Screencast composition application

I’ve been recently working on some screencasts to demonstrate data analysis techniques.

Two common features I needed for my screencasts, which I’ve seen many screencasters also use/need, are:

• Overlay of a small frame on top of the screencast. For instance, you may want people to see you while you are talking. With computers taking more and more an active role on activities like interviewing, taking down patient records, etc., you may want to highlight some personal interaction tips while using your software. Perhaps you want to show a piece of hardware associated with the screencast. The limit is your imagination.
• Watermark your screencast You may want to prevent others from using your screencast on other sites without the proper credits.

This image shows basically what I needed. By the way, it is actually created with my program.

 

I started last weekend trying to do it with Quicktime Pro, and found it quite cumbersome. I can record the screen activity fine on the PC, as well as recording myself talking. Here the easy part ends. Then I have to add a video track on QT Pro, guess the offset entering it with numbers, and recompress. No, I wanted something simpler. Searching on the internet, found people using higher end applications, like Final Cut Pro. Not wanting to fork $1,299 for Final Cut Pro or $299 for Final Cut Express, I coded a simple app to achieve what I need. It works nicely, and with that many people doing screencast these days, I think there may be interest for it. When it’s completely finished, I’ll release it as a $9.99 download, and will set up a permanent page for it so people can purchase it. Meanwhile, I’d like to gather some feedback, so if you are a brave soul that can deal with beta software, and have use for the tool, please contact me. The first 25 beta testers will get a full version of the software when it is done. Sorry, no plans to open source the code so far.
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