Streaming Video Tutorials - What is your Preferred Format?

[sonicsmurf]

props for mentioning Conclave Obscurum, which has been a favourite of mine for a few years now.

bingo! know what? this site was exactly what your site made me think of! yes. btw i had email contact with the designer of that site. i still love that style.. so much. (the first version was more impressive though)
hmm - in order to prevent a discussion between Flash nerds here i just wanted to say: so you're probably into stuff like yugop.com if you're into math art. cool!
(and now back to the topic

[Ben [Camel Audio]]

Hi,

I've been considering doing little video tutorials for my plugins. I'm leaning towards flash for various reasons - its cross platform, create nice small files, etc. It sounds like there's a lot of flash experts around, so I hope you don't mind if I ask a question.

I want to create really simple tutorials in the first instance. Basically, just video grab of the screen, with a voiceover. I have no flash experience and just want to get it done as rapidly and easily as possible.

What package would you recommend for this? I've been recommended Camtasia Studio. http://www.techsmith.com/products/studi ... StudioHome - but its relatively steep at $299, so I'd be interested in other options.

Also, is Camtasia studio capable of doing things like building a little demo mp3 player like at the NI site, and creating ads?

Thanks
Ben

[Meffy]

I despise Flash*, but have heard almost nothing negative about Camtasia. (The main negative was its price, of course.) Either it's great or it has a fanatic following. Or both.
____________________
* Not for what it is, but for how it's used -- for eye-wrenching distractions when I want to see CONTENT.

[kevvvvv]

The Meffster

I despise Flash*, but have heard almost nothing negative about Camtasia. (The main negative was its price, of course.) Either it's great or it has a fanatic following. Or both.
____________________
* Not for what it is, but for how it's used -- for eye-wrenching distractions when I want to see CONTENT.

We use flash animation to describe business processes or computer processes.

Also use it for marketing messages.

Check my home page for a 60 second salesy flash anim.

I don't see any of these as a content-free distractions

[Meffy]

That's all fine -- but I don't get to see your business or tech documents, and prefer not to see animated marketing messages (and most other animations, for that matter) at all. :-)

[edit] What I really resent the most is websites that use Flash to implement their exclusive navigational system, or that make it difficult to get around without Flash. By doing so they say to me "we're more interested in eye candy than in earning your dollars with this site."

[sonicsmurf]

Same with me: I don't like Flash used for website intros and eye candy, unless it's actually art created by visual designers that I may like (or innovative new ideas), a field that in my mind is strictly seperated from Flash used on business sites.
Me? No. I would never want to have a Flash site. I know too much about the user opinions in this field. I know that many users dislike the distracting animations, the music that kicks in all of a sudden, missing "skip" buttons, and also the navigation systems (- however, in reply to your argument: *some* of the 'creative' HTML sites got bloddy weird navigation systems, too. And if you today look at new large corporate sites that use Flash, you see that the NEW trend fortunately is to make neutral and non-distracting menus and navigation systems -- especially in Flash sites.)
Flash intros are usually not "necessary" in any way, and often badly done.

This does not change the fact that a software tutorial done with Flash, if not overdone, promises to be the best user experience. Not only promises, it's clear. You speak of content? Well yes: Especially as far as content presentation goes!

You can build a Flash tutorial with an integrated chapter-navigation and a possibility for the users to directly select the very content they want. Let them decide.
So- you can deliver content in a faster and more direct way (always speaking specifically of an interactive tutorial for a complex and multi-faceted software package with a more or less steep learning curve) with.. phew... Flash.

Mission: Deliver content in a more effective way and let the users decide what they want to be taught next; make your learning material visually and acoustically interact with the user action.
Lesson: Something you cannot do with MPEG.

I also believe that Camtasia (watch demo to see interactive tut) is the tool to use for such a task.

[Meffy]

I agree that Flash is technologically wonderful stuff. :-) Certainly some great design work is done using it. And it might well be the best choice for this... my personal opinion of it not really being relevant (so I ought not to have brought it in; it's like mud on the shoes though). :-D

[sonicsmurf]

I see your point Meffy and actually agree. Hmm, let me think of software tutorials (videos) I have seen until now (I watched many since I am developer and every developer learns from other developers)....... Honestly now? The truth is, these videos usually play too fast for me.

I usually start learning slow and once I picked up the basics I learn extremely fast. Yes, that's me. With the videos I have seen, I've always been feeling a bit pushed. If there was an information a few minutes into the tutorial that I did not get, I had to rewind the whole damn thing and watch again from the beginning (be it Quicktime or any other format).
But if I could have a tutorial that I can somehow control myself, and go at my own speed, I would really be more willing to learn the things it wants to teach me.

We are not talking about Flash sites, or stupid Flash intros and how some users feel about them. We are only talking about tutorials. A big difference.

[sonicsmurf]

Incidentally (anyone), are Windows Media files easily readable on Macs (via iTunes I guess)?

Oh, this question remained unanswered *g*. To my knowledge: No, but soon. (just like the Tracktion 2 release I'm waiting for *grumble*)

At the beginning of last month, Apple announced to do it, but I couldn't see WHEN it will be.
Info: http://www.macobserver.com/article/2005/04/01.3.shtml
(also note that the date of Apple's press release saying they would actually support a Microsoft (*gasp*) product was 1st April, but it seems true)

Hey Ben, I love Tracktion. Tell Jules: Thank you for making that!

[Ben [KVR]]

Well I'm quite taken with the SWF format as it is pretty ubiquitous. Thanks for you replies.

[op519]

I voted for Flash (SWF)

For tutorials it has actually gotten quite simple for people to make them very well also with the availability of Macromedia Captivate. This is an app which records your movements on screen, mouse clicks & what happens when you click a mouse etc. I believe NicFit used this (or RoboDemo which is now called Captivate) to do his EnergyXT Flash tutorials

I am not familiar with Camtasia though will check it out.