Mastering Adobe Captivate 6
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Shooting the first movie

It is time to have a first experience of an actual recording session. Shooting a movie is a four-step process, as the following:

  • Preparing the application to shoot
  • Rehearsing the scenario
  • Shooting the movie
  • Previewing the rushes

Let's review these four steps one by one.

Preparing the application to shoot

For this exercise, the application we will use is the Adobe Media Encoder CS6. This application is used to convert virtually any type of video files to Flash video and HTML5 video. The Adobe Media Encoder CS6 is part of your Captivate or eLearning Suite bundle. Therefore, if you have Captivate (even the trial version), you also have the Adobe Media Encoder CS6!

We will now reset the Captivate workspace and open the Adobe Media Encoder using the following steps:

  1. Open Captivate. If Captivate is already opened, close every open file.
  2. Make sure the default Classic workspace is applied.
  3. Open the Adobe Media Encoder Application. On the Mac, it is situated in the /Applications/Adobe Media Encoder CS6 folder. On Windows, a shortcut to the Adobe Media Encoder is available in the Start menu.

When the Adobe Media Encoder opens, make sure it looks like the following screenshot:

Preparing the application to shoot

Rehearsing the scenario

The goal of the movie is to teach the students how to use the Adobe Media Encoder to convert a QuickTime movie (with a .mov extension) to a Flash video (with a .flv extension). This scenario follows the exact same steps as the ones we experienced while seeing the Encoder Demonstration and Simulation in the previous chapter. Perform the following steps to convert a .mov to .flv file:

  1. Go to the Adobe Media Encoder application.
  2. In the top left corner of the application, click on the + icon.
  3. Browse to the videos/MOV folder of the exercises files and load the demo_en.mov QuickTime movie into the Adobe Media Encoder.
  4. Open the Format drop-down list and choose the FLV format.
  5. Open the Preset drop-down list and apply the 4 x 3 preset (the second to last item in the list).
  6. Click on the preset name to open the Export Settings dialog.
  7. In the lower-right area of the Export Settings dialog, open the Video tab (if needed).
  8. Scroll down the Video tab until you see the Resize Video section.
  9. Make sure the Maintain Aspect Ratio icon (the chain icon) is active and change the Width of the video to 400 pixels. Normally, the new Height of the video is automatically set to 300 pixels.
  10. Click on the OK button to validate the new Export Settings.
  11. Click on the Start Queue button (the green play icon) to start the actual encoding.

The encoding process begins. In the Encoding panel, at the bottom of the screen, a yellowish bar shows the progression of this operation.

Make sure you master these steps, and make sure the Adobe Media Encoder CS6 behaves as expected before moving on. If you need more practice, feel free to rehearse this scenario a few more times before the shooting. After all, on a real movie set, even the most famous actors rehearse their scenes before the director finally decides to turn the camera on!

When you are ready to shoot the scene, don't forget to reset the Adobe Media Encoder application to its original state. The best way to do it is to close the application, and restart it. Perform the following steps to reset the application:

  1. Close the Adobe Media Encoder CS6.
  2. When the application is closed, reopen it.
  3. When the application reopens, make sure it looks like the previous screenshot.

    Also delete the .flv file(s) you generated during the rehearsal(s):

  4. Open the Finder (Mac) or the Windows Explorer (Windows) and browse to the videos/MOV folder of the exercise files.
  5. Delete all the .flv files present in this folder.

Shooting the movie

We know the scenario and the application is ready to be captured. It's time to return to Captivate and start the actual shooting process.

[Mac users only] — Enable access to assistive devices

If you work on Macintosh, there is one preliminary step to take before Captivate can shoot the movie. This action can be done by performing the following steps:

  1. Open the System Preferences application.
  2. In the Personal section of System preferences, click on the Universal Access icon.
  3. At the bottom of the Universal Access preference pane, select the Enable access for assistive devices checkbox.
  4. Close the System Preferences application and return to Captivate.

Without this step, Mac OS does not broadcast the events that Captivate uses to capture user interactivity (such as clicking a button, typing into a text entry, and so on).

Preparing Captivate to shoot

For this firsthand experience, we will use the default options of Captivate by performing the following steps to shoot the movie:

  1. Close every open file, so that the Captivate Welcome screen is displayed.
  2. In the right column of the Welcome screen, click on the Create New Software Simulation link. You can also use the File | Record new Software Simulation menu item to achieve the same result.

    The Captivate interface disappears and a red rectangle is displayed on the screen. This red rectangle is the recording area.

  3. In the recording window, choose Application to record an application.
  4. In the Select the window to record drop-down list, choose to record the Adobe Media Encoder CS6 application.

    Adobe Media Encoder opens and the red recording area snaps to the application window.

  5. In the Snap to section of the box, choose to record at a Custom Size.
  6. Choose a size of 1024 x 768 in the drop-down list. The red recording area and the Adobe Media Encoder CS6 application are both resized to the chosen size.
  7. Leave the remaining options at their default settings. The recording window should look like the following screenshot:
Preparing Captivate to shoot

In the previous screenshot, notice the Demo checkbox in the lower part of the window. Make sure this checkbox is the only one selected.

The stage is set and the actors are in place. Everyone is waiting for the director's signal to get started!

And... Action!

The signal is the red Record button at the bottom of the recording window. Once you click on it, all your actions will be recorded by Captivate until you stop the capture.

Note

If you have a problem while doing this exercise, refer to the Chapter02/final/encoderDemo_1024.cptx file of your exercises folder.

Perform the following steps to record a video:

  1. Click on the red Record button at the bottom of the recording window. After a short countdown, you'll be in the recording mode.
  2. In the Adobe Media Encoder, perform the actions as written in the scenario that we rehearsed earlier in this chapter in the Rehearsing the Scenario section.
    • Each time you click, you should hear a camera shutter sound.
    • When you type in the Width field, you should hear keystrokes.
    • Perform the actions slowly enough to allow captivate to capture all the required images and actions.
    • After clicking on the Start Queue icon, hit the Print Screen key (Windows) or the cmd + Fn + F6 shortcut (Mac) three or four times to manually capture a few screenshots of the yellowish bar as it progresses to the right edge of the Encoding panel.
  3. When done, hit the End key (Windows) or do the cmd + Fn + Enter Shortcut (Mac). Captivate generates the slides.
  4. When the project has finished loading in Captivate, save it as Chapter02/encoderDemo_1024.cptx.
  5. Close the Adobe Media Encoder application.

The shooting phase of the movie is now finished. If you don't get it right the first time, don't worry, you can simply discard your sequence and start over. On a real movie set, even the most famous actors are granted many chances to do it right!

Previewing the rushes

The project should be open in Captivate. To launch the preview, we will use the same Preview icon as in the previous chapter by performing the following steps:

  1. On the Main Options toolbar, click on the Preview icon.
  2. In the drop-down list, choose Project to preview the entire project.
  3. Captivate generates the slides and opens the Preview pane.

    Captivate has already generated lots of objects on the slides. Remember that in the recording window, the Demo mode was selected by default. The Demo mode automatically adds Text Captions, Highlight Boxes, and Mouse movements to the slides.

    Of course, some of the content of the Text Captions must be corrected, the size and position of the Highlight Boxes must be fine-tuned and the overall rhythm of the project is probably too fast, but this is an acceptable starting point to begin with.

  4. Close the Preview pane when done.
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