The Visual Lounge lets you find out about TechSmith behind-the-scenes. Watch screencasts and videos from other customers, meet up with your fellow TechSmith users and staff, and get more tips and tricks!

Who are you, and what do you do?
Paul Middlin, Lead Developer on Camtasia:mac

How did you find out about TechSmith?
Mike Malinak had found the company in 2002, while we were in grad school. Said it was a fantastic place. There were about 40 people here at the time. At first I took his ravings with a grain of salt, but when Tony Lambert was equally impressed, I sought out an interview!

What do you like most about working at TechSmith?
We really do have an entire company focused on building and creating useful things. Everything is pushing towards that goal, so as a developer, I feel fully supported and given the tools needed to make that happen.

What setup (hardware + software) are you using?
Mac Pro, working hard with 8 cores, 12gig ram, and an SSD, displayed on an 27" LED Cinema display. Ready to compile.

What was the most interesting thing you've seen and/or done while at TechSmith?
It's not every day that you write a musical about pair programming.

What is a trick that you do all the time that you think not very many people know about?
Get a hotkey for reformatting your code. It'll save your sanity!

Explain how a feature goes from conception to completion on your team
We rely pretty heavily on Dan Latterner's impressive design and workflow skills, and get a pretty good idea where it needs to end up. But, iteration is your friend, especially after some user testing. Most the team watches these and we brainstorm solutions and tweaks together. We've been using task cards and trying to share each feature as much as we can to spread code knowledge.

Explain how your role as a lead developer differs from a regular developer
More meetings ;) Really though I try to represent the technical side of the product in the business team, or core team. I try to help identify areas of growth for fellow devs and do what I can to open doors. I keep an eye on the whole product in order to connect people and look for patterns in what we're working on, to keep us moving forward as fast and as well as possible!

Is there anything else you think people should know about being a developer at TechSmith?
Read that core traits thing on the wiki. We really mean those things. That really is how you rock it as a developer here.

Introducing...our 2011 ScreenChamps!

Be sure to watch the full episode of The Forge for in-depth comments from the judges on what they thought worked well and could be improved across each category. There was also some good conversation in the chat room. And you can still view all 15 finalist videos if you haven't seen them yet.

Entertainment Category Winner
Backyard FX FINALE Sword Stab Tutorial

Creator
Garrett Fallin, Grand Island, NY

Audience
Film, TV, and Video editors, creators, and enthusiasts.

Purpose
Teach viewers how to recreate popular digital effects from their favorite movies, TV shows, and videogames.

Tools Used
Quicktime 10 screen capture, Youtube, canon T2i, Rhode Shotgun Mic, After Effects CS5, and Final Cut Pro 7.

Watch on Vimeo

Judges' Comments

• So gross; I loved it.
• Clear audio.
• Mix of live action and screencast content helped me engage with the people and content.
• The how-to showed me exactly what they did.
• The pacing was good for people who know the tools; too fast for those who don't.
• Now I'm gonna go kill people...on video!
• Category advice: consider what's entertaining to the audience

Education Category Winner
Apple Distinguished Educator Application

Creator
Reg Nakoneshny, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Audience
Educators

Purpose
Application to Apple computers Distinguished Educator program

Watch on Vimeo

Judges' Comments

• Something that other teachers should try to aspire to.
• Really liked technique of framing content within devices
• I want to know how he did some of those effects!
• Category advice: chunk information, title and transcribe for SEO

Industry Category Winner
The new Facebook module on your Jimdo page

Creator
Kerstin Ebert, Hamburg, Germany

Audience
People who use the website building tool "Jimdo"

Purpose
Show users how to integrate and set up the Facebook module on their "Jimdo" website.

Tool used
Camtasia for Mac

Watch on Vimeo

Judges' Comments

• Kept it short, picked great music
• Fun approach made the tool seem accessible
• Worked well as a teaser, which could lead to a more in-depth tutorial
• Category advice: choose & mix music carefully, cut out fluff, use natural-sounding voice

Best in Show Winner
Aussie Football ScreenCast Presentation

Creator
Richard T.Whybrow, Essendon, Victoria, Australia

Audience
Anyone, sport enthusiasts, families

Purpose
Inform people about some of the key skills used to play Australia Football (AFL) and have a bit of fun along the way.

Tools used
Jing, ScreenChomp, Snagit, ScreenCast, iMovie11, Quicktime, PC & Mac

Watch on Vimeo

Congratulations to our four winners, 15 finalists, and a huge thank you to all who submitted videos and voted. This has been a ton of fun for us at TechSmith and, we hope, for screencasters everywhere.

People have asked whether we'll do the ScreenChamp Awards again next year. We'd like to hear your thoughts on that question. Please fill out this 3-question survey with your thoughts, and be entered to win a copy of Camtasia! (Already have Camtasia? You can gift it to someone who might become the next ScreenChamp!)

 

Daniel Foster is the "social media guy" for TechSmith. He enjoys iceboating, ice cream socials, and isosceles triangles. Tweet him up @fosteronomo or put him in a Google+ Circle.

While I've been traveling the English countryside, meeting some great customers and users... several popular sites went dark and my friends back in Michigan started to hear from some of you about TechSmith's stance on the SOPA PIPA issue.

TechSmith wants to thank our customers who have been in touch with us about SOPA or PIPA. There have been some assumptions regarding our position and while we normally don't engage in political conversations we do want to make our position clear. TechSmith is against piracy of intellectual property for profit-driven purposes, but we don't believe SOPA and PIPA are the solution.

UPDATE: Recording of the ScreenChamp episode is below and posted to YouTube. A more detailed post will follow soon...

Pull back the curtains and roll out the red carpet...we're going live with the ScreenChamp Awards show at 2pm ET, Thursday, January 19!

Like the Oscars or Golden Globes, a celebrity cast will unveil the winners in each category.

Unlike those big name awards shows, we'll try to deliver some thoughtful analysis of the entries to help you improve your own screencast technique. And we probably won't need to bleep Streep!

This is the first year of the ScreenChamps and we're thrilled with the response from the screencasting community! You sent in 100 entries, 15 finalist videos from 7 different countries, and 3,000 votes from 43 countries for Best in Show. Now it's time to celebrate the champion screencasters!

As with every episode of The Forge...if you can't make the live show, we'll miss you! But you can watch the recording later. Just subscribe to our YouTube channel so you know when we post it.

Our panel of expert judges

Joining us live or via the magic that is Skype are...

 

Daniel Foster is the "social media guy" for TechSmith. He enjoys iceboating, ice cream socials, and isosceles triangles. Tweet him up @fosteronomo or put him in a Google+ Circle.

It's the red carpet event of screencasting! You can tell by all the tuxedo (shirt)-wearing celebrities who will be on hand.

Join us Thursday, January 19, at 2pm (ET) for our monthly live web show, The Forge, where we will announce the winners of the 2011 ScreenChamp Awards. (Add to your calendar )

UPDATE: Click here to watch the live show at 2pm ET or view the recording later.

The ScreenChamp Awards recognize screencasting excellence in three categories: industry, education, and entertainment. On the show, our expert judges will announce the winner they chose in each category, and offer some erudite commentary on what they liked best and what could be improved across the submissions.

Plus we'll reveal the Best in Show winner, as selected by YOUR votes during the end of last year!

Will there be drumrolls? We can only hope!

Ridiculously cool trophies? Certainly!

Aforementioned tuxedo shirts? Being screenprinted this week!

See you Thursday right here on the blog...(no need to don your formal wear, though you certainly can if you're looking for an excuse)!

PS - As with every episode of The Forge...if you can't make the live show, we'll miss you! But you can watch the recording later. Just subscribe to the blog or our YouTube channel so you know when we post it.

Prizes for three category winners! Best in Show gets a trophy & MacBook Pro!

If you're like me, you probably leave your holiday shopping until just about the very last minute. I never intend to but that is what always happens.

I've got some good news for other late shoppers like myself - bypass the long lines at the stores and win a copy of Coach's Eye for that geeky sports fan in your life!

The Coach's Eye team has come up with a list of their top ten gifts for Geeky Sports Fans. To win a copy of Coach's Eye, share your suggestion of a geeky presents for sports fans on the Coach's Eye blog here.

Who are you, and what do you do?
Jim Dusseau. I'm a lead developer currently working on Camtasia Relay. I spent the last few months helping out the Coach's Eye team.

How did you find out about TechSmith?
My manager at my previous company knew I really wanted to develop for the Mac platform. He was a Camtasia Studio user, found out about a mac development position with TechSmith, and let me know about it.

What do you like most about working at TechSmith?
I think great companies are made up of great people. This is true of TechSmith. I'm lucky to work with so many people who are dedicated to making quality products.

What setup (hardware + software) are you using?
I have a hi-res 15" MacBook (2.66Ghz, 8 GB ram). I have a cinema display on my desk, and a half terabyte portable hard drive in my bag. I use a lot of software, but here's the main stuff:

• Xcode, TextMate for Mac development, iOS development, and scripting.
• Parallels, Visual Studio, and NotePad++ when I need to do Windows development.
• Campfire, iChat, Communicator, and Mail for communication.
• DropBox, Evernote, iWork, Alfred, and JumpCut help me stay productive and sane.

What was the most interesting thing you've seen and/or done while at TechSmith?
It's hard to pick out a single thing that was most interesting. If I have to choose just one, I think the Jing 2.0 release was most interesting for me. I was still figuring out how to be a mac developer, we had a tight deadline, and we really struggled with getting MP4 recording working the way we wanted to. It was a release that really opened up the capabilities of Jing, and I'll always be proud of it. Additionally, we were targeting releasing by MacWorld, which happened to be early in January. I have fond memories of developing against a holiday deadline, and the feeling of taking a vacation after being part of a team coming off of a great success.

What is a trick that you do all the time that you think not very many people know about?
Using a clipboard manager has really sped up how I develop. If you're on the mac, I recommend JumpCut. I haven't picked one up for when I'm in Windows yet. If you have ever copied something only to paste it in a text document so that you could copy something else, you could be saving time.

Explain how a feature goes from conception to completion on your team
For Camtasia Relay, everything starts with a problem. It might come from customers at a conference or in from support. It might come from a developer, or someone else within the company. From there, the team investigates a root cause. We then have conversations with our Product Manager, who prioritizes it along with the rest of the work we're undertaking. Once it becomes our top priority, we brainstorm solutions, start with something small, run it by customers, and iterate on the feature until we're satisfied that it solves the root problem in a way that meets our personal standards of quality.

I'm not sure that any feature is ever complete for us. We're always looking for a way that our existing features can be better for our customers.

Explain how your role as a lead developer differs from a regular developer
The primary focus of lead developers is the growth of developers. They're also expected to own the long term health of their product. This means ensuring current development fits in with a vision for the software architecture and being aware of how decisions today will affect our ability to implement the things we want to do in the future. Lead developers also have to have a rough idea of what the other teams are doing to look out for when we can leverage each other's work. This also helps us to share the things the different product teams have learned.

Is there anything else you think people should know about being a developer at TechSmith?
Lead Developer? For me, it's really highlighted how important communication skills are for developers. Being able to express yourself clearly, and having an understanding of where other people are coming from are among the most crucial skills when working on a team.

Voting is now closed! Please join us January 19 on The Forge to find out who wins the category prizes and best in show! Click here to watch live at 2pm ET or view the recording later.

We have an important job for you: determine which screencaster deserves a brand new MacBook Pro (and a bunch of other goodies).

Voting for our ScreenChamp Awards ends Friday, December 16 at 4:00pm ET (21:00 UTC). You can vote once per day, so depending on when you read this you still have 2-3 votes left!

Right now, the leading videos show how to use social media features of a website creation tool, how to operate a library app, and how to play Aussie football. We've got more than 2,300 votes from 42 different countries...but the top two vote-getters are separated by less than 200 votes...so your vote does matter!

Watch videos & vote for ScreenChamp Best in Show

Your votes will determine the Best in Show winner...and we'll also be announcing three category winners on The Forge January 19. (Save the date )

We've assembled a panel of expert judges to choose the winners in each of the three categories: education, industry, and entertainment. They are...

Our panel of expert judges

Let there be TROPHIES!

Bearded screencaster and renaissance man Dan Nunez (@ListenChump) is hard at work building trophies for the four lucky ScreenChamp Award winners. They're gonna be mantlepiece worthy!

 

Daniel Foster is the "social media guy" for TechSmith. He enjoys iceboating, ice cream socials, and isosceles triangles. Tweet him up @fosteronomo or put him in a Google+ Circle.

It's Tuesday so that means its time for some new Time Saver Tuesday tips! Up today we have a snippet from previous episode of The Forge. Today's tips are all about how to make your screencasts less awful!

I met Dan Nunez when he attended ScreencastCamp earlier this year. One of the sessions he led was called the '10 Commandments of Screencasting'. It was a big hit. Not only was it funny, but it was also informative. I promise, you will laugh and learn some useful tips! Plus, Dan rocks a really cool beard.

Here's a list of Dan's Commandments:

1. Hide the Goods
2. What to put behind you when using camera video
3. Choose the right desktop background
4. Honor your resolution
5. Don't stay thirsty my friends
6. Plainly state your intentions
7. Give your video an appropriate name
8. Shameless plug yourself
9. Get some rest

Do you have any Screencasting Commandments that you'd add to the list? Can you top Dan's beard?!?

UPDATE: the recorded episode is embedded below and posted on YouTube.

Today is the day! Join us right here on the blog (you might have to refresh your browser at 2pm) for a live episode of The Forge! There will be prizes. Oh, yes! You heard me right! Tune in to win some!

Our lineup includes:

• Tips and tricks for Camtasia for Mac and Camtasia Relay
• Daniel Park, a screencast expert, will share with us about what really matters in screencasting.
• Screencast of the Month
• ScreenChamp preview

Tell us what you think of this episode by leaving a comment below or tweeting with the hashtag #tscforge

You can see past episodes of The Forge here. Thanks for tuning in!