ScreenFlow 4 and the New Nested Clips Feature
A lot of ScreenFlow users might not fully understand the capabilities of one of the new version 4.
0 updates called nested clips, so I think it's a good idea to give a few examples of how you can use this powerful new feature for your screencasts.
The most apparent feature of this function in ScreenFlow 4 is to help keep your timeline clean and organized.
This in itself is a valuable tool because when you're doing screencasts - especially those more lengthy or complicated types - well you know how intense your workflow projects can get.
Layers upon layers of tracks of audio, images, annotations, callouts and screencast captures can make your workflow downright confusing at times.
The other benefit is the ability to add effects upon all of the tracks within the nested clip.
I worked with this feature a lot during beta and am convinced that it is the most important upgrade the software has ever had.
The ability to add a video action to a nested clip basically allows for the doubling up on effects, since presumably some of the tracks within your nested clip will already have video effects applied to them individually.
For example, you can apply an opacity effect to a single track, then nest that clip and add a resizing video action over top - resulting in them running concurrently.
The ability to combine the 2 video actions running at the same time really smacks of professional video editing software, and where combined with a little creativity, you can now create some awesome effects in ScreenFlow.
Here are a few of the effects I have tried already using nested clips.
I created a moving logo to appear on my video within its own nested clip.
This created the common television effect of having a brand, title, or preview running in the corner of the screen while a program is running.
I also use the new feature to bring in several title lines independently, then split all those tracks and combine the latter half of all of them into a nested clip so that I could move all of the titles off the screen together.
If you've ever seen kinetic text videos, this is kind of what I did with my titles in ScreenFlow.
During my beta testing, I also created intros and of outros, based on the same nested clip.
I would just make one for the intro, then copy and drag it to the end of my video and make a few minor adjustments so that it was clear the video was ending.
That saved a lot of time while keeping the visual theme and branding of my video really tight.
I get a lot of ideals for effects from watching television because a lot of the channels and television shows get pretty creative in using graphics, particularly news shows like you see on CNN.
They use lower thirds a lot and nested clips is perfect for creating lower thirds that you can copy and paste anywhere in your video, where you may need a new title or introduction to a new section.
What I'm doing now with lower thirds is copying and pasting them from video to video, not just within a project, and they seem to transfer with ease.
The last thing I worked on a lot during beta and testing of nested clips was making my own transitions.
I use it because the type of transitions I was using were more like layers over top of my video that closed in together, added a logo, and then opened up again to a new topic of the video so I could move on with the content.
Just as in the lower thirds, a nested clip contacting a transition is also easy to transpose anywhere in your video or to another video project.
That is great for creating a video series on Youtube.
These are just some of the things that I've use nested clips for in this short time since ScreenFlow 4's release.
I really think that the feature is only limited by your own creativity so I expect a lot of ScreenFlow users will be pushing this program to do some really interesting and amazing graphics in their screencasts and video marketing.
0 updates called nested clips, so I think it's a good idea to give a few examples of how you can use this powerful new feature for your screencasts.
The most apparent feature of this function in ScreenFlow 4 is to help keep your timeline clean and organized.
This in itself is a valuable tool because when you're doing screencasts - especially those more lengthy or complicated types - well you know how intense your workflow projects can get.
Layers upon layers of tracks of audio, images, annotations, callouts and screencast captures can make your workflow downright confusing at times.
The other benefit is the ability to add effects upon all of the tracks within the nested clip.
I worked with this feature a lot during beta and am convinced that it is the most important upgrade the software has ever had.
The ability to add a video action to a nested clip basically allows for the doubling up on effects, since presumably some of the tracks within your nested clip will already have video effects applied to them individually.
For example, you can apply an opacity effect to a single track, then nest that clip and add a resizing video action over top - resulting in them running concurrently.
The ability to combine the 2 video actions running at the same time really smacks of professional video editing software, and where combined with a little creativity, you can now create some awesome effects in ScreenFlow.
Here are a few of the effects I have tried already using nested clips.
I created a moving logo to appear on my video within its own nested clip.
This created the common television effect of having a brand, title, or preview running in the corner of the screen while a program is running.
I also use the new feature to bring in several title lines independently, then split all those tracks and combine the latter half of all of them into a nested clip so that I could move all of the titles off the screen together.
If you've ever seen kinetic text videos, this is kind of what I did with my titles in ScreenFlow.
During my beta testing, I also created intros and of outros, based on the same nested clip.
I would just make one for the intro, then copy and drag it to the end of my video and make a few minor adjustments so that it was clear the video was ending.
That saved a lot of time while keeping the visual theme and branding of my video really tight.
I get a lot of ideals for effects from watching television because a lot of the channels and television shows get pretty creative in using graphics, particularly news shows like you see on CNN.
They use lower thirds a lot and nested clips is perfect for creating lower thirds that you can copy and paste anywhere in your video, where you may need a new title or introduction to a new section.
What I'm doing now with lower thirds is copying and pasting them from video to video, not just within a project, and they seem to transfer with ease.
The last thing I worked on a lot during beta and testing of nested clips was making my own transitions.
I use it because the type of transitions I was using were more like layers over top of my video that closed in together, added a logo, and then opened up again to a new topic of the video so I could move on with the content.
Just as in the lower thirds, a nested clip contacting a transition is also easy to transpose anywhere in your video or to another video project.
That is great for creating a video series on Youtube.
These are just some of the things that I've use nested clips for in this short time since ScreenFlow 4's release.
I really think that the feature is only limited by your own creativity so I expect a lot of ScreenFlow users will be pushing this program to do some really interesting and amazing graphics in their screencasts and video marketing.
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