ScreenFlow: Professional Screencasting

As a reviewer and tech enthusiast, I find myself teaching those less technically aware than myself how to do various computer tasks that range in complexity. I find myself frequently having to physically show my audience a solution, rather than writing or vocally explaining. I have also recently taken to recording technology based tutorials for a wider audience, and without ScreenFlow none of this would be possible.

ScreenFlow is possibly the simplest and most efficient Screen Capturing software on the market. Unlike it’s competitors, ScreenFlow doesn’t require the user to be well versed in codecs and video jargon, but instead let’s the user easily convey their information to their audience. Unlike other software of it’s kind, ScreenFlow captures the screen as pure data that can be manipulated with scales and zooms, and exported in any quicktime based format after the recording session. You simply open the program, choose the input sources and record, without the need to define a prior video format or physically having to manipulate your screen for your audience during the recording.  This gives the user far more options in the ‘post production’ side of the tutorial recording, and allows the user to focus more on delivering a helpful tutorial rather than remember shortcuts to scale one’s screen, or a worry that the tutorial may be in an incorrect format.

Once the recording has been complete, the data is opened into an extremely familiar timeline environment equipped with keyframe animation and the ability to add effects and text. ScreenFlow is packed with features to make your tutorials more accessible to your audience, such features including the ability to highlight or ‘call out’ specific areas of your screen and cursor and the option to include a ripple on your mouse click. With a built in key logger, the user can also choose to display keystrokes as text on the screen so the viewer can have a greater grasp of the information at hand. Each of these highly productive, efficient toolsets are organized into six main categories to the right of the screen and include video, audio and screen recording.

Although previously mentioned, I feel that the main feature that sets this a part from it’s competitors is the ability to keyframe animate scaling and panning so your audience can focus on an intended part of the capture, without the user having to set the screen to a lower resolution, as it was in the past. While other competitors do allow this, many require the user to memorize shortcuts and the scale/pan has to be performed while recording. There is a real sense of ‘teach now, be technical later’ with this application, making it extremely easy and full of user options.

It has become a common occurrence of late that many tutorials are of a lower quality and have poor audio. Others have a real sense of detachment from their audience. ScreenFlow attempts to counteract this with the built in ability to record video from a webcam simultaneous to the the screen capture. It then automatically displays it in the timeline environment as a corner P.I.P (picture in picture) that can be scaled, zoomed and even angled. As with all objects in the ScreenFlow timeline, it can also be key-framed to allow the video to fade out or in, to change the position or scale of the video to suit the needs of the user. Having a familiar, friendly face on the screen capture allows for the audience to effectively relate and interface with their tutor/exhibitor and helps to give that professional touch.

Low quality tutorials are a thing of the past with the ability to render in any quicktime based format. The screen record can be scaled up or down from your native resolution, with many glorious high definition options. ScreenFlow also comes with render presets designed for many occasions, allowing even the most basic user to produce high quality screen casts.

With simultaneous webcam recording, complete freedom to scale/pan and the ability to choose formats later, one would expect ScreenFlow to use a high percentage of system resources. On the contrary, I have found it to use less than some competitors and the speed of the application is flawless throughout. Even when the user renders, it is often faster than many basic video converters, even in high definition. All of the application’s power sits on top of a very clean interface that utilizes such features as ‘core animation’ in Mac OSX. Small notables include the accurate render progress bar and that fade transition it follows, all of which are  a part of this very sophisticated interface.