I work for an insurance company and have to blur out personal information in traininig materials. I did a screen recording of a system we use which contains insured personal information. Does anyone have suggestions for blurring out info using this tool in storyline? When you place a blur or box over the information, if the screen moves when you are recording (say you scroll down to another field) then the blur or box just stays where you originally placed it and does not go with the screen. Not sure if i am explaining that very well but basicallly it does not go with the information you want to block. In captivate, the blur stays with the content you blocked.
Thank you for the link. I thought for a moment it might have solved my problem but i did not do my video in test mode and I am not sure that would have helped as the information I am trying to cover is not editable. The link talks about editing your own personal info you used to access the software like email and password etc. These are live screen views of real peoples medicare records...Placing the shapes over the info works ok, its just that the shapes dont move with the screen when it moves.
I had a similar issue and had to manually add or move the blur shape as the timeline progressed. You would have to use video editing software like Adobe After Effects which has a tracking matte feature to accomplish it automatically.
If it's possible to re-shoot the screen capture, I would suggest doing so and not capturing scrolls.
What I do is capture the before scroll and after scroll video. This way I'm able to place static objects over static screens. Another solution I've found is creating videos with a mixture of screen shots and screen captures, screen shots are so much easier to manipulate and scrub.
Another method is described here by David Anderson, but as you mentioned if you're scrolling through the information it may cause some difficulty. Also, the video doesn't need to be used in test mode - but as video on step by step slides, not on a single slide.
I have the video in step by step mode but one slide contains scrolling so the methods suggested dont work. The shape i place iver it does not move with teh scroll. For now, i just removed that slide all together. I may do what a mac suggested and put a slide in between with a screen shot. Thank you for the help. Hopefully this will be something added to future releases (the ability to keep the shape with the text to be blocked or edit the actual video picture with a blur).
Is there anything else in the scroll panel that you could group that shape with? Say another background shape or text entry field? That should keep them together in the scroll panel. That or you could rebuild the slides with the scrolling functionality using standard screen capture and insert the shape over those before you bring the images into Storyline.
Careful with redaction of sensitive information in software. Many times, this isn't true redaction and the files can actually be extracted by de-compiling the data files since the information is still in the file even if it's covered in the player. Redaction of a still in something like PhotoShop where a new bitmap is exported is pretty safe. As is exporting a new video file from a tool like AfterEffects.
One of the best practices is to use a test database or dummy records, if you have access to these.
8 Replies
You might check this thread...
http://community.articulate.com/forums/p/26874/224259.aspx
Thank you for the link. I thought for a moment it might have solved my problem but i did not do my video in test mode and I am not sure that would have helped as the information I am trying to cover is not editable. The link talks about editing your own personal info you used to access the software like email and password etc. These are live screen views of real peoples medicare records...Placing the shapes over the info works ok, its just that the shapes dont move with the screen when it moves.
I had a similar issue and had to manually add or move the blur shape as the timeline progressed. You would have to use video editing software like Adobe After Effects which has a tracking matte feature to accomplish it automatically.
If it's possible to re-shoot the screen capture, I would suggest doing so and not capturing scrolls.
What I do is capture the before scroll and after scroll video. This way I'm able to place static objects over static screens. Another solution I've found is creating videos with a mixture of screen shots and screen captures, screen shots are so much easier to manipulate and scrub.
Another method is described here by David Anderson, but as you mentioned if you're scrolling through the information it may cause some difficulty. Also, the video doesn't need to be used in test mode - but as video on step by step slides, not on a single slide.
I have the video in step by step mode but one slide contains scrolling so the methods suggested dont work. The shape i place iver it does not move with teh scroll. For now, i just removed that slide all together. I may do what a mac suggested and put a slide in between with a screen shot. Thank you for the help. Hopefully this will be something added to future releases (the ability to keep the shape with the text to be blocked or edit the actual video picture with a blur).
Hi Christina,
Is there anything else in the scroll panel that you could group that shape with? Say another background shape or text entry field? That should keep them together in the scroll panel. That or you could rebuild the slides with the scrolling functionality using standard screen capture and insert the shape over those before you bring the images into Storyline.
Careful with redaction of sensitive information in software. Many times, this isn't true redaction and the files can actually be extracted by de-compiling the data files since the information is still in the file even if it's covered in the player. Redaction of a still in something like PhotoShop where a new bitmap is exported is pretty safe. As is exporting a new video file from a tool like AfterEffects.
One of the best practices is to use a test database or dummy records, if you have access to these.