Transfering PowerPoint to video

[2 Hungry Dogs]

I just finished a project for a client that wanted to transfer a PowerPoint to DVD. It was a project they had worked on for a year, that included over 500 slides many with animation, all with autotimings built in. The whole show was about 40 minutes long. They wanted to put music to it and make it into a DVD.

If I had started the project from the beginning I never would have used PowerPoint, but they were showing it in 3 days, and this is what they brought me.

All I can say is that it was a nightmare. We finally got it done, although not perfect. I have done transfers in the past, with smaller projects, just transfer the individual slides and then rebuild in the editor. I have even used some programs to make avi files. Those programs didn't work with this project. I don't know why.

I finally ended up using Wondershare, but even that was not easy to work with. Does anyone have a good method for this type of project?

 

[Baltimore Shooter]

Oh god, putting PowerPoint on a DVD won't make it more interesting than it was before. Ugh...these corporate typess and their freakin' PowerPoint!

Seems like I remember something within PP or FCP that will save PP files as a JPG. Then you could create the transitions in your editing program. That will work for the ones that are stills. As for the ones w/ animations, I don't know.

Next time add a P.I.T.A. fee just for having to deal w/ PP.

Warren

 

[eugalc]

Yes, you can save Powerpoint slides as JPEGs. I've done this, with usually horrendous results- i.e. busy slides with bad fonts, terrible color combinations, and nothing that's title safe. I usually remake the slides in Photoshop or your NLE's CG.

 

[Necktie Boy]

Done That Too

Yup, I did something like that. The people involved used PP to create the presentation. And the as the PP played, they read a script to go along with the slides. As yours, transitions, animations, sound effects, and different fonts and art clips were used. They want to move it onto DVD that they didn't have to read along and to archive it. It was a big job. What I had to do was time the slides and animations to the script. After we figured out the times and recorded the audio, I went to work. In my office, I had the computer connected to a scan convertor, computer video to NTSC video. I also had the audio out of the computer. The output of the box and the audio was connected into my router and the output to my DVCam deck. I played back the PP live, recording it directly into FCP via the firewire. With a timed script in my hand.....I triggered each slide in the PP and got to pretty close match the time cues. That was the best way to retain the transitions, animations, sound effects, and different fonts and art clips that they used. In FCP, dropped each slide(consisting of animations, sound effects, and different fonts and art clips) and matched the audio track that I had recorded....A little of sliding audio and adding or subtracting video and some great sound editing, I ended with a pretty great finish product. And this was about 5 minutes.....Yours, sounds like a 30 minute or more finish project. I can see you pulling your head out.

There is an option to save the PP as jpeg pictures. Great if you just want to copy the slides onto video, but the transitions, animations, sound is not carried over. Then, I drop the slides in Photoshop to resize and even tweak them a bit to be TV Safe since most PP use the whole screen. Another way that you can save
a PP file is as quicktime file, but it can only be done on a Mac. There is software to do it, I don't remember the name of it.

But hats off to you since you pulled it off. I know what you went through...

 

[2 Hungry Dogs]

Scan converter. I should have thought of that one. Thanks. I hate it when I overlook the obvious. I guess I got mentally locked into one way of doing it, and forgot to take the blinders off and think other ways.

I have successfully transferred the stills in the past. With mixed results depending on the design of the slide. It was not an option in this case due to the sheer volume of slides, and time to deadline.

 

[justFRED.ca]

Keynote

If you have access to a Mac running OS X, then you'll want to give Keynote a try (part of the iLife pack). It has its quirks - what software doesn't? - but lacks that flat, industrial, bare metal Powerpoint look and feel.

The transitions are more like what you'd expect in video production, and you can convert the entire slideshow to high quality QuickTime (or to a lower res web ready version) and include clickable hotlinks on the various screens. You can set the vid to stop on any given screen, and proceed with a click, or transition from screen to screen automagically.

Converting to DVD is trivial...point, click, wait.

The big con: there's no Keynote player for Windoze.

Cheers,
George
justFRED.ca

PS - No, we're not Mac-or-nothing fanboys. Yes, we use PC's and PP. We have a client who creates his hotel scheduling public screen content in PowerPoint and doesn't want to change software (despite how ugly it looks). We did figure out a way to use jpegs without turning them into pixel art...and to tweak his PP material to run on his big screen and his web site.

 

[Necktie Boy]

The reason I put the scan converter into my editing system was all the training workshops and other workshops had PP presentation. Often, I had to record the speakers and later edit in the slides. If I had time, I would laid it to hard drive, then edited into the video. Sometimes, time was short, and I would go the jpeg route to get it down quickly. I did to many, but then I worked at a city were PP was king.

 

[justFRED.ca]

Sometimes, time was short, and I would go the jpeg route to get it down quickly. I did to many, but then I worked at a city were PP was king.

My favorite line from PP presentations begins like this:

"Now, I know you probably can't see this from where you're sitting..."

Cheers,
George

 

[Necktie Boy]

Or.....Can everyone see it?

 

[justFRED.ca]

Or.....Can everyone see it?

(Black text on a dark blue background...)

Gee...I could see it on my laptop ok...

 

[BluesCam]

PP sucks and they never pay attention to safe title area or font size. There are a few programs that will convert PP to AVI etc. Haven't tried them though. Here's one: http://tinyurl.com/3stztp

I almost had a big job doing this, but they took it to a TV station instead. Yes, a good scan converter is an option. There are screen recording programs too.
http://camstudio.org/

 

[Mike@kennedys]

I bought some software ... Articulate Presenter Pro which converts PPT to Flash for internet delivery.... for a corporate job...it was about $700-$800 which was within the budget for this long term project. Not bad. But I had to learn to think/edit differently: the slides drive the "presentation" rather than the audio. It was weird. I had to find the places where the presenter changed slides and cut the audio accordingly.

 

[Baltimore Shooter]

Joel,
I just heard about a program called Camtasia, it captures what is on the screen. However I don't know if it will output NTSC video. If it does, that might be an idea to get your PP slides w/o rebuilding them. According to their demo video, you can record PP.

You could use a a firewire (or maybe a USB) output from a laptop into a mini dv deck and input the slides from the dv tape. Even if there is text that's out of title safe, you could reduce the screen size of the dv tape and to make it fit and put an interesting background underneath.

Don't know if it'll work fo you, I've never heard of Camtasia until today.

Warren

 

[2 Hungry Dogs]

Warren,

I'l check it out. good idea on the ntsc out of the computer. I wil have to test that one to see if it would work.

 

[N.Klaeser]

I also have just completed a project for a hospital that had a PP presentation. They, of course, wanted it transferred to DVD (what a nightmare). The average person thinks that PP is a video editing program. AND ITS NOT! ITS A PRESENTATION PROGRAM! After, many, many hours of screwing around with after-market programs, slowing video down to match audio and several client approval discs. The client still wasn't happy with the final version. I finally transferred the project directly out of the clients computer with a scan converter to DVCAM tape. Took all of 10 minutes. I then came back to my office, slapped some music on the program. She then said "Oh! That's great!"

Of course, I ended up not being able to bill for all the hours that I spent pulling my hair out. Lesson well learned.

 

[lbvp]

a PPT guru on another list mentioned that if exporting seperate stills out to use TGA instead of jpeg because, in his opinion the jpeg compression out of PPT is not real good...ok he sez it crap.

another suggestion that I dont think I saw before is a program called Powervideomaker Pro that will make AVI's

http://www.presentersoft.com/


FWIW

 

[Necktie Boy]

N.Klaeser,

I agree with you. After gettting calls to move PP's to video, I installed the scan converter to cut time down. I would always mention that some information may not show up since it was not in the "TV safe area". And got the "That's great" No more pulling hair out!

lbvp,

Jpeg or TGA, it doens't really matter. The resolution is based on the computer. Most computers are set at 1024 or better, so the PP has better resolution that video has. Another reason is most pictures used are jpegs. And jpeg doesn't take up that much space...And you know that some of the PP's tons of slides.

 

[Baltimore Shooter]

I tried Camtasia today, though not w/ PP. I downloaded the trial version (free 30 day trial) and it seemed to work pretty well.

There are a number of options to save the screen capture to import into FCP and other editing programs. I was able to save the file as a QT. Other options include AVI, WMV, Flash and others.

The complete version sells for $300 and I'd say if you're going to capture PP or other computer screen work, this just might work.

Warren

 

[2 Hungry Dogs]

a PPT guru on another list mentioned that if exporting seperate stills out to use TGA instead of jpeg because, in his opinion the jpeg compression out of PPT is not real good...ok he sez it crap.

another suggestion that I dont think I saw before is a program called Powervideomaker Pro that will make AVI's

http://www.presentersoft.com/


FWIW

I actually prefer to make .png's I think they turn our the best looking. IMHO

Powervideomaker Pro is what I finally went with for this project. An interesting thing happended. The first slide had animation, and the .avi created cut into the animation about 3/4 through. Since all the other animation was fine. I added a 1 second blank slide to the beginning. It fixed that problem, but the video part of the presentation went from 38 minutes to 42 minutes. Suddenly the music didn't time out anymore. I had 4 minutes of video with no music. The only change I made was adding that 1 sec blank slide at the beginning, and before the music started anyway. Go figure. I certainly think it will be ascan converter next time.

 

[A Step Above Productions]

What is a scan converter? I understand power point… but I am not sure what the scan converter is.