MacResearch

Sometimes you're really blown away when you see a brand new application, by its great functionality, or by a beautiful and elegant user interface, and sometimes by both. Screenflow from Vara software is one of the latter category, you might have seen screen recording software before but this one definitely sets the bar.

Introduction
Screencasting becomes more and more popular, the idea of making a simple movie of your computer screen instead of trying to explain in words how something works or what you do on your Mac. This is in part due to the increase of available bandwidth and space people have on the internet, due to popular sites like Youtube, screencast sharing websites like screencast.com, but mostly because it's simpler to do than ever before. Screencasts also gain rapid popularity in science, in part fuelled by new initiatives like the scientific YouTube equivalent SciVee.

Until not so long ago the golden standard for Mac screenrecording software was Ambrosia's SnapzPro. But recently we have seen a number of new and innovative programs like Araelium's Screenflick. But now there's Vara software's Screenflow and it just changes everything you knew about screen cast software before.

I've tested ScreenFlow by making a small demo screencast of how to use my application Papers in combination with Endnote to insert references in Word. You'll find the final results at the end of this review.


Take 1...
Making a screencasts start with... ...recording your screen obviously. Screenflow does that like most other programs do. It offers a little menu bar icon so you don't have to remember a keyboard shortcut (although it has one too of course). It nicely allows you to select the monitor, sound input etc and then it starts counting down and records your screen. You can even simultaneously record the video from you isight camera so your audience can see you in the lower right corner while you give your keynote presentation if you wish!

Figure 1 - Starting a screenrecording


Recording is one, making a screencast is two
Once you're done you click on stop recording and that's as simple as it is. However this is where most programs would leave you, but with Screenflow this is where it all begins. Screenflow now automatically opens and shows you a window that resembles iMovie most, but now specifically tuned to screencasting. Here is where you can edit and finalize your complete screencast.

Figure 2 - Screenflow's main interface

The interface is highly intuitive and anyone who has ever worked with iMovie or similar programs will feel right at home. The timeline is in some respect even much more powerful (multiple layers anyone?) and at the same time maybe even easier to work with than iMovie's. But what's even better is that the makers of Screenflow have excellent tutorials (of course these are screencasts as well) built-in when you first use a new feature. And if that's not enough, their website contains a handful of additional screencasts (what else could you expect) as well.

Figure 3 - Build in video tutorials


Adding polish to your screencast
Very quickly you find yourself editing and polishing your screencast in a very easy way. Just cut out parts where you made mistakes, add a new soundtrack or voice-over, retake a piece of video, etc. And once you're done with that the real fun starts.

What's very clear from the beginning is that the people who created Screenflow have taken maximum advantage of all new Leopard features (yes, that means Screenflow only works on Leopard). There's a lot of (useful!) animation in for instance the timeline, making everything a very smooth experience. But that's not the only place where core animation is used. Also in the main video window all the technology of Mac OS X is used so you can add multiple layers, scale them, make them transparent, add video effects, and even rotate your images and video to create iChat theatre like effects. And all animated as well!

Figure 4 - Editing your screencast and adding effects


Another great and clever feature is that Screenflow records the mouse, the front most window and the rest of the screen as separate layers. This now allows you to do smart things like highlighting and zooming in the front most window while dimming and/or even blurring the background. You can also enlarge the mouse and add click effects or show the keys you pressed. All this usually required separate applications like Boinx' Mousepose, but with Screenflow it's all built-in. And it looks gorgeous.


First round, version 1.0
Screenflow is a version 1.0 product and sometimes you are remembered of it, a number of keyboard shortcuts (like hitting the backspace key to delete a clip) are missing, certainly if you are used to iMovie. And also, as the demo clip will show, image overlays don't rescale really nice. But overall one can only be amazed by the quality and how polished this first release is. And perhaps even more important, it's stunningly speedy and stable as well. It didn't crash once and the program could easily capture my 23 inch screen attached to my MacBook Pro. But most important the screencasts it produces look great and very professional.


Conclusion
Within 20 minutes after seeing and playing with the program I bought it straight away. With a price tag of $100 it sure isn't cheap (although it seems there academic pricing is available) but I believe the program is certainly worth it if you find yourself regularly making or willing to make instructional or demo screencasts. I would encourage anyone who does so to head over to vara software's website and give screenflow a try.


Examples
Below you'll find a short demo screencast I made as part of the testing of screenflow. I must say I only downloaded the program this morning (which speaks in its favour I guess) and didn't spend a whole lot of time polishing the movie in very fine detail, but I believe the result is the more impressive. It shows you how to use Papers in combination with Endnote to add your references to a Word document. I've exported the movie in the default hi and low resolution:

View Screencast (High Quality) | View Screencast (Low Quality)

Figure 5 - Exporting your screencast