[[ This is a first draft I posted rather quickly since I needed to share these instructions with a few people immediately. I'll be returning to this article to clean things up. ]]

Putting your screencast on most video sharing sites will require you to use resolutions much smaller than full-screen, high-definition video. It’s a shame, but so are bandwidth costs.

You can still provide an incredibly useful screencast in a small video window with a few clever tricks. I’ve found CamStudio to be one of the best screen recorders for these requirements. It has an excellent “follow the mouse” scanning feature, which lets you provide a moving region of your full resolution screen based on what you’re pointing at with the mouse. It’s also free and incredibly easy to use.

For sharing videos, I’ve come to like Jumpcut more than YouTube due to their online video editing toolset, slightly better resolution and more liberal allowances on file size and video length.

What you need to screencast:

• CamStudio: http://www.camstudio.org/CamStudio20.exe
• A Jumpcut login (http://www.jumpcut.com/)
• The DivX codec (http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/download/index.php)
• A headset microphone
• Little enough sleep or enough caffeine to make yourself interesting

CamStudio Setup:

• Install CamStudio 2.0
• Run the application.
• Region->Fixed Region->640×480
• Options->Record Audio from Microphone
• Options->Enable Autopan, Autopan Options->Speed->Max
• Options->Video Options, DivX, Quality 90%, Configure, Home Theater Profile
• Options->Cursor Options, Show Cursor + Use Actual Cursor, Highlight Cursor + Size Halfsize + Circle + Color Yellow (RGB: 255,255,125)
• Options->Keyboard Shortcuts->Record/Pause (CTRL+ F12)

Recording a Video:

• Minimize everything on your desktop and open the application you want to talk about.
• Harmonize your Chi and attempt to channel every great speaker you’ve ever heard.
• Press the record button in CamStudio (or CTRL+F12).
• A region will appear, you can place this anywhere since it will follow you around automatically, but it’s best to place it near where you want to start talking (and where the mouse is).
• Once you place the region, you’re LIVE. Start gesturing wildly and explaining your actions as a running narrative to an empty room.
• After you’ve covered what you wanted to talk about, press CTRL+F12 to pause recording. Open CamStudio in your systray and stop the video by clicking the huge blue square button in the toolbar.
• If all goes well, your video will compress using DivX and pop up a preview that you can play. By default this .AVI file will be saved in your Program Files\CamStudio directory.

Uploading and Editing the Video with Jumpcut:

• Log into Jumpcut (http://www.jumpcut.com/)
• Click “Upload” in the top menu. Click the exorbitant green upload button. Select your video file from the appropriate directory.
• Depending on your upload speed, you may want to get some more coffee or take a polyphasic powernap.
• Once the clip is uploaded, click “Create” in the top menu. Choose “Open the Editor” at the bottom of the page. Maximize your browser if you haven’t already (some options like to hide at the bottom).
• On the right, set the dropdown to “Your Media->all your clips and photos(1)”. Drag your clip to the white frame at the bottom.
• Click “Titles” from the editing toolbar in the middle of the page. I prefer “A Scanner Darky”, but feel free to shop around. Enter your title text and click “Add”. Drag the orange title timing bar from the timeline toward the left until it’s about a half-inch long. You’ll want to experiment with this when previewing your video.
• Click the rewind button in the video preview area (to the left of the play button). This resets the video to the beginning. Click the play button and watch your video.
• Unless you have a healthy ego, or you’re oblivious about your faults, you’ll probably fall to morose depths of self-deprecation while watching the preview. Attempt to remember that you’re going to be harder on yourself than other people will be, unless you had too much caffeine or you’re just really bad at explaining things off the top of your head. If you’ve had 4 cups of coffee and you’re still falling asleep while listening to yourself, it’s probably time for “take two”.
• There are a lot of other fun toys in Jumpcut, but I’m not going to bother explaining them. Play around on your own time!
• Once you’re happy with the video, or at least have resigned to the fact your voice really does sound like that, hit the “Publish” button at the bottom of the page.
• Enter title, tags, visibility and click the “Publish” button.
• You have a video! Even if you chose to make this video private, you can still share the URL with people you trust with your fragile ego in the palm of their hands.
• You can embed this video on your website by clicking the “share” link under the video and copying the “embed” HTML. There are also several other provided options for distributing your video.

Feel free to provide a link to your video in the comments here!