TechSmith Camtasia 8.0
Introduction :
THE Very Easy Video Editing & Very Easy Screen Capturing...Using Camtasia Studio 8, you can quickly create videos of just about anything on your computer (computer software or PowerPoint presentations), and post your completed lessons on the web, YouTube, Screencast.com, or burn them to a CD/DVD. Your lessons can include videos, animations,
interactivity, audio, quizzes and surveys. This book will introduce you to the essential Camtasia Studio 8 skills you need to know to get up and running with Camtasia as quickly as possible. Lessons include, but are not limited to: recording videos using the Camtasia Recorder, using the Studio, adding media (videos and images), adding callouts, animations and transitions, adding, editing and recording audio, producing and sharing, creating quizzes and creating menus.
“Camtasia Studio” is a software suite, created and published
by TechSmith, for creating video tutorials and presentations directly via
screencast, or via a direct recording plug-in to Microsoft PowerPoint. The
screen area to be recorded can be chosen freely, and audio or other multimedia
recordings may be recorded at the same time or added separately from any other
source and integrated in the Camtasia component of the product. Both versions
of Camtasia started as enhanced screen capture programs and have evolved to
integrate screen capture and post-processing tools targeted at the educational
and information multimedia development marketplace.
Camtasia consists of two major components:
- Camtasia Recorder - a separate tool for capturing screen audio and video.
- Camtasia editor - the component for which the entire product is named, which is now a multimedia authoring tool with the industry standard "timeline" interface for managing multiple clips in a stacked track form plus enhancements summarized below.
Camtasia Recorder :
In Camtasia Recorder, the presenter can start and stop
recording with a hotkey combination at any time, at which point the recording
can be halted and resumed or Camtasia Recorder can render the input that has
been captured into a CAMREC format. The CAMREC file can be saved to disk or
directly imported into the Camtasia component for editing. Camtasia Recorder
allows audio recording while screen-capturing is in progress, so the presenter
can capture live narration during a demonstration or presentation. Camtasia
also supports dubbing in other audio tracks or voiceover during post-capture
editing. Users may also download an Add-In for Microsoft Power Point that will
allow them to easily initiate recording of a presentation from within Power
Point itself.
In Camtasia editor, you can import multimedia objects of
various formats into the clip library and arrange them in time order and
stacked tracks using the timeline form of user controls that is so common among
video editors today. Overlays of various types may be added including
user-defined settings, such as when and how to display the cursor, pan-and-zoom
effects such as the Ken Burns effect. Camtasia Camtasia for Windows v8 and
Camtasia for Mac v2 offer numerous options to enhance sections of the recorded
screen to draw attention via a cursor or drawn in pointer to highlight section(s)
of the screen or to better illustrate the actions of the presenter on the
screen. Another very useful feature is the ability to save media clips within
the library tab, keeping a user from having to repeatedly import commonly-used
media clips/files.
Something New Information :
- Made improvements to the TechSmith Smart Player.
- New device frame visual effect to make videos more engaging.
- New properties panel to quickly adjust colors and text of animated graphics, like intros and lower thirds.
- New extend frame functionality to make extending your clips more intuitive.
- Addressed an issue where recordings would show as only one frame long on timeline incorrectly.
- Handling finding offline media on users' computer in a smoother way.
- Fixed a bug where batch production without subfolders option selected would still create subfolders.
- Fixed a bug where production dialog hangs with multiple files based on markers selected.
- Fixed AVI production for non TechSmith codecs.
- Fixed a bug where sometimes scrolling through the font dropdown caused a crash.
- Fixed a bug where media bin and canvas would end up being hidden on startup.
- Fixed a bug where dragging transitions on media that is split caused a hang.
- Fixed a bug where audio only TRECs caused a crash.
- Other bug fixes and improvements.
Post-production :
After capturing a presentation in the Camatasia Recorder,
the Camtasia component can be used to modify audio and video displayed as
tracks by using the timeline control and object library interface with an
integrated preview window. The image in the infobox to the right is a screen
capture of the timeline interface. In addition, Camtasia allows voice overlay
for the presenter or editor, as well as the ability to add sound effects in
many different formats including music formats into the clip bin and arrange
anywhere on the timeline.
Many presenters prefer to wait until they have finished the
screen-capture and then record the narration from a script as the application
is playing back the recorded capture. They can do so in the Camtasia editor and
overlay the original recorded audio.
Rendering and deployment :
The Camtasia program allows import of various
types of multimedia video and audio files including MP4, MP3, WMV, WMA, AVI,
WAV and many other formats into the Camtasia proprietary CAMREC format, which
is readable only by Camtasia. The CAMREC format is a single container for
potentially hundreds of multimedia objects including video clips, still images,
document screen shots and special effect containers. Camtasia also allows
entire projects under development to be exported as one zip file for
portability to other workstations with Camtasia or other video editing
software. The created video can be exported to common video formats including
MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV, AVI, and Adobe Flash. There are preset output formats that
can be read by software available on the vast majority of current generation
mobile devices, desktop, and laptop computers without requiring any Camtasia
software or license. An additional component is included, Camtasia Player v8.2
for the Microsoft Windows version only, which can be freely shared and supports
replay of variety of video formats on computers running Microsoft Windows.
Reviews :
The eighth version updates to Camtasia have eliminated some
of the prior release issues including excessive rendering times and excessive
consumption of system resources during production:
- Enhanced multi-track video/audio editing capabilities compared to v7.
- Improved handling of embedded hyperlinks compared to v7.
- Higher quality screen action capture compared to v7.
- Integrated audio-clip enhancement.
- Integrated tutorial for both Camtasia and PowerPoint plug-in components.
- Large library of tutorial material.
- Good support resources, both online and via text chat. Options for in-person telephone support available for fully licensed versions.
- Educational discount license for students and instructor K-12 or university use.
Camtasia's shortcomings noted in the PC World review of
January 17, 2013 and CNET review of June 19, 2012 are as follows:
- Rotation of objects is applied via a dialog rather than interactively, though many lower-priced video editors do provide interactive rotation and manipulation of objects such as text and video frames.
- Recording live from a DV camera is not supported.
- Still potentially overwhelming for the introductory user, tempered by the tutorial material available. NOTE the V8 release is a complete rewrite so much of the prior tutorial material written for the popular Camtasia v6 and v7 software for Microsoft Windows is not usable with this release.
- Audio handling has minimal capabilities and no integration with other packages compared to some competitors in this price range.
- Lacks any video-clip manipulation or integration with other packages that have such capabilities.
Slected Features :
Screen Recorder
Record any part of your screen, down to the pixel.
Webcam
Webcam lets you add a personal touch to your video.
Media
Import images, audio, and video up to 4K resolution.
Multi-track Timeline
Build your videos quickly with multiple tracks for images,
video, text, and audio.
Annotations
Arrows, callouts, shapes, and more help you get your point
across.
Transitions
Add an. intro/outro to the beginning or end of a clip, image, shape, or text
PC World noted that "Camtasia has evolved from being
the go-to program for software demonstrators to a full-featured
education/information video tool" from this 4 1/2 star review. An earlier
2005 review is still relevant, which states that, though "powerful,"
Camtasia can be "a little overwhelming at the start" to new users,
though the learning curve is easily manageable.
* System Requirment for Intallation :
Oprating System - Windows ( XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10.)
Processor - Up's Dual Core (Frequency 1.5 GHz.)
RAM/Physical Memory - 1.0 GB.
HDD/Internal Space - 8.0 GB.
File Size - 246.00 MB.
File Type - zip.
Installation Type - Offline Installer.
license - Free.
