Image credit: Tomasz Stasiuk

We don’t usually give codenames to minor releases but if we did, this one would be called Dr. Who. That’s because it’s all about transcending the barriers of space and time. You read that right. Time. And Space.

Camtasia for Mac 2.1 delivers clip speed, the #1 feature request from Camtasia for Mac users–as voted by our user community. It’s a tool for speeding up or stretching out video clips (without making you sound like a chipmunk or Darth Vader). For some thoughts on why this is a useful feature to have in screencasting software, jump down below the video.

So much for bending time. What about space?

That’s where green screen (aka chroma key) comes in. Use your smartphone or a digitcal camcorder to shoot some video in front of a solid-color backdrop (pick a wall or get a $30 backdrop), apply the new remove a color effect in Camtasia, and make the backdrop disappear. Once it’s gone, you can be virtually anywhere! (Heh.) That means you can play weather man, Superman, or just engage more naturally with your content.

Other new stuff in this update

• YouTube output has video details
• Use more of your fonts in callouts
• More keyboard shortcuts
• Other small goodies…

See the new features

Can’t see the video? Watch on YouTube…

Get Camtasia for Mac 2.1: Download a free trial | Upgrade free if you own Camtasia for Mac 2.0

Watch tutorials: Clip speed | Remove a color

Use clip speed to achieve a time-lapse effect

So you’re watching a movie and there’s a scene where the clouds are racing overhead at an impossible rate…and cars are streaming along the freeway like a solid river of light. These effects are created with time-lapse. Time-lapse makes glacial change look like continuous motion…and normal motion looks like frenetic activity.

It’s also a handy technique to have in your bag of tricks for screen recording!

You might use time-lapse to wow your viewers and create buzz for your artistic abilities or new product. Or you could simply shrink 40 seconds of screen video to fit a 30-second music track on your timeline. Handy, indeed.

Here are three example videos to get your creative wheels turning… They weren’t made with Camtasia for Mac but give you an idea of what’s possible.

Show construction – Minecraft Timelapse shows how to create a structure.	Compress time – Snagit demo Speeds up the action slightly to show a multi-step process.	Speed painting – Mary Doodles Turn a lengthy process into something entertaining to watch.

Have fun with the new features! If you make a video using clip speed, remove a color, or both…please share a link in the comments below or tweet it to us @camtasiamac!