Video Documentation for BIRCH
From Bioinformatics.Org Wiki
Rationale: There are many reasons why it makes sense to create videos of BIRCH
- YouTube can serve as a way for people to find BIRCH
- People are more likely to watch a video than read documentation
- Videos communicate the dynamic processes of bioinformatics in a way that documentation does not.
Contents[hide] |
Screen Capture
Software:
Great video on how to make screen cast videos How To Record High Quality Screen Casts (With Sound) | Desktop Record | Ubuntu Linux [Full 1080p]
3 Best Apps to Record Screen in Linux|Capture Screen Videos / Screencast in Linux easily
How to record screencasts with recordMyDesktop
Screen recording
- Simple Screen Recorder -
- Video is all black after recording. This turns out to be an artifact of the default settings for VLC. A fix can be found at [1]
- Use Ctrl-R to start and pause recording. Took a bit of doing to finally get a recording, but it's good. There is a great Preview feature that shows a live thumbnail of the recording with stereo sound indicators. MP4 files created by SSR can be imported into the Flowblade movie editor.
- Record entire screen actually records left monitor, which is perfect
- Audio: PulseAusio, Webcam
- Output: High Quality Intermediate
- Container MP4
- Video codec: H.264
- Audio codec: MP3
- recordMyDesktop - Maybe a bit too simple. No way to specify input devices, codecs our output format. Start by clicking on the start button. A pause/stop button will appear on the top toolbar, and you pause by clicking on that button. Then recordMyDesktop reappears and you can save the file.
- Kazam - very simple, probably too simple.
OSX
- Quicktime (built-in with OSX) - does it have a shortcut for stopping and starting record?
- From Applications, double click on QuickTime; Qt goes to dock.
- Right click on Qt icon on dock; choose New Screen Recording
- App pops up. Press button; Recording begins with app on top bar.
- Click to record full screen.
- Press button on top bar to finish. Recording will pop up.
- Top bar: File --> Save. Menu pops up for saving video to a file.
- ActivePresenter - not sure if it has a shortcut for stoping and starting.
VLC - On maui, I was checking clips using VLC, and during the playback there was a lot of visual noise on the slide. This turned out to be an artifact of VLC on this machine, maybe due to an old video card. The clip was perfectly good when played on a different machine.
Electronic background noise - I had a terrible background hum, and after turning off all electrical devices, speakers and fluorescent lights, I learned that the hum was coming from the electrical cord for my heating pad (It's cold in the basement where I was recording!) The heating pad cord crossed the USB cable for the headset at a single spot, but that was enough to introduce a hum into the recording. This took a long time to isolate.
Screen Zooming
Zooming is not part of the functionality of most screen capture programs.
So far, we've been using Compiz, but with Ubuntu 20, I don't know if it's available. However, zooming done using the Compiz window manager. This is supposed to be part of the Ubuntu Mate release.
Two potential zoom alternatives are xzoom and magnus.
To turn on Compiz, go to MATE Tweak --> Windows and choose "Compiz".
Compiz settings are set in System --> Preferences --> Look and Feel --> Compiz Config Settings manager.
Specific buttons that control zooming can be set in the Enhanced Zoom Desktop menu.
To choose Compiz, check "Enable MATE Compatability". In CompizConfig Settings Manager
- Enhanced Zoom Desktop
- Focus Tracking - turn off "Enable Focus Tracking". If it's on, the screen will move around when the mouse moves, which is totally chaotic, and should not be the default.
- Mouse behavior - Zoom mode: Pan area
- Accessibility
- Zoom Area Movement - Ctrl-F5
By default, zoomed area will move as you move the mouse. Toggle this key to turn this function off or on. Off is better.
- Zoom Area Movement - Ctrl-F5
In Compiz, Button 4 refers to scrolling the mouse in, Button 5 refers to scrolling the mouse out. "Super" refers to the Windows key.
By default, the Windows key is held down to scroll in and out with the mouse. This is bad, because the Windows key also opens the Main Menu in Mate! We can change it in the Compiz Settings Manager. Go to Accessibility --> Enhanced Zoom Desktop. Change Zoom In Button and Zoom Out Button to CTRL-WINDOWS. That way, you have to hold down both keys to zoom in and out. If you release them, zooming stops.
So when setting zoom in, it's Control-Super-Button4 and for Zoom Out it's Control-Super-Button5
Hints for Efficient, High Quality Recording
Recording computer demos can be a frustrating and time-consuming experience. Here are some practices that make for better recording of film clips, and make editing easier.
- Create a complete script - It may seem like a lot of work, but it is worth the time investment to create a hybrid Presentation/Script. The presentation consists of slides, either to show, or as a storyboard for what the screen should look like during live segments. In the Notes view, you'll get a thumbnail of the slide, and you can put in the text to be read below. Having full text helps you get the most precise wording, as well as helping to keep it short. Even if you will do a live demo in place of the slide, it help to prepare a script of what you plan to say. Print the notes to a PDF file, and then print the PDF two slides to a page.
- On the written script, write in the names of the files for each clip, with arrows spanning the slides that should be included in that clip.
- BEFORE you start recording, do a soundcheck clip and play it back. It can be tricky to get the right sound level. One one video I basically had to throw the whole thing out and start over because I recorded at too low of an input level.
- Annunciate! The more crisply you speak, the more understandable it is. It's surprising what a difference this makes. As a singer I should have known better.
- It's okay to pause for a second or two of silence between paragraphs. This creates breaks that make it easy to edit. If there are no breaks, sometimes you'll have to re-record an entire clip because of one or two "um's" or fumbled words.
- If you make a blunder far into the clip, simply pause and start that sentence or paragraph again. That way, the blunder can be easily edited out because there are pauses on either end. If you make a blunder early in the clip, it may make sense to cancel the clip and start again.
Video Editing
[9 Best Free Video Editing programs https://itsfoss.com/best-video-editing-software-linux/]
- Flowblade
- Project parameters:
- Project profile: DV/DVD PAL
- FPS: 25
- size: 720x576
- Aspect ratio: 1.07
- progressive: yes
- Encoding Format: Lossless H.264/.mp4
- Project parameters:
- Tips and Tricks
- To delete a segment from a clip: Use the razorblade tool to create two break points. Next, click on the part to be deleted and choose Edit --> Splice out
- Video Tutorials
- Tips and Tricks
Publication
For now we'll assume YouTube.
Account: fristumanitoba@gmail.com
YouTube recommends the following settings:
- Video settings:
- Compression Type: H.264
- Frame Rate: 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, 60 FPS rates are preferred. Other less-common frame rates like 23.98, 29.97, and 59.94 are also acceptable.
- Data Rate: Automatic
- Key Frames: Automatic
- Frame Reordering: Unchecked
- Audio/Sound settings:
- Format: AAC
- Click Show advanced settings and choose Constant Bit Rate as encoding strategy
- Other settings:
- Size: Choose the original size of the video
- “Prepare for Internet Streaming”: Fast Start
BIRCH Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9_3TfH3sjE0YdToVMChq-w?view_as=public
Planned videos
- Managing a bioinformatics core facility
Desktop Bioinformatics with BIRCH (long version)Desktop Bioinformatics with BIRCH (short version)- BioLegato - Cutting the Learning Curve in Bioinfomatics
BIRCH - Installation - LinuxBIRCH - Installation - Mac- BIRCH - Finding and retrieving sequences from NCBI
- BIRCH - Basic sequence tasks
BIRCH - Installing BLAST databases on your computerBIRCH - BLAST searches with local copies of NCBI databases- BIRCH - Multiple sequence alignment
- BIRCH - Phylogeny
- BIRCH - Genome Assembly
- BIRCH - Transcriptome Assembly and Differential Gene Expression
- BIRCH - Configuration and Administration of a BIRCH site
- BIRCH - Adding locally-installed applications to BIRCH