Screen recording for import to after effects

# 1 30-09-2012 , 02:32 AM

EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

Screen recording for import to after effects

Okay, I'm about at the end of my patience here. All I want to do is capture my screen with decent quality, getting video and audio, and import that video into after effects.

You'd think that was simple. That should be functionality you get out of the box. Kind of like how there's a printscreen button on the #$%^@^%! keyboard.

I've tried:
Camstudio
BSR Screen recorder
Camtasia
FRAPs
Snagit
UltraVNC addons...

I've probably tried more, but they all blur together now. NOTHING WORKS. Well, perhaps Camtasia works, but it's 200 dollars. 200 dollars to capture some video on the screen. I'd consider pointing my cell phone at my monitor but that would only be comparable to the output of these.

I think the main problem is codecs. Either it looks like crap, or the sound doesn't work or the video doesn't work or both or everything. XVid looks okay, but AE can't handle it. I'd be okay to deal with uncompressed, but it's like a gig for less than a minute.

Sorry for the rant, but my week was crappy and the internet was down and I just want something to play nice. Anyways, I know a bunch of you record video, so I know it's possible. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. If you say I need to shell out 200 bucks for camtasia, well, if my scholarship funding ever arrives, I could probably stomach that, but only if that's the only option.

And just cause I don't want to post an angry face... this is NOT how I'm feeling --> user added image

-stwert

Website - Blog - YouTube - Vimeo - Facebook - Twitter

-->How to Effectively Ask Questions on Forums<--

Last edited by stwert; 30-09-2012 at 02:08 PM.

Quote

# 2 30-09-2012 , 08:08 PM

EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

Sorry, I should apologize for my unpleasant plea for help.

Anyway, today I've tried some more things. I tried VirtualDub, but I couldn't figure out how to capture anything, especially something larger than 768x530 or something. Even then all that showed up was my mouse pointer.

I tried some different codecs in BSR Screen recorder. Cinepak Codec by Radius only seems to capture at about 1 fps, DivX just gives me a divide by zero error and won't capture anything. TechSmith apparently I need to buy camtasia for. Fraps video decompressor I "can not use" unless I pick a smaller region of the screen (currently it's 1280x720, which is what I want). Logitech Video (I420) looks pretty good, but comes out at ~700MB per minute which is pretty ridiculous, and there's no options for changing the compression quality. Microsoft Video 1 looks like garbage at the highest quality, and the filesizes are pretty significant.

So I'd really appreciate any help or advice on a pipeline.

-stwert

Website - Blog - YouTube - Vimeo - Facebook - Twitter

-->How to Effectively Ask Questions on Forums<--

Quote

# 3 30-09-2012 , 08:15 PM

Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2004

Location: Michigan, USA

Posts: 2,998

How about expression encoder from adobe?

https://www.labnol.org/software/camta...rnative/20333/

They have come out with a new rfee version and I think they removed the 10 minute recording limitation on that version so you'd want to grab that and give it a try before they decide to fix it.

Rick

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 30-09-2012 at 08:17 PM.

Quote

# 4 30-09-2012 , 08:38 PM

EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

Okay, I've spent some more time with the XVid codec and made a quantum of progress. I played around with Adobe Media Encoder a bit and found that I can convert the xvid avi to any other format, so AE should be able to read it in. I chose h.264 HD 720p 23.976fps since that was the closest to the input format that I could find (1280x720 at 24fps).

It converted and seems okay, but the video plays back at a faster speed so that it finishes in just over half the proper time, then the video pauses for a bit, then it plays the second half of the video again, quickly, then pauses until the end of the video, which is only a minute long. Any ideas why adobe isn't interpreting the input video properly? I'll play with some more settings.

-stwert

Website - Blog - YouTube - Vimeo - Facebook - Twitter

-->How to Effectively Ask Questions on Forums<--

Quote

# 5 30-09-2012 , 08:40 PM

EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

Thanks Rick, I'll try expression encoder too. You mean Microsoft. I think my problem now lies not so much in the tool, but in the codecs that aren't playing nice with adobe.

-stwert

Website - Blog - YouTube - Vimeo - Facebook - Twitter

-->How to Effectively Ask Questions on Forums<--

Quote

# 6 30-09-2012 , 09:03 PM

EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

Rick you're a lifesaver... I think this will work. I can capture from expression encoder, encode to wmv (seems to be the only option in free version) and then do all my editing and final encode in After effects.

I just figured out that after effects doesn't preview sound by default, it has to be done in a ram preview (I feel like an idiot), so I wonder if that caused me to rule out any previous options. Not sure, but this should work well.

-stwert

Website - Blog - YouTube - Vimeo - Facebook - Twitter

-->How to Effectively Ask Questions on Forums<--

Quote

# 7 30-09-2012 , 09:18 PM

Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2004

Location: Michigan, USA

Posts: 2,998

oops yep I meant microsoft

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Quote

# 8 30-09-2012 , 09:25 PM

EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

I updated it to SP2 and as soon as it launched, a bubble popped up that said "Capture duration in the Standard version is limited to 10 minutes" and I was like What!!! It says the opposite on the download page. So I tried a capture of >10 minutes and it seems to be fine. Dunno. Filesize was about 250MB for ~11 minutes at ~25fps, which I think is fine.

Thanks again for the suggestion.