Need Advice for Screen Recording

puredrifting

puredrifting

Major Contributor
Hi:

I have a shoot coming up that will involve a trainer with a computer who is interfacing with some audio interfaces via a network connection.
I need to make plans for screen capture/recording. I know on Macs you can use QuickTime to screen record but it doesn't allow you to set a
raster size or frame rate. I need a utility that allows you to set raster size and frame rate. Not sure yet if the client's computer will be a Mac
or a PC. Would we want to use Camtasia for this or is there something better?

Also for bonus points, I am sure you've seen a screen capture program that a lot of trainers and YouTubers use that offers different options
for focusing the viewers attention like a mouse that enlargens and shrinks down when clicked on a button on screen? I've see another one
that has a ring that follows the mouse around and when the mouse is clicked on something, the mouse sends out "rings/circles" around where it is clicked?


Anyone have any idea about the best way to do this for a training video?

Thanks!
 
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P.S. If you're not familiar with software like that, many have the cursor effects built in.

So if you used Camtasia (for example), you'd have some choices:

https://youtu.be/mg059AWMvbk?t=99

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5TD9EJ-aLg

[Filmora offers their own too. And I just saw it's also for Windows.]

___

EDIT: Wanted to add that you can edit the screen captures in the various software you're using to produce them. That's where you would alter the cursor effects.

Sometimes you'll want to highlight the cursor with nothing else, but then other times you may want to zoom in or darken everything else around it all in the same minute or two of content, etc.

You can do all of this from scratch in any modern NLE, but it's a ton of work. Not recommended.
 
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QuickTime captures at whatever resolution your display is set to at 60 FPS. My Mid 2012 MBP's native resolution is 1280x800, so I have to hold down the option key while selecting Scaled display settings, in order to have the 1280x720 option for 16:9 aspect ratio. I was able to capture 1920x1080 by forcing my screen to the higher resolution with the Retina DisplayMenu app. QuickTime has an option to show mouse clicks BTW.

Can't you do screen recording with OBS?
 
Imamacuser said:
QuickTime captures at whatever resolution your display is set to at 60 FPS. My Mid 2012 MBP's native resolution is 1280x800, so I have to hold down the option key while selecting Scaled display settings, in order to have the 1280x720 option for 16:9 aspect ratio. I was able to capture 1920x1080 by forcing my screen to the higher resolution with the Retina DisplayMenu app. QuickTime has an option to show mouse clicks BTW.

Can't you do screen recording with OBS?
Click to expand...

I don't use OBS although I am thinking about it. When you capture with QuickTime and examine the files in FCP X, the playback is variable frame rate and all over the map, usually around 19-20 fps on my system. Def not ending up with 60 fps? Is there a frame rate setting I am missing?
 
That's weird, Resolve and VLC say that my screen recording is 60 FPS. I couldn't find a frame rate option in QuickTime, but I'm on version 10.4, if that makes a difference.
 
In 10.5, I see 60 too.

Somewhere along the updates - maybe from 10.3 to 10.4 - the screen recording interface changed (and maybe some other things under the hood).
 
Camtasia is a very good product and if budget permits, hard to go wrong.

OBS can do it, but I have not tried it.

Resolve can do this too, but then you are looking at a fairly powerful computer.

Many remote connection tools allow recording, but again no real experience.

How about display port or HDMI out to a recorder? It won't give you the curser effects, but it sure is easy to use. We've used Avermedia Game capture Pro devices to make some of our videos, only good up to HD. After that a 4k recorder might be the thing to use for higher resolutions.
 
OBS is good for just capturing the screen but it lacks special features like zooming in etc... that other screencast software have.
 
The real challenge is that this will be recording on the clients computer for the shoot. So whatever we use, I have to get them to download it to their computer and to get trained on how it works.
This shoot is for a hardware company that has a lot of accompanying software control of their devices so they may already have something in place, I am just doing my producer due diligence to have solutions ready
to go should the need arise.

Waiting to hear back from their in-house people about whether it will be Mac or PC or both and if they already have something to record the screen. Thanks guys for all of the good suggestions.
 
For our training shoots, we use OBS. As mentioned, something like an Atomos recorder can also do the job.
 
I used filmora Scrn yesterday (the one I recommended on the last page).

It's so easy and the cursor highlights are nice. I edit the files in FCP X.

You can download a free trial and test it out.
 
NorBro said:
I used filmora Scrn yesterday (the one I recommended on the last page).

It's so easy and the cursor highlights are nice. I edit the files in FCP X.

You can download a free trial and test it out.
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks for the recommendation. I am going to try to get the client to put it on their Mac.
 
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