Screencasting or screen recording software suggestions

[Big Train James]

I'm looking for a software that will enable me to make video tutorials demonstrating Autocad tips and techniques. I just did a step by step screen capture type thing to answer one of Mick's questions in his B1 thread, and am sure it would be simpler and probably more successful to offer a video instead. I need something that can record the screen session while also recording audio from a microphone. I'm open to suggestions. Free is always good, of course .

Thanks,
Jim

 

[daifly]

This might do what you want and is/was used by Martin Wynne for his Templot tutorials. It's free for thirty days and not expensive after that. Worth a look perhaps.
Dave

 

[Big Train James]

Thanks for the tip Dave . I've taken a look and it shows some promise. I haven't seen this particular software listed when searching. Maybe my previous results have been US-centric? There is a free version as well as the paid version. But even the paid version is substantially cheaper than Camtasia, which appears to be the gold standard for screen recording software.

Jim

 

[martin_wynne]

Hi Jim,

I used Camtasia for years but found it very flaky on 2 different systems, constantly crashing and locking up. I had to do frequent saves to avoid losing work.

I was really pleased to discover FlashBack from Blueberry Software. The same lossless screen recording, easier frame-by-frame editing, plus significant interactive features for tutorials. The name is confusing -- although it can create Adobe Flash files, mostly for the web it creates HTML5 video, and if you use the paid-for version it provides an easy-to-use direct upload from the software to its own free hosting service, FlashBackConnect. Having said that, HTML5 video is pretty awful for line graphics, but now that Adobe have said they will be killing off Flash, we don't have much choice for web videos.

The image quality is far better in the native FBR format, which can be played in their stand-alone executable viewer.

Another great feature is the way the mouse cursor movement is recorded separately, and can be edited to smooth out any fumbles, or even re-recorded over the video if desired.

Here's a short (silent) Templot example of FlashBack HTML5 video with interactive stop/start, hosted on FlashBackConnect:

FlashBack Connect

This is a longer one with a recorded commentary instead of stop/start notes:

FlashBack Connect

regards,

Martin.