I want to be able to make my own Sketch Motion Callouts

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Kelly,

Can you please share with us what tools and techniques you use to create motion callouts?

Thanks,
Bruce Rothwell

Hi Bruce,

I'm sorry, but at this time, we only use internal processes to create the SketchMotion callouts. Also, there is no Camtasia Studio interface that would allow you to incorporate these into your Callouts gallery. In fact, attempting to do so might actually damage or currupt your install of Camtasia Studio.

However, I am going to change this topic over to a Feature Request and those who might be interested in having this capability in a future version of Camtasia Studio can "vote" for it.

Thanks for your interest, and if you should need a special SketchMotion callout, you can still make that request and I will do my best to help you out.

Kelly

That's great! Thank you.

This would be so helpful. There are time I would l like the square have a different look to it.

Hi Bruce. Refreshing to hear that techsmith is willing to create custom Sketch Motion Callouts! Have you considered posting them on your Camtasia Studio Library page http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/lib... ?

BTW, on January 10th you mentioned:
"going to change this topic over to a Feature Request and those who might be interested in having this capability in a future version of Camtasia Studio can "vote" for it."
I cannot find this post. Would you please provide a link.

Thank you.

Hi Ken, you're in the right place. I think Kelly changed this to an idea (feature request) page and you can vote for it here: http://screencast.com/t/yTB5QK0GDar

I just changed the title from a question to a more direct request.

As for putting additional sketch motion callouts on the library page, eventually we would likely put them there, but perhaps we'll have an intermediary place to make them available. I'll talk with Kelly and see what we can do.

Kelly and Mike,

Just wanted to take a moment to let you know what a treat it is to have a company so responsive both in their forum and listening to feature request. Very nice that you also go the extra step and put a notice in bold "The company has this under consideration" at the top of a thread as well as a method to vote. More companies should follow your lead.

Nice job Techsmith!

Wonderful! Thank you.

Although I'm a heavy Snagit user I'm not all that familiar with Camtasia. Can I use these images as callouts in Snagit?

Hello,
I'm sorry, but no, you cannot use these kind of callouts in Snagit.

Kelly

Hi Kelly,
The link that you sent me is no longer available ( http://feedback.techsmith.com/techsmi... ). What's with that??
Jim

Ok, look... it doesn't make sense to us on this side of the development wall why SM Callouts need to be a curve, but if that's true, why not a perfect circle? Every SM Callout looks hand drawn to me, probably with a tablet - if not with a tablet, perhaps using one (with a tracing template, etc) would help make them look better.
It's clear that SM Callouts are created using svg files and some simple markup language to create a Camtasia .assetproj file. Am I off base asking Techsmith to consider a different svg editor that enables you to define the animated path of a straight line or shapes? SVG-edit allowed me to create a straight line: http://code.google.com/p/svg-edit/
Hire a designer and a coder that can simply crank out the code you need for a more extensive library I don't think they'd even need to know that much about Camtasia to do it - your users will love you for it.
Looking forward to when we can take Camtasia SM callouts to the next level.
Please don't censor this post because of the technical details - edit it if you have to, but please post some version of it.

Hi there,

I just downloaded an installed these without a problem. You are on the www.techsmith.com website, right?

Or, are you downloading the files from Screencast.com?

I think we can figure this out if you give us a bit more information, or even a screenshot or two.

Kelly

I'm thinking of some kind of dotted-line with an arrow at one end, or even two arrows at each end. You got a perfect example in your "Create Camtasia Studio Media" pdf file, page 12, 14 and 23. I need to used it to show my students which noun or subject a modifier modifies in my English-teaching clips! Thanks! It would even better if you can kindly add dotted-line in a straight line instead of a curve one. This is what I can do to show you my idea:
| /\ (this is supposed to be at the right end)
|_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |

I would be interested in having drawing tools to allow the sketch features.
I am fairly new at video editing but I am surprised that the drawing tools are only
available at the time one makes the original recording or during recording only
and not in the editor mode.

The drawing becomes permanently embedded in the file during recording.
I am surprised that the drawing tools are not available after the recording
completed at the project level so one can annotate etc and even go back
at a later date and then edit again using drawing tools.

I agree with the other comments about adding additional arrows, dotted arrows, dotted lines, etc.

I love the camtasia product otherwise.

Thanks.
Jerry

You CAN create your own SM callouts. I successfully managed to do so earlier today by taking apart the .assetproj and .svg files attached to them. I'm still testing out a few kinks to get them to load into the Library automatically right now you sort of have to force them in (I'm pretty sure I've gotten the .libpkg file figured out, but I haven't gotten it to load properly yet)

To prove that I'm not just making this up, here is a quick demo I threw together:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuOexW...

Andy when I finish figuring that out I'll throw in the dotted line for you.

To Techsmith:
While I like the idea of being able to create your own call outs what would be a REALLY great feature is if we can just import SVGs. We could include whatever animations into the SVG itself to create all sorts of custom dynamic call outs.

This would also improve the community since you could include a place where these custom call outs can be uploaded allowing other community members to download and use them and then your team has more time focus on more important things than adding a few new call outs for us to play with.

Thanks. I would still like to see a method, workflow, or something from Techsmith as to how we can make our own. Perhaps have a conversion program. Especially for the Mac version.

This screencast tutorial explains a method for quickly creating your own custom sketch motion callouts ...

http://cookbookplus.com/temp/TechSmit...

This method makes use of one of the standard sketch motion callouts that ship with Camtasia [I use an instance of the scribble]; the instance of the scribble is sent to Library and then used as a template placeholder for your own, reusable designs.

If you need to reuse a custom SM callout after a project is closed, be sure to first send that callout from the timeline back to library to create a unique instance of it, then use that Library instance to replace the one on timeline. If the project's custom SM callouts need to be retained in the project, add the entire project to Library as a sequence asset to preserve whatever custom SM callouts were used in the project, then libzip the sequence asset for future use.

I've use this method to quickly and easily create thousands of custom SM callouts by modifying the same original instance of a scribble standard callout.

Hi, thanks for the tutorial. I was following all your steps until I tried find the "Library" folder!! What I could find was "Libraries" under Camtasia's Folder. However, there's no such Call out svg files in that folder. Why's that?

On Vista, the CS Library is located at C:\ProgramData\TechSmith\Camtasia Studio\Library

Not sure where it is on Win 7 or XP.

Wow, that's really a quick response! I do appreciate it! My system happens to be Win7! The path is like "C:\Program Files (X86)\TechSmith\Camtasia Studio 7\libraries\ " Nowhere I can find "mycallout." Is there anything to do with different versions?

Andy,

I figured it out. I'm glad, this way is a lot easier than what I was doing earlier.

The file structure is a little different in Windows 7 than Vista and the order that you need to do some things are different.

1. Go to "C:\Program Files (X86)\TechSmith\Camtasia Studio 7\Media\Studio\Callouts

2. Select one of the svg files "anim_scribble" copy it and paste a copy.

3. Open "anim_scribble" in Illustrator or Inscape, delete everything on the art board, design your new call out, and save. (Make sure that all of your changes to saved as paths in the svg since Camtasia only recognizes paths)

4. Load up Camtasia and your Squiggle will now be your new call out. Add the callout to your timeline, right click, and add the new call out to your library.

5. Go back to the callouts folder, delete anim_scribble and rename the copy that you made earlier back to anim_scribble.

6. When you close out of camtasia and open the project again the call out on your timeline will have turned back into the squiggle, but if you select libraries you will see you new call out still under you library and you can just drag and drop it into place.

This method is a lot easier, but it's not as easy to share as the Archive method. I'll put together a few screencasts in the next couple weeks walking through both methods.

Just to be clear; the method described in my screencast [at least on Vista] does not touch any of the standard callouts that ship with CS 7; on Vista, those too are held in the folder described for the Win 7 discussion above.

When you add a standard SM callout to timeline then add that instance to Library, you create a new, independent callout descripter file; it will live within its own folder in the CS 7 Library folder [the new callout's folder name is the Library asset's default name when created]. Using Inkscape to modify that .svg offers the flexibility, simplicity, and safety described in the screencast.

KC -

Perhaps you can lend some input. I used your instructions ( I am useing Win XP) - but even though there was a drawing on the canvas/page, the call out was "empty" once I opened Camtasia once again. I used Inkscape to modify the svg.

I deleted the original object on the page (step 3 - or I am 99% sure I did). I simply replaced the file in the callouts folder.

What did you mean by (Make sure that all of your changes to saved as paths in the svg since Camtasia only recognizes paths)

Many, many thanks for any insights you can lend.

Sorry I haven't had a chance to get to these screen casts.

What I meant by "make sure that all of your changes are saved to as paths" is that when writing SVG code there are many different types of shapes:

Circle
Rectangle
Ellipse
Polyline
Path
Text

You can learn more about svg here: http://www.w3schools.com/svg/default.asp
The section specifically about paths is here: http://www.w3schools.com/svg/svg_path...

The only one of these types of shapes you can use in Camtasia for Sketch Motion Callouts is the "Path" object. After saving your new call outs in Inkscape I suggest finding the file, right clicking on it, and opening it in wordpad. Check to see if you see any shapes that are anything other than [path ..../] (*Note that in this post I am substitutiong the standard html tags, the sideways traingles, with brackets [ and ] so that Techsmith's forum doesn't wipe it out as invalid html*)

If you do, then those shapes will not get rendered by Camtasia.

You will need to edit those shapes either in Inkscape or directly in wordpad, notedpad, or (the best option) VIM to paths. Unfortunately I don't know Inkscape that well. I use Illustrator, and unfortunately you can't guarantee that the SVG produced will have only path shapes just by using the Path and Pen tools because they will sometimes get created as "lines" rather than "paths." You can tweak it, but it is better to edit the code directly.

From my earlier testing it seemed like using the pencil tool was the best bet for producing paths when exporting to SVG from Illustrator. My hunch is this is why Kelly suggested that Sketch Motion callouts need to be hand drawn and to include at least one curve. If you draw objects using the path or line tool Illustrator automatically translates them as Line or Polygon shapes rather than Path shapes. When using the pencil tool the shape that is produced it too complex to be simplified into a single line or polygon shape due to the wobbliness of the human hand.

You also need to make sure that all of those paths have the same style:
style="fill:none;stroke:#000000;stroke-width:1px;stroke-linecap:butt;stroke-linejoin:miter;stroke-opacity:1"

You can make this easier for yourself if you set these settings in Inkscape:
Line fill: none
Storke: Black (#000000)
stroke-width: 1 pixel
stroke-linecap: butt (these are the rounded ends)
stroke-linejoin: miter
stroke-opacity: 100%

Your SVG file should look something like this when you are done with it:

[?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?]

[svg
xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
version="1.1"
width="744.09448"
height="1052.3622"
id="svg2"]
[defs
id="defs4" /]
[g
id="layer1"]
[path d="M100 0 L0 173 L200 173 Z" style="fill:none;stroke:#000000;stroke-width:1px;stroke-linecap:butt;stroke-linejoin:miter;stroke-opacity:1"/]
[/g]
[/svg]

Above is the code for the standard triangle shape.

I think this might help, Jerry....

You could produce a project in two phases -- "preflight" and "final".

Edit your footage for your "base" material, then produce a "preflight" video that you would then load into a 2nd project used for "final" editing. This final edit project is where you would add all your callouts and enhancements, that can be changed easily if need be.

Now, perhaps if you just want to do live "markups", you could take that preflight video and play it onscreen while recording it with Camtasia.

-
Bruce Rothwell

so that the clicking effect isn't covered up by one of the edges. This may not give you the exact look you want, but maybe worth a try.

One final thought would be to turn off the cursor effect at that point in the video...and just use the rectangle callout as your visual indicator that something is being clicked. Then you can add a new cursor effect key frame after the callout disappears, to turn the cursor effects back on. Just a thought.Now, perhaps if you just want to do live "markups", you could take that preflight video and play it onscreen while recording it with Camtasia.
I do a lot of sports videos for my kids but then want to show them a number of clips or actions for instruction but cannot edit the video without first going back to the original.

thank you.
bizworldusa

Not sure why this post has appeared at the top of the forum list again. The previous post above mine indicates it was written a month ago. How odd.

From what I know and see, only at the time of the original recording, using the library marks and can not do this - markers produced a video, and save the mark.