TechSmith, a company that produces screen capture, screen casting & video editing software, have released Camtasia 2018. Camtasia is a screen recorder and video editor, with drag & drop functions, to easily make professional looking videos, or so they say. Even though Camtasia has been around for a while, it’s only this new update that’s got us excited and we’re glad we got sent a couple of copies to try the software out.
Camtasia is marketed to the commercial sector, showcasing its ability to produce video tutorials, presentation and educational experiences, though it can also be used for home videos and YouTube videos etc. There are several new features & improvements including:
– Screen recorder, including recording mouse movements & adding notes
– Import your own images, videos (upto 4k) & audio files
– Multiple track timeline, allowing multiple layers of video, audio, text
– Annotations such as arrows, callouts & shapes
– Transitions, animations, visual & audio effects, interactivity within a video, voice narration & green screen compatible
After installation, I was greeted by a short introduction video, showcasing the vast extent of tutorials & support offered with the software, which is great to see, and you will use it. I created a new project, imported some video footage and started to explore.
The program has a modern feel to it, with a grey & green colour scheme, with easy to read test and the overall layout is very simple and easy to navigate. At the centre of the screen is the preview area, with editing options either side of that, timeline at the bottom and standard options/file etc at the top. I started at the top and worked my way through the editing options and was surprised at the goodies they had on offer!
The library option includes a number of pre-set materials you can use and edit to suit, including cartoon illustrations (known as icons), animated intros & outros, lower thirds animations, motion backgrounds, royalty free music tracks, plus for an additional cost, you can download even more via the TechSmith website. How do you use these items? Simply drag and drop them into the preview window and then double click to edit. It’s that simple.
Moving on through the editing options, there are also several annotations you can insert, including text, arrows & shapes. There are transitions for said annotations, including the traditional fade in, slide left to right etc, all of which are customisable. Like transitions, there are behaviours & animations for your text, videos or objects. There are also cursor effects for screen recording, voice narration, audio & visual effects, interactivities such as adding a quiz, and finally captions. There’s too much to write about, so here’s a run through for a video we made this week.
Once you’re happy with your video, it’s time to export it. There are several options when exporting, including the traditional save to hard drive, but also share direct to your YouTube or Vimeo account (log in required). For me, I export to my hard drive and then distribute it however I need later. I created a small 90 second clip, which rendered down very quickly and saved as a small MP4 file (other file formats available).
If we compare Camtasia 2018 to other video editing software, such as Adobe Premier Pro, which we have used multiple times in the past, there are pro’s & cons to both. Camtasia is far easier to use and offers a lot more to the novice & intermediate video editor, allowing them to produce some professional looking videos. It lacks on the finer details, the details the more professional editors require, such as colour grading which I touched upon earlier. Camtasia is A LOT cheaper than Premier Pro and for us, we will be using it a lot more in the future to create our social media & YouTube videos, and maybe even replace Premier Pro in the future…
We highly recommend Camtasia to new & existing video editors. At least take them up on their trial offer and try it out for yourself.
Camtasia retails at £216, all in. For more information and to try it out or purchase, visit the official TechSmith website.
System Requirements:
- Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 or greater (Windows 10 recommended)
- 2.0 GHz CPU with dual-core processor minimum (Recommended: 2.8 Ghz 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i5 Processor with 4 CPU Cores or better or equivalent or better AMD processor)
- Integrated graphics is acceptable however 4K and/or 60 FPS media will perform best with discrete graphics cards
- 4 GB RAM minimum (Recommended: 16 GB or more)
- 2 GB of hard-disk space for program installation
- Display dimensions of 1024×768 or greater
- Available on both Windows & Mac.
