Using PPT in video –Quality issues

[David Bogie]

If you make a video of a lousy powerpoint prezo, that’s about what you get, a lousy video of a terrible prezo.

The issue is the difference in pixel dimensions between the vector fonts and bitmapped images in the PP and the vastly smaller number of pixels available in video. Much is lost in the translation.

We almost always are forced to rebuild PP in video. Ninety percent of your client’s builds and silly animations can be done easily in FCP but some effects and stylization that a very skilled PP designer can use must be rethought in Motion or After Effects.

bogiesan

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

[Chris Borjis]

export each slide at 800×600

import that into fcp.

thats it really.

transitions and animations won’t work.

[Patricia Stitson]

These are giant charts of Naval Organizations…. all boxes and text and the text is elligible. Rebuild is probably the best bet huh?

Patty

[Patricia Stitson]

Me again,

Would it be easier just to do it in Fireworks? Would the quality be better but less work than doing it in Motion?

Patty

[Chris Borjis]

either way, just make sure the fonts look good
and readable at D1 (720×486) resolution and you’ll be good.

[Zane Barker]

[Patricia Stitson] “What should the workflow be?”

Honestly I have had the best success with opening that ppt file with keynote and then reformatting it to the detentions of the video you are working with. Keynote also gives you the option of exporting it as a video file that way you can keep transitions and animations if you want.

[Patricia Stitson] “What size is best to export from ppt as a jpg “

That all depends on what format video you will be mixing it with. If it is SD the set the frame size to SD it it is HD then set the frame size to the proper SD size.

[Patricia Stitson] “then I try de-intelace but it seems to make it worse?”

Why are you trying to de-interlace jpg files they are NOT interlaced so you cant DE-interlace.

I recently did a project for a doctor where al the txt he wanted used was in a ppt file, I simply opened it in keynote and exported it with video files that had all his animation and stuff in it. I also currently doing a DVD of a presentation given by a local historic organization and am simply taking the presentation file (this time it was already made in keynote) and adding in a recording of the narrator. And Im probably going to just add in the audio clips right into keynote, ket the pacing and then export me a video file that I can then make into a DVD.

I’ll even occasional use keynote to create simple motion graphics for any video project.

Keynote it a great tool for any FCP editor to have on hand.

There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity!

[Tom Brooks]

In the recent past, I would also import PPT to Keynote and then export tifs or video from that because Keynote output smooth fonts while exports from PPT were jaggy. But I think the newest version of PPT has good fonts on exports. I believe you can set up PPT to output a larger file size by changing the slide show setup. That could allow you to zoom in on parts of slides. Also, new version can export PDF. Think of the options in Motion with that route.

Still, these conversions are always a compromise because the slide was not designed for video.

[David Bogie]

[Chris Borjis] “export each slide at 800×600
import that into fcp.
“

Well, yes, that’s the apparent and direct route. But it completely ignores the end result of the scaling operation and the bitmapping/rasterization to jpeg from the vector font display on a much larger system, which is likely to be hi-def projection in a conference room, probably 1200 pixels. That would be a 75% resolution loss by scaling down to 600 pixels.

bogiesan

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