Tips for recording screen and camera

Hi Fred,

I use Camtasia with Windows 10 and it can do this. It's not free, and price has sneaked up a lot over the years (I'm running an older version). It's simple, easy-to-use software, but possibly approaching the price-range now that it's only worthwhile if a business can pay for it - and in that case, it is the lowest-cost actually useful software for video that I'm aware of (however it can't do super-special video effects etc., if that's what is wanted). I actually use it's screenshot feature every day (it is a lot more flexible than the 'print-screen' button).

With Camtasia, if I record video with a camera, I can combine it with video recorded directly from the screen (Camtasia has a tool to record the screen) by just placing them both on the timeline.

.

For free tools, I've heard OpenShot could be worth considering. I've not tried it though. If you can record the screen using the gaming recorder (again something I've not tried), then with a timeline-type video editor (like Camtasia or OpenShot) it should be possible to get the video file from your camera and place it in the timeline at the same location as a second 'track', and scale it to become a corner video.

I've tried the webcam approach in the past, but I think its easier to record the video separately (e.g. with a camera or mobile phone) from the screen recording, and then combine. If the screen recorder captures sound too, then it's easy to sync with the sound, otherwise it could get a little tricky (if the demo needs closely-synced sound or not).

Hi Fred,

I use Camtasia with Windows 10 and it can do this. It's not free, and price has sneaked up a lot over the years (I'm running an older version). It's simple, easy-to-use software, but possibly approaching the price-range now that it's only worthwhile if a business can pay for it - and in that case, it is the lowest-cost actually useful software for video that I'm aware of (however it can't do super-special video effects etc., if that's what is wanted). I actually use it's screenshot feature every day (it is a lot more flexible than the 'print-screen' button).

With Camtasia, if I record video with a camera, I can combine it with video recorded directly from the screen (Camtasia has a tool to record the screen) by just placing them both on the timeline.

.

For free tools, I've heard OpenShot could be worth considering. I've not tried it though. If you can record the screen using the gaming recorder (again something I've not tried), then with a timeline-type video editor (like Camtasia or OpenShot) it should be possible to get the video file from your camera and place it in the timeline at the same location as a second 'track', and scale it to become a corner video.

I've tried the webcam approach in the past, but I think its easier to record the video separately (e.g. with a camera or mobile phone) from the screen recording, and then combine. If the screen recorder captures sound too, then it's easy to sync with the sound, otherwise it could get a little tricky (if the demo needs closely-synced sound or not).

I'm starting to think that combining the separate videos might be easiest. I came across Filmora Screen which is $30. If I find I'm doing more of these then that might be worth it. This may just be a one-off though depending on how it goes.

Just a thought here, but try to may the video's short topic (<15 mins). I have seen one other person who could record for well over 1 hour. It is the KISS method for folks blogging.