I have a confession. Creating a webcam video is hard.
A t least it is for me.
I either stumble over my words, or I forget what I want to say.
I think I’ve lost count with how many times I’ve tried making this intro.
But, I know that one of the challenges with teaching online
is making that connection with your students,
and that’s where using a webcam can definitely help.
During the next few minutes, I’m going to show you an example of how to create an introduction or
welcome video for your students.
I’ll be using my Windows laptop, an external webcam,
PowerPoint, and Camtasia.
Let’s get started.
I have a few slides ready to go with some introduction information to share.
I have the Camtasia Recorder open so I can select exactly what I want to capture.
For this example, I’m going to record my full screen,
turn on and select my external webcam,
and select the correct microphone.
If I mouse over the webcam preview, I can position myself the way I want to be captured.
This is actually pretty important, because when I start the recording,
the webcam will minimize and won’t be visible on the screen while recording.
This allows the webcam and screen to be recorded separately,
which is helpful during editing.
You’ll see what I mean later when we get to the Camtasia Editor.
Before I start recording, I’ll get my PowerPoint slides in slideshow mode and ready to go.
I’ll click Record and after the countdown, I can walk through the slides like a regular presentation.
Don’t forget that the webcam does minimize, but it is still being recorded along with your screen.
If possible, try and look directly into the webcam so that your students will get the sense that you’re speaking to them.
It definitely takes some practice.
When you’re finished, use the hotkey F10 (or Function F10 on some laptops) to stop your recording.
Your recording will open in the Camtasia Editor,
with the screen recording on track 1, and the webcam and audio on track 2.
Since the webcam is on track 2, it appears on top of the screen recording on the canvas.
This is great, because now I have full control over when and where I want the webcam visible in my video.
The first thing I try and remember to do with a new video project is save it.
So, I’ll go to File > Save as > and name this project with something that makes sense to me.
I’m already in the folder where I want to save it, so I’ll click Save.
This is helpful because now the project will autosave any and all updates that I make from editing my video.
Trimming out mistakes is usually where I start with the editing process,
and I did make a couple mistakes while recording that I want to remove and clean up.
I will move the playhead just before my mistake on the timeline and drag this red handle to select the part that I want to remove.
I can play it back to listen and make sure I have the correct spot,
and adjust as necessary.
Then I’ll click the scissors icon to ripple cut this part of the video.
Everything slides to the left, and when I play it back now it’s like this mistake never happened.
Magic!
After I’ve removed all of my mistakes, I can now use some Animation effects to show, hide, and move the webcam clip in the video.
For example, to start off the video, I may want to select and move the webcam to reposition it here on the screen.
The webcam would then stay in this position for the entire video, unless I used an animation to move it someplace else.
Like at this point in the video, I can go to Animations, and drag down a Custom Animation and place it on top of the Webcam
clip where the playhead is.
With the animation selected, I can reposition and resize the webcam so that it changes at this time in the video.
I’ll playback the video to show you what it looks like.
Pretty cool.
I can add more animations to the webcam clip at any time,
if I ever want to reposition, resize, or even hide the webcam from view.
For example, let’s say at this point in the video I’d like to hide the webcam from view so the focus is on the screen recording content.
I’ll drag down a custom animation and make sure that it’s selected.
In the Properties panel, I can adjust the opacity level to zero,
and the webcam will now be hidden from the video.
The audio and screen recording is still all there, but just not the webcam.
If you ever want to bring your webcam back later,
just add another animation and adjust the opacity in the properties panel.
There are lots of other fun effects that you can explore to enhance your video,
and you can check out additional Camtasia tutorials to learn more.
The final step is to export your video into a format that you can share with your students.
There are some cloud outputs that you can share directly to,
or choose Local file and produce an MP4 video that you can then upload or share to your destination of choice.
I hope that you found this tutorial helpful,
and perhaps gives you a little more confidence to know that you can do this.
I know you can.