Four things I'd like to see
I've been using Camtasia for a few years now and there are times when I'm performing a task and I think, "Gee, if this software only had _______, this editing would go so much faster" . Well, today I decided to let Techsmith know about some of them. There's more, but I always neglect to write them down. I'll make note of the others as they occur to me and make a supplemental post later.
Her you go:
1. Sliders on the X, Y, & Z axis for more intuitive control. The spinning knobs allow an approximation at best.
2. Allow the ability to change the placeholder name within the placeholder itself as a reminder of what goes in that gap. For example, changing "Placeholder" to "CEO photo" is a reminder of what specifically should go in that space, rather than something should be placed there and I'm left to wonder. Especially helpful if I'm sharing the project file with someone else. Changeable background colors for coloring coding would help too, although I could just place a titled rectangle annotation in there too, I guess...
3. The ability to have an animated title that looks like one-letter-at-a-time typing. This works very well for those of us that create website and software videos. I needed something like this today to fill in a search window and didn't have it.
4. Instead of audio points, allow us to use the animation arrows to achieve fade ins, fade outs, boosting gain, etc. The audio points are rough and don't have the necessary smoothness that the animation arrows provide.
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Rhansen, I am actually working in Camtasia right now so your post was of immediate interest.
Some of my own observations to pair with yours...Item 1) XYZ Sliders
I like this idea. That being said, did you know that if you click in the number/value box, you can use your up/down arrows (hold or tap) to quickly increment with much more precision? With more precision than even sliders would give you.
Item 2) Placeholder Labels
YES!
The only workaround (and gee, that's a really all-too-common word around here) is to make it a "Group" of just that item. You can rename groups. Of course, that creates an extra step. "Workaround".Item 3) Typing one-letter at a time
This one I'm not so clear on. If you're recording your screen, such as a using a search window, why are you not simply recording yourself typing in the search box and getting results?
"Workaround"... you could tinker with the variety of Behaviors that reveal letters one a time. Or, you could create a text layer and a block layer over it. The layer would be the same color as the search box. Then you simply animate the block layer to get shorter, from left to right, revealing the letters underneath it.Item 4) audio points
I'm not visualizing exactly what arrows would improve. IMHO, the audio points work fairly well and the connecting line between two points represent the "delta over time", but they are a bit cumbersome to work with and/or select, especially when they are at 0%0 -
With regards to item 1.
Sliders are great because you can make rough adjusts to extremes very quickly.
I LOVE Adobes approach also. It’s slider-less but works the same. You hover the cursor over the numerical value, click and drag.
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Regarding #3 ...
capturing yourself typing with Recorder is by far the easiest solution
however, if you feel ambitious ...
Feedback - Build A Typing Simulator Library Asset 2023-06-06
https://www.screencast.com/t/pD78oTiTp0 -
The typewriting effect is very ease to create with a text callout the { Reveal Behavior }.
Use these settings.
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PERHAPS CLARIFY?
you call for the Reveal Behavior
but the GIF shows properties for Fade Behavior?
it's a nice solution, but, unfortunately, it doesn't work correctly for me?
Feedback - Issue With Behavior 2023-06-06
https://www.screencast.com/t/dridWqnVJ0 -
Sorry, The screenshot shows a { Fade } Behavior as the primary behavior. But it doesn't apply, If you look at the style under the In tab, its Reveal.
You can drag any behavior onto the timeline, change it to another style in properties, then, the primary title of the behavior can become irrelevant. As if using them isn't confusing enough.
During and Out tabs are X'ed out because they have been set to None.
This would have been a more accurate screen shot, but it works identically.
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I just watched your video, add a period at the end of the text, the period won't appear but the last letter will.
I had to add 3 in the editor to see the last letter, but when I rendered it, 2 periods showed up. So 1 should work.
It must be a bug if its happening to you too. I never had to add periods before. I haven't used the effect in a couple of years.
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Andre-
I'm a full-time video producer at my company, not the website/software expert so I often receive assignments from the experts that consist of a voice recording and a couple of dozen non-moving PowerPoint slides with screen shots of the website/software topic for the video (I convert the slides to PNG files). Only a few of us in the company have screen recording software and only two (me and one other) has Camtasia.
Many of my assignments do have full video recordings of the experts performing this or that task, which means I have little need for the typing behavior but about half of my assignments using Camtasia are all static screen shots.
Because of that, I often have to recreate some of the user actions on my own like simulating typing in a search window, mouse cursor clicking on a "submit" box, etc.
Here's Johnny, thank you for your great suggestion! I will definitely use that workaround, however I would still like to humbly ask for a pre-constructed behavior called "typewriter" or similar. I think many of the sometimes users (like me) would appreciate and use it often.
Thank you everyone for your help in improving my Camtasia results!
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regarding "I would still like to humbly ask for a pre-constructed behavior called "typewriter"" ...
make one using the suggested Reveal Behavior method [limit it to 1 line of text]; put it in the Library as an asset; use it on timeline and paste in new text as appropriate
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Feedback - Using Typing Simulator Asset 2023-06-07
https://www.screencast.com/t/VCwsQdhfp0 -
A pre-constructed behavior called "typewriter" is a good idea.
However, you can save Behavior Presets. Apply the settings for the typewriter effect.
Go the property panel and hit the { + } sign to { Add a Preset }
A popup window allows you to name the the Behavior whatever you choose.
After-which, it appears in the Behaviors panel.
You can take it a step further , right click the behavior and add to the favorites menu if desired.
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saving the typewriter behavior specs as a preset is a nice touch [thanks for the tip]; but you would still have to apply the preset to a text callout which would have to be configured accordingly
saving the typewriter behavior as a preconfigured Library asset combines all that into a single step, which, after testing both ways, seems faster to me
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Most typewriting callouts need a bit of configuring.
Based on the number of charterers used, the duration of the callout must be changed to reach close to consistent typing speeds between callouts if multiple callouts are used.
Fonts will change size, etc and so forth if you use auto-resize settings.
There is nothing cut and dry or consistent with regards to behaviors.
Saving an asset to the library only ensures you have a carbon copy of that asset.
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correct; but then, that's the whole idea ...
you should watch the brief screencast I posted above; it clearly shows just how advantageous the Library asset approach is
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Case in point, here are 2 callouts with different text side by side.
They need adjusting to behave the same. A library asset is of no benefit over applying a preset.
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interesting example; I note that you've just cut the same text; but using your behavior settings, a multi-line behavior modified text box does not behave that way for me; basically, it doesn't work correctly
what's your secret?
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No secret, identical settings using the behavior preset I created in my screenshot.
I created 1 callout, typed some text.
Copied and pasted the callout, added more text to the second callout.
Dragged in my preset and applied it to each callout.
Its still less than professional { In my opinion } because typing speeds and font size don't match.
So, that's why saving to library has little value in my view. You would have to use the same number of charterers/fonts to match speeds and size in order to create a matching callouts.
Copy & pasting callouts is just as efficient or there is so little difference I see no reason to clutter the library with such specific callouts. To each his own.
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thanks; that's exactly what I figured
you need to watch what I've demonstrated; I clearly demonstrate how the Library asset works to great advantage
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I watched your video.
I don't agree with your assessment.
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to each his own
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