Camtasia 3 Screencasts

Version 3 watermarks your exports if you have the free trial. Send the camtasia project to your instructor—who will have access (directly or indirectly) to a paid version and can export without a watermark.

General & Planning

BACK UP YOUR CAMTASIA PROJECT REGULARLY.
Storyboard! Work out your app demo flow beforehand and what is important to show onscreen.
Rehearse often with your team between full cohort rehearsals.

Recording

Environment

Record on a 16:9, 1080p monitor. The external monitors at GHA are all of this type. This both standardizes your video size, and makes it much faster to record / export and much smaller to store on disk (compared to a "Retina" display).
Turn off flux (the app which adjusts your display color). Flux's yellow tint is included in recordings.
Increase your browser display size ⌘+ a bit — 125%, even 150%. You want your app clearly legible even in a non-zoomed YouTube window.
Remove as much browser UI chrome as possible — tabs, bookmarks bar, etc. Use full-screen view.
Turn off notifications. On OS X, OPTION-clicking the notification icon in the menu bar silences notifications.

Settings

Set your Full Screen Recording canvas dimensions (in preferences ⌘, > canvas) to 1080p.
Set your recording framerate (in preferences ⌘, > recording) to 30 fps.
Don't worry about audio at first — in fact, disable the mic in the recording control panel.

Clips

(With the mic off) narrate over your screencasts as you record them; it will help you get the timing right.
If you mess up a clip, click the icon in the menu bar and select "Start over" instead of "stop clip." The former lets you seamlessly try again (helpful); the latter saves the clip and opens the editor (annoying).
Don't move your mouse constantly! It isn't necessary and makes it hard to concentrate on your app UI. If you want to highlight some UI, do that in the editing phase using highlights / callouts.
Rename clips to be descriptive. It makes it much easier to edit multiple clips if they aren't ID'd solely by date.

Editing

Video

Eliminate dead space / time. Condense long typing (filling in forms, for example) by speeding them up (clip speed) or even cutting them out. If you cut out a long transition, a fade through black can help communicate time passing.
Callouts, mouse highlights / zooms, annotations or similar focus aids can help draw attention to key moments. However, use them very sparingly and carefully, as they can be distracting or annoying.
Splice in static diagrams (images) if they help illustrate your point. You can also record Keynote animations for even more impressive visuals.
End on a slide with your app's URL (if deployed) and/or GitHub repo URL.

Audio

It's a low priority for hiring day, but for linking / sending to employers, record a narration track. Save this step for later in the screencast-making process.
Record on a good mic (e.g. the Blue Dot or Yeti mic).
Use the audio noise filter to reduce hiss.
Increase the audio volume so the waveform is neither very flat nor clipping (off the top edge).
When your overall screencast is fairly stable (not changing a lot), some royalty-free and subtle background music can make your app more pleasant to watch.

Exporting

Remember: you will export a watermarked video if you've got a free trial version. Send the Camtasia project to your instructor, who can export an unwatermarked version. If you export it yourself (for example, to confirm that everything has come out correctly)...

Export via share > local file
Click on options and adjust your export settings:

Framerate: Automatic
Dimensions: 1920 x 1080
Data Rate: Automatic
Profile: H264 Main AutoLevel
Entropy: CABAC
Keyframe Rate: 30
Optimize for: Streaming
Yes, exporting is SLOOWWWWWWW. No, you're not doing something wrong.

johnptmcdonald/camtasia.md