Comments on: Gettin’ it done: Simple Instructional Video Creation on Linux

By: JeffC

JeffC — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:45:02 +0000

Abe; I understand about anonymity well; I work for Sony and can barely admit in public that I work for them due to 7K layers of NDA this and that. That said, Sony is a really great company to work for if you like Linux and thinking outside the box.

So keep it as anonymous as you like or need. I simply want to help you put your best foot forward because Linux wins *anywhere* lifts all boats. I am not a pro at this (well the desktop video creation anyhow; I might have laid a line or two of code professionally) and make mistakes but if I can save you some pain, allow me to be of service.

Cheers and good luck on that presentation. Oh yeah, if you don’t have it, grab Audacity; the Sound Recorder mentioned in this story is OK for a slam it together kind of thing but if you need to do audio conversion/editing/syncing/you name it, Audacity is an apt-get away and between that and Avimerge I was able to assemble three chunks of video with two different blocks of audio and have it all synced perfectly. I was amazed myself how easy it was. Also when recording the dialog use the best noise-canceling mic you can; I had one that I had used for Skype conference calls; I could have the TV/music going in the background and none of it was picked up by the mic while my voice came through clearly. Not sure on the model but its a Plantronics headset with boom mic. The headset looks like a set of old style audio headphones. As an added bonus it is comfortable enough to wear for hours.

If I can drudge up any other tips from memory I will post it here. Like I said, good luck mate.

Jeff
JeffC AT JBCobb DOT net

By: Abe

Abe — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:52:58 +0000

Will do and thanks for the additional tips. The presentation is in late Oct and I have time to prepare. I will try to make it as good as possible. I already added a bookmark to this page and I will let you know how it goes. I have to keep things as anonymous as possible though.

Thanks again.

By: JeffC

JeffC — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:51:35 +0000

Abe; If you do this may I suggest the following strategy:
* keep what you capture to smaller videos.
* even with the smaller videos, once they are in AVI format, you can use the nice set of tools that includes avimerge which I think is part of the transcode package. Also, Avidemux can be your friend with it comes to trimming and basic video editing.

Good luck and write to me here if you have any questions; I did a similar thing a few years ago complete with soundtrack and titles.
Cheers

Jeff

By: Abe

Abe — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:37:52 +0000

Just wanted to add that I will try to use your setup and run a short demo during the presentation.

Thanks for the tips and I hope it will be successful.

By: Abe

Abe — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:27:56 +0000

Yes JeffC, something similar to Captivate from Adobe or Camtasia or even as simple as CamStudio which, I beleive is GPL but only runs on Windows. Yack
As a matter of fact, I was asked to make a presentation about Open Source software, FOSS more specifically to my colleagues at work. It is part of an out of the box technology presentation. My plan is to demonstrate Linux desktop and its various application that also are available on Windows. e.g. OOo, Gimp, etc…
CamStudio is one of them and how it could be used for training and howto tutorials.

By: JeffC

JeffC — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:29:04 +0000

Abe; are you talking about an integrated GUI for creating desktop videos (soup-to-nuts)? Should not really be that hard actually…let me look into this….tks for reading and for the suggestion.

JeffC

By: Abe

Abe — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:03:51 +0000

What we need now is someone who is a good developer (Like the one who developed K3B) and put all that together and get a great package for the Linux newbie folks.
It would be a tremendous help for the many who have been waiting for a long time for something like this to be available.

By: JeffC

JeffC — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:26:24 +0000

Glad you folks liked it. Like Henny Youngman used to say, got a hundred of ‘em. Sometimes you want to build the Eiffel Tower and sometimes you just want a roof over your head.

Moreover, I have seen where a simple video (better than this but not totally dissimilar) will get key concepts across where 100 pages of hyper-accurate text cannot.

Cheers
Jeff

By: Dan R

Dan R — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:42:30 +0000

I can see a million uses for this tutorial, and may give it a shot soon. Thanks for the tips.

By: ce

ce — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:23:16 +0000

Thanks for putting this out there. I’ve been trying to find something that I could use to build out a “basic computer usage” home school curriculum for my daughter. This fits the bill. I like the “just get it done” approach…