Welcome back to the getting started series!
In this tutorial, we’ll take the project a step further, by adding annotations,
for use as titles and callouts, transitions, to improve the flow of our video,
and behaviors to engage our viewers with eye catching animations.
Before we start, let’s quickly look at how videos are made in Camtasia.
Videos are created on the timeline, moving sequentially from left to the right.
Each timeline track is a layer and media can be moved and repositioned between tracks
by clicking and dragging, where the top most track is completely visible
and the bottom tracks can be hidden by those above.
Everything at the point of the playhead is displayed on the canvas.
The Canvas, is the working area where you arrange,
rotate, resize, and even reorder content.
Think of it as a blank sheet of paper that you build your project on.
It spans the entire project and everything on the canvas will be produced in the final video.
The canvas color can be customized,
and you can zoom in or out to get a better look at your work.
Layers are automatically created by dragging media to the timeline, or to the canvas.
Now that we have a basic idea of how videos are created,
let’s jump to the project for an example.
I’ll add a title to the project, by selecting a text annotation, and dragging it to the timeline.
The annotation appears over top of the video since it is on the highest track.
Double click the annotation to add text,
use the handles to change its size
and click and drag to reposition.
Since titles are easier to read when they are on top of a solid color,
I’m going to select all the media on the timeline and move it to the right.
This creates a blank timeline space where the color of the canvas shows through.
I can use this space for a title slide.
To customize the look and feel of the annotation, select it,
then change its font,
background color and more in the properties panel.
Press play to preview the title or move the playhead and press the spacebar.
Hmmm, the jump from the title to the recording is a bit harsh.
Let’s smooth it out by adding a transition, which can be done by dragging it to the timeline.
Clips on the timeline highlight to show where the transition can be applied.
And where two pieces of media touch each other, the transition is automatically applied
to the end of the first and the beginning of the second.
To change the duration of the transition, click and drag the ends.
To delete a transition, click the transition and press delete.
This is looking pretty good. Let’s take it a step further and bring the text to life by adding a behavior.
Behaviors can be applied to all visual objects on the timeline.
Simply drag the behavior to the annotation
and watch what happens...
nice!
Customize how the behavior enters the canvas,
what it does when it’s on the canvas and how it leaves,
by adjusting its properties in the properties panel.
If you want to delete the behavior, click the “x.”
I’ll go more in depth into everything you can do with behaviors in a later tutorial.
Now that the beginning of the video is finished, let’s add another title to the middle.
Move the playhead to where you want to add the callout,
select the media and split the clips by pressing the “split” button,
or using the “s” key on Windows and “cmd+t” on Mac.
Then select all of the media after the split and move it to the right.
We could copy and paste our original title if we wanted them all to look the same,
however, I want to try something new.
I’ll choose this one and drag it directly to the canvas, then change its text.
Notice that the callout is added to the timeline exactly where the playhead is located.
Reposition and resize it to fit into the space we created.
Let’s also change the size and color to match the theme,
then add a behavior to make it come alive.
I’ll choose “pop up.”
Lastly, add a transition to both ends of the annotation at the same time by dragging it to
the middle of the clip.
This is looking nice.
To finish, I’ll add one more annotation that points out a key piece of information that I want
the viewer to know. I’ll use an arrow,
rotate it by clicking and dragging the rotate handle, then add text.
Next, I’ll change its size,
color
and position,
then add a behavior to grab attention.
Lastly change the behavior to make it slide in from the right.
Perfect,
try adding a few more titles throughout the video and be sure to check out the next tutorial
on improving your video with animations and effects.
Thanks for watching