Switch to screencasts and create a movie of your computer screen.
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Everyone
knows how to take a simple snapshot of the computer screen. Whether you
use the [Print Scrn] keyboard shortcut and paste the image in your
computer’s default paint application, or use a more sophisticated
application to automate it, the purpose of capturing an image of your
computer screen is the same. It is much easier to convey to other people
want you want done.
If
a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video should be worth at
least ten thousand. We use screenshots a lot in this magazine to
effectively communicate how a certain task is to be performed. And, of
course, CHIP readers, being the whiz kids that they are, are probably
used to being inundated with calls from friends and family for help to
sort out their latest computer problems. Wouldn't things be a whole lot
easier for both parties if there was a way to communicate the solution
in an easy to understand manner? This is where screencasts come in.
Screencasts
are analogous to screenshots. As a screenshot refers to an image of the
computer screen, a screencast is a digital recording or a movie of what
one sees on the monitor. The best thing about screencasts is that along
with video capture of the screen, one can also include audio in them.
This audio might be your voice as you describe the actions taking place,
or something entirely different—for instance, background music. While
narration will require a microphone to record your voice, music from a
file on your computer can be used just as easily as playing it with a
standard media player.
This
workshop will deal with how to successfully capture a screencast. For
this purpose, we shall use the free product ‘CamStudio’, available on
the CHIP DVD or the official website (http://camstudio.org).
While there are many shareware applications available on the market,
this great piece of screen recording software is released under the GPL
license and is open source. Apart from digitally recording the screen
and adding audio, CamStudio has the additional capability of inserting
high quality screen captions with no jagged edges. Customization of
cursors, for instance, using a unique cursor style that you wish to be
displayed instead of the default white and black one, is also possible. A
special video annotation feature can be used to capture yourself on the
screen—a sort of ‘picture-in-picture’ effect.
The
region of the screen can also be specified—the full screen or only a
certain portion of it. Changing the quality settings of the movie
recorded is easy—smaller videos sizes are better for emailing while high
quality ones are appreciated when distributed on optical discs or
presented in front of an audience. CamStudio comes with its own Lossless
Codec compression format, as well as other video codes. There are two
file formats that the application can record the movie in—AVI and SWF.
This comes in really handy when you want to embed the Flash video on
your blog or website.
Step 1: Installation
Install
the application CamStudio and its associated video codec from the CHIP
DVD or download the installation file from the official website (http://camstudio.org).
This should place a shortcut to the application on your desktop, so
double-click the icon to run it. CamStudio has a bare-bones feels to it,
and its main toolbar reflects that. It only has six main buttons which
include the record and playback controls, a shortcut to the annotations
window and toggle for the view—'Normal', 'Compact', and 'Buttons', and
file formats—AVI and SWF.
Step 2: Screen area
We
are going to make a movie that will capture all the actions taken on
the computer screen. The first thing to do is to set the area of the
monitor that needs to be recorded. In the CamStudio window, select
‘Region | Fixed Region…’. In the proceeding dialog box titled ‘Fixed
Region’, check the option ‘Drag Corners to Pan’. Next, press the
‘Select’ button and drag the crosshair cursor from the top-left of the
screen to the bottom-right, excluding the taskbar. This way, the
screencast will exclude the taskbar area and not give away to the viewer
any other programs or hidden applications you may have running in the
background.
Step 3: Cursor Options
CamStudio
comes with a bevy of in-built cursor options. The normal cursor is a
little bland, so we shall choose to record a differently styled one for
the movie. Select ‘Options | Cursor Options’. In the window titled
‘Cursor Options’ check the radio button option ‘Use Custom Cursor’ and
choose one from the list, for instance ‘PENCIL2’. If you have created a
cursor that you want to use, select the option 'Use Cursor From File'
and press the 'Browse' button. Next, browse to the folder location where
the CUR (Cursor file) or ICO (Icon file ) file resides, select it and
press 'Open'. The
cursor highlight option is available for those users that wish to
highlight the cursor in a certain shape, color or size. Finally, exit
the 'Cursor Options' window by pressing 'OK'.
Step 4: Codec Configuration
To
configure the codec that is used when the recording is made, go to
‘Options | Video Options’. The default compressor used is ‘Microsoft
Video 1’ and while the video output using this compressor plays well in
Windows Media Player, the same can’t be said for others, for instance,
VLC player. So, we shall choose a more common compressor, for instance,
‘ffdshow Codec’. However, if you are sure that the end party has Windows
Media Player, then just stick with the default option. The 'CamStudio
Lossless Codec v1.0' is another option, and is available on the CHIP
DVD. Make sure that the ‘Auto-Adjust’ option is checked and save your
changes by pressing ‘OK’.
Step 5: Audio In 
Since
the movie needs to be accompanied by an audio narration, it is time to
plug in your microphone to the ‘Mic in’ jack. Next, in the CamStudio
window, select ‘Options | Record audio from microphone’. This tells the
application to use the sound signal from the ‘Mic in’ jack as the audio
source. To tweak the audio recording settings, go to ‘Options | Audio
Option | Audio Options for Microphone’. Press the ‘Volume’ button to
adjust the sound settings and press ‘OK’ to save your changes while
exiting.
Now
you are ready to press the record button and start recording. The sky’s
the limit when it comes to taking digital recordings of your screen.
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