PowerPoint.Advanced.Presentation.Techniques [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Where do Videos Come From?

Let's begin at an obvious starting point: figuring out how you are going to get a hold of the videos you need.

Not all videos are live-action recordings; some are digitally created cartoons (either 2-D or 3-D). PowerPoint can show both kinds. The difference is not that important once you get them into PowerPoint, but when you are determining how you will acquire clips, it's helpful to make the distinction.

The following sections discuss the types of videos that PowerPoint supports.

Animated GIFs

When is a video not really a video? When it's an animated GIF.

As you may already know, GIF is a file format for static graphic files. One of the advantages of it over other graphic file formats is that you can create animated versions. These are not really videos in the traditional sense; they are a collection of still graphic images stored in a single file under one name. When the file is displayed-on a presentation slide, a Web page, or some other place-it cycles through the still graphics at a certain speed, making a very rudimentary animation. The animation of an animated GIF cannot be controlled through PowerPoint, nor can it be set up to repeat a certain number of times. That information is contained within the GIF file itself. PowerPoint simply reads that information and plays the GIF accordingly.

PowerPoint's Clip Organizer comes with many animated GIFs that have simple conceptual plots, like time passing, gears turning, and computers passing data between them. They are more like animated clip art than real movies or even real animated clips, but they do add an active element to an otherwise static slide.

A few of the animation clips from the Clip Organizer are actually AVI files, rather than animated GIF. This is significant because you have more options when working with an AVI than with a GIF. For example, when you click on an AVI during a slide show, it pauses, but clicking on a GIF has no effect. To determine the format of a clip from the Clip Organizer, point at it in the Clip Art task pane; a ScreenTip appears showing its keywords, and one of them will be either GIF or AVI.

Most of what you will learn in this chapter about working with videos will not apply to animated GIFs. The reason I include them in this discussion is that the Clip Organizer refers to them as "movies," and unless you understand that they're really GIFs, it can be confusing.

Live-Action Videos

Now, we get into the "real videos." Recorded videos have a live origin. Someone went out with a video camera and pointed it at something in the world (see Figure 14-1). You can get live-action video from the Internet, but in most cases for business presentations, you will want to record it yourself with a camera to suit your purpose. You might use recorded video to present a message from someone who could not be present in person, show how a product functions, or provide a tour of a facility, for example.

Figure 14-1: Live-action video is video that was filmed from "real life."

There are two kinds of video cameras: digital and non-digital. It's important to know which kind you have, because they hook up to the PC differently to transfer the video. A digital video camera hooks up directly to the PC via a USB or FireWire interface port, whereas a regular (analog) video camera requires a conversion box or an adapter card that will convert analog video to digital video.

If you are not sure what type of video camera you have, look at how it stores the video. If it stores it on a VHS or mini-tape, it's analog. If it stores it on a disk or cartridge that says "digital" on it, it's digital. Also, look at its interfaces. If it's digital, it will have either a USB or a pFireWire port. (However, don't look for a plug with the same shape and size as the USB or FireWire plug that fits into your PC; the end of the cable that fits into the video camera will be smaller and more square.)

You will probably not import videos directly from the camera into PowerPoint because they will be too rough and may contain extraneous footage, unwanted sounds, or awkward jerks or transitions. Instead, you'll want to polish up your videos in a video-editing program. Windows Movie Maker, which comes with Windows Me and Windows XP, is a decent low-end choice. If you bought an analog-to-digital video converter box or card, it may have come with video-editing software as well. Video editing can be very time-consuming, so allow plenty of time to do this work before assembling your presentation in PowerPoint.

Digital Animation

Animation does not have a live origin-it's a simulation of life. Simple animations appear cartoonish, but there are animation applications that, in the right hands, can create extremely realistic 3-D simulations. Digital animation is useful when showing things that either don't exist yet or are unavailable for live filming. For example, you could demonstrate how a planned product will be built or how it will work after it is manufactured. Simple cartoons can also add a whimsical touch or lighten the mood in a presentation. Figure 14-2 shows a frame from a digital animation that explains how the PCI slot on a motherboard works, for example.

Figure 14-2: Digital animation consists of a sequence of computer-generated drawings.

To create your own animations, turn to a separate animation application; PowerPoint doesn't have any capability for doing it. If you want high-end, high-quality 3-D animation, you'll want a professional-quality application like Adobe After Effects.

Video File Formats

The video-capture/-editing program you use to create or acquire your video clips will determine the file's format and specifications. PowerPoint can accept videos with the following file formats:

Audio Video Interleave (.avi)

QuickTime (.mov or .qt) versions 1 and 2.x

Motion Picture Experts Group (.mpg, .mpeg, .m1v, .mp2, .mpa, and .mpe)

Microsoft streaming format (.asf and .asx)

Microsoft movie format (.wmv)

You may not have a choice in the settings used for recording live video or the file format. If you do have a choice, AVI is among the best formats for use in PowerPoint because of its near-universal compatibility. There may be compatibility issues with video in some MPEG variants, such as MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, such that you might need to install a separate DVD-playing utility or a specific codec to handle those formats. (See the Clip Won't Play in PowerPoint section later in the chapter for more information.)

On the theory that Microsoft-to-Microsoft always works, the Windows Media Video (.wmv) format is also a good choice. Since Windows Movie Maker creates its movies in this format by default, it's a good bet that it will work well in PowerPoint.

If you have a choice in quality, balance file size against quality, usually measured in frames per second (fps), which will be anywhere from 15 (low) to 30 (high), or in kilobits per second, which will be anywhere from 38kbps to 2.1mbps. You might experiment with different settings to find one with acceptable quality for the task at hand with the minimum of file size. With Windows Movie Maker, for example, there are a wide variety of quality settings available.