Stereo framing vidtuts done!

I promised it in Flickr eleven months ago.  Sascha Becher reminded me last month.  It took me a couple of weeks or so to get it done.  But the "Stereo Framing" series of vidtuts is all done!  You can also view it directly in YouTube.





Whew! This was a bit of a challenge, but well worth the effort.

First, I've never done video tutorials before, so there was a lot of technical research that I had to do, as well as best practices research on teaching using videos.

Thankfully, and perhaps synchronistically, TechSmith.com offered a 30-day free trial of Camtasia Studio 7.  I had tried CamStudio, but it was very limited and the frame rate wasn't fast enough so that the mouse was jumping around.  I may end up buying a license for Camtasia so I can continue doing vidtuts in the future, but I'll have to figure out finances first.

I think $300 is too much for Camtasia, when Sony Vegas sells for 1/10th that price and has pretty much the same video editing functionality except for the screen capture.  I think Sony Vegas even has more features. But I'm not familiar enough with either product to make a reliable comparison.

Besides, Camtasia is missing some basic functionality, like the ability to select multiple objects in the timeline to be able to move/copy them at the same time to another location, or the ability to define custom callouts.  The set of callouts is very limited.  I would also like to be able to "unhide" the parts of the raw videos that I "deleted" in case I change my mind long after an Undo is no longer feasible.  I guess I'm comparing it to hiding columns in Excel.

I'm going to try Fraps next time, since I've already tried Fraps with the machinima ad I made for Mer Betta.

Anyway, now I can add video tutorials to my list of things I know how to make.  *grins*

Second, I got a chance to explore the other features of Stereomasken that I've never really played with before.

Third, I got a chance to get to know Bernd Paksa, who created Stereomasken.  Our communications have been all by email.  He writes in German, I write in English, and Google translates.  :D  He's telling me tips and tricks and he has more, so I think it's better to just create a new series instead of cramming them all in this seies.

Fourth, I've also fleshed out the website as I've worked on the vidtuts, so things are more organized.