ScreenFlow is here! And as you’ll
see from the following review of it, I’m quite pleased that it has
finally arrived.
It’s from
Vara
Software (who also make the awesome teleprompter-style
software I use called VideoCue 2) and
is an incredible, breathtaking work of genius that is going to make my
daily screencasts less of a chore, and more pleasurable than they have
been for a long time.
It’s release comes as a huge
sigh of relief and wave of elation for Mac screencasters everywhere, me
amongst their number.
Tried The Alternatives
Having battled with the horror of SnapzProX, found temporary solace
and then abject misery in the frame dropping antics of iShowU, with it’s
delightful blinking cursor “feature”.
Then
switching to Screenflick
(formerly Screencast) only to get frustrated with its constant
crashing, tiresome interface and slooooow start-up procedure, I find
myself in a rapture of delight having discovered today the majesty of
ScreenFlow.
Essential Purchase
If I sound breathless, it’s because I am. I just
shelled out the $99
price tag faster than it took me to finish watching the demo screencast.
Why? I mean, isn’t that pricey?
Trust me, if you screencast every single day of your life, on
a mac,
under the glitches of Leopard (sorry pre-upgrade people, this is a
Leopard only app), you will be jumping for joy when you see
what’s on
offer here.
What Mac Screencasters Have Been Waiting
For
Those cool zoom and pan features in Camtasia? Check.
Executed in a far better way in a beautiful interface? Check.
Time line editing that doesn’t totally suck – oh yes.
Call outs, mouseposé style highlighting and
OmniDazzle style zooming
of a portion of your screen? On screen keyboard commands? Naturally.
Amazing, no-drop frame, crystal clear, HD quality visuals.
This is the kind of thing that is going to hugely reduce my
screencasting workflow. No more hand keyframing those zooms and pans in
Final Cut or Motion… No more having to have to perform
simple editing
in a different app (yes, I might still do some of the fancier stuff in
FCP/Premiere, but you get the idea).
No more creating fancy reflections by copying the video source
and
using masking, blur, rotation etc. because fancy reflections come as
standard here.
Stand Out Features
Other stand out features include highlighting of the cursor,
or the
foreground window; awesome full screen presentations from Keynote, with
our without picture in picture video (from your isight or the cam of
your choice). I can even bring in media from other sources and mix it
in.
Output using a range of presets OR full quicktime support for
your custom specs.
Basically, short of titling and all the fancy motion graphics
wizardry I do, this is a complete package, and it rocks, rocks, rocks.
If you make screencasts, want to make screencasts, and want a
powerhouse piece of kit for a measly $99, ScreenFlow is it.
A Real game Changer
Trust me when I say that this is a game changer. I know people
that
use FCP for doing the tasks that this thing will do alone. The only
thing missing here is titling, but smart folk will use something like
Keynote to sort that out. Am I going to stop using FCP, Premiere, After
Effects etc?
No, because a lot of my work now is much more motion
graphics based. But if I were just making regular screencasts, this
would be more than enough for the entire workflow, and I
don’t doubt
that it will be saving me a whole lot of time.
Software companies, would-be video podcasters, trainers,
educators
and a lot more folk besides are going to find a lot of use for this.
And, and… It even has built in screencast tutorials
for the different features. Talk about eating your own dog food.
Expect an in-depth review when I get a day off, but basically,
just go, now, and
buy this.
TechSmith had better come up with something very special when
they
release Camtasia at the end of the year in it’s all new mac
format,
because this one is going to be hard to trump.
Disclaimer
If you’re wondering, this is not a paid
post and I have no
affiliation with Vara at all. Merely a song of joy and delight at what
I’ve been waiting for this last 18 months or so doing this
full time
for a living.
Originally written by Michael Pick, a professional screencaster, web video maker and blogger. Some Rights Reserved.
