Commercial
Creation Center Tutorials
How
to install and
use the tools:
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How
to Download:
Save it
to a place you will remember on your computer.
How
to Install:
Watch a video that shows you the installation process.
Log into your Account and click the Download link. Run the Installation file, and just keep saying "YES", "NEXT", "INSTALL" and "FINISH" as necessary.
It will also install 2 other programs necessary to run the CCC. Just say yes to installing everything if this is the first time you are installing the CCC.
Common
Problems (click on the link(s) below):
But if you still have ANY problems at all, we want to know IMMEDIATELY. So please go to http://www.TroubleShootingDesk.com and tell us what the problem is. We'll do everything we can to fix it quickly.
How
to Use & Update:
Watch
the COMPLETE
Commercial Creation Center
Video Tutorial
You will find
an orange circular icon and shortcut on your desktop now.
Double-click
that icon to start the Commercial Creation Center.
*VISTA
USERS: Right-click the icon and choose Run
As administrator.
You will now
see that same orange circle in the system tray
(the lower right hand area of your computer screen).
Click
on it and you will see several options:
- at
the bottom, Exit,
to close out the program
- above that, the list
of available recorders and features presently available (we are
always adding new features, so update often)
Now, the menu includes
- Voice
Recorder
- Photo
Editor
- Video,
which leads to
- Screen
recorder,
- WebCam
Recorder and
- Video
Converter,
- Copy
Recording from CD
- Mixers, which lead to
- Slide Show Video Maker
- Audio Mixer
- Video Mixer
- Upload
to YouTube.
Click on either to open them.
- Help/Tutorials - takes you to this page, and also lets you turn the Tip back on that shows up when you first start the program.
- Report Problem - this takes you to our Helpdesk Ticket system.
When you submit something there, we don't just JUMP, we ask you HOW HIGH!
- This
is the Screen Recorder.
Basically, all you do is
- Select
whether or not you want to put a caption (a box with some text)
at the bottom of your video.
This might be your name, phone number and website address.
- If you don't
want one, leave that checkbox blank and ignore it.
- If
you DO want a caption,
- click
where it says "Click here" and you
can create, edit or load an existing caption with our
Photo Editor.
- We have
provided several larger and smaller sized caption
boxes for you to start with on the Internet. Just
press Load -> From Internet (Captions).
- You can
see a step-by-step tutorial for creating captions here.
- Select
what type of video you want to create (for YouTube,
for the Online Magazine, full-size as a video to download, for
an iPod, etc.). Check as many options as you want - the Commercial
Creation Center will convert them for you!
- Then simply click on
the Start (F7) button,
or press the F7 key.
- type in a name
for your video, and choose where you want to save it, and
click Save.
- The video immediately
starts recording everything you do on your computer screen,
and everything you say into your microphone.
- Leave 1 second
of silence at the beginning and end of your recording.
- To stop
the recording, hold down the F7 key on your keyboard.
Now, you can review your
video by going to the folder where you saved it.
This
is the Webcam Recorder Screen
-
- Select
whether or not you want to put a caption (a box with some text)
at the bottom of your video.
This might be your name, phone number and website address.
- If you don't want
one, leave that checkbox blank and ignore it.
- If
you DO want a caption,
- click
where it says "Click here" and you can
create, edit or load an existing caption with our Photo
Editor.
- If you downloaded
our Images
Setup program, we have provided several larger and smaller
sized caption boxes for you to start with.
- You can see
a step-by-step tutorial for creating captions here.
- Select
as many formats as you like for the finished video.
- Then simply click on
the Start (F7) button,
or press the F7 key.
- Leave 1 second
of silence at the beginning and end of your recording.
- type in a name
for your video, and choose where you want to save it, and
click Save.
- The video immediately
starts recording everything you do on your computer screen,
and everything you say into your microphone.
- To stop
the recording, hold down the F7 key on your keyboard.
Now, you can review your
video by going to the folder where you saved it.
Video
Converter. This one is simple.
- You decide if you want
to put a caption at the bottom of your video. (See
Tutorial.)
- Then you decide
what output video formats you want.
- Then you press
F7. This will let you pick a video to convert.
- It will tell
you when the conversions are completed, and you can find
the converted videos in the same folder with the original video.
The
Photo Editor lets you crop photos, resize
images (with easy default selctions for image sizes that go on the
magazine), and add different size and color text on top of the image.
Create logos, ads and slides, or simply resize an existing picture
to place on the magazine, including your Profile Photo.
Watch
a video about how to use the Photo Editor. (Click on Photo Editor on the menu on the left.)
The Photo
/ Background Tab:
- Load an image
first. We provide you with colored backgrounds to create
slides and caption boxes with text, and over 200 royalty free photos.
You can also load your own images AND capture your screen.
- Optionally you can crop
the image by clicking and dragging with the mouse and pressing
F7.
- Or you can resize
the image by pressing the Resize button.
- You can always press
Undo.
- However, you
must save the image before you can put text over it or
add another image or text box.
The Text
Tab:
- You can select an area
on the image to place the text by clicking and dragging your mouse.
Press F7 and the Text Editor box pops open.
- To move the text around
the image, click and drag to select a new location and press F7
again, or use your keyboard arrow keys.
You can select
a font size from the Edit Text box. You can also now select a font type.
You can also change
the color of the text with our Color Picker.
You can only
print one color and size of text at a time. But you can click Save
and then add more text with different colors and sizes. Repeat this
process to create multicolored, different sized text in different
areas on your image.
The Add
Extra Image Tab:
This
can be used to add a Caption Box to an image that you have
already created, or a video you are about to create.
Sometimes,
when you want to put text on top of an image, there are too many competing
colors in the background, and no matter what text color you choose,
some of the text disappears. For a video, you may want to put your
name, phone number or link to your website at the bottom of your recording.
So
you can create a Caption Box in our Photo Editor
with any color background you want and then overlay it over your picture
or video.
- Just load one of our
blank video Caption Boxes (LOAD IMAGE -> From Internet ->Captions). You will see 320x50 or 176x25 (use 176x25 if
you will be creating a video in any Mobile Phone or Pocket PC format.
Otherwise, 320x50 is your best choice),
- or create your own caption
box by loading a background (LOAD IMAGE -> From Internet -> Backgrounds or Background Colors) and cropping it to any size,
- and save it.
- Then click on the Text
tab, add text on top of it
- and save it.
- CAPTIONS
FOR VIDEOS: If you want this to be the caption that
is overlaid at the bottom of your videos, click
the checkbox at the bottom left hand side of the form AND
PRESS SAVE.
- CAPTIONS
FOR IMAGES: Now load into the Photo/Background
tab whatever image you want to put your Caption Box
over,
- save it,
- and then go to the Add
Extra Image tab to add your new Caption Box
over it like an image.
- Save the completed image.
Add
Extra Image can also be used to overlay an image over a picture.
You can even create a collage. Sometimes the image will have some
transparency. We are working on that issue.
The most important thing to understand about putting an overlay image on top of your picture is that you MUST PREPARE the overlay image IN ADVANCE. Imagine you are decorating a cake, and you want to put chocolate covered strawberries on top. Well, you MUST melt the chocolate, dip the strawberries and let the chocolate harden before you can put the chocolate covered strawberries on the cake. It's the same process here.
Your overlay image is the chocolate covered strawberry. You need to create, resize and perfect your overlay image BEFORE you add it to another picture or slide. You CAN'T edit the image once it is put on top of another image. You can only browse for it and put it on top of another image.
Understand? (Now craving chocolate covered strawberries or cake?)
The
simple Voice Recorder
lets you record your voice simply and quickly. It can be used by itself,
or in combination with our Audio Mixer (where you can combine several individual audios, and even add professional background music that we provide to your audios). There really is no need for
a video, because you can't mess this up, it's so simple.
- Choose the device
on your computer that you will record with. Normally this will be
a webcam or microphone you have plugged in, or your sound card.
- Next, select
the type of microphone or input you will use. Normally
you just use whatever pops up, but you can be adventurous and try
some other options if you want.
- Press Start
Recording. Talk. The volume adjusts automatically for you,
and you can see the lights move up and down.
- Press Stop Recording
when you are finished.
- Press Play
to listen to your recording. Press Stop to stop
it. And press Save to save it.
Told you - there's not
much to it!
Troubleshooting
your recording:
1)
If you hear a lot of puffing or blowing or pops or clicks, you probably
want to move your microphone so it's not right in
front of your mouth
or under your nose. The microphone should be to the side of either
corner of your mouth for best
placement. Try also recording in a quiet
room.
2)
If the sound is not very loud (or too loud), change the recording
level by clicking and dragging the slider on the
Volume bar. If this
doesn't work, you may have to change your internal settings for your
sound card (ick, I know,
sounds scary, but it's not too horrible).
First, find the Sound/Volume icon on the bottom right hand side
of your computer, probably somewhere near the clock. Or click Start
-> Control Panel ->
Right-click and select "Open Volume Control."
Click on
Options, and then Properties
Select Recording
instead of Playback.
Find the
microphone column and move the slider up (or down) by clicking and
dragging it.
Then just click the red "x" at the top right of the form.
Copy
Recording from CD. Use the top drop down box to select which
CD drive has a CD in it. If you guess the right one, you will see
a list of tracks (or recordings) on your CD. Check which ones you
want to copy.
Pick
a location to save your track. We have created a folder
called "cd", but you can save it anywhere.
It will
tell you the progress
of how far along it is in the copy process.
It will
tell you when it is finished.
Mixers: Slide Show Video Maker, Audio Mixer & Video Mixer
Watch a video about the new Mixers.
Below is the Slide Show Video Maker. The screens are basically the same for all 3 Mixers.
The Slide Show Video Maker lets you select or create an image or slide to include in your video.
Then you have the option of selecting or recording an audio narration to go with that image or slide.
You can only do one slide at a time, to keep it simple.
Once you have added a slide to Slide 1, Slide 2 opens up so you can add information to it.
Notice that there is a small version of the image or slide you selected to the right of the slide.
You can click that to pop up a larger version, so you can look at it while you record a narration
for it.
Another option is to add background music to your video.
You can select your own, or you can choose from our online library of professional music.
The last tab combines all of the slides, audios and background music to create a video.
Step 1: Choose the size of your video (big or small).
Step 2: Preview your video (this is a MUST).
Step 3: If you added background music, you can adjust the volume easily.
Step 4: Create the Video. (You can also watch the last video you created.)
The Audio Mixer's form looks pretty much the same, with the exception that you can only add audio files to the Mixer.
The last tab says "Mix Audios", but basically takes you through the same 4 steps.
The Video Mixer works pretty much like the Slide Show Video Maker, only you can't add audio narrations.
But you CAN edit the start and stop points of your video, so they look a little more professional.
You can also Rearrange your slides, audios or videos with our Rearranger.
Just drag and drop folders from the left to the right, in the order you want them. Then press Done.
You can also save all of the slides, audios or videos in your project so you can load them at another time.
Upload
to YouTube(TM).
Clicking on this will take you to YouTube.com where you can login
(or register if you don't have an account yet) and upload a video
you have created.
First,
login or sign up for an account.
Once you have logged in,
click on the Upload button.
Next, fill
in the title, description, category and keywords for
your video.
Next, you can browse
through your computer to find a video to upload, or
if you have just finished creating a new video in the Commercial Creation
Center, you can paste the path to
that video next to the Browse button. Click
Upload Video.
It will take a little while
to upload, but when it is finished you will see a message that shows
you a link to where you can see your
video, and also some code that you can paste back onto your own website
if you want to post the video there. (Even after it uploads, it takes
a little while to be ready to view.)
Watch
a video about how to put your newly created audio, video or image
on the magazine.
Or, you can now go to your
magazine page, click in the File box, and press Control + V to paste
in the location of your video. Fill out your Upload Audio/Video page
with a title, description and key words and press Send.
Watch
a video tutorial about Creating a Narrated PowerPoint Video (created
with the Commercial Creation Center).
Watch
a video tutorial about the Commercial Creation Center (created
with the Commercial Creation Center).
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