Microsoft Office Reference Guide

Mar 26, 2004

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Sometimes, an event takes you back in time. And so it was when I received my evaluation copy of Serious Magic's Communicator product. I wanted to try Communicator for a long time, after seeing it demonstrated at several trade shows. Looking at the box, I remembered why.

I originally got into multimedia in the late 1980s, when I first saw an article about the Amiga Toaster and its ability to put a full-blown video editing studio into your computer. That was a growth experience, because I quickly learned that the toaster was a $1,500 add in board to a computer that could barely do word processing, and the rest of the extras it took to do video (decks, drives, and so on) put the full tab closer to $15,000.

The Toaster evolved, and with it came high-end digital production suites like the Avid. For a small fry video guy, editing came to the desktop with Adobe Premiere, but the full-blown studio concept never quite made it to the PC.

Last year, I wrote about Apreso Anystream, which lets you combine PowerPoint visuals with your own talking-head video in real time, and it's a great product. But with Serious Magic's Communicator, the stakes are raised exponentially. This promises and delivers a "studio in a box," and makes a great video complement to PowerPoint.

It's worth mentioning that there are three "tiers" of Visual Communicator (Web, Pro and Studio); there's a comparison of features on the Serious Magic Web site.

When you open the program, you can use a wizard to immediately provide a look or backdrop for your production, but let's take a look at the basic interface.

Unlike most video editing programs with a set of horizontal timelines, Communicator has a vertical Time, Effects, and Graphics timeline on the right. You open graphic elements (including still graphics, text, backgrounds and so on) from folders in the lower panel, and add them to actions in the timeline.

Fig540

As you can see, Communicator accepts a standard DV video input, or it will work with most analog or USB capture devices. There I am in the upper left hand corner.

What sets the program apart are two other features: first, the scrolling teleprompter which moves in synch with the timeline, and the so-called V-Screen, which is a background matte effect to instantly put you anywhere in the universe.

The Content panel opened at the bottom of the first figure is the Video Effects folder. I can drag the V-Screen effect and drop it into the timeline.

Then I click Rehearse, and quickly take myself out of the picture, so that Communicator can configure the green screen background.

When I reappear, there I am in my virtual set. Notice that the beginning of my "script," "Here I am reporting from the moon" is right there in the teleprompter.

Fig541

Communicator comes with a vinyl green screen that you can set up in minutes. Truthfully, if I had a ironing board it would be worth flattening some of the wrinkles, but there are plenty of backgrounds that work right out of the box, including several with curtains where the wrinkles are irrelevant.

You build your production by writing your script, and dragging and dropping Action Trays into the timeline with the effects and elements you want.

How does this relate to PowerPoint? Funny you should ask. The most obvious answer is that as a video editor, Communicator can enable you to make very fast and entertaining "talking head" and other productions just as an ordinary editor (Premiere, Ulead VideoStudio, MovieMaker) can.

But rendering the backgrounds in these programs is time consuming; Communicator rehearses and then records in real time.

Perhaps more impressive, as a complement to PowerPoint, is its ability (in the Pro version) to accept PowerPoint slides in seconds as linked objects. (The other versions accept them too, but as imported graphics.)

I decided to have some fun with the program, and put together a joke presentation combining PowerPoint graphics, a chart and pictures into a simple presentation. I figured I'd make the ultimate dating service video of — who else — me!

As you can see, I have my bullet points supplemented by graphics, which I could present and narrate. In other PowerPoint Add-in programs, like Camtasia or Apreso, I could also output the production to video with narration or video in a window (respectively).

Fig542

What's different about Communicator? It's not an add-in for PowerPoint; PowerPoint is an add in for Communicator. Let's look at the project.

Once again, I have written a script in the teleprompter. By using the Paste Special command in my Action tray, I can paste a direct link to the individual PowerPoint slide to be synchronized with my speech.

Fig543

I can combine these with other graphics (including full motion video) and images, along with standard video wipes, fades and page turns.

Here I am transitioning to a picture of my parents as I talk about them. Notice the preview window and the timer on the right side of the figure.

Fig544

Then it's just a matter of fine-tuning the production through rehearsal, moving the action trays to synchronize better with the content, and finally recording the sequence.

Here I've set my secondary monitor for full screen output. As I finish the recording, my image is no longer in the preview window but in the monitor on the right. I have gone through my content, images and PowerPoint slides, and am finishing up in my virtual set – no longer my actual apartment, but a million dollar home.

Fig545

Like any other video editor, now it's time to output the production. Since there is a Web slant to Communicator, it's called publishing. There are five options:

Save to hard drive.
Send in e-mail.
Publish to a server (FTP).
Create a Web page.
Print a production video back to DV tape by switching the camcorder to VTR mode.

Fig546

I decide to save my video to my hard drive, and select the Windows Media Format (WMV) at good quality for DSL broadband.

(I select the Windows Media 8 format for maximum playback to an audience without the latest version).

You can see one of the final versions at http://www.professorpowerpoint.com/magic.htm

But now, coming full circle, I can also import this video back into a conventional PowerPoint slide.

Fig547

I know what you're thinking: can I show the movie in PowerPoint inside Communicator? Theoretically, you could – if you used another tool (Camtasia Studio) to capture the PowerPoint presentation, and brought it back into Communicator as a video asset. Remember that Communicator can show entire movies in a movie, or on a virtual set.

How you use it is up to your imagination. As I mentioned, the program normally starts with a wizard of pre-set concepts and backgrounds that you can use for inspiration.

Fig548

But there is no shortage of fun or inspiration. Just go through the content folders provided by the program to get ideas.

Here is the topic main area and notice that there are folders for all kinds of business applications and other cool stuff.

Fig549

I did the project I described in the first day I had the program, but I have just scratched the surface. There are modules that enhance productivity, like the Capture window that lets you quickly videotape anything, or capture footage from a tape that you've shot out in the field, and save it as a movie to be imported back into Communicator, or anywhere else.

The teleprompter synchronization takes some getting used to, but you can adjust the crawl speed and make a number of other optional modifications to suit your presentation style.

One sensational feature is that, once you lay down the video track, you can go back in an Review it, and even fine tune it if the synchronization is off a bit. You can move the effects down, and even get rid of an overlay and substitute your own video again before re-publishing.

Visual Communicator is not terribly expensive if you want to add video to your presentation and PowerPoint arsenal. And look for a cousin, a PowerPoint add-on, to be released later this year.

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