>Hi Peter. Have you looked at a product called "Camera Man"? With it you
>can record mouse movements while using any software. It will also record
>sound while you are running through the use of programs. I have used this
>to create demonstrations for CBTs. The file format can be saved in QT. You
>would then be able to control pause, stop and play easily in MC. I find
>this to be a lot easier to do than simulating mouse moves and running audio
>in the background over picts in MC.
>
>-Mark Talluto
>Another product that does this is GifGIFgiF. It does screen captures into
>an animated gif file, and offers several advantages, as well as a few
>disadvantages.
>
>Advantages:
>
>It's inexpensive--$29, if I remember correctly.
>It's available for Mac and PC.
>It captures at a higher frame rate than competing products. I've done
>twenty frames per second at 640x480 on a PowerMac 7600.
>The resulting files are _much_ smaller. A one minute capture, with a few
>hundred frames, might be only 200k, as opposed to megabytes for other
>products.
>
>Disadvantages:
>
>No sound capture--gifs don't store sound. But QuickTime can open gifs and
>save them as movies, and they only get a few k bigger. Then you can add
>any sounds, etc., that you want.
>It captures gifs--see above about importing to QuickTime.
>
>It's available from Pedagoguery Software, www.peda.com
>
>I have no stake in Pedagoguery Software, other than as a happy customer.
>
>Geoff Canyon
Hi Mark & Geoff,
Thanks to both of you for the suggestions.
I have CameraMan for both Mac & Win and it is pretty good. However,
the files it produces are very large by comparison to a pure MC stack
approach (total of 300Kb vs xxMb for anything involving video!).
GifGIFgiF sounds interesting, I'll take a look at that.
One of the main reasons for doing it all in MC was that it allowed me
to implement a simulated system that provides a safe play area rather
than let the user play of the real system they are training for. So
I am not only providing a "watch me" experience, but also a "play
with me" experience, and all for a very low overhead.
The basic size of my MC stack without voice-overs was 300Kb, with 57
separate voice-over chunks it rose to 3.5Mb. The app involved about
2500+ lines of code of which about 1600 were involved in programming
14 separate animated sequences.
Best regards
Peter
--------------------------------------------------------
Peter Reid
Reid-IT Limited, Loughborough, Leics., UK
Tel: +44 (0)1509 268843 Fax: +44 (0)1509 264986
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://www.reidit.co.uk
