When creating an audio/visual construction in Camtasia, the pace you use on the graphical capture side can make the difference between a clean timeline and a messy timeline in Camtasia.
The following video tip is actually quite brief, but does require some context, so please bear with me as I frame the issue:
To create an A/V composite with Camtasia, many of us use audio segments (a script broken into granular audio files) created with a dedicated audio editor. We import the segments into Camtasia and then sync the graphics action with each segment. In other words, we generate the audio and visual components separately. Separate audio and visual capture processes provide:
The generalized workflow within Camtasia is:
As always, the script, of course, drives the capture. However, since we are not capturing the audio and visual simultaneously, the raw graphics capture will be an approximation of the actual final intended timing. You shorten or lengthen the capture, here and there, to sync with the audio (in addition to shifting the audio segments up and down the timeline).
This tip has to do with that shortening and lengthening of the graphical timeline.
If your graphics capture pace runs slower than the script, use the Cut tool to remove pieces of unwanted graphics. Thetimeline itself remains ‘clean’ and unbroken after cutting.
If the graphics capture pace runs quicker than the script, you can use Extend Frame to add time. However, that inserted block of frames breaks the timeline.
Do much of this and you will soon have a cosmetically messy timeline, and timeline breaks cannot be ‘merged.’ These breaks also make it difficult to add callouts, since callout nodes cannot (directly) overlap breaks in the timeline.
It is gratifying to hit the timing of the raw graphic capture bang on, so that no post-edits are needed. (If it is bang on, take a picture because it may never happen again.) If you can’t be bang on, use the following technique (as already suggested) to ensure you will be cutting frames rather than inserting: be deliberate, even slow, with the capture pace. Force yourself to read completely each segment at a standard speaking pace, before proceeding to capture the related action. In addition to ensuring that you wind up with a cleanly edited timeline, this deliberation also helps ensure that you don’t miss any actions.
Don’t allow the ‘hurry-up-tick-tock’ of the capture clock to rush you. Make your life easier: cut yourself some slack on the front-side so that you can cut the slack on the back-side.