 08:10 | capturing is small, and
also you can expose the cursor.
| | 08:15 | Below are two audio settings.
| | 08:16 | The first, when enabled
| | 08:17 | lets you record into your Mac's
microphone as you capture a movie.
| | 08:21 | The second tells Snapz to record any
audio playing on your Mac, System Alerts or
| | 08:26 | iTunes playing in the background, for example.
| | 08:28 | Regardless of which capture option you
choose, to start your capture, click and
| | 08:32 | drag to select a part of the screen,
double-click on the area to start
| | 08:36 | recording, and because we set
that option, name the capture.
| | 08:42 | Voice: Action!
| | 08:52 | When you are done capturing, just
press the Snapz key combination again.
| | 08:56 | Voice: Cut!
| | 08:57 | When you do, a window appears where you
choose settings for saving your movie.
| | 09:01 | In the video section, you will see the
settings Snapz intends to use to encode the video.
| | 09:07 | You can choose a different encoder
by clicking on the Settings button and
| | 09:10 | choosing a new Compression type
from the Compression Type pop-up menu.
| | 09:14 | I think the default setting of H.264 does
a fine job, but if you don't mind larger
| | 09:18 | files and want better quality,
choose Photo JPEG or Animation.
| | 09:22 | The files would be larger but again
the quality is better, and we will close
| | 09:26 | that up by clicking Cancel.
| | 09:28 | If you have chosen to also capture
audio, you have a choice here too.
| | 09:32 | I always choose good audio quality
with no compression, because I know I am
| | 09:36 | later going to compress the audio when
I edit my screencast and I see no reason
| | 09:40 | to compromise with audio from the get-go.
| | 09:42 | That means that I click the Settings
button next to these audio settings and
| | 09:45 | choose None from the Compressor pop-up menu,
44.1 kHz from Resolution, 16 bit and Stereo.
| | 09:56 | At the bottom of the window, you have the
option to Delete, Save Later and Save Now.
| | 10:01 | You choose Delete when you have aborted
a capture because something went wrong.
| | 10:05 | Choose Save Later and Snapz will save the
encoding process until you next invoke it.
| | 10:10 | Unfortunately, you can't perform another
Snapz capture until you save the last one.
| | 10:15 | And Save Now does just that.
| | 10:17 | Note that if you have performed a long
movie capture, it can take Snapz many
| | 10:21 | minutes to complete the job.
| | 10:22 | And with that, you've learned
everything you need to know about Snapz Pro.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Recording with iShowU| 00:00 | Shiny White Box's $30 iShowU HD
is another screen capture option.
| | 00:05 | Unlike Snapz Pro, iShowU HD
is for capturing motion only.
| | 00:10 | It doesn't include an
option for capturing stills.
| | 00:12 | One of iShowU's claims to fame
is that it works very quickly.
| | 00:16 | Your captures are ready almost immediately.
| | 00:18 | With Snapz Pro, you sometimes have to
wait quite a while for captured video to
| | 00:22 | be encoded and during that time,
you can't perform another capture.
| | 00:25 | The interface is arranged in a way that
you can configure your capture by moving
| | 00:29 | from left to right across the
toolbar at the top of the window.
| | 00:33 | To choose a capture area, you can
either click the Choose button or select a
| | 00:37 | size from the Tool menu
next to the Choose button.
| | 00:40 | When you click the Choose button, you
have the option to either drag a custom
| | 00:43 | capture size or, by pressing the Spacebar,
choosing to capture a window instead.
| | 00:49 | To select more than one window, hold
down the Shift key and drag your cursor
| | 00:53 | over the windows you want to select,
press Return to confirm your choice.
| | 00:57 | Alternatively, you can choose
a preset from the Tools menu.
| | 01:01 | You can also choose the Set Size
command and then enter the exact size you are
| | 01:05 | after, 1024x768, for example.
| | 01:08 | A rectangle will appear on
the screen of the selected size.
| | 01:12 | To reposition the rectangle, click the
Choose button, click in the middle of the
| | 01:16 | rectangle and drag it where you like.
| | 01:19 | The next section, Output Video is where
you choose the size, format, and frame
| | 01:24 | rate for your video.
| | 01:25 | Click on the Output Video button and
you'll see a wealth of destinations
| | 01:28 | including Web, iMovie, Intermediate.
| | 01:31 | You'll find your HD
settings here, Email, and DV.
| | 01:36 | If you'd rather create your own setting
instead of using a preset, click on the tools button.
| | 01:40 | When you do, you'll see that you can
choose an output size, encoder, and frame rate.
| | 01:45 | iShowU includes five mouse modes,
which control how the cursor's position
| | 01:49 | affects the capture.
| | 01:51 | This is the Fixed setting.
| | 01:52 | Choose this setting and the
frame you set doesn't move.
| | 01:55 | If you move your cursor out of the
frame, it's gone until you bring it back.
| | 01:58 | Fixed/Stretch helps you with those times
when you need to venture outside the frame.
| | 02:03 | Do so and the frame
stretches to follow the cursor.
| | 02:06 | When you return the cursor to the frame,
it collapses back to the original size.
| | 02:10 | Follow, moves the frame around
depending on the cursor's location.
| | 02:14 | Follow/Stretch is like fixed follow,
in that the frame will stretch if you've
| | 02:18 | zipped your cursor across the screen.
| | 02:20 | And finally, there is Slide.
| | 02:22 | You use this when you've created a
tall frame and want the frame to move
| | 02:25 | smoothly up or down as you move the cursor.
| | 02:28 | With Slide on, the frame moves
only up and down, not side to side.
| | 02:32 | Next are options for choosing what to capture.
| | 02:35 | Enable Microphone in iShowU will
capture the sound coming in from the
| | 02:38 | application's selected audio input source.
| | 02:41 | You configure that input source in the
Advanced Pane, which we will look at shortly.
| | 02:45 | Click the Applications button and
iShowU will record the sounds your Mac makes.
| | 02:49 | I'm using a copy of iShowU HD Pro,
which contains the additional option to
| | 02:54 | display key presses you perform
during the capture, and that's what this
| | 02:57 | feature looks like.
| | 02:59 | The keys I press are overlaid on the screen.
| | 03:02 | This feature isn't
available in the Standard iShowU HD.
| | 03:05 | If you Mac has an iSight camera or
you've attached a webcam to your Mac, you
| | 03:09 | can also choose to record input from that camera
by clicking the Camera button up in the toolbar.
| | 03:15 | As you can see, this places a
picture in picture frame within the capture.
| | 03:20 | So I can continue to show both what's on
my Mac screen as well as wave to my mother.
| | 03:25 | Hi mom! You are welcome to select
that frame and move it around.
| | 03:30 | You can adjust its size.
| | 03:32 | There I'm big, and little, and within
the Quick Properties window, you can
| | 03:38 | adjust the Opacity.
| | 03:39 | So, I am fading away, but I am back,
increase or decrease the Border width, and
| | 03:47 | you can also adjust the Border color.
| | 03:49 | So I make that kind of a blue, not so
quite so much, well we make the border bigger.
| | 03:54 | So there is a nice blue frame, right there.
| | 03:58 | Click the Advanced button to
reveal the three-tabbed Advanced Pane.
| | 04:01 | We won't cover everything here, just
the most useful features for our purposes.
| | 04:05 | In the lower part of the video
tab, you'll find Mouse options.
| | 04:08 | Here you can choose to show or hide the cursor.
| | 04:11 | You can also ask iShowU to animate the cursor
whenever you left or right-click your mouse.
| | 04:16 | It looks like this with left-click
configured for the Blob animation and
| | 04:20 | right-click showing the Halo animation.
| | 04:22 | This helps draw the
viewer's attention to mouse clicks.
| | 04:25 | In the Audio tab, you can choose your
Mac's audio source and in the QuickTime
| | 04:29 | tab, you can change the video and audio
encoding options for your captured video
| | 04:33 | by clicking the Change button.
| | 04:34 | Click Change below the video
entry, and you see the typical
| | 04:37 | Compression settings.
| | 04:38 | This is really for video tweakers only
as iShowU provides plenty of presets in
| | 04:42 | the Output Video menu.
| | 04:44 | If you want to tweak the Audio Output
settings, click the Change button below that entry.
| | 04:48 | As I mentioned when talking about
Snapz Pro, I like to capture 16 bit
| | 04:52 | uncompressed audio at 44.1 kHz.
| | 04:55 | Once you've chosen your settings, it's
a simple matter to start the capture,
| | 04:58 | just click the red Record button.
| | 05:00 | You'll be prompted to name and save your movie.
| | 05:02 | iShowU's window will be hidden
and a countdown will appear.
| | 05:06 | When the timer ticks down,
iShowU starts recording.
| | 05:09 | When you want to stop, press Shift+Command+2.
| | 05:12 | iShowU saves the video capture and
converts it to the format you chose.
| | 05:16 | When it's ready, it appears, complete with
thumbnail image, at the bottom of the iShowU window.
| | 05:21 | You can double-click the
movie to watch in QuickTime, which
| | 05:23 | automatically launches.
| | 05:25 | By default, your captures are found
in the iShowU HD folder within your
| | 05:29 | account's movies folder. But if you
wish to quickly make a copy, just drag
| | 05:33 | the movie from the bottom of the iShowU window
to the Desktop, and that's our look at iShowU.
| | 05:37 | Again, it's fast,
reasonably friendly, and affordable.
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| Recording with ScreenFlow| 00:00 | Unlike Snapz Pro and iShowU HD,
Telestream's $99 ScreenFlow 2 is an entire
| | 00:06 | screencasting production environment.
| | 00:08 | As such, you can not only capture your Mac's
screen, but also edit what you have captured.
| | 00:13 | The full capabilities are outside
our mission, but we will look at those
| | 00:16 | elements that best serve our purposes.
| | 00:18 | When you first launch ScreenFlow,
you can be forgiven, if think it offers
| | 00:21 | pretty modest features.
| | 00:23 | After all, all you see is this gray
window that includes four options:
| | 00:27 | Record Desktop from, Record Video from,
Record Audio from and Record Computer Audio.
| | 00:33 | This window hints that ScreenFlow does
nothing more than record the Mac's full
| | 00:37 | screen is capable of recording picture
and picture video from an iSight camera
| | 00:41 | or webcam that you've attached to your
Mac, recording audio from a microphone,
| | 00:45 | and also recording the sounds
the Mac makes, and that's true.
| | 00:48 | However, with ScreenFlow, all the magic
happens after you've made your recording.
| | 00:53 | It's in its editor that
you choose what to focus on.
| | 00:56 | Let's give it a go.
| | 00:57 | We'll keep Record Video disabled to keep
it simple, but enable recording from my
| | 01:01 | microphone as well as the Mac's audio.
| | 01:04 | I click Record and then I get a five second
countdown before ScreenFlow starts recording.
| | 01:13 | Let's open iTunes, play a bit of
music, turn on the visualizer, switch it
| | 01:20 | off, click a few menu commands, turn-
off the music, and end the capture by
| | 01:32 | pressing Shift+Command+2. Ah!
| | 01:36 | Now it gets interesting as
ScreenFlow's editor appears. Let's take a look.
| | 01:41 | In the ScreenFlow window, you see a
preview of your capture, play controls
| | 01:44 | below, and timelines that represent
the microphone audio track and the track
| | 01:49 | that holds your screen
capture along with the Mac's sound.
| | 01:52 | I can play back the capture just
by clicking on the Play button.
| | 02:03 | To the left of the play
controls is a Crop button.
| | 02:06 | When I click that button, I can drag
the frame to any size I like or enter a
| | 02:11 | specific size in the size fields.
| | 02:16 | On the right-side of the
window are the Properties tabs.
| | 02:19 | It's in this area that you
manipulate the capture's audio and video.
| | 02:23 | Let's perform some simple operations.
| | 02:25 | The first tab is Video Properties.
| | 02:27 | Suppose you want to focus your capture
on a particular portion of the screen,
| | 02:31 | with ScreenFlow, there's no need to
make a selection, as you would with Snapz
| | 02:34 | Pro. Instead, just select the capture
track, drag the scale slider to the right
| | 02:39 | to scale up the image, and then
click-and-drag the image into position.
| | 02:43 | We will now jump over to the
Screen Recording Properties tab.
| | 02:54 | First, click Add Video Action, make
sure the Show Mouse Pointer option is
| | 02:58 | enabled, zoom the pointer to 200%,
choose Radar from the Click Effect pop-up
| | 03:04 | menu, and enable the Sound on Click
and Show modifier keys pressed options.
| | 03:09 | Now, let's drag the
playhead back and play the video.
| | 03:13 | As you can see, the cursor is more
visible because it's larger and you can see
| | 03:18 | each click because of the radar affect.
| | 03:20 | You can hear the clicks and you can
see any keyboard commands I've typed.
| | 03:24 | Thanks to these few adjustments, the
actions I performed are already much clearer.
| | 03:28 | Now let's add some refinements.
| | 03:30 | Earlier, I created a video action.
| | 03:32 | Let's talk more about those actions.
| | 03:34 | These are effects that you apply to audio
and video tracks over the course of time.
| | 03:38 | For example, you'd apply an action to
add a page curl transition between two
| | 03:43 | clips or you can add an action to an audio
clip that applies a Reverb effect to the clip.
| | 03:48 | Let's add a couple of more actions.
| | 03:50 | I'll start by moving the playhead to
the point where I select the menu command,
| | 03:54 | click on the Callout
Actions tab and click Add Callout.
| | 03:58 | A yellow Callout action
appears in the capture track.
| | 04:01 | With the Mouse Cursor option
enabled, change Opacity to about 30%.
| | 04:07 | Notice that the area around the mouse
stays white and the background dims.
| | 04:11 | Drag the playhead to see what
happens to the preview during the course of
| | 04:14 | the Callout action.
| | 04:16 | Notice that the action ends after we've
gone through all the menus. No problem.
| | 04:20 | Just move the playhead to where you
leave the menus, and then drag the end of
| | 04:24 | the Callout action to that point.
| | 04:28 | But it would be nice, if we could also
zoom in on the cursor when it's in the menu.
| | 04:32 | You can do that too.
| | 04:34 | Just select the Callout
action and zoom up to 150%.
| | 04:38 | The highlight circle is a little small,
so move the Border slider to the right
| | 04:42 | to enlarge the highlight.
| | 04:43 | The transition from normal view to
this highlighted view is a little abrupt.
| | 04:47 | You can smooth that out by adjusting the
Build settings at the bottom of this tab.
| | 04:51 | In both the Build In and Build Out
Duration fields enter 0.4 seconds.
| | 04:57 | Now play the action.
| | 05:03 | Pretty slick, but the beginning and
end of the capture are also abrupt.
| | 05:06 | We can change that too.
| | 05:08 | Place your cursor on the beginning video
capture track and a small gear icon appears.
| | 05:13 | Click on this gear and
choose Add Starting Transition.
| | 05:16 | A transition is added to
the beginning of the clip.
| | 05:19 | Double-click on that transition and
the Transition Inspector window appears.
| | 05:23 | Let's choose Dip to Black
and close the Inspector.
| | 05:26 | We will do the same for the end of the clip.
| | 05:28 | Add Ending Transition, double-click
on the clip, and use Dip to Black.
| | 05:37 | Play the clip and you see it
opens with the fade from black.
| | 05:44 | Check the end of the clip,
and it fades to black.
| | 05:49 | To make the transition longer
or shorter, just drag its edge.
| | 05:53 | I can also add an audio fade to the end.
| | 05:55 | Just place the playhead at the end of
the clip, select the Audio Properties tab,
| | 05:59 | click the Add Audio Action button, and
in the tab, move the Volume slider to 0.
| | 06:05 | As soon as the playhead hits the Audio
Action, the volume will begin to fade.
| | 06:09 | Again, if you need a longer fade,
just make the action larger.
| | 06:13 | You can add titles as well.
| | 06:15 | Click the Text Properties tab
and then click the Add Textbox.
| | 06:18 | A textbox appears in the Preview pane.
| | 06:21 | Click that box, and enter the text you like.
| | 06:23 | You're welcome to choose a different
font, choose to fill with a Solid Color,
| | 06:31 | Image of your choosing or Gradient.
| | 06:33 | You can also outline the text as well
as have it appear over a background.
| | 06:36 | I am going to change the font, use a
Gradient fill, and remove the background,
| | 06:43 | and just as with the capture track,
you can add transitions to your text.
| | 06:46 | We will have it dissolve on both ends.
| | 06:54 | You can also animate the
text by adding a Video Action.
| | 06:57 | We will position the textbox where
we want it when it first appears.
| | 07:03 | Now move the playhead to the end of the text
entry in the timeline and click Add Video Action.
| | 07:09 | Move the textbox to where you would
like to end up at the end of its move.
| | 07:14 | Finally, drag the left side of the action so
that it fills the text entry in the timeline.
| | 07:19 | Go to the beginning of the clip, play it,
and watch its progress across the screen.
| | 07:28 | You can also add more
media files to your project.
| | 07:30 | For example, I can add a music bit to
my project by clicking the Media tab,
| | 07:34 | clicking Add Media, choosing an audio
file, and dragging it to the timeline.
| | 07:46 | I can just as easily add
a watermark to the project.
| | 07:49 | From within the Media tab, I click Add
Media, navigate to the image I want to
| | 07:53 | use for the watermark, drag it into
the preview window, and adjust its size.
| | 08:02 | It's too present, so I click Video
Properties and change its Opacity.
| | 08:12 | You can also record narration of your project.
| | 08:14 | To do that, move the playhead
to the beginning of the project.
| | 08:17 | Now open Media Pane, click the Add
Recording button at the bottom of the pane,
| | 08:22 | enable the Record Audio from option
and disable any other options and choose
| | 08:27 | your Microphone from the pop-up menu.
Click Record to start recording.
| | 08:32 | The countdown will start. When it
finishes, click ScreenFlow's Play button.
| | 08:39 | As the project plays, start talking,
press Shift+Command+2, to stop the
| | 08:43 | recording and an audio file
appears in the Media Pane.
| | 08:46 | Move the playhead back to the beginning
of the project, right-click on the audio
| | 08:50 | file, and choose Add to Timeline at Playhead.
| | 08:54 | To adjust the volume of your
narration, just select the narration track
| | 08:57 | you've recorded, click the Audio Properties tab,
and use the Volume slider to change the volume.
| | 09:02 | ScreenFlow can do far more but what I
have shown you takes care of our needs.
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|
|
4. ScenecastsIntroduction to scenecasting| 00:00 | Just about every video I have
presented so far hasn't been in the form of a
| | 00:04 | traditional screencast. Instead, you've seen
live action, me talking to you, for example.
| | 00:09 | Motion capture from the
Mac and some still images.
| | 00:12 | Put them all together and you've
made what I am calling a scenecast,
| | 00:15 | essentially in an instructional video
that uses live action, motion capture,
| | 00:19 | stills and narration.
| | 00:21 | In the next couple lessons, we'll talk
about how to capture new stills, and use
| | 00:25 | motion capture effectively.
| | 00:27 | We will also look at the tools
you'll use to get the job done.
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| Using still images in a screencast| 00:00 | Wait! We are talking about
still images for videos? Why?
| | 00:03 | There are times when a still image
works better than a motion capture.
| | 00:07 | For example, if you are showing 15
seconds of the same unmoving window or on
| | 00:11 | your Mac anyway, why bother with a
QuickTime movie of that window when a single
| | 00:14 | still image will do just as well.
| | 00:17 | Also, there will be occasions when a
photograph better illustrates what you're
| | 00:20 | talking about than a video,
| | 00:22 | when you need to shoot a closeup of
some arcane computer part, for example, and
| | 00:26 | your video camera just can't handle it.
| | 00:29 | And finally, still images
are more flexible than video.
| | 00:32 | Let's say you have 10 seconds of
video but 14 seconds of narration.
| | 00:36 | With a video clip, you're in trouble.
| | 00:38 | Use a still image, and you are fine,
because you can make that still image last
| | 00:42 | as long as you like, just keep
stretching it out on your editor's timeline.
| | 00:47 | Now that you understand the usefulness of
still images, here are a few tips to keep in mind.
| | 00:52 | As I mentioned during our discussions of
Snapz Pro, make sure your stills are large enough.
| | 00:57 | If you are shooting a small area, it's
possible that when you import the image
| | 01:00 | into iMovie it won't fill the frame.
| | 01:03 | I've made it a habit to always
scale my Snapz Pro screenshots to 200%.
| | 01:08 | Capture at or darn close to
the Aspect Ratio of your movie.
| | 01:12 | You do this so that your image
has fully fill the frame rather than
| | 01:15 | leaving black bars.
| | 01:17 | For Standard Definition movies, that means 4x3.
| | 01:20 | For widescreen movies capture at 16x9.
| | 01:22 | There will be times when it just isn't possible.
| | 01:26 | You have a tall window that need to display.
| | 01:28 | You can either live with those black
bars, or you Ken Burn's Effect also known
| | 01:32 | as Pan and Scan effect
to scan across your still.
| | 01:36 | This not only fills the frame, but it
gives your images a sense of movement.
| | 01:40 | Using still images, you can fake
button presses, and changes to menus.
| | 01:45 | To make clicking a OK button appear to
be part of a video, take two stills, the
| | 01:49 | first is of the object with the
cursor hovering over the button.
| | 01:52 | Click-and-hold on the mouse, and take a
second shot with the button activated.
| | 01:56 | Place the second after the first, and it
appears that you're clicking the mouse button.
| | 02:01 | Again the point of a trick like this
is that it gives the freedom to make the
| | 02:04 | images last as long as you like.
| | 02:07 | You can do something similar
with highlighted menu commands.
| | 02:10 | The first shot is of the menu
pulled down with the command selected.
| | 02:13 | The next shot is of the next command.
| | 02:16 | One more command, one more shot.
| | 02:18 | Put them together with a dissolve
transition between them, and you wind up with this.
| | 02:23 | Not quite as smooth as a true
motion capture, but close enough.
| | 02:27 | When capturing, come up with a
numbering system, so you can later identify your
| | 02:30 | still and motion captures.
| | 02:33 | For example, for images I am using in
these lessons, I entered the chapter
| | 02:36 | number, lesson number, and image
number, and then a description.
| | 02:39 | So 4.1.09.numbering, for example.
| | 02:43 | When it's time to assemble your work,
you'll find it far easier to do when you
| | 02:47 | can import assets in order.
| | 02:49 | Choose JPEG when capturing images.
| | 02:51 | iMovie is more than happy to import JPEG
images, but it can be fussy about PICT files.
| | 02:56 | Gather all the images for your project
in a single folder. When we talk about
| | 03:01 | iMovie, I will show you how you can
make that folder available to iMovie's
| | 03:04 | Image Browser, and thus make it more
accessible to you when you're assembling your scenecast.
| | 03:09 | And here are few hints for working with photos.
| | 03:12 | First, consider what to shoot.
| | 03:14 | If you are going to show a stationary
object, and perhaps zoom in and out on it,
| | 03:17 | use a still instead.
| | 03:19 | As with screenshots, having a still
provides you with more leeway, because they
| | 03:23 | can be as long or short as you like.
| | 03:25 | Photos are also a great way to get an
image that won't look good in video.
| | 03:29 | For example, a Pan and Scan across
the beach with sunset can be far more
| | 03:33 | evocative than a video where people are
constantly walking in front of the camera.
| | 03:38 | I've gotten into the habit shooting in
portrait orientation, because I like the look.
| | 03:42 | But do that for images, you intend to
including your scenecast, and you're going
| | 03:46 | to face the black bar problem.
| | 03:47 | If you want most of what's in the
picture to appear in your movie without black
| | 03:51 | bars, or the Ken Burn's Effect,
shoot in landscape orientation.
| | 03:55 | Import your photos with the iPhoto,
select and edit the ones you intend to use,
| | 04:01 | and then place them in an iPhoto album.
| | 04:04 | This will make them easier to locate
when you assemble your scenecast in iMovie.
| | 04:08 | We'll look more closely at bringing stills
from iPhoto into iMovie later in this course.
| | 04:13 | How useful are stills?
| | 04:15 | The vast majority of images used in this
very movie were still images, and yet I
| | 04:19 | got my point across. Yes?
| | 04:21 | I hope so.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using focused motion captures| 00:00 | You know that you can create a
screencast by simply capturing everything
| | 00:03 | happening on your computer
screen and narrating as you go along.
| | 00:07 | And for some situations,
that's a perfectly fine way to go.
| | 00:10 | But a computer screen can be a mighty
big place, and when capturing that entire
| | 00:14 | screen, it's possible
that the viewer may get lost.
| | 00:18 | You can help the viewer by
selectively capturing portions of the screen.
| | 00:22 | In the next few minutes, I'll
provide tips for doing that.
| | 00:25 | We will start with a couple
basics that will make editing easier.
| | 00:29 | When you create a motion capture pause a
second or two before starting the action.
| | 00:34 | Do the same when you finish.
| | 00:36 | This will provide you with extra footage
that can come in handy when you want to
| | 00:39 | use a transition, such as a
fade, to begin that segment.
| | 00:43 | Without the extra material, you may
fade into an action already in progress.
| | 00:48 | It's also a good idea to begin and end
the capture with the cursor out of the way.
| | 00:52 | That way you don't have to worry about
continuity problems where the cursor is
| | 00:56 | at one place at the end of the first
capture and in an entirely different place
| | 01:00 | at the beginning of the next capture.
| | 01:03 | Make sure the capture is long
enough to accommodate your narration.
| | 01:06 | If it takes you 10 seconds to speak
the narration, and you have only five
| | 01:09 | seconds of capture you are in trouble.
| | 01:12 | If you wind up in a situation where
capture isn't long enough, you can cheat
| | 01:15 | by making a still of the last frame of the
capture, and then appending it to the capture.
| | 01:20 | I will show you how this is done
when we talk about iMovie editing.
| | 01:24 | Focus your capture.
| | 01:25 | Consider these two captures.
| | 01:27 | In the first, we have the Mac's full screen
where we're dragging file to an open window.
| | 01:32 | You can tighten that up by creating a
selective capture that shows just the file
| | 01:36 | and window like this, or if you want
to emphasize the file, rather than the
| | 01:40 | window, make an even tighter selection
on the file and have your capture follow
| | 01:45 | the cursor like this.
| | 01:46 | When using selective captures, make
sure you show the viewer where you are.
| | 01:51 | In this capture, for example,
I could be almost anywhere.
| | 01:54 | If I first use a full screen capture to
indicate the hard drive and folders I
| | 01:58 | am opening, and then zoom in to show
the details, the viewer doesn't get lost.
| | 02:02 | And if you're using a tools such as
iShowU, or ScreenFlow, consider its mouse
| | 02:07 | highlighting feature.
| | 02:08 | Giving the viewer an idea of where the
cursor is, particularly when you are dashing
| | 02:12 | all over the screen, can't hurt.
| | 02:14 | However, don't rely on it.
| | 02:16 | I've seen a lot of screencasts where
someone shoots full screen at high monitor
| | 02:20 | resolution and uses only the mouse
highlight to indicate what's going on.
| | 02:24 | This isn't helpful if you can't
see what the mouse is pointing at.
| | 02:27 | Again, either perform a selection
capture or use tools to zoom in at
| | 02:33 | the appropriate moment.
| | 02:34 | And that's it, plan ahead, focus on
what you want to show, capture enough of
| | 02:39 | what you're after, and consider context.
| | 02:42 | Do all that and you'll
produce great motion captures.
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|
|
5. Shooting Live VideoIntroduction to live video| 00:00 | And now we turned to live video.
| | 00:02 | These segments will have an element
of "Do as I say, not as I do", because
| | 00:06 | again, I am in this glorious studio,
and you may be working in a spare
| | 00:09 | bedroom or cubicle.
| | 00:11 | So yes, I may have better lighting
and someone to wipe my brow when I break
| | 00:14 | into a sweat, but that doesn't change the
fact that we both need the same basic elements:
| | 00:19 | a location that makes sense,
continuity so little, incorrect details don't
| | 00:24 | get in the way of the ideas we are
trying to get across, and a presentation
| | 00:27 | that isn't distracting.
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| Choosing a live action location| 00:00 | And now let's talk about location,
where you shoot, and lighting.
| | 00:04 | You basically have two broad
choices in location, indoors or outdoors.
| | 00:09 | There are a lot of
advantages to shooting indoors.
| | 00:11 | You can control the lighting.
| | 00:13 | You are not subject to the kind of
extraneous noise you get outdoors, and you
| | 00:16 | can shoot in relative privacy, which
is a nice thing if you are a little shy
| | 00:20 | about performing in front of others.
| | 00:22 | But if you're in outdoors at the
right location, you'll need to worry about
| | 00:24 | lights, because of that fiery ball in the sky.
| | 00:27 | Also, being outdoors can make
sense, depending on the subject matter.
| | 00:30 | For example, if you are the coach at
the Local Little League Team, making
| | 00:34 | a video about how to pullout the
perfect squeeze play, shooting at the
| | 00:36 | ballpark makes sense.
| | 00:38 | Likewise, if you are teaching outdoor
survival skills, absolutely shoot outdoors.
| | 00:43 | There are plenty of ways to
shoot incorrectly outdoors.
| | 00:45 | One way is to have the sun behind you
or be in a dark location with bright
| | 00:49 | sunlight behind you.
| | 00:50 | Look at the results. I am too dark.
| | 00:54 | Modern camcorders include a backlight
feature that supposedly compensates for
| | 00:57 | this, but look at those results,
everything around me is blown out.
| | 01:02 | Another way to get it wrong is to
shoot with spotty shadows on you, or around
| | 01:05 | you, say under a tree.
| | 01:07 | Our eyes naturally adjust for
shadow, but in videos, it looks odd.
| | 01:11 | So, what's the solution?
Shoot in full shade or full sun.
| | 01:15 | You'd think that shooting in the middle
of the day under direct sunlight would be
| | 01:18 | great, but in fact, it can be harsh,
particularly with an inexpensive camcorder.
| | 01:22 | Plus, you are going to be tempted to
squint and if you wear glasses as I do, the
| | 01:26 | reflection can be a real problem.
| | 01:29 | You may find a location with wonderful
lighting, but fail to take into account
| | 01:32 | the noise that comes with it.
| | 01:34 | Unless the point of your video is to be the man
or woman in the street, find a quiet location.
| | 01:39 | And here we are.
| | 01:40 | It's not too noisy, not too dark, not
too bright and the background is neither
| | 01:44 | too busy nor too dull.
| | 01:46 | You notice that I am standing at the
edge of a large shadow, and that's not a
| | 01:49 | bad thing, because it allows me to
shoot over a course of days, and get
| | 01:53 | consistent lighting.
| | 01:54 | If your presentation is more formal,
get endorsed and surround yourself
| | 01:58 | with correct props.
| | 01:59 | A bookcase if you are a college professor.
| | 02:01 | A kitchen if you are a chef, or in front of a
laptop like this, if you're a computer geek.
| | 02:06 | It doesn't take much to decorate
your set, and it gives your audience
| | 02:09 | some additional context.
| | 02:11 | Shooting in an office is
challenging, because of the windows.
| | 02:13 | You want to put something interesting
into the shot and let's face it, what's
| | 02:16 | outside of window is usually more
interesting, than what's inside an office.
| | 02:20 | But just like shooting into the sun, it
puts more light behind you, and less in
| | 02:24 | front of you, which washes out the shot.
| | 02:26 | Far better that you shoot with the
window to your side, so that you benefit both
| | 02:30 | from the natural light, as well
as some contrast on your features.
| | 02:33 | But that can lend a too-casual
look to your video.
| | 02:35 | If that's an issue, revisit our
talk about Three-Point lighting.
| | 02:39 | To sum up, seek out good lighting, and
keep context in mind and you'll be fine.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding continuity| 00:00 | Continuity is nothing more than
making sure that no physical changes occur
| | 00:04 | between the shots that are
supposed to be contiguous.
| | 00:06 | So, for example, if you're shooting
over the course of a couple of days, make
| | 00:10 | sure that you're wearing the same thing,
if the audience is supposed to believe
| | 00:14 | that everything was shot at the same time.
| | 00:16 | Likewise, you don't want to get a
haircut in the middle of the shoot, or
| | 00:19 | suddenly sprout a mustache.
| | 00:21 | One way to ensure that you have that
kind of continuity is to review the footage
| | 00:25 | you've shot, compared to what's on your
set now. Is something out of place?
| | 00:29 | You can also do this by taking a
picture with your digital camera.
| | 00:33 | Stand in the same place with the same
zoom settings and compare the shots.
| | 00:38 | As I mentioned when talking about
lighting and location, shooting outdoors
| | 00:41 | presents continuity issues because
of changing in light and weather.
| | 00:44 | Shooting at sunrise is not
the same as shooting at sunset.
| | 00:47 | And cloudy days and stormy
days have different light.
| | 00:51 | Also, make sure that your
camcorder is in the same place.
| | 00:54 | If you're shooting in your home,
you'll be tempted to clean up after yourself
| | 00:57 | at the end of the day.
| | 00:58 | If you don't mark where your
camcorder was, you may wind up with a slightly
| | 01:02 | different angle, which could look odd.
| | 01:04 | If you do need to move the camera,
mark the position of the tripod's feet by
| | 01:08 | putting tape on the floor.
| | 01:09 | If you've extended the
tripod's neck, mark it too.
| | 01:13 | Continuity counts on the computer as well.
| | 01:15 | If you look at just about any other
lynda.com movie, you'll see that the
| | 01:19 | menu bar clock is missing, and it's
missing because it would look funny to
| | 01:22 | see the clock jump three hours between
one movie and the one that supposedly
| | 01:26 | follows directly after.
| | 01:28 | You could remove the clock from the
menu bar by adjusting a setting in System
| | 01:31 | Preferences, but an easy way to do
that is to hold Command and drag the clock
| | 01:36 | out of the menu bar.
| | 01:38 | For elements that you can't or don't
want to hide, be careful about their
| | 01:41 | appearance and placement.
| | 01:43 | Obviously, you don't want to change
the desktop patterns between shots.
| | 01:46 | Hard drive icon should
stay in the same position.
| | 01:50 | If you've hidden a doc, it should remain hidden.
| | 01:53 | If you've opened any windows, make
sure that they are in the same position.
| | 01:56 | And that the window that was
last active is still active.
| | 02:00 | Or if you don't need the windows to
be in the next shot, close them while
| | 02:03 | recording so that the viewer can see
the change, rather than being abruptly
| | 02:07 | faced with that change.
| | 02:08 | If the Trash icon indicates that there
are items in the Trash, either empty it
| | 02:13 | while you're recording, again, so the
viewer sees that it's been emptied, or
| | 02:16 | leave the items in it.
| | 02:17 | So, plan ahead, as well as check the
work you've done, so the viewer isn't
| | 02:23 | confronted with radical changes that
indicate you didn't sit down and perform
| | 02:26 | your presentation
flawlessly from beginning to end.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring presentation techniques| 00:00 | I'm no one to give anyone acting lessons.
| | 00:02 | Truth is that like most people, I'm
uncomfortable in front of the camera,
| | 00:06 | but I've done this long enough that I
found ways to avoid doing things that
| | 00:09 | look completely awkward.
| | 00:11 | Let's start with the purely technical.
| | 00:13 | Where you place the camera is important.
| | 00:15 | If you sit down at the desk in your 100
doctors recommend pose and the camera is
| | 00:19 | high above you, you look
small and unauthoritative.
| | 00:23 | Instead, put the camera directly in
front of you so that you don't need to raise
| | 00:27 | or lower your head to
look into the lens directly.
| | 00:30 | Now it's time to consider how
much you'll be in the frame.
| | 00:33 | Shoot too far away like this, and
you're too tiny, and get this close, and
| | 00:37 | you're climbing into the viewer's lap.
| | 00:40 | In most cases, you're fine with a couple
shots, a shot from the waist-up and the
| | 00:44 | head and shoulder shot.
| | 00:46 | When we talked about camcorders, I
mentioned that you should have a camcorder
| | 00:49 | with an LCD that can be flipped around
to face you when you're on camera, and
| | 00:54 | this is exactly the reason why.
| | 00:56 | You can use the LCD to make sure that
you're in position, not too big or too
| | 01:00 | small, and that you're
filling most of the frame.
| | 01:03 | But what if you're not sitting?
| | 01:05 | Now there's the question of what to do
with your body, and for a lot of people,
| | 01:09 | these are a big problem.
| | 01:10 | If you're shooting from the waist-
up, what do you do with your hands?
| | 01:14 | If you're after a very casual look like
the Mac versus PC commercials, you can
| | 01:18 | put your hands in your pockets.
| | 01:20 | But it's not a good look if you
want to appear more professional.
| | 01:24 | Many people are tempted to hide
their hands behind their back.
| | 01:27 | This isn't so good either because it
can make you look like a naughty child.
| | 01:31 | Or there is this, no!
| | 01:36 | Ideally, you put your hands at your
side and gesture with them every so often.
| | 01:39 | If you keep them loose enough to
gesture with, you could avoid the stiff robot
| | 01:44 | pose that makes everyone feel uncomfortable.
| | 01:49 | I almost always try to sit down when
shooting, because I'm more comfortable, and
| | 01:53 | that largely makes the hand problem go away.
| | 01:55 | I can keep them in my lap or gesture with them.
| | 01:58 | The danger of the sitting
position for some people is the slouch.
| | 02:02 | You can help avoid that by
positioning the camera in such a way that you're
| | 02:05 | forced to sit up in order to fill the LCD
frame, which again, you've pointed at yourself.
| | 02:11 | Then again, if you sit up too straight,
you look petrified, which isn't going to
| | 02:15 | put the viewer at ease.
| | 02:16 | Try to relax a bit and keep your
neck loose, people naturally move their
| | 02:20 | heads when they speak.
| | 02:22 | Speaking of the camcorder's LCD display,
you're going to be tempted to look at
| | 02:26 | it instead of the lens. Don't!
| | 02:29 | If you look at the display, your eyes
will shift slightly to the side and it
| | 02:33 | will look like you're avoiding the viewer.
| | 02:35 | The LCD is there for position
only, be sure to look at the lens.
| | 02:40 | As for looking at the lens, you now face
the prompter question, and this affects
| | 02:44 | how you put together your scripts.
| | 02:45 | When we talked about scripting, I
suggested that you keep it short in case you
| | 02:49 | want to memorize your scripts.
| | 02:51 | Memorization has a couple of advantages.
| | 02:53 | One is that you're likely
to speak more naturally.
| | 02:55 | When you read from a cue card or
prompter, you tend to sound like you're
| | 02:58 | reading, and that comes across a little
wooden, unless you're used to doing it.
| | 03:03 | It happens when I'm using a prompter
because I have a lot of material to cover
| | 03:07 | and my brain just isn't
big enough to hold it all.
| | 03:09 | But the prompter here works in such a way
that the words are laid over the camera's lens.
| | 03:14 | So when I'm reading, I'm also
looking directly at the lens.
| | 03:17 | Unless you have a really big
budget, you won't have this advantage.
| | 03:21 | Although you could try having a
prompter or cue cards that are off to the side,
| | 03:24 | as we saw before, you will
clearly be looking off camera.
| | 03:29 | Again, memorization is your friend.
| | 03:31 | Finally, let's talk about how you
begin and end your on-camera shots.
| | 03:35 | When beginning, get into position, take
a breath, plaster a reasonably engaging
| | 03:41 | smile on your face, wait a
second or two and then start.
| | 03:46 | When wrapping up, finish what you have
to say, continue looking into the lens
| | 03:50 | and hold your position for a couple of seconds.
| | 03:53 | The reason you hold your position at
the beginning and at the end is to make
| | 03:57 | room for transitions.
| | 03:58 | For example, if you fade in from a
title to your face, you want to be in
| | 04:02 | position throughout the fade and then
start talking just as the fade ends.
| | 04:07 | As for holding your position at the end,
you don't want to give the viewer the
| | 04:10 | idea that you're anxious to get off camera.
| | 04:13 | Everyone wants to look immediately off
camera, but later when you're editing
| | 04:17 | your footage, you'll hate yourself for
doing it because it looks really awkward
| | 04:21 | and you've lost the chance to
use a transition that takes time.
| | 04:24 | So close, hold and fade like so.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
6. Editing with iMovie '09Introducing iMovie '09| 00:00 | As a screen caster, you wear a lot
of different hats: writer, director,
| | 00:04 | performer and editor.
| | 00:06 | We'll look at the last hat in this chapter.
| | 00:09 | Although there are plenty of video
editing tools available to Mac users, I'm
| | 00:12 | going to concentrate on one that's
both reasonably easy to use and likely
| | 00:16 | already on your Mac, iMovie '09.
| | 00:17 | There are more capable video editing
applications, but they're also more
| | 00:22 | complicated and expensive.
| | 00:24 | Note that this is by no means a
complete survey of iMovie '09.
| | 00:28 | For that, you'll want to look at iMovie
Essential Training, here at lynda.com.
| | 00:32 | Rather, my goal is to provide you with
enough information about iMovie, so that
| | 00:36 | you can concentrate on content, add
narration, titles and transitions, and
| | 00:41 | then export the finished movie in a
form that you can upload to a website or
| | 00:44 | burn to disc.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Touring the iMovie interface| 00:00 | And now for a tour of the iMovie '09
interface, iMovie operates in a single
| | 00:05 | window and features four
main panes and a toolbar.
| | 00:08 | Starting in the lower left corner, the
Event Library is where you access movie clips.
| | 00:14 | These are arranged by Last Import, iPhoto
Videos, and events, which are sorted by date.
| | 00:22 | Last Import contains the last videos
you imported from your video camera.
| | 00:28 | iPhoto Videos includes any
videos stored in your iPhoto Library.
| | 00:35 | Events are videos you've imported,
filed by the date you imported them.
| | 00:39 | When you select an item in the Event
Library, thumbnail previews of the event
| | 00:42 | appear in the Event Browser to
the right of the Event Library.
| | 00:46 | Events in the Event Browser
appear in iMovie's Viewer pane.
| | 00:53 | Move the cursor and the portions of
the video clip under the cursor change.
| | 00:58 | As you drag the cursor across the video,
either forward or back, the video plays
| | 01:02 | at the speed you drag.
| | 01:06 | And audio will play right along with it.
I don't happen to have any audio to go
| | 01:10 | with this particular movie.
| | 01:12 | To play a clip's video in the
Viewer, just press the Spacebar.
| | 01:21 | The last pane is the Project Editor.
| | 01:23 | This is where you assemble your project.
| | 01:25 | To add video clips to the Project
Editor, just select some video in the Event
| | 01:31 | Browser and drag them into the Project Editor.
| | 01:35 | Now let's look at the toolbar.
| | 01:37 | The first button in the
toolbar is the Camera Import button.
| | 01:40 | Click it, and if you have a compatible
camcorder connected to your Mac, either a
| | 01:46 | standard definition tape-based
camcorder or an HD camcorder, a window opens.
| | 01:52 | Within this window, you'll find
controls for importing video from the camera.
| | 01:55 | We'll discuss importing video in another movie.
| | 02:01 | Click the button next to the Camera
Import button and you swap the position of
| | 02:05 | the Event Browser and Project Editor panes.
| | 02:10 |
| | 02:12 | The slider next to the Swap button
adjusts the size of the thumbnails in the
| | 02:15 | Event Browser and Project Editor panes.
| | 02:23 | The Add Selection to Project
button does exactly what it suggests.
| | 02:28 | Select some video by clicking-and-
dragging a clip in the Event Browser and click
| | 02:31 | this button and the selected
video is copied to the Project Editor.
| | 02:35 | We'll skip the next three buttons
and move to the Voiceover button.
| | 02:40 | Click this button and the
Voiceover palette appears.
| | 02:43 | It's with this palette that you record
audio, a microphone or an audio coming in
| | 02:47 | via your Mac's audio input ports.
| | 02:50 | There is my voice on the meters.
| | 02:51 | We'll close that window.
| | 02:54 | Next to the Voiceover button is the
Crop, Rotate and Ken Burns button.
| | 03:00 | When you click this button, controls
appear in the Viewer for choosing how your
| | 03:03 | clip or image is displayed.
| | 03:08 | Fit places the item in the
frame exactly as it was shot.
| | 03:12 | Crop lets you zoom in on
particular parts of the item.
| | 03:21 | Ken Burns allows you to
create a pan and scan effect.
| | 03:24 | You can also rotate items clockwise or
counterclockwise in this window, as well
| | 03:29 | as preview clips with the applied view.
| | 03:31 | We'll look further into
this feature in a later movie.
| | 03:44 | The Inspector button is next.
| | 03:47 | Click this button and an Inspector
window appears for the selected clip, image,
| | 03:51 | audio clip, transition or title.
| | 03:57 | The contents of the Inspector
change depending on what you've selected.
| | 04:00 | But the gist is that it's within this
Inspector that you can apply effects to
| | 04:04 | video clips and stills, adjust Exposure,
Brightness, Contrast and Saturation,
| | 04:09 | and adjust Volume and Fading for audio tracks.
| | 04:16 | The first of the five buttons on the
right of the iMovie window is for showing
| | 04:19 | or hiding the Music and Sound Effects browser.
| | 04:21 | This is where you choose sound
effects and music to add to your project.
| | 04:27 | The Photos browser button is next.
| | 04:29 | Click it and you can access
the photos stored on your Mac.
| | 04:33 | The third button is for choosing titles.
| | 04:36 | The fourth button is where you find
transitions, such as Fades and Dissolves.
| | 04:42 | And the last button is for Maps and Backgrounds,
which we're not going to be bothering with.
| | 04:47 | At the bottom of both the Project Editor
and Event Browser, you'll find a slider
| | 04:51 | that determines the time interval
each thumbnail image represents.
| | 04:55 | Drag it all the way to the left and the
thumbnail appears for every half second of video.
| | 05:01 | Drag it almost all the way to the
right and a thumbnail appears for every 30
| | 05:06 | seconds of video, all the way to the
right and you just see individual clips.
| | 05:12 | Play controls can also be found at the
bottom of the Project Editor and Event Browser.
| | 05:16 | The filled-in Play button plays
the selected clip full screen.
| | 05:24 | And the standard Play button
plays the video in the Viewer.
| | 05:33 | These are the basics of the iMovie interface.
| | 05:35 | We'll look at more
advanced features in other movies.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Importing assets| 00:00 | We now turn to bringing content into iMovie.
| | 00:03 | That content includes video, stills and audio.
| | 00:06 | We'll start by importing
video from your camcorder.
| | 00:09 | First, you must connect your camera to your Mac.
| | 00:11 | This is easily done by stringing a
USB or FireWire cable, depending on which
| | 00:15 | transfer protocol the camera
supports between the camcorder and your Mac.
| | 00:21 | Then turn the camera on.
| | 00:23 | If it's a DV camcorder,
you'll need to set it to Play mode.
| | 00:27 | If you're using an HD camcorder,
initiate the Sync function on the camera, as I'm
| | 00:31 | doing here by pressing the Sync
button on this Sony camcorder space.
| | 00:35 | In some cases, the Camera Import window
may open on its own when iMovie detects
| | 00:39 | the connection, but if it doesn't,
just click the Camera Import button.
| | 00:43 | If you've connected a DV camcorder, the
window will open and show Play controls.
| | 00:48 | You can use these Play controls to
operate your camera rather than the controls
| | 00:52 | on the camera itself.
| | 00:53 | I'll press Play and here I am
talking under a tree, and I'll press Stop.
| | 01:01 | To import every bit of video from the
camera, toggle the switch on the left of
| | 01:05 | the window to Automatic, and then
you would click the Import button.
| | 01:09 | We're not going to do that, because we don't
want everything that's on the DV camcorder.
| | 01:13 | The tape would rewind, iMovie would
import everything on the tape, creating
| | 01:17 | new clips wherever you stopped and started
recording and then it would rewind the tape for you.
| | 01:22 | We're, however, going to switch to Manual,
and we're going to import just a selected bit.
| | 01:27 | To do that, we'll move to the selection
we want, and I think where we are right
| | 01:30 | now is just fine, and we will
press Play and then click Import.
| | 01:36 | When you choose either import option, you'll
be prompted for an event to save the event to.
| | 01:40 | This can be either an existing
event or a new one you now create.
| | 01:44 | Needless to say, it makes a lot of sense
to create a new event for a new project
| | 01:48 | and place those videos associated
with that project into that event.
| | 01:52 | We'll call this our Demo.
| | 01:55 | During import, iMovie '09 can
analyze the video for stabilization.
| | 01:59 | If it finds clips that jump around,
because you weren't holding the camera
| | 02:02 | steady, it can smooth out this jumpy action.
| | 02:05 | Doing so, crops the video and
makes the import a little longer.
| | 02:08 | We're not going to do that in this case.
| | 02:10 | Let's import a little video.
| | 02:23 | Click Stop when you've imported as
much video as you care to, and click Done
| | 02:28 | when you're through importing
your video. Here is our clip.
| | 02:32 | Now let's take a look at an HD camcorder.
| | 02:34 | I'll click the Camera Import button,
and we're going to switch to an HD
| | 02:37 | camcorder that's also attached to this Mac.
| | 02:40 | HD camcorders make it easier to
import just the clips you want.
| | 02:43 | It does this by displaying
the first frame of every clip.
| | 02:48 | You can import all of the camera's
clips by clicking the Import All button
| | 02:53 | or you can check just the clips you want to
import and then click the Import Checked button.
| | 02:57 | I'll start by unchecking all, and
then just select a couple of clips.
| | 03:01 | I'll select this one and that one.
| | 03:04 | At this point, I could import just
those two clips by clicking Import Checked
| | 03:08 | and let's import those two movies.
| | 03:12 | Once again, I have the option to create
a new event or add to an existing event.
| | 03:17 | In this case, I'll add to our
existing event. Click Import.
| | 03:22 | At the bottom of the window,
you can see the progress.
| | 03:24 | We'll speed this up, so you don't have to
sit through a minute and 22 seconds of import.
| | 03:30 | It's done, we click OK and click Done.
| | 03:35 | If you import a video into an iPhoto
library from a pocket camcorder or your
| | 03:39 | point-and-shoot camera that also
happens to shoot video, you'll find it by
| | 03:43 | clicking on the iPhoto Videos entry.
| | 03:47 | Here's some video that I
brought in from my flip camcorder.
| | 03:50 | We don't want to do that,
so back we go to events.
| | 03:55 | You can also import QuickTime movies into an
iMovie, but to do so you must use a menu command.
| | 04:01 | Select from the File menu, Import,
and then from the submenu, Movies.
| | 04:07 | We'll navigate through our Exercise
Files and we will import the single
| | 04:10 | movie that's in there.
| | 04:12 | Again, you have the option to add to an
existing event and we'll do that or you
| | 04:16 | could create a new event if you wanted to.
| | 04:19 | Click Import, and here is our
movie file that we brought in.
| | 04:28 | Now for stills. We're going to access
those stills from iMovie's Photo browser,
| | 04:32 | so we'll start by clicking
the Photo browser button.
| | 04:36 | I found one of the most efficient
ways to import stills is to place all the
| | 04:39 | stills that will appear in a
particular project, into a folder and then drag
| | 04:43 | that folder into the Photos browser.
| | 04:45 | We'll give that a try now.
| | 04:46 | Here are Exercise Files, here are the
camera images that I want to bring in.
| | 04:51 | I just drag those down into the Photos
browser and here are the images and you
| | 04:57 | can see the images down at
the bottom of the browser.
| | 05:00 | Again, keep in mind that iMovie does not
like picked image files. These are JPEGs.
| | 05:04 | It will also bring in RAW files.
| | 05:06 | Now when you need a still, just select
the folder in the Photos browser, as it's
| | 05:10 | selected now, and the images
appear in the folder area below.
| | 05:13 | To add one to your project, just drag it in.
| | 05:16 | We'll activate the iMovie window.
| | 05:18 | We'll select this tall
image here and we'll drag it in.
| | 05:22 | Now, by default, iMovie brings
this in as a Ken Burns effect.
| | 05:26 | We're going to change it so it fits.
| | 05:28 | To do that, first, we click the Crop button.
| | 05:31 | Now we have to select the image and click Fit.
| | 05:35 | And that's how our image will look.
| | 05:37 | Now note that if you didn't heed my
advice to capture the aspect ratio of
| | 05:41 | your movie, you're going to wind up
with an image that's either been cropped
| | 05:44 | to fit or with black bars, and as you can see,
we have black bars on the side of this image.
| | 05:49 | Audio files work in a similar way.
| | 05:51 | Start by clicking the
Music and Sound Effects button.
| | 05:54 | Within the resulting browser, you can
choose audio files from your iTunes library.
| | 05:59 | If you're going to go with this route,
it makes sense to create a playlist that
| | 06:02 | contains the audio files you
need for a specific project.
| | 06:05 | And we've done exactly that.
| | 06:06 | So, at the bottom here
are Background Music files.
| | 06:09 | Alternatively, you can create a folder
full of the audio files you'll use in a
| | 06:13 | project and then drag that folder
into the Music and Sound Effects browser.
| | 06:17 | This is very similar to
what we did with our Photos.
| | 06:20 | Back to our Exercise Files,
we'll take our Soundtrack folder.
| | 06:24 | We'll drag it into the Music and Sound
Effects browser and here's the folder.
| | 06:29 | Click the triangle, and
here are our Soundtrack files.
| | 06:33 | To audition a file, just
select it and click the Play button.
| | 06:38 | (Dramatic music playing)
| | 06:47 | That covers importing your assets.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Assembling a movie| 00:00 | You now know your way around iMovie and
understand how to import media into it.
| | 00:04 | Let's start assembling a scenecast.
| | 00:06 | We'll do that by recreating the demo
movie that I submitted to lynda.com that
| | 00:10 | explains what I had in mind for this title.
| | 00:13 | I'll start by choosing New
Project from the File menu.
| | 00:18 | In the sheet that appears, I'll enter a title.
| | 00:22 | I'll leave it at 16 x 9, because I shot
the live video with an HD camcorder.
| | 00:27 | At the bottom of the sheet, you can
see the option to automatically add
| | 00:30 | transitions between clips.
| | 00:32 | That's convenient but we're going to
add our transitions individually, so we
| | 00:36 | can see how it's done.
| | 00:37 | Finally, in the middle of
the sheet, you see a Theme area.
| | 00:40 | This is where you can choose a
specific theme for your movie.
| | 00:43 | We're not going to have
any kind of theme at all.
| | 00:45 | We're ready to go, so we'll click Create.
| | 00:46 | I've shot some live action video and I've
placed it in an event called Lynda Demo.
| | 00:52 | We'll find that in the Date area
and there is a Lynda Demo there.
| | 00:57 | I select that event and the live
video clips appear in the Event Browser.
| | 01:01 | As you can see, there's an awful lot of me here.
| | 01:04 | I shot a number of takes without
stopping the camera, and so my first task is to
| | 01:08 | find a portion of the clip that
I want to place in the project.
| | 01:11 | Fortunately, I have a habit of
looking down when I've blown a take.
| | 01:15 | So all I need to do is find the
end of the clip, because I stopped
| | 01:19 | recording when I thought I had a
good take, and scrub backwards until I
| | 01:22 | find the beginning.
| | 01:23 | So, we'll look for a clip break, and
you can see a clip break right here,
| | 01:27 | because there's a gray
area between the two clips.
| | 01:31 | So, this is the end of the clip and
this is what I want, I want to look for
| | 01:33 | my head going down.
| | 01:36 | There goes my head.
| | 01:37 | Okay, so that means I blew
this take and I'm ready to go.
| | 01:43 | So I'll select this bit, drag until
it looks like I'm done after holding.
| | 01:52 | There I'm holding, I'm finishing
the take so I back up to there.
| | 01:56 | Now all I have to do is click the
Add Selection button and in it goes to
| | 02:00 | the Project Editor.
| | 02:02 | In the next section, I'll speak
over a general-purpose motion capture.
| | 02:05 | My narration is about 12 seconds, so
I'll grab about 18 seconds of the capture.
| | 02:09 | The capture is down here.
| | 02:11 | I select the beginning of
it and I'll drag 18 seconds.
| | 02:15 | So, at the bottom of the window you can
see the selected area, which will tell
| | 02:18 | you exactly how much video you're grabbing.
| | 02:21 | Go to about 18 seconds, there we are,
and we'll add that selection by clicking
| | 02:27 | the Add Selection button.
| | 02:28 | Now the next section calls for a still.
| | 02:30 | Before I add that still, I'll choose
Project Properties from the File menu.
| | 02:38 | In the sheet that appears, click the Timing tab.
| | 02:42 | From the Initial Photo Placement pop-up
menu, I'm going to the choose Fit in Frame.
| | 02:49 | I do this because more often than not,
I use still images as they were shot
| | 02:53 | rather than cropping them or
applying the Ken Burns effect.
| | 02:58 | Click OK and I'm set.
| | 03:00 | Now I'll click the Photo Browsers button,
locate the folder that contains the
| | 03:04 | still images for this project.
| | 03:07 | Here we have it in Camera Images,
and I'll drag the image I want into
| | 03:11 | the Project Editor.
| | 03:15 | I'll follow that up with another
still image that, later, I will apply the
| | 03:19 | Ken Burns effect to.
| | 03:20 | We'll take the tall image of the
flip camcorder and place it right there.
| | 03:26 | I have a QuickTime movie clip that I
haven't added to iMovie that I'd like to include.
| | 03:31 | I'll add narration over
this clip later in the process.
| | 03:34 | To add the movie, I go to the File menu,
choose Import and then Movies from the submenu.
| | 03:42 | In my Exercise Files, I'm
going to grab the laptop movie.
| | 03:46 | If I want to, I can preview it
here by clicking the Play button.
| | 03:56 | To add it, click Import.
| | 03:57 | Get rid of the Photos browser.
| | 04:04 | It will appear now in our
Event Browsers, and here's the clip.
| | 04:11 | I'll select it all, and this time to add it,
I'll just press the E key on my keyboard.
| | 04:15 | Now I'll wrap it up with one more video segment.
| | 04:18 | That will be my closing.
| | 04:20 | Once again, go to the end of the clip.
| | 04:23 | There's the head, comes up,
and I start speaking there.
| | 04:28 | Click-drag, hold, there I turn, great!
| | 04:35 | With that selected, press E,
and that's added to the project.
| | 04:41 | With that, the media I want to use is in the
Project Editor, ready for me to add narration.
| | 04:45 | Normally, at this point, you
would want to save your project.
| | 04:48 | But however, go up to the File menu
and you'll find there is no Save command.
| | 04:52 | That's because iMovie automatically
saves as it goes, so you don't need to worry
| | 04:56 | about saving your projects.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Recording narration| 00:00 | Although it's possible to record
narration as you perform motion captures, it's
| | 00:04 | often easier to add the narration later.
| | 00:06 | That way, when you're doing the screen
capture, you can focus completely on what
| | 00:10 | you're doing with the Mac.
| | 00:11 | When it's time to talk, you can
focus on what's coming out of your mouth.
| | 00:15 | In this video, I'll show you how
to add narration tracks in iMovie.
| | 00:18 | With your microphone plugged into
your Mac, click the Voiceover button in
| | 00:22 | iMovie's toolbar or press the keyboard's O key.
| | 00:26 | In the Voiceover palette that appears,
ensure that your microphone is selected
| | 00:30 | in the Record From pop-up menu, and it
is here, this is our MXL USB microphone.
| | 00:35 | Position the microphone so that it's at
normal distance and speak at the volume
| | 00:39 | you intend to narrate.
| | 00:41 | Watch the meter. If it's too low,
increase the gain, and on this microphone, I
| | 00:46 | have a Gain knob, so I can turn that
up, so it's about the mid-size there.
| | 00:51 | If your microphone doesn't have a
gain control, it's likely that this Input
| | 00:56 | Volume slider here will become active.
| | 00:58 | It's not on this microphone,
because we have a physical gain control.
| | 01:01 | If you have a microphone without a
gain control, use the Input Volume slider.
| | 01:06 | If the gain is too hot, meaning that
the meter consistently goes into the red,
| | 01:10 | you need to decrease gain
or back away from the mike.
| | 01:13 | I'll adjust my gain down, so
we're not doing that. Here we go.
| | 01:19 | That's better.
| | 01:20 | Again, if you don't have a physical gain
control, you can use the Input Volume slider.
| | 01:24 | Also in this palette, you'll see the option
to reduce noise and add voice enhancement.
| | 01:29 | The default setting has produced
perfectly fine audio, so leave them as they are.
| | 01:33 | At the bottom of the window, you'll see the
option to play project audio while recording.
| | 01:38 | You should turn this on only if
you're working with headphones on, and no
| | 01:41 | speakers are playing.
| | 01:43 | You don't want the mic to pick up
audio coming from your Mac while you record.
| | 01:46 | Personally, whenever I record voiceovers,
I shut my speakers off just in case my
| | 01:50 | Mac makes an unexpected sound.
| | 01:53 | When you have the palette configured
correctly, click on the clip location under
| | 01:57 | which you want to record narration.
| | 01:59 | iMovie will give you a three-second
countdown, and then start recording.
| | 02:02 | Let's see what that looks like.
| | 02:08 | I wait an additional second or so
before I begin speaking, because sometimes,
| | 02:12 | the Mac doesn't start
recording when it says it has.
| | 02:15 | If you pause for just a bit, you
ensure that the beginning of the narration
| | 02:18 | isn't cut off, same idea with the end.
| | 02:21 | Finish what you have to say, pause a
second or so, and then stop recording.
| | 02:26 | To stop recording, either click
on the clip or press the Spacebar.
| | 02:31 | Now we've recorded far more narration
than we need to, but I wanted show you
| | 02:35 | what a long narration looked like.
| | 02:41 | Here's the purple bar
that denotes our narration.
| | 02:47 | If you aren't happy with what you've
done, you can press Command+Z to undo the
| | 02:51 | recording or select the clip
and press the Mac's Delete key.
| | 02:55 | Don't worry about the silent bits at
the beginning and end of the recording.
| | 02:58 | You can easily trim those out.
| | 03:00 | You do that by closing the Voiceover
palette and then clicking on the Gear icon
| | 03:03 | at the beginning of the audio clip.
| | 03:05 | Go up to palette and we'll choose Clip Trimmer.
| | 03:13 | In the pane below, drag the beginning
and end of the clip, so that the silent
| | 03:17 | portions are cut off.
| | 03:19 | So we've got some silence here where
there is no sound wave, and we have some
| | 03:24 | more silence here, there we are.
| | 03:30 | You could audition the sound by clicking
on the Play button in the Clip Trimmer.
| | 03:37 | Recording: I wait an additional second or so before
I begin speaking, because sometimes the
| | 03:41 | Mac doesn't start recording when it says it has.
| | 03:45 | Chris Breen: Click Done and your clip is trimmed.
| | 03:48 | At this point, you could move the clip
into position, but you may want to wait
| | 03:52 | until you've trimmed your
clip and added transitions.
| | 03:55 | As you do those things, timing will
change, and you'll likely end up having
| | 03:59 | to move them again.
| | 04:00 | Now here's a performance tip.
| | 04:02 | When recording narration, I try
not to look at the iMovie interface.
| | 04:05 | When I do look, I tend to get spooked
by the length of the clip I'm recording
| | 04:09 | under, and speak either faster or
slower so that the narration fits the clip.
| | 04:13 | Better that you speak at a natural pace
and then adjust the assets so that they
| | 04:17 | match your narration.
| | 04:18 | We'll do that when we talk
about polishing the movie.
| | 04:21 | Of course, planning is key. If the
narration is longer than the clip, as is
| | 04:26 | the case with our example, you're going to
have to find some way to fill that space, visually.
| | 04:31 | That's what you need to know about narration.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Polishing a movie| 00:00 | Our live video, motion capture, stills,
and narration are now in the project.
| | 00:04 | All that's left to do is tighten up the
edits, add transitions, add a title and
| | 00:09 | adjust the position of the narration.
| | 00:11 | I am a linear kind of guy so I
like to begin at the beginning.
| | 00:14 | So let's start with the title.
| | 00:17 | Click the Title Browser
button or press Command+3.
| | 00:20 | Some of the titles here include animation.
| | 00:22 | You can see a preview of that animation,
albeit in a tiny view, by hovering the
| | 00:26 | cursor over the title.
| | 00:32 | We will be very conventional by
selecting the Centered title and dragging it to
| | 00:35 | the beginning of the project.
| | 00:40 | When you do that a background palette appears.
| | 00:43 | The first four backgrounds offer motion
effects, which you can see by dragging
| | 00:47 | your cursor over them.
| | 00:48 | There is the Curtain, Organic,
Lava Lamp, and Underwater.
| | 00:55 | We will stick with the traditional
Industrial title background by clicking on it.
| | 01:01 | The title appears in the Viewer with a text
ready to edit, and I will type in some text.
| | 01:13 | If you are not happy with the default
font, feel free to click the Show Fonts
| | 01:17 | button and choose a different
font, size, style, and color.
| | 01:20 | I am going to use this Helvetica font, 9,
and we will go with kind of this light
| | 01:29 | blue here, and click Done,
and Done up here as well.
| | 01:35 | We now have a four second title
at the beginning of the project.
| | 01:38 | If we want to make it longer or shorter,
we just grab the right edge and drag.
| | 01:44 | Let's make this about 3 seconds.
| | 01:48 | If you want finer control over the
title's length, double-click it and change
| | 01:52 | the length in the Duration
field, and here it is here.
| | 01:57 | We are going to leave it just as it is.
| | 02:03 | When you play the project from the
beginning you see that the live video pops
| | 02:07 | in pretty abruptly.
| | 02:08 | Let's smooth that out by adding a transition.
| | 02:14 | Chris Breen in video: Hi Welcome to
the making of the -
| | 02:17 | Click the Transition's Browser
button or press Command+4 for and
| | 02:21 | iMovie's Transitions appear.
| | 02:25 | Similar to Titles, Transitions are
animated and you can preview that animation
| | 02:29 | by placing the cursor over a Transition.
| | 02:32 | Your Zoom, Blur, Cross
Dissolve, and Ripple for example.
| | 02:38 | Transitions are a stylistic choice. I
prefer to use Fades at the beginning and
| | 02:42 | end of projects as well as whenever I
move from one large concept to another,
| | 02:46 | using them as a kind of chapter marker.
| | 02:49 | To me any fade faster than a second or a
second-and-a-half is too fast, and when
| | 02:54 | I am moving between motion captures
and stills, I use the Cross Dissolve
| | 02:58 | Transition, usually a little over half a second.
| | 03:01 | It smoothes out the video and gives
the viewer the idea that you are still
| | 03:04 | talking about related subjects.
| | 03:06 | And other than an occasional fade
to white transition, those are all
| | 03:09 | the transitions I use.
| | 03:11 | I find that Spin, Page Curl, and Circle
transitions look pretty cheesy and Wipes
| | 03:16 | look dated to me and we
will look at a couple of those.
| | 03:18 | Here is Page Curl, another Page Curl,
Circle Close, Circle Open, Spin Out, Spin
| | 03:27 | In. To me, that looks like late-night TV.
| | 03:31 | Feel free to experiment, but bear in
mind that when you notice the transition
| | 03:35 | more than the material that you are presenting,
you are probably using the wrong transition.
| | 03:39 | So as we are opening the video, let's
add a fade to black transition between the
| | 03:43 | title and the video clip, and let's
give it a play. Here is my title.
| | 03:55 | Chris Breen in video: Hi Welcome to
the making of the -
| | 03:58 | Play the transition and it has the right
look but it's a little fast for my taste.
| | 04:01 | So, I'll double-click on the
transition to bring up Inspector and we see
| | 04:06 | that it's 0.4 seconds.
| | 04:08 | I am going to change that to 1.5 seconds.
| | 04:13 | You also notice in the Inspector
that you have an Applies to all
| | 04:16 | transitions option.
| | 04:18 | This is a real timesaver, but not an
option I use very often, as I like to adjust
| | 04:22 | the field of each transition I use.
| | 04:25 | It's a personal thing, but I think Fade
should be slower than Dissolves for example.
| | 04:29 | So, I'll keep that option
off and will click Done.
| | 04:33 | Next, I'll introduce myself,
so let's add a title there too.
| | 04:37 | Back to the Titles Browser. This time
we'll add a gradient black title and drag
| | 04:41 | it over the first video clip.
| | 04:47 | (Video Playing)
| | 04:49 | As you can see, this title doesn't
take up the entire screen but rather
| | 04:53 | lays over the video.
| | 04:55 | I'll add my name and association.
| | 05:01 | That's a little small, so
we'll use Show Fonts again.
| | 05:04 | We'll use the same font that we
used in the title for consistency.
| | 05:08 | Let's make that 9, yeah.
| | 05:09 | That really shows up and click Done.
| | 05:13 | That looks great so we'll click Done in
the Preview pane as well, and then we'll
| | 05:18 | drag the title so that it
kicks in just as I say my name.
| | 05:22 | (Video playing)
| | 05:30 | There is my name, okay,
and we'll see how that looks.
| | 05:33 | Chris Breen in video: I'm Chris Breen. I'm here today to
provide a short demonstration on how some of these videos might go.
| | 05:39 | Chris Breen: Okay, not bad.
| | 05:41 | That title is a little bit too long for
me so I am going to move it back, I'll
| | 05:47 | make that about 3 seconds as well.
| | 05:50 | Let's check out the end of the first video clip.
| | 05:53 | Chris Breen in video: Let's see what's on the menu.
| | 05:57 | Chris Breen: Okay, I am holding a little bit.
| | 05:58 | You can see my eyes go off-screen
and so I need to shorten that clip.
| | 06:03 | And here's how we can shorten the clip,
select it, drag the edge. It's pretty good.
| | 06:20 | I will then Ctrl+Click, and trim to selection.
| | 06:24 | So, we've lopped off just
that little bit at the end.
| | 06:29 | Now we will fade into the screen
capture using the same Fade to Black
| | 06:32 | transition we used before.
| | 06:41 | See how long that is by hovering over.
| | 06:43 | It's 1.4 seconds, which is perfectly fine.
| | 06:47 | We now encounter our first narration track.
| | 06:50 | We've adjusted all the times that could
affect the tracks so let's move it into position.
| | 06:54 | We do that by clicking on it and dragging.
| | 07:01 | When coming out of a fade I like the
audio to start just as the fade finishes.
| | 07:06 | Now let's check the length.
| | 07:09 | It appears that out narration track is
a little longer than our capture up here
| | 07:15 | so we need to lengthen it.
| | 07:17 | To do that, click on the track, Ctrl+
Click, Add Freeze Frame, and now we have an
| | 07:24 | extra frame that will do this.
| | 07:25 | Now make sure that you've
selected the very end of the clip.
| | 07:28 | If you don't, iMovie will split the
clip and then add the Freeze Frame.
| | 07:32 | This is still too long. We'll select
that drag it over to shorten it, and
| | 07:39 | trim it to selection.
| | 07:43 | And that's a good length.
| | 07:44 | Now this is a decent cheat, but it's not
a perfect one as the color may shift or
| | 07:50 | the still may seem blurrier than the capture.
| | 07:52 | So you want to use this only in
emergencies and not for very long as the viewer
| | 07:56 | may become suspicious when the motion
suddenly stops and your video stays on a
| | 08:00 | still image for several seconds.
| | 08:03 | Next up, we have a still image
that could use a little zazz.
| | 08:06 | So, I'll add that zazz in the
form of the Ken Burns effect.
| | 08:09 | So, I select the clip and I'll press the C key.
| | 08:13 | This is the same as clicking
the Crop button in the toolbar.
| | 08:16 | Currently, the still is
configured to fit in the frame.
| | 08:19 | We'll change that by
clicking on the Ken Burns button.
| | 08:23 | When you do that, two frames appear, a
green Start frame and a red End frame.
| | 08:29 | You drag the Start frame from where
you'd like the pan to start and then drag
| | 08:32 | the End frame to where you want the pan to end.
| | 08:36 | So we'll start it at the top, we'll have
it scan down and we'll also enlarge it.
| | 08:42 | We can then click the Play
button to see what it will look like.
| | 08:48 | And there you go. You have a very nice pan.
| | 08:51 | When you are happy with
what you've done, click Done.
| | 08:53 | This still isn't as long as I'd
like, so I'll double-click on it and
| | 08:57 | increase its length.
| | 08:59 | This will also cause it to
pan and scan more slowly.
| | 09:03 | Currently, it is 4 seconds.
| | 09:04 | Let's change that to 6 seconds, and play.
| | 09:14 | As you see, the pan is slower now.
| | 09:19 | We need a transition between the motion
capture and our still that has the Ken
| | 09:22 | Burns effect applied to it.
| | 09:24 | As I mentioned, I am keen on using
Dissolves for just about any transition that
| | 09:28 | doesn't involve live video.
| | 09:30 | So let's drag a Dissolve transition
between them and make it 0.6 seconds.
| | 09:40 | Double-click, 0.6, Done.
| | 09:45 | Let me take a look at it, there we are.
| | 09:51 | It's now back to me in video form
and that marks a big transition.
| | 09:55 | I am up for adding another Fade
to Black of a second-and-a-half.
| | 10:03 | 1.4, just as it was before.
| | 10:05 | That's close enough, Done.
| | 10:06 | There is more to do to finish the movie,
but you should have a fair idea of how
| | 10:11 | to go about polishing your project now.
| | 10:13 | At this point, I'd go on to adjust the
length of the rest of my clips, position
| | 10:17 | the narration tracks and add
transitions, and give the last video clip a good
| | 10:21 | long fade for two or three seconds,
depending on how dramatic I want it to be.
| | 10:24 | However, before dashing off to a
celebratory libation, play through your video,
| | 10:29 | paying particular attention to the
volume of your video and narration clips.
| | 10:33 | It's likely there will be differences.
| | 10:35 | If so, Command+Click on the kind of clip
that you want to adjust, all your live
| | 10:40 | video clips, for example,
and press your Mac's A key.
| | 10:50 | This brings up the Audio Inspector window.
| | 10:52 | Within this window, use the Volume
slider to bring the audio more in line
| | 10:56 | with your other clips.
| | 11:02 | And when you are happy with your work
click Done, and with that our movie is
| | 11:06 | done and ready for delivery.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring delivery options| 00:00 | Our movie is now assembled and polished.
| | 00:02 | As much fun as it is to watch it over
and over again with iMovie's Viewer, it's
| | 00:06 | time to export it, so others can see it.
| | 00:09 | iMovie makes this very easy to do.
| | 00:11 | The key to exporting your
movie is the Share menu.
| | 00:15 | Here, you'll see options for exporting
your movie to iTunes, burning to a DVD
| | 00:19 | with iDVD, making a copy for iLife's
Media Browser, uploading it to YouTube,
| | 00:24 | uploading it to your MobileMe
gallery, if you are a MobileMe member,
| | 00:27 | exporting it based on destination
and using QuickTime to tweak the export
| | 00:31 | options to your complete satisfaction.
| | 00:33 | We are not interested in the
Final Cut XML option, however.
| | 00:37 | These options work this way.
| | 00:38 | When you choose iTunes, you
choose to export by movie size and
| | 00:42 | destination device.
| | 00:44 | Movie sizes are Tiny, Mobile, Medium, and Large.
| | 00:49 | And destination devices include
iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, and Computer.
| | 00:55 | This is an easy way to go if you know
exactly how people will be viewing your
| | 00:59 | screencasts, on their iPods
and computer for example.
| | 01:01 | If you'd like more information on
exactly how your movie will be exported,
| | 01:06 | hover your cursor over the
information icon, and you'll see the specific
| | 01:09 | settings iMovie will use.
| | 01:11 | Here we have H.264, 30 frames per
second, 1 megabit per second for example.
| | 01:17 | And you notice the file size is
on the far right of each tooltip.
| | 01:23 | When you click Publish, the movie will
be encoded using the selected settings,
| | 01:27 | and the finished movies will be
placed in your iTunes Library.
| | 01:35 | Choose iDVD and iMovie will begin
encoding your movie in a format suitable
| | 01:39 | for burning to DVD. When it finishes, iDVD will
open with your movie placed in the iDVD Project.
| | 01:45 | We are not going to do that now. iDVD is
a subject for a separate training video.
| | 01:51 | Select Media Browser if you want your
movie to be available to other iLife
| | 01:54 | applications, such as iWeb
within iLife's Media Browser.
| | 01:58 | Similar to the iTunes export, you
can choose by size and destination.
| | 02:02 | Unlike iTunes, this option gives you the
opportunity to export your movie as a 720p HD movie.
| | 02:09 | And again, 720p is 1280 X 720 pixels.
| | 02:12 | A lot of screencasts and
scenecasts end up on YouTube, making this a
| | 02:21 | valuable export option.
| | 02:23 | When you select YouTube from the Share
menu, you select your YouTube Username
| | 02:27 | and Password, create a Title, Description,
and Tags to your movie, and choose its
| | 02:32 | size Mobile, Medium, Large and HD.
| | 02:36 | So here's my account.
| | 02:37 | I would enter my password in the Password field.
| | 02:39 | In the Description field, I can enter
what this movie is about, and then in
| | 02:42 | Tags, I can enter something
like education or training.
| | 02:45 | Now that YouTube limits you to
movies of ten minutes in length.
| | 02:49 | If your screencast is longer than that,
you need to look into other online
| | 02:53 | destinations, which I'll discuss later.
| | 02:54 | And again, at the bottom options to
create movies of different sizes.
| | 03:03 | If you are a MobileMe member, you have
20 gigabytes of storage, part or all of
| | 03:07 | which you can use for screencast.
| | 03:10 | This option also includes Title and
Description fields, and lets you choose
| | 03:13 | sizes to publish, as well
as who can view your work.
| | 03:16 | You can also allow or deny viewers
the right to download your movie.
| | 03:21 | Note that MobileMe imposes a 200
gigabyte per month bandwidth limit.
| | 03:25 | If your screencast is popular and
takes up a fair bit of space, as an HD
| | 03:29 | screencast would, you
could easily exceed that limit.
| | 03:32 | Do that and Apple shuts down access
to your MobileMe content until the
| | 03:36 | beginning of the next month.
| | 03:37 | If you hit this kind of limit, you are
welcome to purchase more storage from Apple.
| | 03:46 | The Export Movie option gives you an
easy way to save your movie to your hard
| | 03:49 | disk, using the now expected
size and destination settings.
| | 03:53 | I use this setting for my Macworld
videos because I don't want them in my iTunes
| | 03:57 | Library, but rather need an
exported copy to upload to our servers.
| | 04:06 | When you want to have complete control
over your Export settings for your movie,
| | 04:09 | choose Export using QuickTime.
| | 04:12 | This brings up the traditional Save
exported file as window, where you have
| | 04:16 | access to QuickTime's Export settings.
| | 04:18 | The ins and outs of QuickTime's many
Export settings are beyond the mission of
| | 04:22 | this course, but these are the basics.
| | 04:24 | QuickTime includes some export presets,
which you'll find in the Export pop-up menu.
| | 04:28 | Some of them give you no additional
options, such as the Movie to iPod
| | 04:31 | setting for example.
| | 04:32 | You've noticed that the Options
button is now dimmed out, meaning you can't
| | 04:36 | configure this preset.
| | 04:38 | When you really want to dig in and
choose Movie to QuickTime Movie and click the
| | 04:42 | Options button. In the resulting
Movie Settings window, you can choose the
| | 04:48 | specific video codec by
clicking the Settings button.
| | 04:53 | This produces yet another window
where you can choose a codec, and then
| | 04:56 | adjust that codec's setting.
| | 04:59 | And as you can see here in the
studio, we have a vast amount of codecs.
| | 05:08 | For most people, H.264 is going to be just fine.
| | 05:13 | To adjust audio settings, click the
Settings button in that portion of the
| | 05:17 | Movie Settings window.
| | 05:19 | So here, you can change
the Rate, 44.100, for example.
| | 05:25 | You can also change the Sample size
from 16 bits to a much higher rate, 32 for
| | 05:29 | example, or down to 8 bits.
| | 05:33 | 16 bits 44.100 is standard CD quality.
| | 05:40 | Once you've adjusted all the settings
to your liking, close these windows until
| | 05:43 | you return to the Save exported file
as window and click Save, and we are not
| | 05:49 | changing anything right now, so
we are just going to cancel out.
| | 05:52 | Now that you have your exported
screencast what do you do with it?
| | 05:55 | You have several options,
from free to expensive.
| | 05:58 | Let's look at them now.
| | 06:00 | Earlier, I mentioned YouTube,
and that's a great place to start.
| | 06:02 | If you have a video that's no longer
than ten minutes, as YouTube limits posted
| | 06:06 | videos to this length.
| | 06:08 | The advantage of using YouTube is that
you can upload your video to it, and then
| | 06:11 | embed a live link to your
video on another website.
| | 06:15 | I am not going to go into the
intricacies of web design, so suffice it to say
| | 06:19 | that you'll find an Embed field for your
video on the right side of the YouTube page.
| | 06:25 | And here's one here.
| | 06:28 | You can copy that link and
then add it to your website.
| | 06:30 | When you do, your video will appear on
the site without you having to pay extra
| | 06:34 | for the cost of hosting it.
| | 06:37 | Vimeo is another good option.
| | 06:39 | It's a free service that gives you 500
megabytes of storage per week, which for
| | 06:43 | a standard definition
screencast at medium quality is plenty.
| | 06:47 | You're also allowed to post a single HD
video each week, but you can't embed HD
| | 06:51 | movies with the free service.
| | 06:53 | However, you can with
Vimeo $60 a year Vimeo Plus.
| | 06:57 | In addition to HD embedding, you can
upload as much as 5 gigabytes per week with a
| | 07:01 | limit of 1 gigabyte per file.
| | 07:04 | Beyond the free services, there are
plenty of online outfits that will host your
| | 07:07 | screencast for a fee.
| | 07:09 | If you have a web hosting service
currently handling your website, it's likely
| | 07:12 | they also offer podcast and screencast hosting.
| | 07:16 | If you don't have such a service,
or find its price is prohibitive, give
| | 07:19 | Liberated Syndication a try.
| | 07:21 | They offer a variety of
affordable hosting plans.
| | 07:25 | For example, you could post four 20 minutes
standard definition screencast for $36 a month.
| | 07:31 | Make those 20 minutes screencast high-
definition and you are looking at $60 a month.
| | 07:36 | And they don't impose a
bandwidth limit, as some other places do.
| | 07:39 | So, if your screencast turns out to be
wildly popular, you'll pay no more simply
| | 07:44 | because a lot of people are accessing it.
| | 07:45 | There is a lot more to learn about
delivering your screencast to the world
| | 07:48 | that's beyond the scope of this course.
| | 07:50 | But these are the basics.
| | 07:52 | With these tools and services in hand,
you can deliver your screencast to
| | 07:55 | the world.
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ConclusionConclusion| 00:00 | And there you have it, the nuts and bolts of
creating your own screencasts, and scenecasts.
| | 00:05 | With these techniques in hand, you
are ready to create, produce, edit, and
| | 00:09 | export high-quality videos of your own.
| | 00:11 | I hope you found it helpful.
| | 00:13 | This is Chris Breen for
lynda.com. Thanks for watching!
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