(6 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...A picture is said to be worth a thousand words, but an effective video can possibly be worth a thousand pictures. Let’s look at some scenarios. What if you were stuck with an error with a software program and wanted to show support folks what causes the error? Or what if you want to explain to a client how they can log into a portal and access the information they need. Yes, these scenarios can be explained with words, but a small video will ensure that the recipient understands what exactly needs to be done. Yes, videos can help you clearly express your points to others who matter.
However, what if you want to record some other onscreen activity such as a PowerPoint presentation, along with both the narration delivered by the speaker and also a video of the speaker recorded via a webcam? Plus, what if you want to also record non-PowerPoint activity alongside such as a demo in another program, or even some real-time screen drawing or annotations? Now, let’s take this even more further; what if you want to do some basic editing in the resultant recording, like removing some unwanted parts? What if you could achieve all these results with just one program? Our review product, DemoCreator can fulfill all these requirements. How does it fare? Let’s find out.
Before we proceed, do watch this video that will give you a better idea of this scenario that we are exploring.
DemoCreator is from Wondershare, a company based in Guangdong, China that creates media programs. You can download a trial version of this screen recording software from their site. My contact at Wondershare for this review was Taylor Lei. Thank you, Taylor.
Recording
Follow these steps to see a quick walkthrough of recording using DemoCreator:
- Download the trial version or purchase a licensed version of DemoCreator, and run the install program, as shown in Figure 1, below. You can accept the defaults and press the large blue Install button, or choose the Customize Install option, highlighted in red within Figure 1.
Figure 1: Install DemoCreator- We chose the Customize Install option and were allowed to choose a language and install location for DemoCreator, as shown in Figure 2, below. Next, we clicked the Install button. Soon enough, DemoCreator was installed.
Figure 2: Customize Install- Then, we decided to identify what and how we wanted to record, even before launching DemoCreator. So, we launched PowerPoint and opened the presentation we wanted to record. We also made sure that the webcam we wanted to use as the input to record the presenter was connected to the system.
- Next, we clicked the DemoCreator shortcut on our desktop. This action brings up the DemoCreator opening screen that you can see in Figure 3, below.
Figure 3: New Recording- Since we intend to record a PowerPoint slide show being presented, we chose the New Recording option, highlighted in green within Figure 3, above.
- Next, DemoCreator shows you the Record User Guide window, as shown in Figure 4, below. This window has no options to choose for the recording. It’s purpose is to provide you with basic information about keyboard shortcuts you can use to work with DemoCreator. Once you are familiar with these shortcuts, you can choose the No need to show me again option, highlighted in red within Figure 4. For now, we just clicked the Start button on the bottom-right to proceed.
Figure 4: Record User Guide- Doing so brings up the DemoCreator Recording panel along with a preview of your connected webcam, as shown in Figure 5, below. Here, make sure that the Screen Drawing Tool is enabled, as shown highlighted in green in Figure 5 if you want to use DemoCreator’s screen drawing options. You can also set the Recording Area, by clicking the drop-down list shown highlighted in red within Figure 5.
Figure 5: DemoCreator Recording Panel- This action brings up the entire drop-down list as shown in Figure 6, below. Since we want to record full-screen so as to capture the Slide Show view in PowerPoint, we will choose the Full screen option. Make sure though that you choose the correct display if you are running a system with multiple displays. You will have to drag the boundary of your Recording Area from one display to another to make this happen.
Figure 6: Recording Area drop-down list- Now, to start recording, click the large red button in the DemoCreator Recording Panel shown in Figure 5, or press the F10 keyboard shortcut.
- We quickly played slides in PowerPoint’s Slide Show view. Some slides had music too. And then we tried using the Shift + Ctrl + D keyboard shortcut to screen draw over the slides. For some reason, this did not work, probably because that’s one of PowerPoint’s keyboard shortcuts as well. However, we were able to choose the drawing and highlighting tools from DemoCreator’s floating toolbar and that worked.
- Once done with the recording, we pressed the same large red button in the DemoCreator Recording Panel shown in Figure 5, and soon, DemoCreator opened its capable video editor with separate tracks for the screen recording, the webcam, and the microphone output. Note that our screen drawing also made it to the recording, as shown in Figure 7, below.
Figure 7: DemoCreator Video Editor
Video Editing
Now, DemoCreator includes a capable video editor that we showed you in Figure 7, above. Although you will be using this video editing interface to edit and render your recordings, the video editor is not limited to recordings alone. You can also use your existing video, audio, and picture assets in a different video editing project. You can launch the video editor directly from the screen shown in Figure 3, earlier on this page. Of course, you can even add your own assets to a recording project created in DemoCreator.
Here are some possibilities of video editing using DemoCreator:
- Basic Edits: You can edit the recording, webcam and audio tracks individually. We right-clicked the audio track, and chose the Edit Audio option, as shown in Figure 8, below.
Figure 8: Edit Audio- Doing so opens the Audio options in the Properties panel, as shown in Figure 9, below. You can summon similar panels to edit other tracks.
Figure 9: Audio options in the Properties panel- Trim, Cut, and Split Tracks: You can resize your tracks as needed in the timeline area below. You trim from both ends by dragging and resizing tracks. To split the track in between, you need to position your cursor at the point where you want to split, and then use the Ctrl + B keyboard shortcut. You can also press the Split button on the Timeline toolbar, highlighted in red within Figure 10, below.
Figure 10: Split- Add Annotations: Although you can annotate by screen drawing while recording, you can add more annotations of a different kind during the video editing process. To access these annotations, you click on the Annotations button on the left toolbar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 11, below.
Figure 11: Add Annotations- You can add text boxes, shapes, callouts, arrows, sketches, etc.
- Add Captions: DemoCreator has an entire collection of Caption templates that include text placeholders and animations. You first click on the Captions button on the left toolbar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 12, below. Then from the ensuing panel, just select and drag one of these captions to your timeline. This becomes a starting captions template for your project and you can edit text within this template so as to create opening and closing screens almost instantly.
Figure 12: Captions- Add Transitions: There is an amazing range of transition effects available within DemoCreator that you can use to add continuity and flow between different video tracks. These are accessed by clicking on the Transitions button on the left toolbar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 13, below.
Figure 13: Transitions- Effects and Other Features: DemoCreator also includes the Effects panel that include options such as GreenScreen, which can be used to remove a pure color background and substitute that with some other still or video footage. You will also find a Pan & Zoom option, plus video effects such as Cinema21:9 for ultra widescreen videos and Mosaic effects. To access these effects, you will need to click on the Effects button on the left toolbar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 14, below. Then from the ensuing panel, select the effect you want to use.
Figure 14: Effects- Finally, DemoCreator allows you to emphasize your cursor tracking using the various cursor effects. These effects can be found in Cursor panel, accessed by clicking the Cursor button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 15, below.
Figure 15: Cursor
Once you have made all video editing changes, make sure to save your project. Next, choose the Export | Create Video menu option, as shown in Figure 16, below.
Figure 16: Create Video
Doing so brings up the Export dialog box that you can see in Figure 17, below. You can accept all defaults or make changes. There’s also a separate YouTube tab in this dialog box where you can sign in to your YouTube account and directly upload your exported videos.
Figure 17: Export
Conclusion
Wondershare DemoCreator is a fully capable capture program that works for everyday users, video creators, and gamers. The interface is intuitive and you get all the features you would expect, plus so much more. And the great PowerPoint screen recording is the icing on the cake. It’s quite easy to achieve amazing video results using Wondershare DemoCreator.
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