Forum Discussion
Published Articulate Project Choppy
Hi there,
Hoping to get some help with an Articulate project. I've created a project that includes audio and video clips. When I Publish the Articulate project as an mp4, I'm finding that the videos are choppy. Specifically, the mouse seems to jump around in the videos rather than move smoothly. When I review the raw videos in Articulate, they are perfectly smooth. I created the videos within Articulate using the Record Screen feature. I've also tried publishing the video at different quality levels (as suggested by some other discussion board posts), but nothing seems to have solved the issue. I'm not able to adjust the Compression of the video within Articulate - that option is greyed out, I'm assuming because I used Articulate's Record Screen tool. Any suggestions?
2 Replies
Hello,
This is usually because Articulate's screen recordings are published with fixed frame rates and compression settings that can't be changed. This means that motion, like mouse movement, is lost during export. One way to get around this is to export the raw screen recordings separately (using Replay or Storyline's media library), then put them back in as regular video files before publishing. You can also use Replay instead of Storyline's direct MP4 export to publish at a higher frame rate, shorten the length of your slides, or break longer recordings into smaller clips. This way, the original capture's smoothness is kept.
Hi TrainingTeam26,
That’s a really interesting scenario, and I can see why the choppy playback would be frustrating, especially when the original recordings look smooth.
What’s happening here is that when publishing to MP4, Storyline applies compression and fixed playback settings, which can sometimes affect how smooth motion appears, particularly for recordings with mouse movement.
One thing to keep in mind is how the screen recording was inserted. If it was added as step-by-step slides (View Mode), the mouse movement is based on captured steps rather than continuous motion, which can appear choppy when exported to video.
Also, you’re right to call out the compression setting. When recordings are created using the Record Screen feature, those options can be limited or unavailable, which is why you’re seeing it greyed out.
Ivy shared some helpful ideas around reworking how the recordings are handled, especially testing with shorter clips or reinserting them as video. You might also try:
- Publishing for web instead of MP4 to compare playback
- Checking whether the recording was inserted as video vs step-by-step slides
- Breaking longer recordings into smaller segments
If the issue continues, you’re welcome to share your file with our support team so we can take a closer look at how the media is being handled in your project.
