CamTwist 2.0: CamTwist just got better!

Do you like creating interesting video effects through your webcams? Possibly when conducting video conferences or video broadcasts you like to mix it up a notch? To make your video chats more interesting and fun there is a great freeware mac application called “CamTwist”. CamTwist has been around for a while but I just felt I had to conduct this review, due to the fact I am very excited about this new version. CamTwist was an excellent application before, but 2.0 has just made it to amazing to be free!

CamTwist is a freeware mac application that allows you to add special effects to your video chats. CamTwist’s features are endless; it allows you to have a number of video feeds at the same time, display your desktop (Screen share), produce a slide show, or watch a video (movie file of some sort that is compatible with CamTwist or even just have your Flickr feed displaying). But it doesn’t end there, CamTwist 2.0 features more special effects then ever before giving you the most out of this excellent application.

So what special effects does CamTwist offer you may ask? Well I will not be able to mention all of them, due to I will be writing this article all day. But I will mention my favorite special effects and the new effects. CamTwist 2.0 allows you to change your video display into Black and White, make it look like a Blue Print, Blur the image, Bullet Time (which is a frames delay making a “Matrix effect”), Add a clock, Color Pencil effect (makes the image look like it has been created with coloring pencils). More special video effects would be: Compound Eye effect (making the image skew towards the center almost giving it a opposite fish eye effect), Cube effect (this makes the entire video source positioned on each side of a rotating cube which can be seen in the image to the right). New features to the special effects in CamTwist 2.0 would include the “Pause” option for scrolling text, where before the scrolling text was unstoppable but now you can pause it at any time you like. Another new feature from this version would be the new controls for the iTunes effect, the iTunes effect automatically displays what song & artist is currently playing on iTunes, the update to it is that you can actually display the cover art, which is pretty neat and more fun again!

CamTwist is now only compatible with Leopard 10.5, the performance has had some improvements, the new effect format is now compatible with most iChat and PhotoBooth formats, for the desktop sharing you can now just share a specific window. Some other improvements in 2.0 to mention: Full screen preview option, better text shadows (in the previous version they were a bit dodgy), Automation/Timeline feature, Show mouse option in desktop source, works with QuickTime Broadcaster (before it had some errors), PIP border and cropping (PIP allows you to display one picture in another picture) and last feature to mention is the Integrated IRC effect.

I often conduct Live Streams where my viewers can interact and ask questions which makes for good fun. I always use CamTwist when conducting my streams to make them fun and impressive. One of the most commonly asked questions “Seth how did you get your video effects like that” and I always have one answer: “CamTwist”. CamTwist is an excellent freeware application and is even fun to just try out, I highly recommend it.