Counters, timers, and stopwatches the RIGHT way! Don't pay for 3rd party assets | Camtasia
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ค. 2024
- How to create free dynamic counters, timers and on-screen countdown timers in Camtasia is now possible. I'm going to show you how to create native customizable timers, counters, countdown timers, and all of these are going to be dynamic and they're going to be changeable to the font, the size, the colour, everything you want, directly in Camtasia, without having to record the screen with online counters and go through a ton of hoops, using the green screen removal effect, etc.
The counters shown here are 100% native in Camtasia, done the right way, and you can control them any way you want.
So we're going to use a feature that's not exposed to normal users in Camtasia yet, I'm hoping TechSmith is going to bring it to the new versions of Camtasia in the future, but this feature is still there. We're going to use to create a bunch of assets that are customizable with all the timers and counters you could want, you can have counters that use the current frame, the current minute, second, the countdown timers for the current clip or global timeline counters.
There are two ways to get started, I am showing both: one involving a free downloadable asset and another one involves building one yourself. It's not too hard. You can choose which way to do it and you just going to have to do it once, and then you get this asset that you can then reuse and customize to create these counters.
The methods shown should work in Camtasia 2020, and I think previous versions too, but the way we are going to customize it and especially the second method, that's not going to work in previous versions, just in 2021.
Whether you download the asset in the link below, or you build it yourself, there is a field that is the trick for the whole counter. There's a text field and a syntax with a percent sign and a bunch of parentheses that what makes the counter work.
And another thing that makes the counter work is this particular time asset has a little flag that you can't see. It's actually just in the file when you import it, it's a modifier that tells Camtasia to replace whatever it finds in the text, the syntax it needs for these variables, to replace those with the internal counter.
So Camtasia has an internal time token. That's what it's called. It's an internal counter that measures every frame you're on at the time, the second, minute, the hour you are on, on the timeline and for every asset on the timeline, the current frame, the time and the time it has left all these things.
Well, this time token is not exposed to users right now, and when TechSmith created these assets, these dynamic timer assets, they have added a little flag in the source code for them. So, you can't really get to them unless you know where to look and what to change.
But once you get this free asset with the counter field, you can replace the text here to do different things. So again, this is something that's not documented in the Camtasia help pages. I have a list of all the parameters you can use in here to create all of the timers you would like.
In the video I also show a way to create a dynamic counter asset like this from scratch, editing a simple Camtasia project in notepad and adding one little line that makes the whole magic work. Then that opens the door for you to use these parameters to create any type of counter or timer you want.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:33 Getting started
01:48 Obtain starter asset
04:49 The Time Token Explained
07:31 Create your own asset from scratch
13:02 Using the time tokens in Camtasia
15:22 Add a counter to library
16:43 Time token parameters for different timers
25:03 Closing remarks
More Camtasia Tutorials for Beginners:
• Camtasia Tutorials
Get started with the free asset shown in this video:
cotovan.com/go/camtasia-timer...
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#camtasia #counters #timers
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This is exceptionally useful for timed quiz! Thanks a million, Chris. I think there are many hidden gems in Camtasia we don't know of.
My pleasure! Glad you found this useful, there are other things 'hidden' but it's hard to find them :)
Amazing tutorial Cristi, great work, thank you!
Thank you!
Very well-explained, Cristi! Hopefully Camtasia users find your tutorial helpful for making their own unique timer assets in Camtasia 2021!
Thank you, I hope so too!
Thank you for another excellent, and most useful tutorial.
You're very welcome! Thank you for watching and for your feedback!
Excellent video, Cristi. Loved every bit of it.
Time to create some timers in Camtasia. :-)
Have fun! Thanks for watching!
Wow. Outstanding video. Thank you!
Glad you liked it!
Great job! Thank you for that!
Thank you too! I appreciate your feedback.
Great video. I was trying to work out how to create customisable countdown video for the start of a training PowerPoint and this is exactly what I needed. I found using a font that had fixed size characters helped keep the timer from shaking around. I now have a set of timers in my library. :) :)
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching and for your feedback!
Yes, I'd like to know the font as well. I was just thinking that the jumping around might not be too appealing to clients. Thanks in advance! UPDATE: nevermind, I found this list on wikipedia. Droid Sans works great! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monospaced_typefaces
With a full timer, yes, fixed-width is best, but for a countdown, wouldn't centring the text do the job...?
Thanks a lot for your videos. I’m learning English an video editing. God bless you
I am glad to hear that, thank you! Let me know if you have questions.
Great Tutorial, Thank You
You are welcome! Thank you for providing your feedback! Any questions? Let me know.
wow! 😮 that's some impressive stuff, dude. how is this not officially implemented into camtasia already? more people need to see this video. thanks so much for this.
I know, right? Thanks for your feedback! Maybe it will make it into future versions.
Camtasia's deliberately kept simple for the user in order to avoid scaring people who're not pros.
I reckon the mistake they've made consistently is to reduce complexity by hiding features, rather than reducing complexity by stopping trying to mimic the standard video editing workflow and replacing it with a new way of working.
The best stopwatch tutorial ever 👍
Glad it was helpful!
Great tutorial. I was able to make immediate use of this so my client could select a few minutes out of an hour of video. Note that the semicolon in HH:MM:SS;FF implies drop-frame for 29.97 FPS video.
Glad it helped! Thank you for watching!
Excellent explanation
Glad it was helpful! Thanks!
Wow. Deep inside camtasia functions.
Thanks, yeah. I've been meaning to do this video a while ago, but I didn't yet have the complete list of parameters.
@@Graphicious Be honest. You work at Camtasia.
Where else would you get such information :-)
Now if you still know if there is a hidden function to
play video clips backwards, you are the hero of June.
Haha, I wish! No, I don't work at Camtasia. I've been trying to figure out the reverse video too, but unfortunately it's not there... yet. I use Shotcut or Premiere for that, and then pull the clips back in when I need it to. You've probably noticed this, but if not, here's my video showing how to reverse a video for free in Shotcut: th-cam.com/video/okxGQcQvFFQ/w-d-xo.html
Amazing video :)
Glad you liked it. Was it helpful?
HOLY COW Cristi, this is some ninja stuff right here! How the heck did you get the syntax info from Techsmith? I've typed this up in a document table, printed it, and have it on my office board. Good golly this is great info. I created a counter for a client's video in after effects using an expression, and I'm going to see if I can recreate it in Camtasia. I used it for like "15,000 Homes Sold in 2021" kind of info. I had a timer soundFX going while it was quickly counting up. Super helpful if you want to showcase your company stats and achievements by the numbers. Not entirely sure if this can be accomplished here though, but I'm pretty sure it can. This is so wonderful that you shared this for Camtasia.
Thank you! This must be the most enthusiastic comment I ever got! I appreciate your feedback and am glad the tutorial was useful.
Please tell you Camtasia friends about Cristi! He is the real deal and as long as his numbers increase, he will keep making his excellent Camtasia learning videos!!!
Thank you so much Joe! I appreciate your feedback and encouraging words. I'll keep going as long as I can. Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to cover.
Thank you awsome video
Glad you liked it!
Nice one Thanks alot
You are welcome
You just saved me! tnx.
My pleasure, glad I could help.
Love it
video very nice! thk
Thank you
Thank you for the great video! Is there an option to rename them later?
What do you mean 'rename'?
love the video! is there anyway to set my own ending time? i need a timer to count up very rapidly to 3 hours, but my video is only a minute long.
You cannot set your own end time or duration. These counters rely on Camtasia's internal timeline counter, which is tied to the timestamp of the timeline. So the only variation you can add is either to show the timeline time, timeline frame, timeline rounded time, OR the current MEDIA time, frame, time left. So you're quite limited in that sense.
hi, first of all: thanks for the great tutorial video. :) really helped me especially about the codes.
i just had a question, my time counter needs to have a offset, like my first second, needs to start at 8.00 and i have to end at 18.00 ( i have a 10 second architectural movie and every second is 1 realtime hour time, so you see the daytime and shadows are moving.. to give the people an idea on how the shadows are on the house on the daytime that it is showing)
i know i can do it fake wise by putting a callout text on every second, with another time text in it. but if i can make a workable counter i can safe up lots of times for all other projects
thx in case
Have you tried placing a media timer and place that media to cover the duration you need?
Great tutorial... congratulations!
You know how to record screen in 60 fps? Camtasia 2021 loose this function?
Thank you! I think Camtasia 2021 records in Variable Frame Rate. I am not sure if that is always 60fps or not. I haven't been able to find a clear answer to this. I know the new recorder is still under development and the features that were removed are slowly being brought back.
@@Graphicious thanks for the answer friend.
Hi Christi, thank you so much for your great Camtasia content, it really helps me with my work! :)
One question regarding the timer: For me I want to display a 10min countdown. Editing the asset is working just fine.
I used the following formular: %(r,mm):%(R,ss).
Here's my problem: The time discounts as "09:02 - 09:01 - 08:00 - 08:59 - 08: 58".
How can I have the timer show 09:00 instead of the 08:00, before the rounded minutes and seconds are displayed correctly again?
I am working with the downloaded asset and unfortunately only have access to Camtasia 2020. Is that already the problem or can I somehow change my formular?
Thanks in advance! :)
Thanks Bo! I understand exactly what you mean with the counter. The problem happens because each component is considered individually and while correct, it doesn't achieve the countdown you are looking for. I have tested and it behaves correctly with this syntax: %(r,mm):%(r,ss) . Notice the 'r' not the 'R' in the seconds part. Try this. The capital R is 'rounded' media time which might be your problem.
Amazing work on the token parameters. Is there a downloadable list for all the "secret" ones?
Thanks. It's on the video, towards the end.
Great video, Cristi.
Any advice on adding a multiplier to a countup timer?
For instance, a countup timer is added to show how much time passes between double-clicking an application icon and the window actually opening. Adding a 10X clipspeed effect reduces the media time by 10X therefore, the countup timer only shows 1/10th the actual time. Any way to multiply the time variables?
It's a great idea but I don't think it's possible. There's no way to add formulas and other dynamic stuff in the fields except for the pre-defined variables that are tied to the timeline internal counter.
Understood. Thanks for the quick response!
Incredible video Cristi. I'm actually good with the downloaded free asset. I'm using the count up timer and it works great. The only problem I'm having is... is there any way to get the ending time to freeze on the screen??? I tried to "extend the frame" but of course that doesn't work since it's a callout. Is there a way to do this? Thanks again for all your help!
Hi, I'm glad the video is helpful, thank you for your feedback! As far as freezing the last frame, I don't think you can, unless you create a copy of the text-box and replace the contents with the static text you want to remain on it, at the end. Since those codes in the video are dynamic, they will react to whatever is happening - timestamp, duration, etc. - so since you can't freeze frame like you can on a video clip, the duplicate is the best idea I can think of right now.
@@Graphicious Yeah, I figured. What I did was I stopped the video with the play head on the final frame of the timer, used Snagit to clip the image in that location, and then added the image after the end, on top of the video and aligned. Works fine. Let me know if you come up with anything else.
Superp technic!
Glad you like it!
great video but i have clips here i increased the speed. How to adjust so the faster speed is displayed in time?
I don't think you can. The time displayed is always in real-time, not compressed. Also the frames, I think they are relative to the timeline, not the clip (in terms of how fast they go)
Hey Cristi, this video is amazing. Is there a way to to just make a number go up? My application is to show a bank account balance, with the account just going up.
Well you can latch onto frame numbers and time on these counters. You could compose the number from two different annotations, say a balance of: 27,000, would have the first part (27) static and the 000 counting up. Is that what you mean?
@@Graphicious I thought of that, but I am more specifically looking for it to go from 0 to 10,000. Or 0 to 5,000. Something like that. Thanks for replying, I do appreciate all your help.
@@TradersLanding Hmm, ok, so from 0 to 10,000 in what timeframe? A few seconds?
@@Graphicious Exactly yes.
@@TradersLanding I don't think you can do that. These counters are tied to the project or media TIME only. So anything you do with them will have to be time or frame (current timeline time or frame OR current media time and frame) - going forwards or backwards. That's it. You can't have at the moment a counter that starts at an arbitrary time or frame, and count to another arbitrary amount at another time or frame that doesn't directly reflect the number... Camtasia will not build the numbers in-between.
Sir your every video explanation is very easy,I want help in Cantasia How to make math equation effectively.
I will try my best to create a video on that. I have ideas. I've done it before, it depends on the complexity and the symbols used. For some of them, if the font is not supported with the symbols, you may need to have them imported from external graphics software as transparent PNGs and then use them in your formula.
Question, is it possible to have a reverse frame time, I'm trying to make a timer to display how much time is left on a video, and I can't get it working
Hmm, can you try %(r, F) ? This should be 'r - reverse media time (only current clip), and F is expressing it in frames)
Thank you! If I may ask, how can I slow down a little the frames speed so that it doesn't run so fast when I want for example to make an increasing percentage up to 50%, 60% and so. I tried the speed effect but apparently it doesn't work out on the techsmith assets. Thank you!
You can’t do that, you can’t treat these assets like a video clip. The counters are tied to the timeline ‘clock’ - current frame, current time, time left, etc.
@@Graphicious I understand, thank you. So any tip of how to control the speed of count up percentage?
Man you've helped me get 20k subs tysm
Congratulations. Glad I could help. How did I help? Just curious.
@@Graphicious when camtasia 2021 first came out my channel was slowing down, i was looking for a new editing style and needed to see the new features of camtasia 2021 and how they worked and I first found your channel through the transition video. ever since then I've watched 50% of your videos (the ones that looked useful to a gaming channel lol) and they helped a lot!!
@@Graphicious amazing channel man i hope you grow a heap as well
Fantastic! Thank you for your feedback. It is encouraging. Good luck even more with your channel! When did you start, btw?
@@Graphicious I started about a year ago and back then my editing was pretty bad.. as my editing quality improved and I started to study the *really weird* youtube algorithm I started to grow a lot
look "%(R,mm):%(R.ss)" doesn't work for more than 1-minut-medias countdown!
Didn't I take it so easy? Is it a complicated variable for like a 5 minutes countdown? What is that?
It was kind of you if you 'd walk through making a couple of more variations of counters: working with & combining variables.
BTW is there any ways by chance in order to export the countdown transparently? For using it in OBS for example.
R is media time, so make the media longer and it will show for longer. I can't test right now, I'm afraid. Camtasia 2022 also has some assets already built in with these counters now. And to answer your other question, Camtasia cannot export video with alpha/transparency at the moment.
How can I edit the counter for example to start at
03:42:55
and count up?
Hi, I'm afraid all counters are tied to either the timeline (the current time on the timeline) or the current media (the annotation that has the counter on). You can't create counters with a custom start/end time that doesn't fit in the timeline somehow.
Is there an equation you can use to adjust for clip speed? I want to show a time lapse video speed at least 10x the actual video speed but give the user an indication of how much time actually passed.
I can't think of a workable solution. The variables and parameters are tied to the timeline, which is constant speed, no matter what the clips on it are or what speed they play at. You can have variables for the whole timeline, the current media, etc. but the counters you create on a media that has speed applied to it will not also speed up. It's all relative to the timeline ticker, I'm afraid.
A big thank you from me :) Very impressive! But how did you figure that out? :) Like you said, those are undocumented parameters and they aren't there for the taking. Did you just reverse engineer that template?
You're welcome! Yes, I edited that asset in Notepad and figured out that the little 'modifier' flag was making the thing work. From then on, it was a matter of experimenting with parameters but even then, I hadn't figured out all of them. I had a discussion with someone that works at Techsmith and they gave me the rest of the params you see on the video.
@@Graphicious Oh, I see. Too bad it can't be achieved using an editable template that comes with Camtasia. It does have all the functionality it takes to perform that trick but for some reason the developers preferred to keep it hidden from us :(
You can do a ton of other hacks too, with any piece of software, but I think they are trying to keep a balance and release the features that would be most attractive commercially, than the little features only a few people might need. Proxy video, for example, has been requested for ages and they finally released it. It's not perfect but at least it helps with the performance issues until they figure out a more elegant fix for that. The Quick Properties editor is a great step forward and I can see it being easy to add these 'dynamic parameters' in a future version, using that interface. But then you have to explain it and educate the users on it too... we'll see.
@@Graphicious The beauty of Camtasia is that it it's pretty intuitive and you can start editing a video even if you're a complete noob :)
You're right, it has a very smooth learning curve. You can be up and running in a few minutes. I think some people complaining that it doesn't have the advanced features of Premiere, DaVinci, etc. are missing the point. I don't think Techsmith WANTS to add all those things. Keeping it simple has its advantages but it does target a different audience.
I advise against trying it with the box callout... At least in 2022...it crashes. The plain text works great though
Seems fine for me, but it comes and goes, with the bugs :D
What about 3 and 4-digit numbers?
Since the counters are really tied to your timeline, it's up to the timeline to dictate how high you can go. You can always 'fake it' by creating a counter from two parts and making them play together side by side.
@@Graphicious Thanks. But you can also use %(m,F) and set FPS to 60 and then go as high as you want to get bigger numbers
True but still determined by how many frames you have.
Is it that TH-cam removes links or what?
Not sure what you mean
@@Graphicious Well, I throw off links to screenshots, but they are not here
@@MARKOV_GEKA Yeah, It doesn't allow links or embedded screenshots in comments.
@@Graphicious 😂😂😂😂
are you from England?
From Romania, originally, but I live in England
@@Graphicious clearly understood
@@Graphicious How can I blur video in the program? and is it possible? I want the background of the video to be blurry
Have a look here: th-cam.com/video/DAXRqyTG0TM/w-d-xo.html
tell us about your studio, about your studio lighting, about chroma key
I will. I have a video planned for that
@@Graphicious you cut the green background right in the camtasia?
Yes
@@Graphicious
Looks well lit. When I cut out the background, I always see a green border. I am very dissatisfied with this function in the program.
@@Graphicious I have a problem. I shoot video with a webcam and each time I do a rather complex animation, a backing of shapes, rounding corners and so on. How can I make it a template? Why not do everything from scratch every time? This is real? After all, the duration of the recording is new every time.
Thanks to you and this tutorial I was able to create this stats counter! th-cam.com/video/gaPVbv6sNEg/w-d-xo.html. I linked to your tutorial in my description. This is so great!!! Thanks again Cristi.
Nice work! Did you have to combine a few to achieve that?
@@Graphicious I found and downloaded a 3-digit counter already built in the Techsmith free assets area and expanded on it for my needs. Dissecting how they put it together, each number has 2 parts. The fast randomized part at the beginning and the static number it ends on. I haven't yet opened it up in notepad to see how they made the randomized section, but plan to today. My main focus yesterday was to see if I could modify it to make it work for larger numbers and in a simpler style I wanted. Right now I can change the final numbers via quick properties, but I can't change the colors unless I go into the deepest group of numbers, select them all and change the color. It's not a big deal, but I guess I still don't yet fully understand quick properties and groups. I just started digging into Camtasia last week and am going through various tutorials to expand my design skills in it. I've been using Camtasia only as a screen recording tool since before they went digital (I used to recieve CDs in the mail from them when upgrading to a new version), but recently discovered their updates to the design capabilities. I have so much to catch up on.
Glad you found it. I'm curious which component you used for the randomized variant. Others have asked about creating higher numbered counters that are not tied to the number of frames or the actual timestamp of the timeline. The quick properties in Camtasia 2021 are available in groups, but there is a way to add them using the Quick Property Editor, so that if you need to change for example a color that is buried deep within an object, you can make it available.
Also, if you need help, I also provide one-on-one training and coaching in Camtasia. I am working on developing some Camtasia and video editing courses.
@@Graphicious I didn't change the randomized sections from what Techsmith had in the original, so whatever ninja magic they have in there to make that happen stays as is. I never change that callout on the track, other than to change its color if I wanted to do that. That callout that performs the randomized effect is only a few seconds long, then the second callout on that track is right next to it on the track and is where you change the static numbers for your actual numbers you want shown once the randomized effect is done. I wish I could post a screenshot of how I modified the 3-digit counter into a 7-digit counter for my enhanced version. But really, all I did was copy and paste the callouts from the 3 original number tracks to make 4 more number tracks, which are all staggered to come into view .25 seconds from the one before. Plus I added a comma callout at just the right time to make it look like a dynamic counter.
And I just made a TH-cam Subscriber milestone quick video for my friend using this custom Camtasia counter element. He's thrilled, and it was an easy thing for me to do with the premade custom counter. I added some extra motion graphics and soundFX to it and sent him the project file so he could add other things to it if he wants. I truly love being able to save custom elements in my library!! It make things so easy. A stroke of genius on Techsmith's part.