in my work, I need to be able to record high-quality videos of my desktop without a lot of hassle, and have flexible options on what to do with that video when done recording.  One of the most common tasks I do is to create videos of .dreams, or animated wallpapers which are used by Stardock’s DeskScapes.  I use Camtasia Studio 6 from TechSmith to create these videos, and I wanted to share some tips with users.  They are one of our prize sponsors in the 2008 GUI Championships, and I wanted to show some uses for Camtasia Studio in relation to skinning.

You can get a fully function trial version of Camtasia Studio here.

http://www.techsmith.com/download/trials.asp

If you are a .dream creator, you can use Camtasia to either capture the .dream running on the desktop, or use it’s editor to edit down the video and process it for use in a variety of formats.

The image above shows the Camtasia Recorder which is the starting point for recording.  This has a brand new interface in version 6, and from here you can set it to record the entire desktop or just a specified part.  Recording the entire desktop is perfect for recording an animated wallpaper.  Sometimes I want to record just a section of the desktop, and a great example of this is when I want to show-off a really cool start-menu animation.

Other recording uses:

• Show an interactive preview of a WindowBlinds skin, icon pack, etc.
• Give a walkthrough on how to use a widget, gadget, etc.
• Record a tutorial

Once you have your recording or video ready, then we can move over to Camtasia Studio where the editing can begin.  The screenshot below shows the main screen.

There are many ways you can edit your video, really only your creativity is your limitation.  Camtasia allows you to add transitions, callouts, audio, etc. to your video.  It also has extensive zoom and pan functions so you can get a close-up view of something going on in your video.  The tools are easy to use, and are very intuitive, even for people who aren’t real familiar with video editing.

You spent all this time creating a video, now you have to find the best solution on how to share it with others.  Camtasia supports producing videos in a variety of formats including:

• Flash
• MP4
• iPod/iPhone/iTunes
• CD/DVD (AVI)
• WMV
• QuickTime
• Animated GIF
• and more

Another very cool and handy feature is the ability to produce into multiple formats.  This is great if you want to share your video on several different types of platforms.  Of course, you can always create your own settings if you are looking for more control over the output. 

As you can see, creating top quality skin previews with Camtasia Studio is a snap.  Visit www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp for more information and free trial download.

Changing the Windows Vista boot screen is about to become a snap in Object Desktop 2009 which arrives this Wednesday. Everyone who purchased Object Desktop within the past year will automatically get this.

Impulse Phase 2 has gone into beta.

To get it, make sure you have the latest version (just open up Impulse).

Then go to preferences by clicking on the Stardock orb and choose "use Impulse betas" to get access to the latest/greatest editions.

Better. Stronger. Faster.

NOTE: The beta build removes the Impulse dock. We are going to release the Impulse dock as a free download later this week. This way, people who don't want the dock don't have to deal with it and the people who want it can get it.

We are prepping a major update for Impulse for release prior to the upcoming release of Sins of a Solar Empire v1.1.

Version 1.1 of Sins of a Solar Empire is the first update to the award-winning PC strategy game to require Impulse for downloading the update.  During the beta process of Sins v1.1 we got a lot of feedback from players -- a lot of it very negative.

The first question people ask is, why are we requiring Impulse for Sins of a Solar Empire? We released a number of stand-alone patches for Sins earlier in the year so why require Impulse now?

There are a number of reasons. The most obvious reason is that Impulse wasn't available then. In the user manual for Sins of a Solar Empire we actually mention Impulse as it was intended to be used for updating the game.

But more importantly, Sins of a Solar Empire v1.1 is a gigantic update. It's even a bigger update in many respects than the recently released Galactic Civilizations II v2.0 (which also requires Impulse). Making a smart installer for it would have required a great deal of effort to keep the size under control. 

There's a lot to making game updates that aren't obvious. For instance, does the game update combined with the demo allow the player to have essentially a full game? You'd be surprised to discover how many games in the past have fallen into that problem. Having Impulse simplifies that sort of thing.

In addition, there's the issue of on-going support for Sins of a Solar Empire. Ironclad and Stardock want to put out more releases and make it easy for people to get the micro expansion packs such as Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment which is scheduled to go into public beta shortly. Impulse vastly simplifies and improves this user experience.

So what are some of the things we've done with Impulse that will be out soon?

Check out the screenshots below:

Besides the user interface being cleaned up, the performance has been significantly enhanced. It's a lot snappier all around, particularly on Windows XP systems.

Another addition is that tabs are only displayed when there are items in them. So if a program is being downloaded, a download tab shows up.  If there are updates, the update tab shows up. The idea is to provide a much cleaner experience.

So does this mean that Impulse is perfect? No. We still have a lot of features to add to it. We're always striving to make it better.

But hopefully users will be able to see some of the progress that's been made based on their feedback.  When Sins of a Solar Empire v1.1 ships, hopefully users will find Impulse to be something highly useful rather than as simply a download manager. 

Stay tuned!

As we have been teasing you with news about DeskScapes for XP, and Bootskin for Vista over the last couple of weeks, I wanted to tease some more and show Bootskin in action.  Get Object Desktop to get access to all these cool apps when released.

Object Desktop 2009, which is due out on November 19, will be including some pretty cool stuff.  For Vista users, they finally get BootSkin.  For XP users, they get animated wallpaper with DeskScapes.

I am very impressed with the way Theme Manager 3 is turning out.  It’s going to the central starting point for all my skins, as I can easily create my entire desktop through Theme Manager 3.  There are a few things I would like to see added from a users point of view.

Vertical Scroll option.  I don’t mind the horizontal scroll, but I would like to see the option for a vertical scroll as well.  Scrolling through with my mouse is just much easier.

More application support.  I like the current lineup as it covers most of the popular skinning utilities, but I’d like to see more added and maybe even the possibility to add/remove category tabs.  Sort of like what you can do in Impulse.  I’d really like to see ObjectDock Plus support, and DesktopX gadgets and Sidebar gadget support added as well.

Theme Browser?  OK, this is a bit out there, but I would like to toss out the suggestion anyways.  I would like to see Theme Manager have it’s own integrated skin browser, very much similar to what the WinCustomize Browser does without the additions of forums, news, etc.  I would make this a “plus” edition available to WinCustomize subscribers, maybe even replacing the current WC browser since this will no doubt be much more usable. 

Moving right along towards the end of the year, and since it’s the first week in November it’s time to review the .dreams (animated wallpapers) from the previous month.  The .dream gallery always proves to be an interesting view of creativity, as some of these animated wallpapers are just wild. 

Now for this months video!

To use .dreams (animated wallpaper) you need to have Windows Vista and Stardock's DeskScapes installed. 

The .dreams featured in this months video can be found at the links below.

• matrix_rain_ish by muckyman
• ChaNinja Style SubZero by ChaNinja
• warp by muckyman
• bio_hazard_v2 by muckyman
• Broken Aero: Shatter by TheMasterBaron
• Stardock 2009 by DEVJIT

Long ago, Stardock has the idea to create a program that would combine all the major customization programs into a single entity.  It became known as WinStyles. One program to rule them all and all that. 

Over time, we renamed it to Theme Manager.  The idea was that customization on Windows had become pretty hard for casual users so let's create a new format (.suite) and let people press a button to do it.

WinStyles 1.0

The problem with WinStyles/Theme Manager 1 is that it was still pretty complicated  to use and in our quest to support lots of third party apps, we ended up being a power user tool.

So we made Theme Manager 2.

 
Theme Manager 2

Theme Manager 2 was a big improvement in many respects and made possible for people to create virtual .suite files. That is, suites where the actual files were on WinCustomize.com. This would let people submit their desktops without having to re-distribute other people's skins and icons.

The problem, once again, was that it very complicated and supporting so much "stuff" made it hard to use for casual users.

So then we worked on MyColors, a specialized theme manager that simply applied very specific types of themes.  In that process, the technology really matured.  We also partnered with a lot of companies in creating it and took away a lot of good UI feedback.

This has led to Theme Manager 3:

Theme Manager 3 for Object Desktop 2009

Using the same user interface guidelines established with WindowBlinds 6 and IconPackager 4, Theme Manager presents a much simpler user experience. MyColors themes are supported as well as third-party suites.

It also fulfills the original promise of allowing users to manage all their skins, themes, and icons from a single application:

Lead developer, Brian Harper, who developed WinStyles, Theme Managers 1 and 2 has really outdone himself this time.  His work on IconPackager 4, Stardock Central and WinCustomize browser have really come together here.

Moreover, users can now take a quick and simple snapshot of their desktop:

 
Like your desktop? Save it.

For power users though, the create new theme option is incredibly powerful:

Users can still create virtual suites if they want as well as make use of third-party applications to create your ultimate suite. It integrates into WinCustomize.com to automatically find skins based on your search terms.

Theme Manager 3 is one of the highlights of the upcoming release of Object Desktop 2009. Along with a Vista version of Bootskin and an XP version of DeskScapes (animated wallpaper), we are hoping that this new release will help reacquaint casual users with the fun of desktop customization.

Initially, Theme Manager 3 will only be available to Object Desktop users. 

I was browsing the AMD website today and came across a couple of resources I wanted to share.  Gamers will particularly be interested in this, but it’s a great resource for anyone.

• http://game.amd.com

AMD GAME! is a resource from AMD that gives you the latest news on graphics cards, processors, drivers, and everything else you need to get the most out of your gaming experience.  It also includes resources on where to obtain AMD GAME! systems and components.  They also have a vast community area with downloads, blogs, forums, contests, and much more. 

Don’t forget that there is an AMD branded version of Impulse available for download.  There is much more going on over there, that it’s too much to list, so just take a browse through the site and check out what they have to offer.