Camtasia: How to Make Interactive Video using Hotspots

if you want to make interactive videos but you don't have the budget for an articulate storyline subscription there are other options one of the most affordable tools is camtasia which was previously known as camtasia studio most people think of camtasia as simply a screen recorder and video editing software but in this quick tutorial i'll show you how to use a powerful camtasia feature called hot spots to create interactive videos hi there it's kimberly go bringing you tips and tools to take interactive video to the next level if you're an elearning developer you occasionally might get called on to do more with less so today i'll introduce you to a few relatively inexpensive tools for instance when i created workplace warzone for my client emc leaders i used a robust development tool called articulate storyline that allowed me to use variables to keep track of player decisions so i could show the player one of three alternate endings based on their overall score but if your project is relatively simple and you don't need to keep track of scores or variables you could use camtasia to add interactivity instead emc leaders wanted to showcase the unique features of their emotional connection master class so for that project we used a professional illustrator if you don't have the budget for that another option is to use stock photos or illustrated characters that you can customize on your own in powerpoint for this tutorial i've recreated one scene from workplace warzone using stock photos from a website called elearningart.com i built out the scenes in powerpoint and then i imported the graphics into camtasia to add the interactivity okay let's get started with a demo of the interactive video itself interactive videos usually include several scenes and decisions but we'll just look at one of the decisions here steve you've got to do something about jason he's stonewalling me again i can't get anything done so first let's choose a more empathetic approach it sounds like you're feeling very frustrated and angry with jason right now well yes i guess i am pretty angry it seems like she's calmed down a bit after you've seen that good result it jumps immediately to scene two so now let's rewind to the decision and see what happens when you ask for more information tell me more about what jason is doing how's it impacting your team apparently he decided to move forward with a new social media campaign even though i already told him several times it wouldn't work the messaging is completely wrong and it's being seen by thousands of people you've got to do something about this steve she's even angrier than she was before maybe i didn't need this much information after you've seen the consequences of the poor choice you get the option to either try again or continue on to scene 2. now let's open up the camtasia dashboard to see how this interactive video was developed if this is new to you don't get overwhelmed by all the detail camtasia provides great online tutorials and it's actually fairly easy to learn how to use this tool today we'll focus on a few things related to interactive videos take a look at these markers i've created to label different parts of the story scene one begins here then you come to the decision in which you either ask for more information or acknowledge her feelings if you ask for more information you jump to the bad result where she gets even more angry if you acknowledge her feelings you jump to the good result where she calms down in either case the story always continues by going on to scene two the way you jump to bad or good results is by using hot spots to find hot spots click on the magic wand of visual effects not on this interactivity icon first click on the button that you want to use so it's selected you can tell the button is selected when you see this thin white border appear scroll through the visual effects options until you see the interactive hotspot drag and drop the hotspot onto the ask for more information button as i do this watch what happens on the right side of the screen you'll see the interactive hotspot properties appear at the bottom of this panel if you ever need to remove a hotspot you would just click this x when a player chooses ask for more information i want them to see the bad result where she gets even more angry to do this choose marker then click the drop down menu and you'll see a list of all the markers you've already set up i'll choose the bad result marker from this list the posit end box should already be check mark by default so when the player comes to this part of the story the video will pause so they can make a decision one important note if your buttons only stay on the screen for a very short time your hot spots may not work so it's a good idea to make sure that the buttons are displayed for at least half a second so now i'll select the acknowledge her feelings button so i can make that button interactive i go to visual effects choose the interactive hotspot drag it onto the button and choose the good results marker to test if i've set this up properly i can click the test button notice the playhead is currently at the decision point on the timeline when i click test for the good results marker the playhead jumps to the good results marker on the timeline this brings up an important point these interactive buttons won't work in real life unless you export your video to screencast or export the file together with the techsmith smart player if you simply export it as an ordinary mp4 video or upload the video to youtube the interactive elements won't work i'll show you how to export to screencast at the end of this video and we'll cover smart player in a future video hey if you're getting value from this video smash the like button to let me know and be sure to subscribe if you'd like to see more content like this there's one more important note i want to mention if you want to track a person's score so you can upload a scorm file to your learning management system you have to use the camtasia quiz or survey function instead of using this hotspot technique that i'm showing you here the interactive videos we're creating today with camtasia are simply learning scenarios not scorm files okay so now we've added interactivity to the decision buttons and they either lead to the bad result or the good result but once the player finishes watching the bad result you don't want to simply continue on and show them the good result too that's why i've added try again and continue buttons to the last part of the bad results scene if they choose try again it jumps back to the marker for the decision screen and if they choose continue it jumps ahead to the marker for scene 2. originally i thought i could add invisible hotspot to this last screen uncheck the posit end box and have it automatically jump ahead to scene 2. but after a little research it looks like that functionality isn't working yet in camtasia so for now i'd recommend using this button method instead you do have several useful options for interactivity though you can jump to an external website by choosing url then typing in the website address you can jump to a marker that you've already set up or you can jump to a particular time on the timeline or if you just want the player to read something on the screen then click a button to continue the video choose this click to continue option so now i'll show you how easy it is to export your interactive video to screencast you simply click on this export button and choose screencast then name your video and click export it takes a few minutes to upload and then you'll see this screen you can copy and paste the video url link into an email or document just like a youtube video link or you can use the embed code to embed the video into your website you could also click visit and you could play through the video in your screencast.com account screencast has a free plan that stores your videos for up to 12 months but the pro plan is pretty inexpensive and that stores your videos indefinitely as you can see camtasia is a pretty powerful tool not only is it an excellent screen recorder and video editor it also allows you to create simple interactive videos camtasia has a free 30-day trial so you can try out the tool and see if it fits your needs it's relatively inexpensive compared to articulate storyline and camtasia is a one-time purchase not a recurring subscription price if you need characters for your interactive videos take a look at the website elearningart.com this website has cut out stock photos like the one shown in this tutorial it also has a huge library of illustrated characters with different clothing expressions and poses that you can customize in powerpoint i'll include links to all of these resources in the show notes below if you found this video helpful i'd really appreciate it if you'd hit that like button then let me know and be sure to subscribe so you'll see my other tutorials as soon as they're uploaded in this next video i'll review several interactive video examples and compare more software development platforms see you there

Channel: Kimberly Goh

Views: 2,942

Keywords: camtasia 2020, camtasia 2021, camtasia, camtasia 2020 tutorial, camtasia studio, camtasia tutorial, camtasia hotspot, camtasia video editing tutorial, camtasia interactive video, articulate storyline, instructional design, elearning, e learning, e-learning, corporate training, interactive video software, how to use interactive hotspot in camtasia, how to make interactive videos with camtasia, how to make interactive videos, corporate training video, screencast

Id: ToUeS2GrK9g

Length: 9min 5sec (545 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 20 2021