Introduction
Tutorial videos are a helpful way to walk someone through a task, especially if that task is difficult to explain without dynamic visuals. Tasks that are easily repeatable with minimal modification yet elicit IT requests from multiple people (e.g., installing printer drivers, booking the conference room) may warrant a video tutorial. While video production can be a time-consuming effort, such videos can help save IT personnel a great deal of time and energy in the long run.
This page covers some standards you should employ while producing tutorial videos for CRE faculty and staff, as well as tips you may find helpful in the process.
Recording Audio
You can record audio and footage simultaneously if you so choose; however, this can sometimes be difficult to edit. This is especially true if you ever have to make changes to videos after an initial draft. Oftentimes it is best to record audio separately from video.
Before beginning, you may find it helpful to write a script or outline for what you want to say.
A Blue Yeti USB microphone is available in 9-338 for recording. Does it require special drivers for use? How is it set up? Cooper find out and write KB article about it maybe.
Cooper: No, it does not require any drivers. I will give you the manual, because there is important information about the proper way to use it (e.g. speak into the side and not directly into it; you can configure the microphone to operate in four different patterns; etc..)
Record in a quiet space, preferably an empty room. To prevent feedback, use headphones while recording.
Audacity (include link) is a free audio recording program you can use for these purposes. Export to .wav for greater audio quality when you are ready to do so.
Recording your computer screen
Most (if not, all) of these tutorials will require you to show what is happening on your computer screen. There are a few different ways to record your screen on PCs or Macs (e.g., Zoom, MacOS's native screen recorder, etc.). However, we have observed the best results with Open Broadcast Software (OBS) (include link). OBS is free for all and works on Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
Before you begin recording, consider changing the output path for OBS so that you know where the video files are saved. You can find this information and change it by clicking on Settings and navigating to the Output tab. If you plan on editing the footage in Adobe Premiere Pro, change the recording format to MPEG-4 (.mp4). Some versions of OBS output to .mkv by default, which Premiere Pro does not support.
Editing footage
Adobe Premiere Pro (include link) is a powerful video editing program available to all MIT students, faculty, and staff via the Adobe Creative Cloud. Take advantage of its huge array of features (special effects, zoom-ins, transitions, frame holds, speed changes, overlays) to add a professional touch to a tutorial video. A playlist of tutorial videos is available to view in the Premiere Pro wiki page.
Cooper created an introduction template for CRE in-center tutorials; you can the source file for the introduction in cre-dropbox\Shared\IT\Training Videos\IntroTemplate. Be sure to edit the title card to the respective tutorial topic. The music and photos used in this intro are not licensed, so please do not use this sequence for commercial use!
Managing files and assets
Renders, project files, materials, and assets for prior videos are available in cre-dropbox\Shared\IT\Training Videos, with files arranged by video. Create a new folder for each new video. Be sure to save to save every file used in a video to its respective folder in the Dropbox. Premiere Pro can be finnicky about files directly dragged into the workspace and does not save them anywhere. This means that parts of videos can be lost, so be careful.
Uploading and sharing
Tutorial videos can be uploaded to the CRE's YouTube channel. See Dropbox for password.
Be sure to make the videos unlisted so that they are only visible to people with a link.
Examples
See Also
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