Feature: Techsmith Camtasia Studio is used primarily to edit video screen captures
Motivation: But it is quite versatile as is demonstrated here

In a reversal of roles we take Techsmith's new Camtasia Studio 4 and use it to develop slideshows and home video movie productions. The role reversal was inspired by the remarks we made about Adobe Premiere Elements being capable of taking Snagit video captures of PC screens and turning them into exciting computer operation demos which is the forte of Camtasia Studio. I particularly highlighted the transition and menumaking prowess of Premiere Elements.

Well I just got Camtasia Studio to review for its capabilities of developing demos and training videos of various software at work. But considering Camtasia Studio's standard and highly practicable video edit UI-User Interface layout I decided to try a little role reversal and use Camtasia Studio to develop some image slideshows and video movies - the bread and butter of Adobe Premiere Elements. From this review you will see why I was more than modestly pleased with the results.

Camtasia Studio UI-User Interface

From the screen shot just below, readers can see the typical video editor interface:

The video edit layout is classic: a timeline strip (which toggles to a storyboard strip) along the bottom; a Task List panel followed by a Media Resources or Clips Bin and then a Movie Review window. Not the same order but the same standard video editor save tabbed workspaces as in Ulead and Pinnacle's video editors. The key point - video editors will be comfortable with the Camtasia Studio and its video editing layout and tools.

And there are some additional features in Camtasia Studio which video editors may appreciate. First timelines for captions, additional audio, plus query and surveys appear automatically when each is created in the course of editing. Locks are available for each type of track so that one can determine which tracks will be effected by a cut operation. In the screen shot above, the Audio 2 track is locked so it will not be effected by any cuts but the Caption and Video + Audio 1 tracks will be.

Another important point is that Camtasia Studio has just above the Timeline/Storyboard a command bar (or ribbon) which are convenient for making video edits. Like in all video editors, any splices or cuts from the video or other assets leave the underlying clips and media resources unchanged. But what is nice in Camtasia Studio is the availability of two timeline pointers (the lines headed by green diamonds). These pointers make cutting video clips or audio tracks very simple. In addition, they are used to define audio fade-ins, fade-outs, increase volume, decrease volume corrections.

But perhaps the most useful feature especially for novices is the Task List and how its ensuing commands are supported. The Task List heading can be expanded or closed down by clicking on their chevrons ">>". If you click on a command say Transitions, the following happens:

First, Camtasia Studio automatically replaces the TaskList and Clip Bin with the new Transitions dialog. It also switches to the StoryBoard view if you were not already there. Finally, at the top of the Transitions screen there are two special help buttons - clicking on Assist Me takes users right to the relevant and carefully prepared page in Camtasia Studio's help documentation. Show me takes users to a video show how typically the edit is done. The one drawback - Show Me requires an Internet connection.

In general Techsmith always tries to make Camtasia Studio's help useful without being too obtrusive. I found this to be a good balance. By the way, when you click the Finished button you are taken back to the standard video edit screen.

In sum I found Camtasia Studio capable of doing just about any video edits required - Captions, Titling, Picture in Picture images or clips, Menu Making plus a few others like quizzes and surveys that are not available in many video editors. Camtasia Studio does lack the rich set of transitions and video effects that are available in other editors to be applied to clips and images. But I was surprised by the robustness of the video editing and movies I could produce. Suffice it to say that I could do the complete Adobe Premiere Elements Getting Started tutorial in Camtasia Studio. Rate this aspect - very good.

Image Slideshows in Camtasia Studio

Here is the starting point:

As you can see from the screenshot above, the Clip Bin is now loaded with slide images - pictures from my brothers recurring treks to the beauties of Utah. As can be seen in the timeline I have already loaded in a number of the slides and have added a jazz musical track in which I have done some elementary matching of photos to music; but nothing as elaborate as I have seen done at the Etobicoke and Toronto Camera Clubs.

This is not to say that such editing is hard or impossible to do. Rather the opposite. One can prolong or shorten a transition or the time a slide is presented with drag and drop ease. And the same cutting tools applied to video also work on presentations including locking of the audio tracks and channels that you don't want to be effected by the cut. In addition fades to lighting can be applied as well as to audio. But as noted before, the range and control of the transitions in Camtasia Studio are not nearly as extensive or as rich as available in home video editors like Premier Elements or Ulead Studio. Also I did not find control of titling as easy in Camtasia Studio as the other video editors.

Captioning and other Extras

However, Camtasia Studio does provide some benefits that not all video editors provide.

What this requires is a bit of mouse leger-de-main as you sync up audio narration with printed captions or descriptions that are being narrated. This of course is very helpful in training demos; but also can be quite entertaining as "talkies" in movies and slideshows. Trust me short, witty ones work!

But this not the end of Camtasia Studio features. Callouts provide elementary attention getters but also basic interactivity. You can start and stop a slideshow, jump to a new place in the

slideshow or to a URL and Internet link. Unfortunately you cannot do any other logic although the Flash ActionScript technology behind what Camtasia Studio is doing - can indeed support sophisticated programming. Since Callouts are based on Flash, they only work with output to Flash .swf or .flv files. If used with other output such as .avi or .wmv video filetypes the graphics just do not appear.

As long as Flash tricks are the topic of discussion I should note Quizzes and Surveys.

Remember that Camtasia Studio's target market is the training and documentation fields - so creating quizzes and surveys are vital features. In the example above I have added a survey question towards the end of the slideshow. When the user answers the survey question the slideshow continues. What would be nice is to take an action based on the response.

But note the two buttons at the top of the screen - Assist Me and Show Me. By clicking on the Assist Me button I am taken to the exact page in Camtasia Studio's Help file which describes and explains how to do quizzes and surveys. This is helpful - no need to embark on a Help file search and rescue mission to find the exact help you need. Click on the Show Me button and I am taken to the Techsmith website where a video on exactly how to setup and use quizzes and surveys is downloaded and played in about 2 minutes(DSL broadband connection). Now if you are not connected to the Web - you are out of luck; but otherwise this is just-in-time product support that every software vendor should be providing. It is also Techsmith putting its Camtasia Studio product on the firing line.

However, again be reminded - production output has to be directed to either Flash .swf or Flash .flv file types. And this brings up the next point - output of the slideshows and video is right now a very fluid art because of HD and Bluray DVD plus constantly changing movie compression capabilities of the major and minor players like REAL, QuickTime, WindowsMV, Sorenstam, plus Techsmith itself with their respective video CODECs (coding and compression routines). I have decided to do separate reviews on this topic alone.

Suffice it to say that our slide show came in using 640x480 screensize at about 10MB or slightly more than 3 slides per MB of video. Not too bad - but also subject to improvement. Hence the need for a future look at video/slideshow production.

Nonetheless, I was able to add a survey at the end of the slideshow which our camera club has been "meaning to do" for the past two years - and it worked pretty well. I would have liked to do some additional programming - but that is clearly an ease of use versus full blown power user/programming complexity trade-off in which Techsmith has come down on the KISS side of things.

Summary

I was indeed pleasantly surprised to find out how much I could do in Camtasia Studio which is really targeted towards producing training and documentation demos. First, and foremost, Camtasia Studio borrows well from its sibling, Snagit - it puts ease of use and responsiveness to needs for help high on its agenda. The Task List panel is very well thought out and directs a user through the video/slideshow workflow well. The UI layout follows industry standards and adds some unique touches making it even simpler to do - especially on the timeline tasks. At the end I was really quite surprised out how quickly I was able to get both video editing and slideshow creation done. At $299, Camtasia Studio is at least double the price of most other entry level video editors; but then for simplicity, ease of use and broader features Camtasia Studio is far from entry level.