Screencasting for free! On a Mac! Using CamTwist and iMovie!!

[Screencasting] is a nice useful technique where you can record your desktop to try and show something or teach something. The people at [Ruby on Rails] use this technique to good effect :)

I spent ages looking for some stuff to this with on OSX, but the only things recommended by people cost cash :(

So after watching lots of the [Zooomr MKIII launch on ustream] and seeing what Kris was doing with [CamTwist] (which is free!) I had a bit of of a brain wave.

So for a free screencast solution try the following:

  • Download and install [CamTwist]
  • Start [CamTwist] with no effects
  • Start iMovie
  • Flick the switch at the bottom of iMovie to Recording – click on the arrow to select the CamTwist camera
  • Do some recording!

There you go. Just a few things to look out for:

  1. This will beat the life out of your CPU meaning fan noise might be an issue
  2. Export the movie from iMovie in CD quality or it won’t work for most video sites (like [vimeo])