How to Record a Video!

Below are two options to record your video - OBS and SnipClip.
  • Both are open source and allow you to record your screen and video.
  • SnipClip does not require you to download any software.


SnipClip Instructions


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Instructions:

It's always best to do some testing before doing your real recording! Does the audio sound good? Is your video in the screen? Is it in the right spot?
  • Launch Snipclip Record ( https://studio.snipclip.app/record )
  • Select Screen + Camera
  • Click Select Screen
  • Select: The entire screen — this is important for the sound and video to work!
  • Please select the “Landscape” webcam frame size
  • Make sure to drag your webcam video box up to the top right of the slides.
  • It should fit to the video box is the corner of the slides template
  • To share internal audio check “Share Audio” in the popup
  • Select “Share” on the popup if visible
  • Select the red record button
  • Do a test before you record the full video!
  • Select the pause button and you can either:
  • Resume where you left off
  • Stop the recording
  • Select “Download Recording” to download and share your recorded .webm file to your computer.
  • If needed, there is a converter to change .webm files to .mp4:  https://studio.snipclip.app/ 
  • This maybe helpful if you computer does not have a program to open the file type or if you'd like to scrub your video
  • Select “New Recording” to start over.
  • Upload all recordings to the appropriate folder listed in  New Moon⁠⁠Course Specific Day Lead & Project Lead Instructions⁠  and add the google drive link to the video tracking spreadsheet.


SnipClip How-To Video



OBS Instructions

We are producing videos with OBS, powerful free software available for Windows, Mac and Linux. OBS produces high quality videos that can overlap multiple sources together. You will create a scene as follows, which is the standard format for all Academies:

  • Full screen slides + your webcam feed in the top right corner

This guide contains a checklist and a more detailed instructions page below.


Checklist

 Install OBS , use the setup wizard to set up everything for recording at 
Optimize for just recording when prompted 
Tweak the video settings 1920x1080, 30 fps
Select the right microphone
Controls > Settings 
Speak in a normal voice and check that your voice is not clipping (your voice should never reach higher than -3dB!)
Create a scene with full screen slides + your face on the top right corner
In the Source box: Click the + and then Display Capture to capture the whole screen
Create a new Video Capture to capture the webcam
Reshape these captures for a tight fit (use the helper script!)
Test with a one minute recording
Load video in VLC
PC: C:/users/$user/Videos
Mac: /home/$user/Movies
Check that the video has no black bars in the recording at the top or left and right
Check that the microphone is not clipping
Do the real thing
Upload your videos and short descriptions (the Production Team takes if from here!) 


Detailed Instructions

 Install OBS , open it, and go through the install wizard


  • Choose yes to go through the wizard
  • Select Optimize for Recording
  • Very important: Make your base canvas 1920 x 1080, choose 30 fps
  • Let the wizard choose base settings for you


Tweak video settings

Go into Settings (bottom right of screen). Under Video, make sure that both base and scaled resolution are set to 1920 x 1080.


Select the right microphone

Hit the gear icon next to the Mic/Aux input, and select your microphone

Speak in your normal voice from your normal position. Say a sentence with a lot of plosives, e.g. “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”. If the audio gauge goes all the way to the right, your gain is too strong, which will result in distortion. Decrease the gain of your microphone in that case. 

Our recommended microphone (Fifine gooseneck) has a physical gain button that looks like a volume knob, and if the microphone is close to your face it needs to be at about one quarter or less of full volume. If you have a physical gain button, use that first. You can also decrease gain in OBS using the blue bar below Mic/Aux.

Add a screen capture

Use + to add a Display Capture to your scene. Name your capture “Full Screen desktop”

Your desktop should appear. If this does not work you can delete the full screen capture and use “Window Capture” instead. This allows you to capture a single window instead of the entire desktop (both options are fine).

Add a webcam

Use + to add a Video Capture Device (i.e. your webcam) to your scene. Name it “webcam” to make it easier to find later. Default settings should be fine. 


Place the items

The screen capture should fill the whole screen (with no black bars). The webcam should go into the top right. Drag the red knobs to rescale; press the Option button and drag the red knobs to crop. 

This is what it should look like:


It is very difficult to adjust on a Mac laptop without a second monitor because:

    .1The aspect ratio of your screen is 16:10, and the presentation is 16:9. So you have to crop the fullscreen desktop window at the top and bottom which requires precision
    .2You can’t have the OBS window over a fullscreen Powerpoint or Keynote window, so you can’t see what you’re doing. It 

We have a script to help you. Download this script, go into the Tools Menu > Scripts, hit +, select the script. Select the two sources you just created, and hit the Place Things button. 


Do a one minute test

Hit record. Go into Keynote, powerpoint, or google slides, go fullscreen, give a sample 30 second presentation, hit Alt+Tab or Cmd+Tab to go back and press stop. 
  • Look at the footage in your media player (e.g., vlc).VLC. The movie should be saved in /home/$user/Movies. 
  • Make sure that the video has no black bars in the recording at the top or left and right. This could also be a good time to make sure that your webcam image fits neatly in the gray rectangle at the top right of the slides. 
  • Check that the microphone is not clipping. 
  • All set? You are good to go. In any case of any problems, try again and ask for help in Slack. 

If you run into trouble, find the Video Production channel in Slack and ask any questions you have. You can also reach out to the Curriculum Lead or the Day Lead (if that’s not you). 


Do the real thing and save for production team 

Review your final video to ensure it’s up to your standards. 
Once you have recorded your final videos, the production team will edit the audio and video for you. To this end, the videos need to be stored in our shared Google Drive:
  • Please name the video according to this scheme: 
  •  "WXDX Name of Day Intro/Outro/Tutorial X" 
  • Examples: W1D3 Model Fitting Intro 2, W2D2 Linear Systems Tutorial 6, etc. 
  • Place the video in the correct subfolder 
  • If you don’t have the folder link, reach out to the Curriculum Lead. 
  • If you are working on materials that are not for a specific day (pre-course materials, other videos), contact the Curriculum Lead for the best place to save these.
  • Tutorial Description 
  • Each video is to be accompanied by a short description. 
  • Please upload a google docs with a short description of each uploaded video (i.e. if you upload 1 intro, 1 description suffices but if you upload several tutorials, please make sure that each video is accompanied by a short description). The title of the video should match the description. The description should be 2-3 sentences long about the materials you cover in the video. 
  • Add the description to the uploaded video in the correct folder