Managing your Export Presets

Click to manage your available export presets.

Click the check box to the left of the preset to hide it. Click the Copy button to the right of the preset to generate a custom preset copy.

Custom presets are displayed below. To change the custom preset name, double-click the name field. Click the Edit button to customize your preset.

Dimensions. These options are used to set the dimensions of your video export. You should not set a size larger that your canvas size. This does not improve image quality.

Figure 40. Dimensions: Scale to Custom Size Settings

Scale by. Select to scale your project by a percentage value. This is an easy way to shrink your screencast while maintaining the aspect ratio.

Scale to custom size. Select to set the exact width and height of your exported video. Click the Letterbox Content box to add letterboxing to your export.

Use Motion Blur. Check to apply a blurring algorithm to blend movement smoothly into the video. This is useful if you are using video properties effects to move clips on the canvas.

This option increases encoding time so it should only be used if objects are not moving smoothly in your exported video.

Add Chapter Track from Markers. Check to add chapter markers to your exported video based on the location and names of the markers in your screencast.

Presets which do not support chapter markers include iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, iPod, and Windows Media.


Note: QuickTime X and VLC require a chapter marker on the first frame of your project or it will move the chapter markers from their intended locations. Be sure to set a chapter marker at the very beginning of your project to prevent this.

Exported Video File Size Considerations.

Video files often become are very large, making them difficult to send to others, download, or post to servers via the Internet.

The frame size of video clips in you screencast is typically much larger than the screen size of the video file you are exporting. For example, if your original screen size is 1280 x 800 pixels, you probably do not want to create a video of the same frame size. This is essentially HD video, and may be four times larger than a 640 x 400 video. If you were to post it on a Web site, many users wouldn’t be able to view it.

Reducing your Video File Size

To preserve the aspect ratio of your screencast, use the Dimensions options. For general purposes, you may want to reduce the dimensions by 50%.

Reducing the Frame Rate

The NTSC video standard frame rate is 30 FPS. This is the standard for videos produced in North America. However, this standard is based on creating a smooth representation of video motion captured in the real world and may not be necessary for your screencast.

If you specify 30 frames per second, the output will be smooth, but the file will be about twice as a 15 FPS video file. You may find that a 10 FPS or 15 FPS recording is very acceptable for your audience. Reducing the frame rate can drastically reduce the size of the video file.

You should experiment with codec settings to get a sense for what frame size and frame rate works best for you.