Does anyone have any tips for filming their iPhone apps?

Yea use ScreenFlow and avoid the over the shoulder YouTube like videos at all cost, it makes your app look unprofessional. =)

kodex Wrote:Yea use ScreenFlow and avoid the over the shoulder YouTube like videos at all cost, it makes your app look unprofessional. =)

I don't know if this is a problem for BeyondCloister but doing any capture from the simulator is no good if your game uses the accelerometer. I'm thinking after my first Slope Rider update I'm going to have to write some touch controls to simulate the accelerometer controls and record that in the simulator.

Take a look at capturing accelerometer data from your laptop and pushing it to the simulator. It should be a fun little experiment.

Thanks. I've taken a look at ScreenFlow and will probably go for that option - yet more money out and not in

Neither of the apps I want to record (one game, one productivity) make use of the accelerometer so not a problem there.

Take a look at some of my previous videos for ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJwGTQmhuig&fmt=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWTMMxx4I...r_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5DxC3N4g...r_embedded

Take a look at Jing:

http://www.jingproject.com/

It's not as fancy as ScreenFlow but if you just need straight video recording, then it'll probably be all that you need and there's a free version that works pretty well.

kodex Wrote:Yea use ScreenFlow and avoid the over the shoulder YouTube like videos at all cost, it makes your app look unprofessional. =)

What if it's a game instead of an application? In my case I can play my game with the simulator, but it's obviously not as accurate as it is with the iPhone. Is there any way to map keystrokes to the simulator? I need to make some videos and I was thinking that the only choice I had was filming it with my camera.

miq01 Wrote:What if it's a game instead of an application? In my case I can play my game with the simulator, but it's obviously not as accurate as it is with the iPhone. Is there any way to map keystrokes to the simulator? I need to make some videos and I was thinking that the only choice I had was filming it with my camera.

You are never forced to make a video out of the simulator. You can map hot keys, you can intercept laptop accelerometer movement etc. Sometimes its easier to make them with the over the shoulder camera, but personally I think that makes your app look low quality.

Anyone wanting to record stuff on the simulator that requires accelerometer input should probably have a look at this:

Quote:An iPhone application for sending accelerometer data from your iPhone/iPod touch to your development computer for using accelerometer inside the iPhone simulator. Let's you develop and debug applications that require accelerometer without running the application on the device.

http://code.google.com/p/accelerometer-simulator/

I'm yet to give it a try, but sounds good.

As has been said, it is very difficult to produce good quality over the shoulder shots. The best I've managed so far was for BurnBall:
http://www.vimeo.com/2461506

So far I have learnt:
- You need a good quality camera, probably HD, with manual focus and exposure
- You need good lighting, strong lights from the sides, nothing from above that will cause reflections.
- A Light box behind the iPhone would probably be good, but otherwise a clean uncluttered surface.
- You need to tweak the brightness of the iPhone to show the right amount of contrast with the environment.
- Put your camera on a tripod, but support the tripod near horizontally somehow so it's out of the way and point the camera straight down onto a table top. That way you can rest your hand on the table, and keep a consistent distance away for good focus. Better mounts are no doubt available, but the important thing is that it doesn't shake, and the tripod is out of the way.
- Always check to see your iPhone is near the center of the screen, it's easy to drift off to the side, which looks bad.
- Record sounds while playing, but not music. Put music over the top when editing later if required.
- iMovie isn't really up to the task, but it is possible to wrestle it into submission.

I would also recommend recording the audio using line in if you can. It will sound much much better.

reubert Wrote:Anyone wanting to record stuff on the simulator that requires accelerometer input should probably have a look at this:

http://code.google.com/p/accelerometer-simulator/

I'm yet to give it a try, but sounds good.

Awesome! Will definitely try this out when I record my next Slope Rider video. I'll report back on it, but I have to finish the first update before I record another video.

And great general tips reubert, thanks.