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After having recorded close to 600 screencast videos, I automated a number of setup and teardown processes too. Such as using the Sizer[0] tool to move windows

by nickjj 6y ago

After having recorded close to 600 screencast videos, I automated a number of setup and teardown processes too. Such as using the Sizer[0] tool to move windows to specific 1920x1080 coordinates of the screen where I configured OBS to record from. This way my desktop resolution never needs to change. Using Sizer requires right clicking a title bar and choosing a pre-created menu item and it auto-resizes and positions the window correctly. Very painless. But I also have these little shell scripts that are responsible for setting up font sizes and making sure my history is clear. Not showing history is so important if you're using CTRL+r and FZF frequently because having to blur stuff later is time consuming and error prone (ie, missing 1 frame of blur by accident). The stop record script reverts everything back to normal. record-start () { mv ~/.bash_history ~/.bash_history.bak && history -c rm /tmp/%* change_terminal_font 9 18 if [[ "${1}" = "--obs" ]]; then cd "/c/Program Files/obs-studio/bin/64bit" wslview obs64.exe cd - fi } record-stop () { mv ~/.bash_history.bak ~/.bash_history && history -r change_terminal_font 18 9 } change_terminal_font () { [[ -z "${1}" || -z "${2}" ]] && echo "Usage: change_terminal_font FROM_SIZE TO_SIZE" from="${1}" to="${2}" windows_user="$(powershell.exe '$env:UserName' | sed -e 's/\r//g')" terminal_config="/c/Users/${windows_user}/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe/LocalState/settings.json" perl -i -pe "s/\"fontSize\": ${from}/\"fontSize\": ${to}/g" "${terminal_config}" } I don't think I'll ever automate the editing process because editing is where you can throw in a lot of human nice touches, like zooming into a specific area of the screen for emphasis or adding an overlay picture for context. But I do try to make things as live as possible, such as using OBS scenes to cut down on post processing editing. That and automating your audio processing so you don't need to edit your audio afterwards has given me the biggest bank for my buck in terms of how fast I can go from an idea in my head to a video ready for YouTube. A complete list of tools that I use for dev + recording + editing can be found here: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/the-tools-i-use https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/the-tools-i-use [0]: http://www.brianapps.net/sizer4/ http://www.brianapps.net/sizer4/

SeanFerree 6y ago
I agree. I could never have editing automated. It takes a while, but like you said, it adds a personal touch
EricE 6y ago
I dunno - tools like this can take care of the 80% drudgery, freeing you to really focus on that 20% that provides the human touch :) Unless you are also recording all your streams before you make your on the fly directors cut with OBS, if you make an "ooops" you're done. With his approach if you don't like the automatic edits, the underlying source files are still there and you can override the automation. It would be easier if he did the automation within a traditional NLE workflow; overriding the automatic editing would be a lot easer. Since, ya know, editors were designed to make and keep track of changes (ha!)
- nickjj 6y ago
  I think it comes down to recording styles too. My work flow is to start recording with OBS. Since I use a webcam in the corner while recording my screen I'm aiming for as little cuts as possible because with a webcam unless your face is positioned exactly how it was before watchers will see the jump cut (even if it's subtle). Editing where to cut manually to produce the least visible cut is an art form and takes a human touch. But I'll press record and do my best. If I get let's say 5 minutes out of a 20 minute video down solid but screw up then I'll stop the recording. Then I'll start recording another file with OBS and resume where I left off trying to place my mouse cursor exactly where it was and lead off by saying what I was saying before so it flows. In the end I might have 2-5 relatively good videos that I then edit together using an NLE tool. Knowing where the cuts are is easy because it's pretty much the beginning of the file to the end. This also helps reduce massive file sizes where you end up with like a single 45 minute source video that gets edited down to 20 minutes because you made a ton of little mistakes. At a decent scale this matters because disk space while cheap isn't free for someone who is just a solo developer and does everything from 1 dev box. Usually by the end of a recording session I'll have like 15 source videos that I delete because I know they came out bad (often times getting into the first few minutes is the hardest for me), here's a screenshot of what I mean haha https://twitter.com/nickjanetakis/status/1347574482714685441 https://twitter.com/nickjanetakis/status/1347574482714685441. Normally I edit my stuff at 2x speed. If I'm not adding a lot of extra effects (zooming, tooltips, highlights, blurs, overlays, etc.) it goes by pretty fast. With work flows that you're used to editing really isn't that bad. It's creating the content / material and executing the human part (delivering the video -- execution basically) that takes most of the time. Then there's also editing things like an audio only group podcast. There's no way an automated editing process is going to be able to intelligently remove ums and ahs but leaving in a few at key places to make things sound more natural, or maybe removing a bit of stuttering from someone's line in a way that no one would ever notice. Or perhaps cutting out 2 minutes all together because it doesn't add much to the conversation and isn't referenced later so it's safe to cut and no one would ever know.
stevenicr 6y ago
checked your tools page for "zoom" with ctrl-f - wondering what you are using for zooming in. some years ago I had a microsoft mouse that included a third button and a driver-addon (I think) - that gave a great magnified box you could move around the screen until you unclicked the third button) I would love to find a way to do this magnified box again - when finding zoom in your comments, should I assume that you are using camtasia and doing it in post? I'd love to have this zoom ability for making videos but also when screen sharing live.
- nickjj 6y ago
  Live zooming is something I tried but ultimately stopped doing it because it's too difficult to live code + narrate my thought process + zoom in on demand due to lack of hands. Maybe if I had a foot pedal or something to control it heh. I zoom in post production during the editing process. Once you get used to your tools it's fast. It takes about a minute to zoom into a specific area of the screen, position it in the exact spot I want and then eventually zoom out back to normal. I like this process because it lets you adjust the zoom transition speed as needed and sometimes I also offset the X / Y coords to center it, etc..

by nickjj 6y ago

SeanFerree 6y ago

I agree. I could never have editing automated. It takes a while, but like you said, it adds a personal touch

EricE 6y ago

I dunno - tools like this can take care of the 80% drudgery, freeing you to really focus on that 20% that provides the human touch :) Unless you are also recording all your streams before you make your on the fly directors cut with OBS, if you make an "ooops" you're done. With his approach if you don't like the automatic edits, the underlying source files are still there and you can override the automation. It would be easier if he did the automation within a traditional NLE workflow; overriding the automatic editing would be a lot easer. Since, ya know, editors were designed to make and keep track of changes (ha!)

nickjj 6y ago
I think it comes down to recording styles too. My work flow is to start recording with OBS. Since I use a webcam in the corner while recording my screen I'm aiming for as little cuts as possible because with a webcam unless your face is positioned exactly how it was before watchers will see the jump cut (even if it's subtle). Editing where to cut manually to produce the least visible cut is an art form and takes a human touch. But I'll press record and do my best. If I get let's say 5 minutes out of a 20 minute video down solid but screw up then I'll stop the recording. Then I'll start recording another file with OBS and resume where I left off trying to place my mouse cursor exactly where it was and lead off by saying what I was saying before so it flows. In the end I might have 2-5 relatively good videos that I then edit together using an NLE tool. Knowing where the cuts are is easy because it's pretty much the beginning of the file to the end. This also helps reduce massive file sizes where you end up with like a single 45 minute source video that gets edited down to 20 minutes because you made a ton of little mistakes. At a decent scale this matters because disk space while cheap isn't free for someone who is just a solo developer and does everything from 1 dev box. Usually by the end of a recording session I'll have like 15 source videos that I delete because I know they came out bad (often times getting into the first few minutes is the hardest for me), here's a screenshot of what I mean haha https://twitter.com/nickjanetakis/status/1347574482714685441 https://twitter.com/nickjanetakis/status/1347574482714685441. Normally I edit my stuff at 2x speed. If I'm not adding a lot of extra effects (zooming, tooltips, highlights, blurs, overlays, etc.) it goes by pretty fast. With work flows that you're used to editing really isn't that bad. It's creating the content / material and executing the human part (delivering the video -- execution basically) that takes most of the time. Then there's also editing things like an audio only group podcast. There's no way an automated editing process is going to be able to intelligently remove ums and ahs but leaving in a few at key places to make things sound more natural, or maybe removing a bit of stuttering from someone's line in a way that no one would ever notice. Or perhaps cutting out 2 minutes all together because it doesn't add much to the conversation and isn't referenced later so it's safe to cut and no one would ever know.

stevenicr 6y ago

checked your tools page for "zoom" with ctrl-f - wondering what you are using for zooming in. some years ago I had a microsoft mouse that included a third button and a driver-addon (I think) - that gave a great magnified box you could move around the screen until you unclicked the third button) I would love to find a way to do this magnified box again - when finding zoom in your comments, should I assume that you are using camtasia and doing it in post? I'd love to have this zoom ability for making videos but also when screen sharing live.

nickjj 6y ago
Live zooming is something I tried but ultimately stopped doing it because it's too difficult to live code + narrate my thought process + zoom in on demand due to lack of hands. Maybe if I had a foot pedal or something to control it heh. I zoom in post production during the editing process. Once you get used to your tools it's fast. It takes about a minute to zoom into a specific area of the screen, position it in the exact spot I want and then eventually zoom out back to normal. I like this process because it lets you adjust the zoom transition speed as needed and sometimes I also offset the X / Y coords to center it, etc..