I want to make a video that shows me doing something for a class (this is not homework btw). I’m not sure exactly how I want to do it. Here are the 2 choices I have come up with:
Have the video show what is happening on the screen with me narrating what I’m doing and why.
Have the video show what is happening on the screen with little thought bubbles popping up for each step.
I don’t have the slightest clue how to do this. I have never done something even remotely like this before. Hell, I’ve never even made a powerpoint presentation before.
I don’t know what kind of program I’d need to do this, or if I should just say screw it and use my camera to record my monitor while I speak.
I own a webcam, a headset, and a Nikon Coolpix camera. That’s it. I am a fairly quick learner and might be willing to buy software if it looks like something I’ll be able to use in the future.
So, what is out there that I can use to do this?
I suppose I should tell you what I want to do. I want to make a video explaining to my classmates how to go about using the class discussion board tools to properly format their equations. At the moment everyone is using whatever makeshift symbols look right to them (such as >= for greater than or equal to, to show x-squared, some people do x^2 and some just do x2). The program comes fully equipped with an equation editor and they seem to either not be aware of it or they don’t know how to use it. Enough people showed an interest in how I formatted my equations that I typed out instructions but I know that some people learn better from live demonstrations.
Sal Khan of the Khan Academy does a lot of teaching videos. You might want to watch one to see if that is the type of thing you want. He uses, “Camtasia Recorder ($200) + SmoothDraw3(Free) + a Wacom Bamboo Tablet ($80) on a PC. [He] used to use ScreenVideoRecorder($20) and Microsoft Paint (Free).” Some of those programs have free trials if you want to try them first.
Google also has free programs that would allow you to create slide shows. I believe you can embed video and audio as well. Check out this presentation with google docs.
I came in to suggest Snag-it. I can’t speak to its shareware capabilities, but I’ve used the paid version at work to perform both options the OP mentions, and it works like a charm.
I am a huge fan of the Khan Academy. I’ve only watched his math videos and that actually wont help me.
Snagit worked perfectly. I took screen shots, edited them with my instructions, and then sent them to powerpoint. It didn’t take long at all and it shows exactly what buttons need to be clicked and when.
Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll check out some of the others if I decide to do something like this again.
I am a little surprised nobody has mentioned ‘Fraps’.
For my youtube call of duty black ops videos I use fraps to record the action from theatre mode, then I use windows movie maker (free with windows 7 and possibly earlier versions of windows - I don’t know) to add captions and titles.
Fraps will also record what is happening on your windows dekstop (i.e. not just for recording gameplay… the website emphasises game recording but it is just as good at recording anything you’re doing on your computer)
That project is done and my professor was surprised and happy with it and will be adding it to the course. I was happy with I because it learned how to use Power Point and Snagit. I can definitely see how both of these will come in handy, since I am taking a speech class this semester.
Definitely keep the suggestions coming. I can see many circumstances in my future where I’ll need various different programs. It’ll be nice to have this thread to come back to when I need them.
I use CamStudio, which is free. It will make videos with narration, or videos with annotations (“speech bubbles”), although i find it’s quicker and easier to do the narration.
It takes a little bit of fiddling to get your settings just right, but i’ve managed to produce some pretty decent little video tutorials for friends and colleagues. Here’s an example, showing how to convert a FlipShare MP4 video to an XVid AVI file using AviDemux.
One of the biggest challenges, for me, was the narration itself. I’m a pretty confident public speaker, and i spend a bunch of time lecturing to college students, but i still found the narration part difficult, and you can hear in the video that i stumble in a few places. I knew exactly what i was talking about, but still managed to make mistakes. If you’re going to go for narration, i recommend having a script ready for yourself.
If you need pro-level results, then maybe forking out 800 bucks for Adobe’s product will be worth it, but if this is just an informal thing to help out your classmates, one of the free solutions like CamStudio should work just fine.