The new version of TechSmith’s product Camtasia was released today after beta testing. Camtasia is excellent to create presentations and training videos. I use TechSmith products daily like SnagIt and Camtasia. Camtasia in a nutshell is for recording video from your computer screen, editing, and then publishing in a wide variety of formats like HF Flash, Animated GIF, WMV, MOV,MP4 and more.
I finally got to meet the team while I was in Michigan this year after knowing them for over 10 years.
Record, Edit, Produce and Share.
Just some of the new enhancements in Camtasia 6 are:
- Integrated high-definition Flash.
- Streamlined production wizard.
- New editing capabilities. Edit your audio and video independently, move your audio from one track to another.
- Perform chain moves and have complete control over transition and call out fade durations.
- New editing hotkeys.
- Edit MOV files.
- Many updates/fixes. For example I am not experiencing problems with long video production crashing that I had in past releases.
- Camtasia Studio 6 comes with 2GB of storage and 2GB of monthly bandwidth on Screencast.com.
RECORD:
- Defaults to previous dimensions so you can record a series of videos consistently
- Added a "restart" button for faster "take 2" recordings
- Redesigned the interface so it can be used unobtrusively during live presentations, like a class.
- Added a the ability to turn cursor effects on and off during the recording.
- Added an option to load Camtasia Recorder at system startup
EDIT:
- You can unlink audio from video tracks for independent editing
- Added the ability to move multiple clips together on the timeline (a.k.a. chain move)
- Added a 3D tilt option in the Zoom-n-Pan view
- Added the ability to import an MOV and edit it on the timeline
- Removed the image size limitation of 1280x1024 maximum
- Added the ability to import an MOV and edit it on the timeline
- Added the ability to adjust the Callout fade in and out speed
- Added hot keys to streamline editing (C=callout, T=transition, Z=zoom, M=marker, A=caption, S=split, E=extend frame)
- Added an option to maintain the aspect ratio in Project Settings
- Transition speeds, callout fades and image durations can now be 1/10th of a second (eg., 0.8 seconds or 3.2 seconds)
PRODUCE:
- Default to a Flash output which plays an MPEG4 file with H.264 video and AAC audio. Its got great compression and quality, regardless of your content, so users don't have to choose between SWF and FLV anymore.
- Lots of Flash customization options such as choosing start and stop screen thumbnails and icons
- Added quiz opacity, so quizzes can be overlayed on top of images.
- Added free, enhanced Screencast.com integration (2GB storage and monthly transfer)
- Increased keyboard accessibility of the flash output, including TOC, navigation, quizzing, volume, etc.
- Added a YouTube preset, which optimizes settings for YouTube delivery.
GOING
In the future, we'll stop producing RealPlayer files. It is used by less than 2% of our customers and is becoming less robust compared to other formats.
GONE
In general, they removed features and replaced them with something better. In the case of LiveOutput, it was used so infrequently, that the continued QA / Testing of it had a negative impact on our ability to test and improve other features.
- Removed FLV as a production option. Flash/MPEG4 has way better quality and file size and iPod playback.
- Removed Audio Editor as a stand alone application (became superfluous as Audacity does a great job)
- Removed ScreenPad from Recorder as Callouts are better solution
- Removed the Live Output driver from Camtasia Recorder
- Removed the 'Add Index' option from WMV production. All WMV productions now have an index.
Below is a screenshot of the main editing screen after I recorded a quick tutorial of AutoCAD’s Dynamic UCS I then edit and add voice narration and publish it and post it on my blog in this case. Very quick and painless. You can even record your PowerPoint presentation.
Sometimes text describing how to do something can be hard to understand, but a image or video can explain clearly and bypass even language barriers. I know many trainers and CAD Managers using Camtasia and SnagIt to show and demonstrate techniques with software or for training sessions.
TechSmith has a blog! http://visuallounge.techsmith.com
Cheers,
Shaan
