Video Tools

From Virtual Worlds

Along with their direct use as a platform for training and other corporate activities, virtual worlds provide an excellent platform for creating training outside virtual worlds. Creating video in a 3-D environment, called machinimia, is one of the important uses of virtual worlds. You already have the "studio" and the "actors," so creating training video or recording training sessions for future use and review by the next group of learners becomes a very time- and resource-effective solution.

Second Life does provide built-in tools for recording video in-world. However, there are better-quality and more powerful third-party video solutions. Among those CamStudio (www.camstudio.org) is one of the popular ones. It is free, easy-to-use and it produces high-quality output.

One of the important features of CamStudio is the selection user has for the audio part. You can

• record audio as it comes from the Second Life ("Record From Speakers" option)
• record audio from microphone -- excellent opportunity for voice-over narration; or
• not record audio at all.

CamStudio also converts video into Flash format. Once materials are converted to Flash, anyone can easily view a presentation (with or without integrated sound) in any Internet browser, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Chrome, Safari, Opera, and others.