creating video for powerpoint

[Jack Joyce]

If I understand you correctly, you propose to import PowerPoint files and PDFs and other static material into FCP and make a video from that. I assume a computer will drive the projector, and that you have no sound.

The way I would do it is to use Keynote – not FCP. Keynote looks a lot better than PowerPoint; you can place and resize graphics easily; and you can then export the presentation as a self-contained Quicktime 640×480 movie. Keynote can include a sprite track in the .mov file, if you wish, which will allow the presenter to change the slides within the file at the click of a mouse. If the computer driving the projector is a PC, it will work perfectly well using Quicktime for Windows.

I have done this successfully using a 50 ft screen, with a projector driven by a Dell. The only trick is to experiment with the compression settings to bring up the sharpness a bit.

[Tom Brooks]

Elise,
Producing slide shows is much like working with source material, sequences and playback equipment in Final Cut. The source material should be suited to the sequence and the sequence should be compatible with the playback equipment.

You could produce a show at 640×480 square pixels and set the projector for that mode if it has such a mode. But that’s way below normal slide projection resolution today. It will not scale up nicely. If you do that, the result will be pixelated, jaggy, and mushy. Normal resolution is 1024×768, which is a 4:3 aspect ratio. There are many variations, of course, but that’s probably the most common format.

I agree that Keynote might be a good way to go. If you choose it, you’ll want to bring your sources in at a size equal to or larger than the resolution of your show (1024×768 usually). So your pictures should be twice that size if you plan to do “Ken Burns” moves on them or approximately that size if you don’t. When the show is complete, you have choices–you can play the show straight out of Keynote on a Mac, you can export the show as a Quicktime Movie at 1024×768, or you can export it as PowerPoint and play it on a PC (some effects from Keynote might not translate, however).

If you were to go strictly with Final Cut you could simply work in a regular old DV format and output to DVD at the end. In that case, the projector would switch to the appropriate resolution matching the DVD player connected to it. The quality would be the same as your normal DVD quality–just projected bigger.

Or, you could get fancy and go to an HD sequence. Output from that could either be a Quicktime movie or you could play back from an expensive HD VTR or DVD. It would be good to test the workflow and playback on this before you get too deep into it.

Any way you go, the source pictures need to come in at or above the resolution of your final output.

[David Bogie]

The advice is good but here’s one more:
Practice.
Create a short program based on your assumptions and see what the projection system does to it.

If you work in FCP, your projected video will only have 640×480 pixels. The pixels will get bigger but you will never get any more of them.
If you stay in Keynote or PowerPoint, your video can be scaled up to fill the screen. PowerPoint on the PC totally blows for doing video but the Macintosh version actually can be useful. Keynote rocks, though, and if the project is important, stop what you’re doing and buy a copy. The $100 will be a very sound investment in ease and elegance.

Please come back and tell us how you handled the project and how it went, good luck.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Elise London]

So,
Just to be clear here:

If I understand you correctly, you propose to import PowerPoint files and PDFs and other static material into FCP and make a video from that. I assume a computer will drive the projector, and that you have no sound.

<-----This is not the case. I'm starting out with photographs and .pdfs that I am editing in Final Cut and exporting a final .wmv for presenting in Powerpoint on a projector. So from all these posts, I gather that I should compose at twice 1024x768 size if I am going to be doing fancy transitions, etc ,right? What about these .pdf's? I'm bringing them into Photoshop and when I do so, it prompts me for the pixel dimensions. What size should I choose for this text in order for it to look crisp on the projector? Same as the sequence settings?

[Tom Brooks]

PowerPoint can scale the video to any size on the slide or play it full screen. The scaling is surprisingly good, but I’d try to stay at the native size of the video or scale it down a bit if necessary. So I’d find out what the projected resolution will be and plan your video around that.

Yes, if you do moves, the pix should be about 2X your sequence size. If your text is static, then rasterize at the sequence size. You may be able to “Place” items from the PDFs into Photoshop. This gives you flexibility in sizing as you place them in the image. PDFs are also good in Motion.

Let me ask you…will you be projecting at 1024×768 and will you place the videos in a window on the slide or will they run full screen?