Is there any free software to create chess videos? I see some nice videos on chess.com and on Youtube. The way arrows are drawn on the board, highlighting squares or pieces are really wonderful features.
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4 Answers
Programs like ChessBase, ChessPad, Scid vs. PC, and Lucas Chess all let you highlight squares & draw arrows on the board. You can then just record what you're doing using regular screen recording software like the excellent oCam.
Edit: I've created a video showing how to use Lucas Chess to create instructional chess videos. View it here. (YouTube)
A very simple tool is Nimbus, an extension for Chrome. It is very intuitive and can be used to record Chess.com or Lichess analysis (with their respective arrow and highlighting tools), and you can use its drawing palette (does not work in Lichess) for rectangles, freehand lines, and a few others options. It allows to include the images of the webcam. The only downside I see is that it does not allow to crop the recorded area.
For a chess board: I recommend lichess study/analysis board or import function, chessbase reader, apronus, chess.com analysis board, SCID (Great resource by the way! Free, has a database, and you can spar the engine. It is like Chessbase but free), Peshka 6 (don't know much about it, its a russian interface where you can buy stuff on chessking and put it on peshka), or Lucas chess.
I personally use lichess [https://lichess.org/editor] because you can import games, they have a live master-game database, and if you have an account then you can play or make studies which can be used as like a way to store games into cloud!
For recording: I recommend oCam [http://ohsoft.net/eng/] If you're making instructional (expository) videos about famous chess games or opening/endgame studies. oCam allows you to crop your video recording screen resolution to however you like, therefore you can make it so that the video only records the chess board alone and not your screen. If you can't get oCam for whatever reason, you can also try Bandicam if you don't mind the 10 minute time limit + the watermark.
I recommend OBS [https://obsproject.com] (Open Broadcaster Software) if you want to stream yourself playing chess. You can adjust boundaries too on this program, but it is more to work with. Anyway this is the type of software that almost all (if not all) streamers use! It has a function that allows you to stream automatically live as you record.
For editing videos: You can try Wondershare Video Editor [https://m.en.softonic.com/app/wondershare-video-editor-win]. Even the free version should have enough permissions to allow you to edit a good portion of your videos, however it has a nasty watermark. To fix this, you can use oCam to record and your wondershare video and then play your wondershare video without exporting it, it just means you'd have to sit and record it. Otherwise just use windows movie maker or Lightworks!
P.s. For some reason, Camstudio is now riddled with adware and viruses, and also Screen toaster is now unavailable.
I use Movavi software for that. Movavi Video Editor is made to be used by anyone, but especially for those who don’t really have much knowledge in video editing but would like to learn. If you are new into this world, this is definitely the editor you will want to use. It’s great software to make chess videos.
