SPEAKER_00 0:00

Video editing can be very overwhelming at times. It feels like it can take a while to learn or take a while to master, but there's new features that we've talked about coming out, like with Zoom integration, for example, that just saves so much time. Like you already did the hard work of providing a training on a Zoom meeting or providing really well-thought training on a webinar. Why not be able to reuse that instead of just having to be one and done? And so bringing that into Camtasia, making it look really nice, cutting out any words or phrases you don't want in there anymore, and in uploading it from there just saves so much time. And then, of course, the goal of any video at the end of the day is to teach somebody something, no matter how big or small. So providing focus on the screen. What exactly are you wanting them to look at? Increase your personal size. Zoom in, throw a quick box around it, throw a highlighter over it. Um, it's really getting your process as much as possible.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, wherever you are and wherever you're watching from. My name is Matt Pearson. We're in the studio today, and we are going to be talking about some new stuff happening in Camcasia and some opportunities if you're a trainer to be able to use these functionality to enhance what you're doing and maybe extend the life of some of the work that you've already done. I've got a special guest, Karsten Vestigard. Did I say Vestigard right? That is correct. Thank you for being here. We're glad that you're here. Tell us a little about what you do at TechSmith.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Yeah, um, I'm an instructional designer at TechSmith on our customer education team. So our team makes all the tutorials, certification courses, we do all the webinars, any kind of training related activity like that. And I mostly work with Snagit, but all of us work cross-product. So Camtasia and the whole Camtasia suite as well. Um but uh yes, I'm an instructional designer making tutorial videos, doing webinars, and helping to write our tutorials.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Well, and I think it's worth noting because I think from a backstory kind of perspective, you've been a teacher, you're a coach, so you do lots of kind of educational content or learning uh throughout your life.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Aaron Powell Yeah, it all kind of relates in the end. Like I started here as an intern in our in TechSmith's HR department and then became a m high school math teacher. So of course lots of training there in person, but videos also. That was during COVID times, so everything was posted online, lots of video editing, and then um coaching, volleyball, training, and instructional design. So it kind of all relates.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Awesome. Oh, I well, I love that. So well, we've got a couple things to talk about, but before we do that, what's a tip about using images or video that you would want listeners of the podcast to know about that maybe something that helps you out a lot?

SPEAKER_00 2:34

It sounds simple, but focus, like where to focus on the screen. So lots of uh zooming and panning, I guess is the official phrase for it, but lots of zooming in, just a simple highlight of where to look or a box of where to look or making the cursor bigger so people are looking to where you're trying to point to, um, especially when the screen gets super busy. I make a lot of videos for of course at work. My day job is videos all day, every day. Um, but making like tutorials for my volleyball team as well, um, or how to navigate like the schedule site and how to find all the trainings that they're looking for, just anything that can kind of provide focus on the screen.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

How how zoomed in is too zoomed in?

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Oh, everyone always told me when I was learning how to video edit, zoom in more, make the cursor bigger. And I remember going 800% on the cursor one time, and I just got flooded with comments like too much, too much. I'm like, okay, okay. So a lot, but I I I finally found the max.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

I thought there wasn't a max, but I think I did hit the do you remember what that number is off the top of your head?

SPEAKER_00 3:39

The cursor was 800%. I remember that was the big yeah, and then zooming in, I don't know, a like 400, 500% would probably be. Which is a lot.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

It gets crazy. So I I'm assuming you record very full, like full screen, highest resolution you can get, 4K, so you can do that better.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Awesome. Well, speaking of zooming in, we're we're gonna tie into Zoom.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Transition.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Uh so there's a new feature in Camtasia, the Zoom integration, uh, which allows people to bring in Zoom content into Camtasia directly. So tell us just high level, really what does that do for someone if they're like, oh, that sounds interesting. I use Zoom, which is I guess we should maybe state that it's the you know, the internet web standard for connecting, I guess. I don't know if it's a standard or not, but it seems very popular.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Yes, it definitely any Zoom meeting recordings or webinar recordings, um, you can bring into Camtasia now automatically. And without going too deep, it opens up Camtasia Rev, which is just a feature of Camtasia, and it allows you to immediately uh style your video. So your camera separate from your screen. Because usually when you're recording a Zoom call or a Zoom webinar, you have your speaker or speakers if multiple people are unmuted, and then whatever you're sharing on your screen. So you can manipulate those streams separately, um, make them look really nice, make a bunch of edits, like cut out all the pre-meeting chat where we always have like five minutes of chat at the beginning of any text myth call usually, and then at the end when everyone's saying bye or asking questions that won't be relevant in the recording to cut that all out easily and then like have this nice produced video at the end.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Well, let's talk about the streams first, because I think that seems like, as I've been looking around, uh it seems like that's a unique thing, right? Because the the thing I've I experienced, and we've done I've done events at TechSmith where we've taken that stream and you get like a camera that's a square thing, and then it's just kind of plopped up in a corner, and then you got your screen or or slides or whatever that was recorded, but it's like kind of messy, it's not very polished. So why why do you think that's a big deal for people?

SPEAKER_00 5:48

I think it's a big deal for people because one in a video edit later you might want to switch back and forth. Like sometimes the speaker becomes irrelevant, and well, speaking about focus on the screen, you want to just focus on the screen and completely get rid of the webcam. Or sometimes in Zoom, if you turn your camera off, it just says your name in like that black circle or black square, and that just looks odd in a recording, so you could take that out. Um, or if there's nothing on the screen, which we know happens in Zoom calls a lot, no one's sharing their screen, then you could make the webcam full screen. So just having being able to manipulate. And I think Zoom is one of the only um, you know, meeting softwares that can record your screen separate from your camera. And full like full disclosure, you need it's Zoom Pro or any paid version of Zoom in your settings. You can turn Zoom to record your um screen and camera separately, but it's it's rare. So that then Camtasia is able to take those separate streams in.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Yeah, it seems like the just the time savings. If you're using a webinar or a meeting recording and you want to use that for an end polish, it it does feel like a significant uh like less effort than if you just brought it in from like the I think Zoom gives you a folder with like all the files.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Yeah, there's like five separate ones that you could do like screen and camera, just camera, just screen. I think there's more like the gallery view, the single view. There's a lot. So now Camtas you don't even need to choose. Camtasia just finds them for you and knows which ones to bring in.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

So let's let's put on our hat for our listeners out there who are maybe in a world of a maybe they're instructional designers like you are, or maybe they're doing uh web-based training or facilitating some things. What would you imagine someone would like? What's the one of the things you could get benefit from if you're using the Zoom integration?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Yeah, I'll first start with uh an example that our team at TechSmith Customer Education does multiple times a week, which is we do a lot of webinars in a few different languages. And so we bring them in to the we bring the recording now into Camtasia with this new feature. And we always start the webinar like 10 minutes early, and that's where all of us are just kind of chatting behind the scenes, or we're asking people if they can hear the can't or hear the music, see us, is everything working? Tell us where you're classic where you're from, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Everything there's stuff.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Yeah, weather, gotta throw in the weather. Um, and so in a recording that we're gonna post later, none of that's relevant at all. No one needs to sit through 10 minutes of random chatter. So we use Audiate now to completely cut that all out. So rather we used to just have to trim and like look at the waves, the audio waves, or just listen to it. Like, where does this chat end? Keep hitting play and pause to figure out where we should trim to. But now um Audiate allows Camtasia Audiate allows text-based editing, so we just read through everything. So we can read it.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

So let me so you're bringing it in from Zoom into Rev, right? And it's gonna give you the layout. Then you're saying send it to Audiate, which I guess we should emphasize that anyone that has Camtasia gets the text-based editing features. Correct. Yep. Okay, so now you got it in, it transcribes the entire webinar. Yep. And you're just getting rid of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Yes, exactly. Yeah, I skipped a few steps there. So I just want to make sure I get it. Yeah. So once Audiate transcribes, you're you can just read through our whole hour-long webinar, every word that anybody said. So then we just highlight what we don't want and delete it. And same thing at the end of the webinar. Um, there's always like, thank yous, have a great Thursday, but we don't people don't even know it's Thursday on a recording, random things like that. So we'll just highlight and delete all of that.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

That's awesome. So it doesn't make it does seem like if I'm a if I'm a trainer out there or I'm I'm creating this virtual content opportunities that the reusability of that content just went up because one, you can cut the fluff. You can even probably trim out other things if it's something was you know, somebody maybe asked you to restate something, or you maybe you just mess something up, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:50

That reminds me, yeah, we cut out all the ums and ahs. Like obviously when uh someone is speaking in a webinar or a meeting for a full hour, they're gonna think, they're gonna say um a few times, or repeat their words a couple times, or stutter at the beginning of sentences. So we cut all that out as well. And that usually cuts, you know, like a good minute or two out at the end of just straight up hesitation words that don't matter.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Yeah, again, it seems like if you're a trainer, all of a sudden you've got this high reusability of content because we know if if so you set a training for a day, someone will say, Well, I'm sick that day, or I can't make it, or my plans have changed. And I think everyone in the kind of universe now does like this is what we're this is recorded for the most part, right? And then you want something that's nice, a nice delivery for after.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

So are there other things that you feel like benefits from the Zoom integration that we we might want to think about? If I'm if I'm a new user thinking about using this in my organization, what are what are the other options or opportunities for me?

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Well, when it brings it into Camtasia Rev and you can choose the layouts, like you can put a cool dynamic background behind your screen, which is just kind of like moving colors of just to provide some kind of dynamic element or colorful element. Um, and then manipulate, like I said, the screen and webcam. So usually what we do for our webinars is uh we show both the screen and the speaker for a bit, but then partway through our webinars, our speaker will turn off their camera so that people are just focusing on their content, especially because we're teaching Camtasia and Snagit where your webcam is going to be on anyway, and then the double webcam gets to be a lot. So then we'll just uh you can pick you can split your content in Camtasia and pick multiple layouts and then add a transition between them. So you'll see like the speaker and screen at first, and then there will be a nice transition and just kind of the screen will slowly zoom in and that webcam is gone. Because like I said in Zoom, if your webcam is off, it just says your name in like a black box and it's just doesn't it provides nothing and just no value. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

I guess one thing, one of the things it's worth mentioning, uh and just you can correct me if I'm wrong, the the when you bring in the screen recordings or whatever, your cursor does not get enhanced though.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

That's correct. That's the only downside, and it's because Zoom is unable to record cursor metadata separately. So um if anyone listening has used Camtasia and Snagit in the past, um Camtasia can record your cursor. So you can make your cursor bigger, you can add highlights. Zoom, because you're bringing it in from Zoom, cannot. So your cursor is gonna do whatever your cursor did throughout your meeting or webinar, but everything else you can completely manipulate, like add filters to your camera, add a border to your camera, add a nice shadow or reflection to your camera or screen.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

And we can still you can still zoom in on the screen and stuff like that. So maybe there's a tip there that, like, hey, if you're gonna use this and you're recording the screen, increase the size of your cursor in your system settings, right? We used to do that all the time.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

That is a good pro tip, actually. Yeah, increase your cursor off the bat before you start recording, which yeah, um many like third-party apps can do. Or just uh use Camtasia later to zoom in. If you didn't increase your cursor and it's too late, just zoom in and then your cursor will it'll be much more focused and larger from there.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

I love it. Uh you know, you had mentioned earlier that you have to have it's Zoom.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Any paid version of Zoom. So Zoom Pro, Zoom Business, I forget all their names.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

So you know people are gonna ask, well, I don't use Zoom. I'm on Teams, WebEx, uh GoToMeeting, uh Adobe, uh, what's Adobe's? Uh I can't remember what theirs is. Oh, sorry, Adobe. Uh but there's all these other tools that people use. I think you mentioned earlier Blue Jeans. That's an old one. That's an old one. There's there's all sorts of them. Uh, but this is a Zoom-only feature, correct?

SPEAKER_00 13:37

This is a Zoom-only feature, yes. Uh, other um meeting recordings or other recording softwares like Teams, etc., cannot record your camera and screen separately. So you could still bring those into Camtasia and make a bunch of edits and still even export to Audio like we were talking about and cut out any text that you want really easily, but you won't be able to manipulate your camera separate from your screen and get the layouts like you can with Zoom.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

So maybe those other tools start introducing separate recordings for the things. Maybe we we will get there. But I would love it. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's uh it's helpful for me to understand that the difference in the technology and why you know you can bring in any MP4 to Camtasia, but Zoom's given us a little bit of something to work with. So I want to I want to shift gears because I think the Zoom stuff is super exciting. There's a feature also coming out that I'm excited about, which is sync audio. Tell us a little bit about what does it mean to be able to sync what is that like sync audio? Like what is that?

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Yeah, I I'm trying to remember what someone on my customer education team just did the other day where they needed to sync audio. They had two microphones going to test a couple out because they were outside. So they had like a pinned lapel mic and another mic kind of like this sitting out in front of them. And you can you used to have to manually match up the audio waves.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

We taught people how to like, hey, do a clap, get the spike, match up the spike, zoom in all the way. It's like this very manual process.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Scream your head off to get an audio spike or clap your hands in the is the calm way.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

I like scream scream your head off. That's a great one in the studio.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

And then that's what you'd look for to kind of match up the audio waves so that you could get your your two audio clips to sit on top of each other and you know choose which one you want or cut pieces out. And now Camtasia can line up the audio waves for you automatically.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

I'm thinking about use cases because for me, like I do obviously in a podcast like this, I've got multiple. Usually I'm we're not in this, I'm not in the studio, but I still end up with like multiple audio recordings, so separate audio for me and the guest, and then the kind of the main kind of track that's like our video. But yeah, it just opens up so much opportunity together. And I I don't have to zoom in. You know, I it's just like it does one track at a time, and it I I've used it, and it's honestly it's more accurate than I can get.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Yeah, same here. And this this is a perfect example of even us two just sitting here. Anytime where you have multiple mics going and need to line up those audio streams later.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

So for for anyone who is thinking about that, I guess what for your team, what kind of things do you think you might use that for? Sounds like there was some testing on microphones. Anything else you guys might, as instructional designers, that doors that open for you or opportunities?

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Any time where we're really moving around is when we might use multiple mics. So recording outside or in a studio.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Um and But you guys are doing more, you're starting to do more of, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:25

We are, yeah. Or getting two people involved in a video, anything that would involve that kind of collaboration.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

We're gonna move away from the features a little bit. What what are your biggest, as an instructional designer, you like you said, you're making videos for volleyball, you're making videos for work, you're making a lot of videos. What's your biggest audio frustration? Like what's the thing that you wish, if you can wave a magic wand, make it go away, what what would you wish for?

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Ooh, good question. I live in an apartment and there's noises sometimes when I record, like the lawnmower outside, if my windows open.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Always a leaf blower.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Oh my god, a leaf blower, or like even the AC buzzing or a fan buzzing or the fridge buzzing, anything like that. So Camtasia and Snaggie and all our recorders have AI noise removal, and it perfectly gets rid of that. Uh, Troy, who works at TechSmith, who lives in Germany, did the coolest video. I'm sure all of us have seen it. It's uh somewhere out there on social media. Um, but where he sat in the middle of a street in Berlin and recorded, and it was very noisy around him. And AI noise removal like perfectly removed all those car noises and people talking and the wind and everything behind him. So that would be the main one. The other one is anytime I'm recording, I say sentences multiple times. My voice dies out at the end of a lot of sentences, or I just didn't say it right, or it was awkward. So I'll say sentences multiple times and then pick the ones I want to keep. And that text space editing and audiate that we were talking about before is the easiest way because I just read through and I see, okay, I said this sentence here three times in a row. Let me listen to them. I want number two, highlight, delete the first one, highlight, delete the third one, and it deletes that audio as well as the video that I had going with it. So it's easy to do multiple takes.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

I appreciate that one. I just did uh I've been recording lectures for a university course that I've been making, and uh lots of takes scripted out, right? And I have to say things multiple times because I make mistakes. Uh yeah, having the ability to s read and see the like the duplicate, and then you know, then I gotta listen to make sure I didn't the first one wasn't really the best one. Sometimes it was. Um, but I'm gonna say if uh and if the audio team's listening and audience, tell us if this is something you'd want, because we've got the like you can it detects duplicate words.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

I want duplicate sentences or phrases.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Or highlight those so I can go find them later and not keep duplicate. Yeah, that would be nice. Because I've already used the duplicate words a bunch. Not with scripted things, you know. I won't accidentally say the same word twice, but in webinars all the time. Like open up, open up snag it, because I'm still trying to click the button, anything like that, it'll already automatically delete.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Yeah. I a lot of that, that, or so, so, oh man, so so many not good duplications of words that I'm just spewing as filler. Um, so so Carson, as as we get close to wrapping up here, thinking about the audience that's probably seen your tutorials. If there was we talked about a tip at the beginning, but I'm thinking about people who are they're in the thick of doing creating videos, or probably maybe not making as many as you are, but what what would you want them to know that would maybe from what you've experienced over your time at TechSmith as someone who's made a lot of videos now, what what do you wish everyone knew about either products or just advice for video creation?

SPEAKER_00 19:43

That's a hard question. I think they're easier to update later than you think. That's been on my mind a lot. Like videos can go out of uh what's the word I'm looking for? Like uh become irrelevant. It can get stale so much faster, or one thing in your UI changes, um, anything like that. So the the best part of video editing or the thing that people should know is like throwing in, you can even just throw in a new screenshot over the top of your video um in Camtasia. And so if if this UI changed and it's only this one page that you loaded, just throw a new screenshot of the page above it and it'll like nicely transition into it. Or if there was a date up on your screen, 2021, and you don't want to know you don't want people to know that your video is that old, just you know, overlay a new um screenshot on top of it, which is you know nice how snag it and camtasia can kind of work together because you can bring images in the case.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

And now easier than ever, right? Send your images to Camtasia or from your images in Camtasia to snag it and change them and send them right back. It's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

It's it feels like cheating, but there's a lot of faking behind the scenes. Like it's it's not as much video recording as you think. It's kind of a lot of screenshots with a cursor that you you think are actually clicking, but it's really just switching the page, and it makes videos so much easier to update in the future.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

It's not cheat there's no cheating in video editing. It's called editing. It's called editing. Right. That's that's it's movie magic. That's what we like. Well, well, Carson, this has been a fantastic uh opportunity to sit down and talk about a couple features, hear a little bit more from you about why these are so valuable. We like to end our show with everyone uh giving us their final take. So, Carson, what is your final take?

SPEAKER_00 21:27

My final take is video editing can be very overwhelming at times. It can it takes it feels like it can take a while to learn or take a while to master, but there's new features that we talked about coming out, like the Zoom integration, for example, that just save so much time. Like you already did the hard work of providing a training on a Zoom meeting or providing really well-thought training on a webinar. Why not be able to reuse that instead of just having it be one and done? And so bringing that into Camtasia, making it look really nice, cutting out any words or phrases you don't want in there anymore, and in uploading it from there, just save so much time. Are uh using screenshots to kind of fake what you were doing before save so much time. Um, and then of course, the goal of any video at the end of the day is teach somebody something, no matter how big or small. So providing focus on the screen, like what exactly are you wanting them to look at? Increase your cursor size, zoom in, throw a quick box around it, throw a highlighter over it. Um, just really get your point across in the simplest way possible.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

I love it. Well, Carson, thanks for joining me in the Visual Lounge.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Thanks for having me. My first podcast ever.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Awesome, I love it. I love being the first. Hey everybody, well, you've heard Carson, there's so many ways that you can make your life a little bit easier. And it's not cheating, it is good design and good editing. And we hope that you take time, that you're spending time get to know the products that you have, get to know the new features because they're there to help you to make your ability so much easier. And we like to say, of course, at the end of every show, we hope you take a little time to level up every single day. Thanks, everybody.