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!

I trust you consumed plenty of Diet Coke and Hostess Twinkies during your marathon?! ... the food of nerds! Very cool.

So it took 24 hours to shoot 24 videos and then 2 months to produce those videos?

We shot the videos late in December so people involved in the project were in and out of the office on vacation through January.

And, I was on the road for 20 days in January so it was a little slow to wrap up the project due to schedules.

I'll ask Kelly Rush actually how much production time it was in the end. We didn't do much editing.

Rich - you're right about the Diet Coke!

Tony and I both love it so we went through quite a bit of it that night!

I guess you could say our screencasts were fueled by Diet Coke! :-)

How'd you guys do the kewl disappearing control bar?

cheers, d.

Hey John,

There was almost no editing involved, just clipping the front and back parts of the clips, and adjusting the audio. Then we made a nice little wrapper to put all of the videos in. Most of the time was actually just waiting because we had other screencasts in the wings that we wanted to get recorded, edited, and online first. :)

Tony snd Snagit crew:
Thanks for the videos - Are you able to import Snagit swf files into Adobe pdf files?
I haven't been able to do it yet.
Thanks again.

Awesome! Cool player too.

Great videos!

Would you mind telling us a bit more about the setup involved?
I'm guessing the laptop we see is the one actually doing the recording?
But did you add the video PiP later or real-time? Because I can't see any cables going back into the laptop (which might be just because of the size of the PiP).

The resulting video is (about) 720x480. What was the original resolution that the laptop was set to? What export-setting did you use from Camtasia?

And yes, please share with us how you created the navigation bar.

Next time, you really should do a live version of an event like this. Just stream the raw material to a video server. I bet you would attract a lot of viewers during those 24 hours!

Hey Pierre :)

"Would you mind telling us a bit more about the setup involved?"

Sure. :)

"I'm guessing the laptop we see is the one actually doing the recording?
But did you add the video PiP later or real-time? Because I can't see any cables going back into the laptop (which might be just because of the size of the PiP)."

The first video was taken on a DV cam, and then digitized. The rest of the videos were done via a Logitech webcam, mounted on a tripod, and running into the computer that is doing the recordings.

"The resulting video is (about) 720x480. What was the original resolution that the laptop was set to? What export-setting did you use from Camtasia?"

Hopefully the resulting video is exactly 720 x 480 (which is what we use for most of our videos at TechSmith). I forget what the original resolution of the laptop was, but it was much larger (one of the widescreen resolutions, I believe). The videos were scaled down to fit into a 720 x 480 player. Export settings were to scale the video down, and to an FLV video format.

The navigation bar I unfortunately did not create, so I can't comment on that, but it's pretty neat, isn't it? :)

"Next time, you really should do a live version of an event like this."

Oh man, what a logistical nightmare! :) Seriously though, this is something we considered, but figured it was out of the scope of what we wanted to do, at least for this video. Perhaps we can do a few tries with live screencasts in the future though, at least for single screencasts. Is that something you'd be interested in?

Thanks a lot for the great questions/feedback! :)

Thanks Trav! :)

Betsy, Tony, Jessica,

Thank you for this awesome series.. I just discovered so many new features of SnagIt.

The new player looks so much better - wish you could add hovering video descriptions in the link titles that say "First hour", "second hour" ..etc

Betsy - there's such a wonder archive of tutorial videos and tips on the Techsmith blog but once they go out of the front blog page, we tend to forget about them.

Can you consider adding links to these tutorial posts on the blog sidebar. Just a thought.

Thanks again for everything.

Amit Agarwal
http://labnol.blogspot.com

Hi Amit - I agree with you wholeheartedly. It is extremely difficult once items leave the front page to find them again.

We are doing a re-design of the blog and hope to launch it soon complete with tags and everything. So, it should be better soon...

Thanks for watching the videos and commenting!

Betsy

Looking at the code of the page it appears as if the page / player was created using Dreamweaver 8.

Does anyone know whether their license allows reuse of the player without having a license for Dreamweaver 8? (because I like the effect and the page itself has all the info needed to create a copy)

Given the other responses here I guess there is no more need to suggest this as a "Theme" available in the FLV export of Camtasia Studio 4.1.0 ? ;-)

Why is it that so much of what we see on the Techsmith blog harping about Techsmith products...is itself not made with Techsmith products. Just once I'd like to see something that was completely made using Techsmith products. It always seems that what we see here when we dig a little deeper is made with this or that or brought into this or that and then exported out.

I think it is a shame that this blog puts out the illusion that these things are only made with their own products or at least for a company that makes this category of product there should be full disclosure. Kind of like Serious Magic does...they come right out and say everything was made in visual communicator. As a user I then know that what I see is possible within the product and not some combination of other products.

Maybe its just that Camtasia Studio isn't really that good at the finer points...or at least not good enough for Techsmith to put a stake in the ground and say, this is completely done with XYZ product.

Looks like this dog can't eat its own dog food.

Is it just me or are others dissapointed when we see one thing, think one thing, and then find out that well, only a small bit was done in this product and then it was done in that product and then that product and then that product, and then brought back together so a "stamp" could be placed on it.

Betsy I would think that as the advocate of the product you would want your material especially to be as pure Techsmith as anything out there.

Good concept, but poor execution. Show at least *some* respect for your viewer's time.

Henceforth I think you should rate your screencasts with little court-jester symbols proportional in number with the level of gratuitous buffoonery therein.

I mean, c'mon! You think this stuff goes over well exactly where? It's one thing to be goofy. I get it. But try doing so *after* you've delivered valuable content, not prior.

Expecting the viewer to sit through endless minutes of insider-joking and sophmoric giggling like the start of "Hour 6", for example, is just insulting to the viewer. Plain and simple, I don't know what's beyond "Hour 6" but I haven't got the inclinatom to find out. Check your hit logs and tell me I'm not correct.

Sorry for any misrepresentation of the videos, Pierre. That certainly was never the intention of the blog or our videos.

On some posts when I make videos, I add the hardware and software used. I need to be better about that and do it consistently.

Would something like this be acceptable - http://www.techsmith.com/community/blogcomments.asp?thread=171

You are right, this video was not accomplished exclusively with Camtasia Studio. And like most media productions, of course there will rarely be one tool that does everything; each tool serves a special purpose. :-)

Camtasia Studio was used for recording the screen, some initial editing of the recorded screen content, and I believe, the final production to embedded FLV format (have to check with Kelly on the last part).

Pierre - I will change. When we use additional programs (which we'll try to keep at a minimum), I will make sure that is known in the post. Does it help to know the hardware too?

Thanks so much for the feedback. I really do appreciate it. Keep it coming.

Betsy

Hi Steven,

I'm sorry - we certainly did not mean to waste your time.

We tried to have a healthy balance of education and our personalities in the videos.

Looks like we off our mark for you. Please accept my apologies...

Betsy

Besty your comments don't make sense unless its taken as a sophmoric production. On the Camtasia Studio product page one of the first marketing lines is:

"Camtasia Studio is the complete professional solution for recording, editing and sharing high-quality screen video on the Web, CD-ROM and portable media players, including iPod. "

But now in your post you are basically admitting that this is not the case by stating:

"You are right, this video was not accomplished exclusively with Camtasia Studio. And like most media productions, of course there will rarely be one tool that does everything; each tool serves a special purpose."

There is series of videos demonstrated very obviously that the difference between Camtasia Studio and other products such as Captivate, Articulate and Visual Communicator runs deeper then the product itself. It also starts to explain why there never seems to be any polish to the feature set.

Obviously the web market place is a large environment and hopefully the 18 million you've gotten from us will be used for more then just a building.

If I was new to these products I'd have to think twice after viewing these videos. In someways when you think Adobe and Macromedia you just think professionalism of product and of output.

Completely agree. Hour six is a production effort I would expect from a couple college students in a dorm. Not a professional production from a group of "experts" in the methodology.

Especially since this was shot and produced over a two month period. I'd be embarrassed to have that segment included in a video I was in.

If previous videos raised the bar, which a doubt, this set substantially lowered the bar. It also pointed specifically out that this blog has a long way to go to reach the level of others when media beyond text is invloved. Thats a shame because you'd expect these videos to be the best available.

Hi Phillip - Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it.

There are two or three videos (hour six is one of them) where we left the front end in because we thought it was funny and natural (not overly scripted like a Hollywood blockbuster).

We wanted to share our knowledge, show our personalities and have fun!

It sounds like our style did not translate well.

We'll take that in account for future videos.

Other feedback?

Betsy

Like I said it just goes to show how far this blog has to go and the difference that exists with other companies.

I'd never want to do anything that was my professional best and to know you did this on purpose...well enough said on this topic.

Hey Phillip - Drop me an e-mail (b.weber(at)techsmith.com) or call me on my cell (517.410.0030). I'd love to hear more about what you'd like to see in the product and other feedback about the blog and company.

We're always looking for feedback and interested in learning and improving.

Thanks - Betsy

Thanks for the feedback Phillip! The only thing that I would like to note is that, if I was using another product that serves a similar purpose as Camtasia Studio (which I honestly would not, even if I did not work at TechSmith, because it provides the feature set that most closely matches what I need), I would still use the same 3rd-party applications that I used for other screencasts. In video production, there is no one tool that works for every step of the process (and any that try quickly become a jack of all trades, master of none).

Even when NOT making screencasts, this still holds true. You would need a camera to record your footage, a video editor to edit the footage, perhaps an external audio editor if you had to make some complicated effects/adjustments, 3D animation packages if the piece called for it, a DVD menu creator/encoder if you were going that route, etc...And as a screencast is just another type of video production, this same process is still going to hold true.

Also, I would like to point out that for this particular series, the only software packages used were:

- Camtasia Studio (recording the screen, PiP, editing, production)
- Windows Media Encoder (capturing the first video)
- Dreamweaver (for creating a custom web template for the produced video)

So while I do use other tools for some of the screencasts, for this particular one, Camtasia Studio was did the majority of the work. :)

Thanks again for your feedback! It's really helpful to hear what you guys are thinking, and I'm sure it will help us to continue to make better screencasts in the future!

Just look at any of Karl Miller's vlog's

http://www.seriousmagic.com/products/vc/index.cfm

I don't think you would see Karl's videos looking anything like you posted.

Hi folks,

I thought I'd share a bit of why we use other apps in our blog videos.

We try to use the blog for communicating and experimenting. I encourage Kelly to use these other apps out there to see how they fit with Camtasia. Over time, we hope to see which ones look and work best and could ultimately be integrated with CS.

In the future we'll be more forthcoming with what these other tools are.

Troy

Ehm, just to make sure there is no misunderstanding: unlike Philip who commented on my comment I don't think it is that big a deal that you used Dreamweaver 8 for this.

I was merely stating that the output looks good enough to incorporate the template in the next update of Camtasia. That's all. Note the ;-) in my comment.

But the structure you use in http://www.techsmith.com/community/blogcomments.asp?thread=171 would be great because I look at videos like this for both what is said about the product *and* as way to figure out how to do things myself. So yes, please include that Hardware / Software info. :-)

Pierre

Phillip,

Then you probably don't like Cali Lewis from GeekBrief.tv (http://geekbrief.tv/) either?
Lighten up. They were recording videos for 24 hour straight. It is good to see they're human! :-)

Pierre, your right so I went back and looked at the start of hour 6 again.

I also like http://geekbrief.tv/ and only could wish that the quality of the 24 hour videos was at that level. Why is it that the video of geekbrief is so much better? I'm sure that they don't have the resources that available to them that Betsy does.

My point is that Betsy is not an independant person doing this from her living room at night. She is a paid employee of Techsmith with the responsibility of promoting the products through word of mouth, to increase sales. Because of that I feel there eeds to be a higher level of disclosure for the material posted here.

If she was not an employee then I feel its a different story. Just look recently on how Microsoft was found to be paying people to "correct" wikipedia entries. Do a search on paid bloggers and you see any listings.

When one becomes or is part of a corporate marketing and sales arm I feel they lose some of the independance they would have had if they were considered journalist.

Even the Word of Mouth Marketing Association has posting regarding ethics and blog disclosure.
http://www.womma.org/blog-disclosure/

And to Troy's point about encouraging experimentation. I'm all for that but put yourself in the shoes of a person new to these products. If they viewed these videos...is it a reached for them to think what they are seeing are the capabilities of the products they are puchasing or thinking about purchasing?

That would be the same as seeing an ad for a car in the paper with a certain price and then going to the lot and finding out that well, to get that car it actually needs this and that and that...all of which are extra.

Once again, my point is this blog by someone other than a Techsmith employee is a different story. But Betsy is a Techsmith employee and at the end of the day I bet her hope is to spread the word of the products and positively affect sales. That being the case...there is an added burden upon her to maintain an increased level of disclosure above and beyond the person writing a blog from thier bedroom.

BTW, even GeekBrief.TV has sections on the front of the blog that specifically list sponsors, and technical setup.

Visual Lounge is not a geekbrief.tv or a diggnation.com blog...its a company sponsored site to discuss the company's products and as such I feel requires a higher level of disclosure of what it presents to its readers.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

Yes, I will be better about disclosure on ALL videos like what I've done on this post - http://www.techsmith.com/community/blogcomments.asp?thread=171

One of the goals on this blog is to show you the people behind TechSmith and their personalities - that's what these videos were trying to do - as well as educate and inform our users. And, we also want the blog to be a place to get feedback and connect users with each other.

Not sure what else to say other than, thanks for your feedback. I do appreciate it. I'll do better at sharing what hardware and software we use in every video I post here. And, I apologize that you did not like these videos. If I could refund your time, I would.

Betsy

Naw, look at the discussion this post provoked. I'd say that it was a success...

:)

I think it's a record number of comments. :-)

Wish all posts generated this much discussion and feedback.

Betsy

Just one more...don't know how far to the right this can move.

I commented on a comment by Phillip somewhere up in the thread. At the moment you can't tell when that has been posted other than that is was on the same day as a lot of the other comments. If you're going post more of these comment generating discussions, then displaying the time (hour + minutes) a comment was posted is probably a good thing. :-)

Pierre

p.s. Phillip:
I'm glad you like Geebrief.tv even though it is a full time job for Cali now to create episodes. My point was that a lot of people dislike that show (to state it politely) because of all the bloopers at the end, the way Cali behaves etc.
The thing I personally don't like about the Karl Miller examples (and I do have a copy of Visual Communicator and did put in effort to try and create videos using their product!) is that I wouldn't be able to re-create their examples where I (as a regular user) am able to re-create what I see here.

The Visual Lounge has as subtitle 'The "Behind the Scenes" Blog of TechSmith', to me that is enough disclosure, but since I appreciate info about the tools used to create the screencasts and videos that are displayed here since that enables me to get a better understanding of what is needed to create them, we probably want the same and judging from the responses by Betsy we'll both be even happier readers/commenters after this post. :-)

(I'll shut up now too so the comments don't fall of the right of the screen)

Now its fun. Lets see is we can get a single column of letters.

:)

Betsy, I would be interested in how the player/controller was created. Did you say it was created in Dreamweaver?

I think you all did a great job! I use Camtasia Studio and have for several years and love it, but sometimes you need other tools to supplement it as well. That takes nothing away from Camtasia at all. I would, and have, recommend it to anyone.

I appreciate the videos, the blog and you guys, for not taking yourselves too seriously. This is not brain surgery, it is certainly not life and death. People should just relax. It's good to see people enjoying what they do.

Thanks.

I am on the 11th hour and have learned many cool tips for using SnagIt...what a great app.

Not sure what is difference is with these videos but my video will start playing and stop and start again and stop...

GREAT JOB GUYS AND GALS!!! I love to see some personality. It shows that there are real humans on the other side of the keyboard. The only thing I could ask for is more!!!

Betsy, Tony and Jessica,

I'm brand new to TechSmith. I just bought the products Sangit and Camtasia Bundle last weekend. I feel sort of like the character Shultz on Hogan's Heros (perhaps all of you may be too young to remember him, but he is one of my all time favorite characters) when he says repeatedly with a heavy German accent, "I know NOTHINNNNNGGGGGG." So, I'm trying to learn all I can.

When I first saw the 24 in 24 list, I welcomed the effort. Then I read the first few comments on the blog, and was particularly piqued by comments from Steven and Philip, when they started ragging you about the sixth hour "buffoonery". So I decided to see it for myself. I became so intrigued I watched the entire 24 videos in one single setting.

Let me give you the benefit of my viewpoint. Betsy, what you have designed and executed here was exceptionally good work. The design, content, execution were all top shelf.

Tony, your expertise on the product came through loud and clear, and in a sufficiently relaxed format so as to avoid the stuffed shirt boredom that characterizes so much of "trainingdom." You were comfortable enough in your own skin to allow the production of mistakes to stay in the video. What that did for me is boosted my confidence level by showing me the ease with which you were able to recover. You've produced an outstanding product in Snagit, and you are presenting your product training in an open and refreshing way.

Jessica, what can I say??? You were absolutely the life of this party. I loved your sense of humor, and even your occasional nervous laughs. You, as well, did a superb job of demo-ing this product.

Beyond what the three of you did as far as content is concerned is demonstrated that TechSmith must be a very good company to work for. You all seemed to enjoy what you were doing. Your humor, instead of being perceived by me as buffoonery, seemed rather akin to a family event in which the task, as much as anything else, is to enjoy each other's company.

You showed me, too, that the management at TechSmith is not all uptight about their employees senses of humor. That, in turn, tells me there are some mature, well-adjusted folks at that place. It was inviting, comfortable, enjoyable and refreshing to find people who do not have to have their noses 7 feet in the air in order to communicate effectively.

The feeling I left your videos with was that I'd surely like to meet all of you and get to know you better. You surely seem like a group of folks I'd enjoy just being around, and make me feel like I could also be myself around you, wihtout having to "put on the airs" to gain entry to your group.

I did not sense any hard sell, but simply a fun-filled effort to help me learn about what Snagit could do. You drew me in and helped me to learn. I think that probably is what you were trying to do.

Congratulations and keep it up.

Now for the request... Betsy, I'm also new to Camtasia as well. Could you guys do the same for it? I will not be able to travel to any of the sites you have as my wife has MS, and I really cannot leave her that long. Could you video the training sessions and make those videos available?

Well, gotta get some sleep so I can go to work tomorrow. I do look forward to more 24 in 24's

Hi Richard, Thank you so much for your kind comments. I appreciate them.

We recently ran on the blog a series of 30 Camtasia Studio videos over 30 days. Here's a link to them - http://tinyurl.com/3ybqp6

We're busy thinking up our next series of videos. Any ideas?

Keep the feedback coming...

Betsy

Yes, Betsy,

I do have some ideas. I'm brand new to this thing of videos. I know that others may be a lot more savy about the technical aspects of program utilization and techniques, and those things are important to me.

However, what about some helps about the design theory, some things that would be survey or overview of the kinds of things that can be done with both Snagit and with Camtasia.

Think about us newbies. I have over 25 years experience hands on with PC's (remember DOS 3?), and have set up and maintained networks, installed ram, upgraded cpu's, connected about everthing from the DOS era, and am overall, a very adept user. I've just never been exposed much to the video/audio side of things. I think what I'd like is some general overview to capabilities of programs, and ways the programs can be used.

I think some other things that may be valuable would be some things designed for getting someone like me productive quickly with the simpler approaches to things. I'll eventually learn all the sophisticated things you can do, but I'm just looking right now to get as far up the learning curve as quickly as I can.

I do like the things you are doing... These are jsut some ideas.

Keep up the EXCELLENT WORK!!!

Hi Donald - We're going to do a quick screencast about how it was made. I'll post it hopefully later this week.

Thanks for watching the videos. I'm glad you liked them....

Betsy

I have not read all the comments above but I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation. Between the friendly verbal jousting and serious presentation of the material, IMHO, I thought you struck a good balance.

I too bought Camtasia many years (so it seems) ago and have never used it. Simply because I don't know where to start. I also would love to see something like this '24 in 24' done for Camtasia.

And yes, if you are using something like Dreamweaver as part of the presentation, I'd like to know that. I wouldn't want to be under the impression that I can do all that I am seeing using only the tools that are being promoted.

All in all, I'd rate this presentation a success and have bookmarked for my future use. I hope you don't move the URL.

Thanks again.

Yvonne