Post by Pinda on Jul 11, 2013 10:37:25 GMT -5
In this topic I'm going to explain to you how to record your computer's screen and make an animated GIF.
Screen recording
First I'll teach you how to record your screen because it's important to know about this in order to make animated GIFs.
Step 1 - Getting the program
Download the free camtasia trail here. Just fill in a (fake) email address and you can start the download. The trial will work for 30 days, but there are plenty of easy ways to renew those. I might explain those later.
Step 2 - Starting Camtasia screen recorder
Start the Camtasia screen recorder program. Don't confuse this one with the Camtasia Studio (which is used for editing videos). You should see something like this:
Step 3 - Adjusting Camtasia
First you should adjust the options in the way you want. I'll explain this by using the picture of the Camtasia interface above.
The green lines you see on your screen mark the area that will be recorded once you start recording. You can adjust this by dragging the white squares to another place on the screen. You can also click on the full screen button if you want to record your full screen or by on the arrow next to the custom button to choose standard or recently used screen selections.
Once you selected the recording area you can select the sound you want to record. This can either by the sound of your computer or your microphone (if you have one). You can also switch on your webcam (if you have one) to record yourself. You can also adjust the volume of the sound.
By clicking the effect tab in the upper left corner you can also switch mouse sounds on and off. This will determine whether your mouse click effect will be recorded or not.
Step 4 - Recording
This is very simple. Just hit the big red button and your recording will start in about 3 seconds. You can stop recording by pressing F10 on your keyboard or by clicking the square on the Camtasia interface, Camtasia will automatically minimize once you start recording, but you can still access it from the bar on the bottom of your screen.
During recording you can do several things in the Camtasia interface:
The round arrow will delete the recording you were making.
The pause button (I assume you know which one that is) will pause the recording. You can continue by clicking it again.
The square button will stop the recording and automatically proceed to the save window.
Step 5 - Your video's destiny
After stopping your recording you'll have to wait for a bit and will eventually get to a window in which you can look at your recording and decide what to do with it. You have several options:
You can choose to save and edit, this will load your recording int Camtasia studio, here you can edit it. You can cut out some parts, adjust the screen size or add pictures, text and other videos in the one you just recording.
You can also choose to just save the recording, by clicking the arrow under the Save and Edit button and clicking on Save as. This will save your recording as a Camtasia file, which can only be opened in Camtasia studio, this is useful if you want to edit it later (Save and Edit will also save your recording as a Camtasia file).
You can also choose to produce your video. Then you'll get to choose what type of video you want or you ca publish it directly to Youtube or other sites.
If your video doesn't turn out to be as good as you suspected, and you suspect editing won't make it any better you can choose to delete your video.
Step 6 - Editing (optional)
If you decided to edit your video you will go to the Camtasia Studio interface, which is a lot more complicated than the ones we've seen before.
From this interface you can important media (Videos, pictures and music) to your project, add another recording, add text or adjust the video itself. You can add items after importing them with the "import media" button. Adding something is done by simply dragging it on the timeline on the lower half of your screen. You have several timeline layers, you can use them for anything. You can play two videos at the same time by using this. Of course you can only see one at a time but by adjusting the size of one video you can play a video inside another video
you can adjust video (or picture) size by simply clicking on them in the timeline or preview screen and they'll get circles around them in the preview window, you can move and adjust those just like you did when adjusting the recording screen. You can add text balloons for several characters at the same time by putting them all above each other on the timeline. There's much more to do, but I can't explain it all.
You can save every once in a while to make sure you won't lose your progress or to continue later. This is done by clicking file and then save project. This will save your project as a Camtasia project file (not the same type of files as mentioned earlier). You can load it by using Files> open project> select the project.
Once you're done you select produce and share. This will let you select a file type or produce your video to sites like Youtube.
Remember you can also use Camtasia to edit videos you already have on your computer by opining Camtasia studio and starting a new project. Add the videos you want to edit and you can do the same things you could do with the recording.
Making GIF animations
Now I'm going to explain how to make GIF animations. For those who don't know what those are: They're pictures that moves. Like this one:
I'm going to explain how to make those yourself, by using Camtasia.
Step 1 - Finding a source
First you need a to find something you want to make a GIF from, most likely a video or a game (or just a website). It works better if the quality of your source is good. You can either find a source online and record it by playing a video or game while recording your screen with Camtasia. But if you got a video stored on your computer importing that video in Camtasia should work too, this will most likely result in better quality GIFs (if the video is of good quality of course).
Step 2 - Selecting
Now you have to select the part of your source you want to turn into an animated GIF.
If you imported your video from your computer you can adjust the video's size in the preview window and the video's length in the timeline. So select the part you want to turn in a video. Cut away everything else (by deleting it from the timeline).
If you want to record your source you have to open your source and adjust the recording screen to select what you want to turn into an animated GIF. Then repeat the steps explained earlier in this guide and eventually get your recording in Camtasia studio. You can still change somethings about it if you want but this isn't required.
You can also make a GIF existing of just pictures. Like this one (which is the first animated GIF I ever made):
You can do this by placing several pictures in a row on the timeline. You can decided the time between the pictures but usually it's speed depends a lot on the speed of the computer of the person watching it.
Step 3 - Making the GIF
This is very important because this is were you're going to actually make a GIF. When you're ready click produce and share in Camtasia Studio. In the dragbar were you have to choose your file type you click "Custom production settings" Now you should get an extended list of options. One should say GIF animation file select this one and continue to produce the video as usual. Once it's finished you have made an animated GIF!
Step 4 - Producing the GIF
Once you finished your GIF you'll notice it doesn't work when you open it on your computer. That's because most programs to look at pictures on your computer don't support animated GIFs. The are meant to be used on the internet. So you'll have to publish your GIF in order to find out if it works. If you want to use your GIF as an avatar on this (or another) forum you can simply upload them from the avatar selection interface. If you want to use them in your comments you'll have to use a host site. I usually use Picasa or Flickr but neither of them does support animated GIF, you'll just get a picture of the first shot of your GIF. So you'll have to use another site. I personally use this one: tinypic.com/ You just select the GIF on your computer and click upload, pretty simple. To use it in your messages on forums you copy the IMG code they give you and paste it in your comment.
That's it. I hope this helped those who wanted to record their screen or make their own GIF animations.
Screen recording
First I'll teach you how to record your screen because it's important to know about this in order to make animated GIFs.
Step 1 - Getting the program
Download the free camtasia trail here. Just fill in a (fake) email address and you can start the download. The trial will work for 30 days, but there are plenty of easy ways to renew those. I might explain those later.
Step 2 - Starting Camtasia screen recorder
Start the Camtasia screen recorder program. Don't confuse this one with the Camtasia Studio (which is used for editing videos). You should see something like this:
Step 3 - Adjusting Camtasia
First you should adjust the options in the way you want. I'll explain this by using the picture of the Camtasia interface above.
The green lines you see on your screen mark the area that will be recorded once you start recording. You can adjust this by dragging the white squares to another place on the screen. You can also click on the full screen button if you want to record your full screen or by on the arrow next to the custom button to choose standard or recently used screen selections.
Once you selected the recording area you can select the sound you want to record. This can either by the sound of your computer or your microphone (if you have one). You can also switch on your webcam (if you have one) to record yourself. You can also adjust the volume of the sound.
By clicking the effect tab in the upper left corner you can also switch mouse sounds on and off. This will determine whether your mouse click effect will be recorded or not.
Step 4 - Recording
This is very simple. Just hit the big red button and your recording will start in about 3 seconds. You can stop recording by pressing F10 on your keyboard or by clicking the square on the Camtasia interface, Camtasia will automatically minimize once you start recording, but you can still access it from the bar on the bottom of your screen.
During recording you can do several things in the Camtasia interface:
The round arrow will delete the recording you were making.
The pause button (I assume you know which one that is) will pause the recording. You can continue by clicking it again.
The square button will stop the recording and automatically proceed to the save window.
Step 5 - Your video's destiny
After stopping your recording you'll have to wait for a bit and will eventually get to a window in which you can look at your recording and decide what to do with it. You have several options:
You can choose to save and edit, this will load your recording int Camtasia studio, here you can edit it. You can cut out some parts, adjust the screen size or add pictures, text and other videos in the one you just recording.
You can also choose to just save the recording, by clicking the arrow under the Save and Edit button and clicking on Save as. This will save your recording as a Camtasia file, which can only be opened in Camtasia studio, this is useful if you want to edit it later (Save and Edit will also save your recording as a Camtasia file).
You can also choose to produce your video. Then you'll get to choose what type of video you want or you ca publish it directly to Youtube or other sites.
If your video doesn't turn out to be as good as you suspected, and you suspect editing won't make it any better you can choose to delete your video.
Step 6 - Editing (optional)
If you decided to edit your video you will go to the Camtasia Studio interface, which is a lot more complicated than the ones we've seen before.
From this interface you can important media (Videos, pictures and music) to your project, add another recording, add text or adjust the video itself. You can add items after importing them with the "import media" button. Adding something is done by simply dragging it on the timeline on the lower half of your screen. You have several timeline layers, you can use them for anything. You can play two videos at the same time by using this. Of course you can only see one at a time but by adjusting the size of one video you can play a video inside another video
you can adjust video (or picture) size by simply clicking on them in the timeline or preview screen and they'll get circles around them in the preview window, you can move and adjust those just like you did when adjusting the recording screen. You can add text balloons for several characters at the same time by putting them all above each other on the timeline. There's much more to do, but I can't explain it all.You can save every once in a while to make sure you won't lose your progress or to continue later. This is done by clicking file and then save project. This will save your project as a Camtasia project file (not the same type of files as mentioned earlier). You can load it by using Files> open project> select the project.
Once you're done you select produce and share. This will let you select a file type or produce your video to sites like Youtube.
Remember you can also use Camtasia to edit videos you already have on your computer by opining Camtasia studio and starting a new project. Add the videos you want to edit and you can do the same things you could do with the recording.
Making GIF animations
Now I'm going to explain how to make GIF animations. For those who don't know what those are: They're pictures that moves. Like this one:
I'm going to explain how to make those yourself, by using Camtasia.
Step 1 - Finding a source
First you need a to find something you want to make a GIF from, most likely a video or a game (or just a website). It works better if the quality of your source is good. You can either find a source online and record it by playing a video or game while recording your screen with Camtasia. But if you got a video stored on your computer importing that video in Camtasia should work too, this will most likely result in better quality GIFs (if the video is of good quality of course).
Step 2 - Selecting
Now you have to select the part of your source you want to turn into an animated GIF.
If you imported your video from your computer you can adjust the video's size in the preview window and the video's length in the timeline. So select the part you want to turn in a video. Cut away everything else (by deleting it from the timeline).
If you want to record your source you have to open your source and adjust the recording screen to select what you want to turn into an animated GIF. Then repeat the steps explained earlier in this guide and eventually get your recording in Camtasia studio. You can still change somethings about it if you want but this isn't required.
You can also make a GIF existing of just pictures. Like this one (which is the first animated GIF I ever made):
You can do this by placing several pictures in a row on the timeline. You can decided the time between the pictures but usually it's speed depends a lot on the speed of the computer of the person watching it.
Step 3 - Making the GIF
This is very important because this is were you're going to actually make a GIF. When you're ready click produce and share in Camtasia Studio. In the dragbar were you have to choose your file type you click "Custom production settings" Now you should get an extended list of options. One should say GIF animation file select this one and continue to produce the video as usual. Once it's finished you have made an animated GIF!
Step 4 - Producing the GIF
Once you finished your GIF you'll notice it doesn't work when you open it on your computer. That's because most programs to look at pictures on your computer don't support animated GIFs. The are meant to be used on the internet. So you'll have to publish your GIF in order to find out if it works. If you want to use your GIF as an avatar on this (or another) forum you can simply upload them from the avatar selection interface. If you want to use them in your comments you'll have to use a host site. I usually use Picasa or Flickr but neither of them does support animated GIF, you'll just get a picture of the first shot of your GIF. So you'll have to use another site. I personally use this one: tinypic.com/ You just select the GIF on your computer and click upload, pretty simple. To use it in your messages on forums you copy the IMG code they give you and paste it in your comment.
That's it. I hope this helped those who wanted to record their screen or make their own GIF animations.
Pinda did you already finish the recording for the first game and did you upload it here or anything?
