How do I publish HQ video tutorials?

[mightyfun]

I finally have some video tutorials using Xara Xtreme, however, I can't figure out how to publish them to Youtube without having them come out a blurry mess.

I'm using Camtasia 6.0, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Please help,

Jen

[steve.ledger]

Hi Jen,

This is an important question and one which could help very many people I'm certain. Video tutorials are a teriffic method to pass on information, tips and direct help. But they have to be of good visual quality I agree.

I have moved your thread to the Off-Topic forum as the question doesn't relate directly to Xtreme rather it's a question about HQ video publishing at YouTube.

I would like to hear members thoughts and experiences here also, particulalry from Egg, Bob Hahn and Xhris.

[Regular]

You might try the advice from this Website.

http://www.gorissen.info/Pierre/item...ast-on-youtube

[mightyfun]

I too would like to hear from the tutorial veterans here in the forum.

I did read the link and it brings up some things I can try. I'm going to give it a go tonight and see if I can get something to work.

I'll let you know what happens,

Jen

[steve.ledger]

Following the advise given on this site, I was able to upload HD video to YouTube.

[mightyfun]

My videos STINK! Ugh I think I'm going to have to do them all over again. It doesn't matter how much I tweak them in publishing, I just don't get clear results.

I guess I'll just try again.

[mightyfun]

After working all day to get a clear video I finally stepped back and took some pointers from the pro's (i.e.: egg, and bob hahn).

I went to Youtube and watched some of their tutorials and made a couple of notes:

1. They're videos weren't crystal clear, but they used a zoom tool to give the viewer a close shot of the icons they were using.

2. They reduced the size of the Xara program to shrink the overall space ( I don't know if I said that right, but essentially the sized down instead of having the program take up their whole browser).

So I downloaded a free zoom tool by Microsoft called ZoomIt and zoomed in on every key step. I also reduced Xara and placed it over the bottom menu of my browser so it would be included for certain steps. Then I was able to use Camtasia in a partial screen mode and adjust it to fit over my used browser space.

So YEA! I finished my first tutorial! It's a bit weird in places because I'm not the greatest at the zooming part, but I think it's good enough that someone not familiar with Xara could follow the directions without any confusion. Hopefully with a bit more practice I'll be able to control the zoom tool better.

I started a blog for these tutorials scrapbookingwithxara.blogspot.com

Thank you for all of the help. I really wanted to be able to contribute to the community and I hope this will be the first step.

Jen

[AndFarr]

Very nicely done Jen.
I really liked your use of the zoom tool as it really makes it easy for the viewers to see exactly what you are referring to.
Also you have a very nice voice!
Keep up the good work!
- Andrew

[mightyfun]

Thanks Andrew,

I've got another one up now too, and one more in the works to finish the first page.

It's funny hearing my own voice. I really don't like listening to myself after I've made the tutorial. It took me awhile to be able to even make them with my husband in the room. He was like an added audience, then I realized he was playing hearts on my laptop, and he wouldn't hear a word I was saying anyway - lol, so I got over it and started working on them.

I hope to start from very basic tutorials, and work up to some more advanced pages to introduce the amazing tools that Xara has. I keep telling people that it's as simple as pie, but it's hard to convince people that have never worked in a graphics program before.

[Xhris]

Hi,

Sorry, I missed this thread; I wasn’t expecting something sufficiently related to Xara that should be in the main forum (along with all the other similar video threads) to end up in off-topic. It's pure luck I found it at all really. I’d recommend the following simple three stage procedure for creating Xara video tutorials, based on my method. I've produced a huge number of instructional Xara videos and would like to think I’ll do more in the future. Camtasia is the only software worth using if you’re serious about recording video tutorials, despite its disgusting overpricing.

Stage 1: Record the video
1. (YouTube can now support HD widescreen 720p videos). Set the Xara application window to be an appropriate size for HD widescreen recording. E.g. 720p (1280x720) (see pic 1).
2. Record your video.
3. When you stop recording, save the video. It saves into Camtasia Studio’s proprietary video format (.camrec).

Stage 2: Edit the video
1. Once saved, edit it as the dialogue options offer. You can save this edited file as Camtasia Studio’s proprietary format (.camproj).
2. The project setting dialogue appears when you first start editing (pic 2). Make sure you set the resolution to the same as the video was recorded in, and do not let Camtasia SmartFocus (it’s thick).
3. Go through the video using the Zoom-n-pan feature on the left, carefully (and laboriously) manually zooming in and out of regions of interest. If you want to do a proper job, you will need to spend most of your time here. It’s pretty intuitive to use.

Stage 3: Publish and upload the video
1. When you’re done editing, save, and click the ‘produce video as’ button. The format you publish (re-render) the video at is important.
2. I strongly recommend the wmv format as it produces very high quality renders with very low file sizes. See pic 3 for what settings should be chosen for the first 3 screens. Make sure the video is set to export at the same resolution as recording in the fourth screen. The rest of the screens are self explanatory and all but the last one (involving naming) can be skipped through.
3. The video renders, and can then be uploaded to YouTube. To view a video in such high resolution, it is necessary to add “&fmt=22” to the YT web address. Adding nothing plays it in low resolution, adding “&fmt=18” plays it in high resolution, but the “&fmt=22” plays it in maximum resolution. Note that with “&fmt=22”, videos not uploaded at 720p quality will default to low res; in these cases use “&fmt=18”.

Xhris