July 22, 2024
Reading Time: About 2 mins
Context
Camtasia is a powerful video and audio recording software, available at no cost for UBC faculty, staff and students, which allows users to record their screen and webcam. Camtasia may be used for instructional videos or student academic projects. Recently, Camtasia 2024 launched the AI-assisted Rev workflow, which makes editing recordings more intuitive.
Once a recording is completed, the Rev workflow activates. This workflow offers a number of options in five categories:
- screen recording dimensions for specific sharing platforms
- design layout, where you can choose how the webcam footage overlays with the recorded screen content (e.g., picture-in-picture, circular video in background, or webcam footage in the corner with background removal on)
- background selection
- effects (including cursor sizing and highlighting, drop shadows, etc.)
- video lens filters
Another feature released with Camtasia 2024 is Dynamic Captions. This feature generates captions where each word can be highlighted as it is spoken. You can choose from a selection of eight presets and drag and drop them into the timeline. The recording will be automatically transcribed, making the video more accessible by providing written text. Other Camtasia 2024 features include new behaviours and audio visualizers, a tiling visual effect and Camtasia assets integration.
Along with the Rev launch, Camtasia has also improved their Audiate integration, which allows for AI script generation, text-to-speech, text-based video editing, translation, automated audio cleanup and more. Please note that the Audiate features are only available on the Camtasia Create plan, which is not covered by UBC’s Camtasia subscription.
Generating a Video
In the tutorial below, we recorded a video which included a screen recording, webcam footage and audio. After the recording was complete, the Camtasia Rev workflow was activated. The following settings were selected:
- Size: Recorded size
- Layout: Speaker in background, background removal turned on
- Background: Gradient
- Effects: Cursor effect
- Video lens filter: Red pop
Evaluation
After finishing a recording and using the Rev workflow, you may export the video as an MP4, share it on YouTube or Google Drive or select “Edit in Camtasia” to further edit the video within a timeline and add external clips. In the Camtasia editor, you have full control of how you want to edit the video, with AI acting as an assistant.
Rev will also “memorize” your workflow setting selections and save them for future recordings, increasing the efficiency of the video creation process. This feature allows video creators to ensure consistency in their content.
In the tutorial video above, we demonstrated the Dynamic Captions feature and found that it was effective at producing automatic, AI-generated captions using the text-to-speech function. However, we edited the AI-generated captions in a few places where the captions were inaccurate. We also edited the Dynamic Captions settings and found that it was easy to save these settings to the toolbox so they could be dragged and dropped for other projects.
These new AI features in Camtasia may be used by UBC Faculty of Education instructors and students for increased efficiency in video editing, making media accessible and inclusive for a diverse audience.