Camtasia Batch Production

The project I'm currently working on requires me to watermark some AVI videos, compress them and export to the FLV (flash video) format and SWF. 105 of them. Exporting to FLV is notoriously slow; for example, a 6.5 minute AVI took 45 minutes to render to FLV this morning. So you can imagine how long it's going to take to render 105 videos to both flash formats. More than 45 minutes is my guess.

Enter Camtasia's Batch Production facility. To export your movies to any Camtasia compatible format is a 2 step process:

1. Create a preset. This includes all the settings you want to apply in the export process (e.g. JPG compression, screen resolution etc).
2. Select your files and apply the preset to them.

Creating the preset is a breeze. First of all click Batch production in the Task List on the left.



On the next screen use the Add Files/Projects button to select the files you want to export.


Click Next. On the next screen click on the Preset Manager button (unless you are going to use an existing preset). This is where we will create a preset comprising all the settings used in the export process.




On the Manage Production Presets screen click New.


Give your preset a name and a description. Make the name meaningful, and add a description that summarises what exactly the preset is doing (see my example name and description below).


From here, specify your export settings as normal. If this is all gobbledy gook to you, check out my post on Specifying Camtasia Export Settings. I can't link to it as I haven't written it yet! Having created your preset, select it and ensure that 'Use one production preset for all files/projects' is selected.


Click Next. Select a location on your hard drive where you want the exported movies to go. I like to check 'Organise produced files into sub folders' so that Camtasia keeps the bits for each movie separate. I'm also not too bothered about reviewing the movies immediately after they have been rendered because invariably I'm in bed when that happens - so I uncheck 'Show production results'.


At this point click Finish and go and do something that takes lots of time. I think Camtasia is pretty nifty when it comes to the movie rendering phase, but if you're rendering multiple FLVs, it's going to take a fair amount of time. I generally set Camtasia off just before going to bed.

Don't make the mistake I made the first time I did this, and check the 'Show production results' box. When I did this I was awoken in the early hours of the morning to the sound of my own voice blaring out from the spare bedroom where my pc lives (I was exporting a tutorial I'd created earlier in the day). A chilling experience.

Video Publisher

Lately I have been creating a lot of video tutorials. It started late last year when I was browsing rentacoder for something to do to pass the time. I came across a project that required someone to make video tutorials for a variety of graphics applications: Fireworks, Photoshop etc. Well, I know Fireworks and I've got Camtasia by Techsmith (more on that later) so I made a bid and the next thing I knew I had a high quality microphone and stand by my work desk and my spare room had transformed into a recording studio. I sold myself short massively on that project - 6 hours worth of video for £350. It might sound like a lot of mazoola (and then again it might not), but set that against the amount of work that this kind of project needs and you have to ask yourself whether it's worth it.

Since then I've done many more projects through rentacoder and also for previously made contacts but I've learned to be a bit more assertive with £££ estimates.

If the pressure is not too great you can actually have a lot of fun making video presentations/tutorials. If the videos are for publication on somebody's site, you even get a shot at glittering everlasting fame.

In these pages you'll find information that is designed to help you if you need information about many aspects of producing your own tutorial style movies.

Have fun!