I made my first youtube video for educational purpose in 2011, that was 8 years ago. I had a windows machine back then and I made quite lot of videos, mostly on Drupal. Those videos were really bad (when I look at them now), when I say bad I mean as compared to my current videos which are not great either. My audio was bad, I was not talking properly, the delivery was not great either although the content was useful. I stopped making videos for a long while because youtube was not a big thing yet in India at least 8 years ago. It was a good platform but nothing like right now. I had other priorities in life so I didn't bother much. Around 2 years ago I though I should restart creating videos. My objective was simple - I wanted to learn new things and I know from my experience that when you learn something with the intention to teach someone, it gives you even more reasons to learn something new.
Advantages
Creating a video tutorial has several advantages, apart from learning new things you learn how to speak properly, how to present, how to talk to a camera, how to organise your thoughts, how to convey your message with clarity and most important it gives a sense of satisfaction when you create something. Bonus advantage is that as a professional it is a good addition to your profile. If you want to tell the world you know something then creating videos is a great way.
So when I restarted creating videos I realised that doing something additional in your already busy life is not easy. So the videos I make now are made within limited time. I don't spend more than 1 hour (sometimes 30 mins) on my videos from thinking about the topic, recording and editing to finally uploading it. Today I thought I will probably share my workflow and the tools that I use. It might help someone and wanted to write a blog on some topic :)
Schedule
Before anything else you need to make sure you follow a schedule. Don't worry about creating a bad video. Just create something on a regular basis. I try to achieve 1 video per day. I use whatever resource I have available. If I don't have access to a computer I try to record something from a mobile but I try not to miss my schedule. It feel good and get you into a good habit.
Preparation
I don't really prepare much, I force myself to just decide a topic within few minutes and that is it really. I think it is good to push yourself and it works really well for me. Not all of my videos are on super informative topics but you never know a small thing, a simple video can be useful for thousands of people so I think don't worry too much about the preparation. Broadly I make videos on Atlassian tools, Drupal, Computer Science Engineering Topics and few miscellaneous tech stuff. I always have something to share on these topics or something to learn around them. If I have something to learn, something new then that is even better because I make a videos while learning it.
How I shoot?
For screen recording I use OBS, it is by far the best free tool. You should use it as well.
I use mostly my mobile or DSLR for video only content where I just talk showing my beautiful face and sexy voice.
I use professional mic which is very important more important than the video.
Editing software
I use HitFilm Express. It has a free version and works great. It has a learning curve but hey it is free and powerful. I considered spending money on Adobe tools but then I thought may be not, I will probably use that money for Beer. I don't do great editing, mostly I add an intro and end and my videos are one take. I keep it simple. I don't have time to add animations or making a video perfect. I keep it natural.
For mobile only videos I use Vlogit. It is free as well.
Publishing
I use Google slides for making thumnails. Works really well for me even for mobile.
I keep my video description in OneNote.
That is it really, quite simple workflow. My focus is to have informative get content out regularly. I hope these tips will help in case you are also looking to do the same thing. Don't hesitate reaching out to me. Here is a link to my Youtube channel: https://youtube.com/ravisagar1
Have fun.
