Software to use to make great title sequences for screencasts

September 12, 2013 9:09 AM

I make screencasts using Camtasia Studio which works well ... but seems limited when it comes to making great title/opening sequence. Looking at some demo videos, it appears that Title Designer of PowerDirector might be suitable at a reasonable price (which is an issue ... so no AfterEffects recommendation please) but I wonder if there aren't better options.
posted by aroberge to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

I always want to put out the suggestion that you could do a stop-motion title sequence which doesn't put too much demand on what software you want to use.

What kind of criteria are you looking for in this software, other than keep it cheap and better than Camtasia? (I guess what I'm asking is in what way does it need to be better than Camtasia? I've never used Camtasia so I don't know exactly what its limitations are and I don't know which ones you're bothered by. )
posted by RobotHero at 10:25 AM on September 12, 2013

Response by poster: Within Camtasia studio, I know how to add colored text, possibly with simple shade effect added for a "floating text" look, create simple animations (translation, rotation, scaling), put that text on some background shape (with a fixed number of shapes available, but these can be stretched). The background shape can have a color gradient.

When I look at the examples from Title Designer of PowerDirector, I see some color gradient (and shiny effects) applied to both text and the background on which the text is. "particle" effects can be applied giving a more professional appearance. To my non-expert eye, it looks like the difference between what a simple paint program can do and a photoeditor program can do.

Furthermore, it appears as though some templates can be created easily; for example, if I do a screencast series on learning html, the main title would be constant and the (moving) subtitle would be different as a result of a simple text edition of the template. I don't believe that I can do this with Camtasia Studio.
posted by aroberge at 10:58 AM on September 12, 2013

PowerDirector looks good for the price and capable of what you're trying to do, though I haven't tried it.

I'm afraid I can't just recommend what I'd use, since I would use After Effects, which we established is overkill.
posted by RobotHero at 1:05 PM on September 13, 2013

Response by poster: After trying PowerDirector, I found out that the title examples I like the most used some fixed images (with shiny effects) as some text background. Overall, for what I am/was trying to achieve, it does not seem significantly more capable than Camtasia Studio which I already have.
posted by aroberge at 7:10 PM on September 13, 2013