Youcam 5: webcam software

Offers dozens of frames, animations and special effects to pep up video messages – the avatars such as Father Christmas, an alien face or various dogs which reflect your own facial movements are weirdly effective – as well as motion-activated surveillance recording which can automatically send video clips to a designated email address.

Cyberlink claims that you can interact with various animated objects (for example petals settling on your shoulder can be brushed away) but this is inconsistent and unconvincing; you can make smoke come out of your own head though – which is always a plus.

It's possible to create simple screen-based recordings – to show for example, a friend how to do something using Windows – and YouCam 5 will also import Powerpoint presentations so you can include, for example, a picture-in-picture narration for anyone who couldn't attend the real thing.

While Youcam certainly offers more than most of the programs included with cheap webcams or those built into a standard PC, not all of the supplied effects are as good as they could be. Still, it's not expensive and for heavy webcam users there's enough to keep you entertained.