Chapter 10: Working with Other Media: Audio, PIP, and Title Clips

 Download CD Content

Now that you have your various screen video clips assembled and edited to your liking, you’ve got a good foundation upon which you can build by adding a few additional media streams. Back in the previous chapter, we talked about importing all sorts of different media types for use in your video presentations. While it’s true that two of the three items we’ll be discussing in this chapter (audio narration and camera video) can also be created during the recording process, to be frank, I find that concentrating on one stream of content at a time yields a much better quality product. This chapter addresses how to create these elements in post-production, that is, after recording has taken place. In the case of audio and PIP video, these can be done in post just as if you had created them while recording. You need only to tag along as the Video Preview progresses, recording your camera video and/or audio as you go. Just follow the steps laid out in this chapter, and you’ll discover just how easy it is to assemble the “multiest” multimedia presentation on the block.

In Chapter 9, you learned how to use the Import media… command to bring various production elements into your Clip Bin. In this chapter, the focus will be on the remaining three commands in the Add section of your Task List. We’ll be chatting about getting the most out of the following supplementary media:

• Title Clips. No more having to assemble a title screen using a huge, cumbersome image editing package and then importing it as a still image. Camtasia Studio offers a one-stop workshop for constructing title and ending screens. Add text, adjust the color, and even import a background image.

• Voice Narration. This is where you’ll find out about the ins and outs of recording and editing quality audio narration to go with your video content. We’ll cover both the basic Voice Narration tool and the Camtasia Audio Editor, a separate utility for creating and editing audio. We’ll discuss the importing and saving of your audio tracks, and finally, tricks and troubleshooting tips for achieving the best sound possible.

• Record Camera. In addition to including a PIP track in your video during the recording process, you have the option of recording camera video after the fact as well. Here, I’ll give you the basics of recording video content from a webcam or digital camcorder.

Adding Title Clips

Two of the most essential elements of video production are the opening and closing credits. The opening credits “warm up” the audience by providing a sense of what to expect in the upcoming material. The closing credits tell who’s responsible for the work as well as possibly prompt the audience to action by telling them what they can do next. There are, of course, a gazillion variations on these themes. For example, title segments can also be placed in the middle of a video rather than just the beginning and end. And a title screen’s content can be just as varied as its timing. Here are just a few ideas about where title screens work well with Camtasia Studio content:

• Placing an introductory screen at the beginning of the video to announce its content.

• Giving sales or contact information at the end of the video.

• Splitting the content into palatable chunks by introducing each new topic or theme with a new title clip.

• Setting up individual case studies or usability studies by introducing each new user’s vital statistics.

Essentially, if you need to get a text message across in your video unfettered by other screen content, title clips are the way to go. And with all the formatting options available right within Camtasia Studio, you can easily crank out title screens that are as attractive as they are functional.

To get started with creating title clips, do the following:

• From the Add section of your Task List, choose Title Clips….

  or

• From the Edit menu, choose Title Clips….

Either one of these will bring up the Title Clips pane, which looks a bit like this:

As you can see, there are two areas that help us determine what our title clip will look like:

• The Title Clips pane, which lets you specify the text font and formatting, the background, and the clip’s name.

• The Video Preview, which allows you to determine the placement of the clip’s textual elements.

So, let’s create a title clip:

1. Title name. The first order of business is to give the clip a name, which serves no purpose whatsoever other than as a reminder to yourself when looking over the items in your Clip Bin. Just enter a name into the field that’ll help you remember the clip’s actual content later on.

2. Background. You have two options in selecting the background of your title clip. You can go with a solid color, in which case you need only click the Color… button to specify a color from the palette.

   or

   You can go with a background image, which can be a BMP, GIF, JPG, or PNG file. Just click the Image check box, and then click the Browse button ( ) to navigate to your image, choosing Open after you’ve found and selected it. Either that, or you can actually type the full file path of your image directly into the corresponding field, but honestly, who does that?

   Now, since the background image will be stretched across the entire title clip, make sure that the dimensions of your image file correspond to those of your video as closely as possible, or you might just find that lovely image stretched beyond recognition like a Sunday comic on a piece of Silly Putty.

3. Text. Once you’ve got the background taken care of, let’s add our text. Just click inside the text box and start typing. You’ve got some standard formatting capabilities here. As you’ve probably fired up a word processor application once or twice in your life, I’m quite certain that these tools are already second nature to most of you. However, to be complete (this is the Definitive Guide, after all), here’s a handy reference table. I’ve also thrown in some useful editing commands, just for kicks.

   Open table as spreadsheet

   Name	Button	Hotkey	Notes
   Font		---	Since your callouts are rendered prior to production, you don’t have to worry about whether the desired font is on your users’ systems.
   Font size		---
   Bold		Ctrl-B
   Italics		Ctrl-I
   Underline		Ctrl-U
   Color		---	Lets you change the color of any piece of selected text.
   Text Drop Shadow		---	Places a gray drop shadow beneath your text.
   Align Left		Ctrl-L	The six alignment keys are useful in placing the text so that it’s legible and so that it doesn’t obscure the background image.
   Align Center		---
   Align Right		---
   Align Top		---
   Align Vertical Center		---
   Align Bottom		---
   Select All	---	Ctrl-A	Selects all text for formatting change or deletion.
   Copy	---	Ctrl-C	Copies selected text.
   Cut	---	Ctrl-X	Cuts selected text.
   Paste	---	Ctrl-V	Pastes any text from the clipboard into your text window.

4. Video Preview. Notice how the Title Clips pane and the Video Preview work in unison. The preview area is helpful for adjusting exactly where on the title clip you’d like the text to appear. To restrict the text to a particular section of the clip, simply resize the green bounding box by clicking and dragging one of its black handles. This is particularly important with background images where there may be a portion of the image you don’t want obscured by text.

5. Click OK. Notice how your brand-new title clip now appears in your Clip Bin. You can preview it at any time by simply double-clicking the clip in your Clip Bin, or by right-clicking it and then choosing Preview Clip.

6. To add the clip to your Timeline, right-click it in your Clip Bin, and then choose Add to Timeline (or Add to PIP if you’d prefer the title clip to appear on your PIP track). It will appear as the last clip on the track. or Click and drag the clip from your Clip Bin onto the Timeline or PIP track. This option gives you the added flexibility of being able to place the clip wherever on the track your heart desires, not just at the end.

7. As with any static image clip in your project, your title clip can be split or extended. You can also adjust the duration of the clip by right-clicking the instance on the Timeline and choosing Title Duration….

Tip 

The default duration of your title clips can be set anywhere from 1 to 60 seconds. Go to Tools > Options…, and then enter a value into the Title clips field in the Default duration (seconds) section.

One of the great things about doing your title clips directly within Camtasia Studio rather than in an image editing application is that your clips stay completely editable. However, I must make absolutely clear to you exactly what happened when you dragged that title clip down from the Clip Bin onto the Timeline, as it will have a profound effect on how and where you edit your title clips should you ever decide to make changes.

Perhaps an analogy would be helpful. While in college, I worked in a costume shop, where I learned how to sew and make clothes from patterns. That title clip sitting in your Clip Bin is like a dress pattern. You can use that pattern to make an infinite number of dresses. Each dress, once created, can be custom tailored without changing the original pattern. Likewise, the pattern itself can be altered, meaning that every dress created from it from that point onward will incorporate those new alterations, but the dresses you made before you changed the pattern will obviously still sport the older look.

I can put a dozen or more instances of a single title clip onto my Timeline. Once it’s on the Timeline, though, it becomes a completely separate entity from that clip currently sitting in the Clip Bin that spawned it. They no longer have anything to do with each other. I can make changes to the title clip in the Clip Bin, but any instances of that clip already on the Timeline will be unchanged. Only new instances will have the changes. I can also change a single instance on the Timeline, but neither the other “sibling” instances of the clip on the Timeline nor the “parent” clip in the Clip Bin will be touched as a result. Clear as mud? One obvious lesson here is to make absolutely sure the title clip you created is really what you want (in terms of both accuracy and design) before you start dragging a hundred instances of it onto the Timeline.

Here’s how to make changes to your title clips, regardless of where they are:

1. For clips in the Clip Bin, simply right-click the title clip, and choose Edit Title Clip.

   or

   For clips on the Timeline, just right-click the desired instance of the title clip on the Timeline, and choose Edit Title Clip.

2. Make the requisite changes, and click OK.

If you wish to get rid of the title clip entirely, you may do so the same way you would remove any other clip from your Clip Bin: Simply select it and press Delete. Alternatively, right-click the clip and then choose Remove from Clip Bin.

Finally, you can get basic information on title clips in your Clip Bin by right-clicking a clip and choosing Properties…. You’ll see its name, its default width and height (which, by the way, generally correspond to the largest sized video or image clip currently on your Timeline), its background image (if set), and the hex value of whatever background color you’ve chosen.

That’s all for title clips. While not as flexible from a design perspective as something produced in Photoshop, for example, these clips have the wonderful advantages of being easily created and edited. This can be a godsend when deadlines are tight. And when altering a particular project to incorporate software updates (possibly months later), it’s also nice to know that everything you need in order to make changes is right there inside the Camtasia Studio project file.

Tip 

The Title Clip feature works great for static title screens, but occasionally it’s called for to spice things up by turning an average title screen into an animated extravaganza, complete with flying title text and dancing logos. For this, you’ll need to turn to third-party applications. Two such programs, BluffTitler DX9 and WildFX Pro, can more than accommodate that need. Demos of both are included on the companion CD.