Steps Involved in Creating a Video Tutorial for Delivery on the Web

The following is a brief description of the steps involved in creating a tutorial video for delivery via the WWW. It is assumed that the tutorial involves the use of a piece of software under either Windows or the Mac.

1. First, the source video clips must be captured. To do this, we have CameraMan software available on the Mac (Radius System). If your software is a Windows application, you will need to use TimbukTu software to remotely control a PC and capture the screens using CameraMan on the Mac. The instructions for CameraMan and TimbukTu are kept with the Radius System.
2. Next, if you wish to also make a slideshow presentation of your video, you will need to load the QuickTime clip produced by CameraMan into Premiere on the Mac. Using Premiere, you will be able to step through the video and capture individual frames and save them to disk as PICT files. Manuals for Premiere are also with the Radius System.
3. The next step is to script the audio for your tutorial. It is best to compose, in writing, a script containing exactly the text (audio) that you want to have included with your video. NOTE: It is possible to record audio while making the CameraMan QuickTime movie, however, it is easy to make mistakes and a mistake often involves starting over. If you have captured still pictures for making a slideshow, these picture can serve as a template for the script.
4. To record the audio, it works best to use the ToolVox encoder program on the Mac and the microphone included with the Mac. The ToolVox encoder servers two purposes...first, it allows you to save your audio as a standard system sound file that can later be merged with the video clip (and easily converted to a RealAudio clip), and second, it will encode the audio as a ToolVox file in case you wish to use ToolVox files as your slideshow audio format.
5. Next, use QuickEdit (one of the tools included with Multimedia Utilities and CameraMan) to merge the audio and video clips into a single QuickTime file. This process can be a little tricky at first...there are manuals available for QuickEdit and the GRA will be available to help.
6. The finished QuickTime movie can now be processed with Internet Movie Tool to make it ready for streaming over the web.
7. If you are making a slideshow, the audio files can now be converted to RealAudio format if desired. Unix scripts are available for automatically generating simple web pages that incorporate the still pictures and the audio clips for slideshow web delivery.

This sequence is not fixed in stone. If you find alternative ways to accomplish or exclude any of the above steps, feel free to use them. Also feel free to experiment with any other enhancements to the process.

The Radius System can often be busy when you need to use it. Please be sure to schedule a time. Sign-up sheets are on the cubicle in McBryde 110. If you need help getting started, please contact the GRA at heagy@csgrad.cs.vt.edu.