Daniel Park (pictured to the left) has spent more than
a decade in multimedia development, and has worked with Camtasia
Studio since its introduction as Camtasia back at the
start of the milennium. He served as a trainer and technical writer
before scoring a full-time gig at TechSmith Corporation,
where he worked in international development, marketing, database
administration, and (of course) video creation. For the past three
years, he has run dappertext LLC, a small consultancy specializing
in creating training and marketing videos about software. He spends
most of his time running around the south of Spain with his wife
and son.
Geetesh:
Tell us more about yourself, and your involvement with
Camtasia Studio.
Daniel:
I, like most multimedia designers, fell into the field from
other disciplines. I actually began my higher education with
a hankering to become an actor, and declared a theatre major
within the first two weeks of my freshman year. It wasn't
exactly the most marketable thing I could have done. No regrets,
though. I find that my theatrical training has practical
uses no matter what I'm doing professionally.
While still in college, I had the opportunity to do a study
abroad in Germany for a semester. That one semester turned
into three. The next thing I knew, I was beginning a Master's
program in German. It seemed to all happen in an eyeblink
- I took my first college-level German course at the age
of 20, and taught my first college-level German course at
the age of 23. So schnell geht das.
Teaching was a teriffic experience. I also had a blossoming
interest in technology, specifically computer-assisted language
learning, and a large portion of my work and studies were
devoted to that. These paved the way for my first out-of-school
position as a software trainer and tech writer.
Then, in 2000, I got an assignment to consult with a company
called TechSmith Corporation. They had a brand-new product
named Camtasia, which could take any actions viewed on a
computer and capture it as a video. They wanted me to use
Camtasia to make videos about Camtasia. Even though it was
a very young product with a limited feature set, I was blown
away by the possibilities.
Later that year, I accepted a role with TechSmith as a full-timer.
It was a tiny organization at that time (17 people including
me), which allowed me to wear a lot of hats. I was able to
stretch my wings and experiment, working in such roles as
database design, marketing, and international development.
I never got far away from the video creation aspect, though,
and continued to make training and marketing videos for them
throughout my three-year tenure.
Then, in 2003, my wife and I decided to return to her hometown
of Huelva, Spain, so I left TechSmith to start dappertext
LLC. As the name implies, I was originally envisioning copywriting
and tech writing as the main thrust of the business. But
the lion's share of the requests I get have to do with Camtasia
Studio, so I needed to juggle my priorities a bit. I create
videos, and I also train people on creating their own. I
do these two things almost exclusively.
Geetesh:
How do you typically use Camtasia Studio.
Daniel:
Damn, that's a broad question. Are you referring to my 'process?'
As I work for a long list of different clients with very
different needs, it's hard to pin down a "typical" workflow,
but I'll give it a shot...
After getting the administrativa out of the way
(contract negotation, fee deposit, all that jazz), I always
always always start with a narration script. Sometimes the
client writes it, sometimes I do (which is my preference).
I typically pull this info from the supplementary materials
they provide (training manuals, brochures, help file, etc.).
If the visuals are complex, I'll storyboard those ahead of
time as well.
I then record the raw footage with one eye on the script.
I don't record any narration at this point. My recording
dimensions are almost always set to 688 x 520, which is an
ideal size in most browser windows. If the content just won't
fit, I'll record larger, but then scale down later by way
of zoom-n-pan.
Voiceover narration happens in Adobe Audition. I actually
make use of a number of third-party tools, all of which are
mentioned in the book. I even include demo versions of most
of them on the accompanying CD.
Production details depend on the client. Flash is typically
the way to go for content destined for the web, but a surprising
number of these folks still like to distribute CD-ROMs.
Geetesh:
Tell us more about your new book, and what do you
think a reader can get from it.
Daniel:
The fact that this book is currently the only game in town
when it comes to books on Camtasia Studio is both limiting
and liberating. I felt compelled to craft the book to serve
multiple masters, as it were. I wanted it to be a great stepwise
manual, which is why I visually separated the procedures
in the book. It also drove my decision to include end-of-chapter
exercises. Though a tad on the thicker side, you could use
it as a classroom training manual provided you focused mainly
on the procedures and skipped over the prose.
But I also strove to make it a solid reference book, so
that even people who chose not to read it all the way through
(and only wanted to mine that occasional tidbit whenever
they got stuck) could easily do so. A great deal of thought
went into how the individual chapters and sections were structured.
I provide a lot of tips and warnings honed through my years
of daily use of this program, and I think I've managed to
find the "sweet spot" between giving the power
users good stuff they didn't know before, and not completely
losing the greenhorns.
I also tried to remain cognizant of my tone throughout the
book. I like to keep things lighthearted and fun, and I hope
that side comes through without the user feeling like they're
being hit over the head with it. Few things bug me more when
reading a manual than when the author speaks to the reader
with an inappropriate level of familiarity. I think the book
succeeds in being approachable and pedagogically sound at
the same time. After all, the main goal is to make sure people
learn about the program.
Now, the cool thing about Camtasia Studio is that (with
a little training) nearly anyone can make something professional
and innovative. As a consultant, you always want to convey
that "normal people" can't possibly do what you
do, and that it's best to leave it to "the experts." I
can't really make that claim. If you read through the book
completely and work through its exercises, you're likely
to come out on the other side at least 80% as proficient
as I am.
Of course, there are things that dappertext brings to the
table as a content creator that aren't so easily matched,
mostly thanks to my aforementioned "unmarketable" bachelor
education. My theatre training (coupled with high-quality
audio equipment) gives my clients access to world-class voiceover
narration. My language background as well as partnerships
with translators and voiceover artists from around the world
allow us to offer localization of client videos into just
about any language. The book is a wonderful guide, but I
don't think it'll put me out of a job, at least not yet...
Geetesh:
How do PowerPoint and Camtasia work together.
Daniel:
Quite well, thank you. They actually get on pretty famously.
Camtasia Studio's add-in for PowerPoint gets you quickly
from recording to editing. It also offers niceties like including
camera video of your face and automatically turning your
slide titles into markers for easy creation of a table of
contents. You can tell that a lot of love went into making
the add-in as seamless as possible.
Sometimes the animations aren't quite as smooth as they
should be when recorded, which can be an annoyance. I did
manage to figure out a workaround to this problem, but you'll
have to buy the book to find out what it is :-)
Oh, and perhaps a few PowerPoint afficionados out there
are wondering why exactly one would need an application like
Camtasia Studio to archive a presentation. If you haven't
already done so, I encourage you to read the book
excerpt here on Indezine, where I discuss in detail the
current unmet needs that are expertly filled by Camtasia
Studio.
Geetesh:
Can you share some trivia -- or just something that
you want to share with with Indezine readers.
Daniel:
As a consultant specializing in Camtasia Studio, I train
people all over the world. This generally involves my
coming to them and doing the training on-site. I occasionally
get asked if we do classroom training.
So here's an idea that I've been kicking around, and I hope
your readership might help me in gauging interest. I live
in a rather desirable corner of the world. Islantilla is
a bustling resort area that caters to loads of vacationing
Europeans (and some Americans). I have been doing some initial
research into the viability of offering a "training
vacation" package for people who wanted to learn more
about Camtasia Studio and explore an incredible country at
the same time.
Just think: you could improve your video creation skills,
and also take eye-popping day trips to Seville or Ayamonte
(or la Doñana, the largest national park in Europe),
lounge on the beach with a good book (I can even recommend
a title for you ;-), enjoy amazing food and drink, and soak
up the Spanish sun.
This weeklong training excursion would be slated for the
first or second week of September 2007. If interested in
being put on the mailing list for full details as they emerge,
please contact me
.
