Create short form vertical video in Camtasia

Short form vertical video in Camtasia

Short form vertical video is all the rage. YouTube Shorts, Reels, TikTok —it's becoming increasingly common.

I recently talked about how I Edit Shorts In Camtasia for Coffee & Content.

Camtasia's superpower is screen recording

TechSmith 's Camtasia is a video editing application, available for Windows and Mac. Most video editing applications, broadly speaking, have fairly similar editing features.

Camtasia's superpower, however, is screen recording.

Camtasia will not only record your screen, but it will also record a lot of metadata. It will record your mouse cursor path and treat it independently from the rest of your recording.

This gives you the ability to:

• increase the size of the cursor
• hide the cursor
• change the cursor image
• change the mouse path in the event you felt your mouse movements were too random or shaky

You can blur things out, highlight regions of your screen, zoom in and out. All things that are incredibly helpful for anyone making software tutorials.

Record —or assemble— your video

In Camtasia you can record:

• Your screen
• Yourself (camera and/or audio)
• System audio

You can also record audio narration later within the editor.

Some people think recording a video requires you do all of the things at once. If this works for you, that's great. But the good news is you have options.

• You could record your screen in one take, and record a voice over in another take, and put them together.
• You could record your screen and your audio at the same time, but record some direct to camera introduction or conclusion to give context for your actions.

Do what works for you!

Getting ready to record vertical videos

If you want to record your screen vertically and your monitor/monitor mount allows it, it's wonderful to physically change the orientation of your screen.

If your monitor supports it, it's often a good idea to physically switch the orientation from horizontal to vertical.

My monitor arms support VESA mounts, and it was surprisingly easy to twist the displays around.

In Windows, you can right-click on the desktop and go to "Display Settings" and then switch the Display orientation in those settings. There are four options:

1. Landscape
2. Portrait
3. Landscape (Flipped)
4. Portrait (Flipped)

Due to the positioning of my cables, I use the Portrait (Flipped) option.

If you can't physically change the orientation of your screen, you might like to use Microsoft PowerToys' FancyZones to create a snapable region sized for vertical video.

If you can't record vertically, it is okay to record horizontally, but just keep in mind that you will likely need to crop and zoom in to fit a vertical format.

Embrace your constraints for vertical short form video

There are two main considerations when it comes to short form vertical video:

• The video dimensions: 1080 pixels (width) by 1920 pixels (height)
• The time constraint: These vary a little from platform to platform, but your video should be short and snappy. For me I try not to go beyond 60 seconds. Ideally it should be even shorter.

To change the canvas dimensions in Camtasia:

1. Go to the File menu and select Project Settings
2. From the Canvas Dimensions drop down select Custom
3. Change the Width to 1080, change the Height to 1920.
4. Click Apply.

To make sure your project doesn't extend past that 60 second mark, you might like to set a marker on your timeline.

1. If you can't see the Marker Track on the timeline, go to the View menu and select Show Marker Track (or use the keyboard shortcut Control + M)
2. Move along the Marker track on the timeline until you reach the 1 minute mark (you might like to zoom in to the timeline for better accuracy). Click the mouse at the 1 minute mark.
3. You can optionally give the marker a name in the Properties panel.

And so much more!

I cover so much more about Camtasia on episode 14 of Coffee & Content, so if you're interested you can watch the full episode.

Epic livestreaming desk setup from Deskrig

Garren Parkins from Deskrig was showing off this impressive setup and it's really something to behold!

Check it out.

Have a great week!

Have a great week.

If you're interested in video, livestreaming and content creation, let's connect.

Please join me this week for:

• Coffee & Content. I'll be talking about Creator Mindset: thinking about thinking, setting expectations and avoiding FOMO!
• The Video and Livestreaming Show with Sam Proof . We're talking all about Community this week!

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