Posts Tagged ‘screencast’

Valgen gets a major push with a professional screencast from Scraster Professional Screencasting

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
Valgen screencast by Scraster Professional Screencasting

Scraster Professional Screencasting’s latest screencast introduces another bright new cloud-based software firm called Valgen. Valgen is a business intelligence (BI) company headed by a really sharp guy named Parth Srinivasa. Parth tasked Scraster with creating a professional screencast that would distill his complex predictive analytics product into an engaging few minutes of casually narrated video. The subject matter of the Valgen Productivity Suite was at first intimidating, but through Scraster’s collaborative script writing process, our team was able to work with Parth to hone in on the most important aspects of the platform.

Scraster was on a tight deadline to deliver the video in time to be entered into the Force.com Forty Innovation Showcase, a software challenge put on by CRM giant salesforce.com. We’ll find out next week whether Scraster has helped Valgen move a step closer to getting a coveted seat among 39 other leading SaaS app developers. Because this video has the potential to be viewed by a group that Scraster considers its target clientele, we were happy to agree on a lower price for the client in exchange for an extended credit at the video’s end. This kind of branding is something we’ve been doing more and more of with the understanding that 1) times are tight for our clients and 2) creating public awareness of the Scraster brand is as good as gold to us.

A few words about the production of the Valgen screencast. We reverted from Camtasia for Mac back to ScreenFlow for this one simply for reason of ScreenFlow’s kind of cursor effects not being available in Camtasia for Mac yet. Mouse callouts were important to the us and the client, and because we were on deadline, we didn’t want to deal with the Mouseposé mouse highlighting work-around. The sharp motion graphics of this screencast were created by Scraster’s newest team member, Dale Nabeta. We look forward to seeing more of Dale’s work in upcoming videos and are glad to have him on board.

If you are the developer of a salesforce.com app or have an online product or service that could benefit from a professional screencast like Valgen’s, please visit Scraster’s Get a Free Quote page today. You can also email us at info@scraster.com.

Thanks for sharing this Valgen video with others. Here’s some short text handy for tweets:
>> Check out the new screencast from @scraster at http://scraster.com/valgen <<

Fluid screencast created with Camtasia for Mac by Scraster Professional Screencasting

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

fluid-246x100The newest professional screencast by Scraster demonstrates Fluid, a great app for Mac users who rely heavily on web-based softwares like Google Docs, Basecamp, and Pandora. Fluid.app is a software that creates apps out of online tools so that they can be launched from the Mac OSX dock, be kept in their own windows, and controled with Preferences similarly to how other regular applications can be.

Scraster Professional Screencasting produced this Fluid screencast using TechSmith’s new Camtasia for Mac screencasting software. It was Scraster’s first serious experiment with Camtasia for Mac and we’re really happy with the end result. cam4mac-246x100 As you may or may not know, Scraster has been ScreenFlow-based since we opened our shop. While we haven’t dumped Telestream’s ScreenFlow, we definitely have a growing *crush* on Camtasia for Mac!

We were asked to hold off on posting this vid until the proper release date of Camtasia for Mac, which is today. Now you can DL a free trial of the app at TechSmith.com, where you can also buy a specially-priced copy for $50 less than its normal $150 price tag. John Basile, Team Leader at Scraster Professional Screencasting, is in the process of writing a full review of Camtasia for Mac which will be published by scrast.net, the screencasting website, in the next day or two. The scrast.net Twitter feed has mentioned that the site will have several copies of the software to give away in the coming days, so be on the lookout.

Well, this post came to be more about Camtasia for Mac than about its original subject, which was Fluid. If you’re on a Mac, you should check out Fluid asap. Download it for free at http://fluidapp.com and then collect some great looking icons for your new Fluid apps here on Flickr. You’ll be glad you did. If you come to enjoy Fluid, please forward this video on to your friends via the “share” tool on the player or tweet this URL: http://scraster.com/fluid Thanks!

a screencast from Scraster Professional Screencasting

If your organization has an online product or service that could benefit from a professional screencast, get a free quote from Scraster Professional Screencasting here. You can also email us at info@scraster.com. We’re @scraster on Twitter.

Professional screencasting for a bad economy

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

J. Peter Bruzzese is a fellow screencaster and the writer of a regular column at the blog of InfoWorld.com. Peter focuses mostly on training videos involving Microsoft Exchange, but he makes some good points in a recent post regarding the value of screencast training in general. This is an excerpt from the post entitled Screencasts a smart training alternative in a tough economy:

“Let’s face it: Even with Main Street and Wall Street going down the tubes, the tech industry is holding its own. This year saw the release of new mobile devices, software releases from all the major vendors, development of virtualization, cloud computing, and so much more. We can celebrate the survival of our industry through this horrible year, especially if you read and believe all the buzz about 2009 being the “Year of Tech Deployment.” There is a good possibility 2009 will stand out as a banner year on all fronts.

“It’s been said, “Desperate times call for creative measures.” Well, creative doesn’t necessarily mean less effective in this case. In fact, screencasts can be one of the most effective means of training your users because they can watch a video whenever they want and, more important, whenever they need. This can help reduce calls to help desk personnel (or worse yet, administrators directly) and can promote more comfort and productivity in your workforce.”

Well put, Peter.

Scraster Professional Screencasting: a 3-minute introduction

Friday, December 19th, 2008

When the Scraster Professional Screencasting website was launched, it was missing one crucial element – an enhanced screencast of its own to explain the services of a professional screencasting production shop. So here it is.

“Scraster Professional Screencasting: a 3-minute introduction” was produced in HD for your full-screen viewing pleasure. Its purpose is to inform the viewer about what screencasting is, why a lot of screencasts online are ineffective, and how Scraster Professional Screencasting goes about making a video that’s a cut above. The introduction video is presented here with Scraster’s new customized Blip.tv video player, which we were very happy to find among the mess of web video sharing options available.

Thanks for watching, sharing, Digging, and enjoying the video.

Happy holidays to you from Scraster Professional Screencasting. Let’s go kick some ass in 2009.

Watch a 3-minute introduction to Scraster Professional Screencasting

An enhanced screencast for WhatCounts

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

Recently, e-communications leader WhatCounts teamed up with Scraster on a video to present new improvements to their platform’s user interface. While the video isn’t exactly “public domain” yet, I thought I’d say a few words about Scraster’s newest client and how well our process worked out.

WhatCounts CEO & Co-Founder David Geller initially got in touch with Scraster via the Inquire page of the website to briefly explain the needs of WhatCounts. Their e-marketing platform had undergone some major functionality improvements and they wanted their users to see them in action. The video had to shine. The turn-around time was very tight, as the version release was just about a week away.

To speed things along, Simon at WhatCounts jammed out a cursory script and went so far as to create a 13-minute rough-cut screencast using Camtasia Studio 5. Having such a strong foundation was helpful to Scraster, and it cut the client’s cost dramatically. In only a few days, Scraster turned around a polished, enhanced screencast, packing in WhatCounts‘ message in less than half the time of their original script.

David Geller: “I think it’s exceptional. Very worthwhile in terms of informational value to the customer. I’m very impressed.”

The experience of working with WhatCounts on their first scrast made me realize that the availability of screencasting software in most workplaces nowadays doesn’t necessarily pose a threat to the business of professional screencasters like Scraster. Juxtaposed, it’s a boon! When people with other, more important responsibilities realize how challenging and time consuming creating a presentable screencast can be, they turn to professional screencasters like Scraster. And we’re happy to help!

Scraster is currently working on a new and much-needed promotional video for the homepage of Scraster.com to explain our services in video (and not text). Only makes sense, right? It will be entitled “Scraster Professional Screencasting: a 3-minute Introduction” and will be Scraster’s first foray into HD screencasting. It’s going to look sharp and we’re looking forward to posting it asap.