Have you ever been on YouTube and seen a video tutorial of a software? Have you ever wondered how it was done? Most probably it was done using the software called Cam Studio. Cam Studio is a free software which allows you to record all screen and audio activity on your computer. Not only that, it takes the inputs and turns it into an AVI video file you could easily upload to YouTube (see the example below)

The uses for this software are endless:

• You can use it to create demonstration videos for any software program
• You can creating a set of videos answering your most frequently asked questions about your website or service
• You can create video tutorials for your employees on how to use company software.

Basically there are no limits to what you create, just your imagination. Cam Studio is super easy to use. You can learn quickly how to put together a professional looking video tutorial. To get you started,  we  created this Cam Studio tutorial, along with the recommended settings. And , as you can guess, we did it by recording it with Cam Studio:

If you cannot see the video as it may be blocked at your company, here is Mark8t’s guide to quick set up of Cam Studio. Get your free copy of Cam Studio and Cam Studio Loseless Codec. Go here to get  the Lame Codec and DIVX Codec.

First run the set up on CamStudio, then run the setup for the Loseless Codec. Install the Lame Codec for smaller audio files for your video, and the DIVX codec (only-not the bundle) to allow for compressed video.

Now open up Cam Studio. These are the quick settings as recommend by us. The video needs to know where to record, this is set in the region tab. Fixed region will allow for instant YouTube video–but set it up whatever way it makes sense for your project. Click “drag corners to pan” so you can move the “cam” to the recording area as (if) needed. Next change Video Codec to Loseless 1.0 or DivX Codec. Unclick Auto Adjust changing the three settings: Set Key frames to every 30 seconds, capture frames every 50 milliseconds and playback rate 20 frames/second.

Next set it up to record via microphone, which is (the best) and most professional option. You will also need to set up the audio option for microphone to use Lame MP3 codec from standard PCM. That’s it! Now you should be set to film. Have fun!