Can anybody help?
Just trying to take animated (video) shots of my PC. Do I need any special utility for this?
Know that [PrtSc] takes a still image shot (btw never understood what those "capture" utilities were needed for), but how about videos?
Yes, you do need a special program. Windows Movie Maker has limited capabilities in this area, but there are many other programs (most of them free) that are more specifically tailored for this job. Google "create PC movies screen" (no quotes) to see a whole list of them.
CamStudio seems quite good from what I've used it so far. But the quality isn't as good as it is in real time (so using you computer as normal)
I don't know if there is a recorder that will record without artifacts or "stutter", I would like to know as well. I mean is there a recorder that will record exactly what you see and you cant tell the difference between 'live' and recorded?
Jonathan
I just installed something called BSR screen recorder 4, which seems to have some nice features. I didn't really try it out for anything else than recording myself playing guitar, which it worked ok for. It was free, but somehow a trial version, but I didn't see a timelimit or any options greyed out. Maybe there's some advanced features I didn't use that are blocked, I don't know. It was easy to use though.
Actually, SC4 has a built-in screen recorder, called by "recorder" in the cheat console. The downside is that it produces a sequence of images, rather than a video file. You can use VirtualDub or some other video editing program to create a video, though, or you can create a GIF animation from them. I once wrote a small tutorial, which is available here (http://www.simcityplaza.de/content/view/57/61/) (in German, so you might want to use a translator).
You can even use Windows Movie Maker to make a video from stills.
cogeo: just google "hypercam 2".
I've tried many screen recording programs, and Fraps is by far the best.
Once you finished taking your little "movie" in SC4, just use a program like Windows Movie Maker to edit it and add some music if you want.
When uploading to a site like Youtube, make sure your video is either in a 4:3 or 16:9 ratio or else it can look stretched or squished, depending on your monitor's resolution.
-It should be noticed that Fraps requires a ton of hard drive space. The actual program is small, but the video files are uncompressed, and can be several gigabytes in size. That's one of the reasons you need to use a video editing program so you can reduce its filesize upon uploading.
HalJackey, but Fraps can't take video of normal Windows, it only seems to take videos of games, unless I missed something?
Jonathan
Quote from: Jonathan on May 19, 2009, 11:41:55 PM
HalJackey, but Fraps can't take video of normal Windows, it only seems to take videos of games, unless I missed something?
Jonathan
Nope, you can use it for anything. I just tried to take a video of my desktop with the program and it worked. However in order to see the FPS (frames per second) meter in the corner, you'll have to tinker with the settings so it displays on your desktop.