Give us hints on our video - thanks!

[jak]

Hi,

We have just completed our first real shot at using vidblaster to create a video. Right now I have it uploaded to vimeo, but if it's good enough we'll find a permanent home for this one and future ones.

http://vimeo.com/19447150

The system is:

ASUS SABERTOOTH X58 with Core i7-950
6GB RAM DDR3 1600
GeForce GT430
Win7-64
Vidblaster Pro 1.23
Sony DV-Cam on Firewire
Wireless Sennheiser through a Behringer Xenyx 502
Powerpoint through a VGA2USB

We use Virtual Audio Cable and Radiodelay to handle the audio sync, currently we have a .2s delay set.

Two Camera-II modules:
- DV-cam
- VGA2USB (with smooth resampling)
Two players
- start video
- end picture
One overlay
one Chroma-key

I can see some artifacts from the chroma-key module, partly around myself (which I think is due to bad lights and an old camera), but there are also some artifacts at the bottom and right edges of the screen that I can't really explain.

I'd be happy for any feedback on the video, but I won't blame you for not commenting on the content, it being both in Swedish and on kind of a specialized subject ...)

[Mike]

I am by no means an expert on chroma keying, in fact everything I know is what I had to learn to implement it into VidBlaster, but what I am seeing is chroma noise. This probably means you had too little light. As the chroma resolution is lower than luminance, I assume this is a cheap consumer camera? Moving to one with higher chroma resolution will also bring improvement. Yet, even with cheap cameras I have seen better results than this, so you may want to tweak the keyers parameters a bit (start with the default).
Other than poor keying this looks fine, nice graphics and presentation.

I guess it's time for a chroma key instruction video from one of the experts.

[jak]

Thanks Mike - yea, everything I know about chroma keying is what I read in your help file, so I'm even worse off!

But your are correct, it's not only a cheap consumer camera, but an old and cheap consumer camera... I tried to tweak the parameters, but as you say, an instruction video would be wonderful!

For our next step we will first of all look into the lights, and see if better lights will improve the overall result.

[Mike]

I could probably learn you a few things in a video, but will also be saying some things that are wrong. So I prefer someone with real knowledge to do this. If I can find one. It may also already exist on the web, but likely not using VidBlaster.

[jak]

I'm now looking for a good learning source for how to setup up lights in a video studio, since I realize that I just don't know anything about it, we just used the trial'n'horror method.

Maybe a separate forum topic with links to good tutorial text and videos? Preferably using Vidblaster of course, but for more generic subjects there are probably other good sources.

[doclike]

hm there is no real magic about setting up light. Just make sure that you have no shadows on the faces and turn up the light that it nearly hurts your eyes ;) If you can overlay a Zebra with your cameras you should set it to about 70% that will do perfectly.
There is a simple setup using 3 lights. One for the environment (soft) one for the actor (hard) on his head, which makes him come out of the background (more depth)
One to lighten his face.

cheers

[doclike]

ps: make sure to have the same color temperature from your light sources.

[jak]

Thanks Thomas! I had to look up Zebra, but I got the idea. Unfortunately, the old consumer DV-cams we are using now won't be able to handle it.

I found this article that on a quick overview seems to give good advice on light specifically for Chroma-key situations: http://www.videouniversity.com/articles/chroma-key-basics-for-dv-guerrillas-part-1

Color-temperature was a good advice also, I realize that on our test yesterday we had a mix of lights. We will probably look into better lights for our next test, and probably later look into a new camera (and frame grabber card to go with it).

[doclike]

We made a Tv-show at my university and it can be a pain setting up a perfect light. Especially if you have 30 lightsources. The guy who set up the light had a lightmeter which measure the intensity of the lights. But you should go for a professional lightsource first.

[jak]

Mm, at this stage I don't think I can sell the idea of 30 professional lightsources to my boss, but we'll take a good look at some options here.

[doclike]

dint get me wrong you dont need 30 lightsources ;) Just an example when it gets really complicated

[jak]

:p

[PeterHazenberg]

Chroma keying and a DV source arn't a nice combination because of DVs 4.4.0 sampeling. (the "0" stands vor the color sampeling. Of cource lights are important but won't "fix" the DV problem related to chroma keying.

[jak]

Chroma keying and a DV source arn't a nice combination because of DVs 4.4.0 sampeling. (the "0" stands vor the color sampeling. Of cource lights are important but won't "fix" the DV problem related to chroma keying.Now this was interesting! (I'm on a steep learning curve here!) Is this wiki article the one I should read to understand this issue?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling

So - what type of camera should I be looking for to avoid this specific problem? Or does that mean that we move into the pro-type equipment? Or is this more an issue of the interface between the camera and the computer?

(So many questions... Thanks for helping me out!)

[PeterHazenberg]

This Wiki is a good reference. I just hope it's not to technical if this is all new to you ;)

I would go for a progressive camera. Currently I'm testing some HD webcams http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/digitalcommunication/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=021 http://www.logitech.com/en-us/webcam-communications/webcams and I'm happily surprised. Combined with http://www.trackercam.com/TCamWeb/productlist.htm you can do amazing things...


Now this was interesting! (I'm on a steep learning curve here!) Is this wiki article the one I should read to understand this issue?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling

So - what type of camera should I be looking for to avoid this specific problem? Or does that mean that we move into the pro-type equipment? Or is this more an issue of the interface between the camera and the computer?

(So many questions... Thanks for helping me out!)

[jak]

This Wiki is a good reference. I just hope it's not to technical if this is all new to you ;)Yea, I got the basics, but then taking the next step and picking a good camera could still be a challenge...

I would go for a progressive camera. Currently I'm testing some HD webcams http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/digitalcommunication/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=021 http://www.logitech.com/en-us/webcam-communications/webcams and I'm happily surprised.Now this is interesting. From a price standpoint these are very nice. I looked into them earlier, but later ignored them (probably wrongly from what I understand from you). One feature I lacked was a zoom lens, but I guess that just means some more work moving the tripod around to frame the shots correctly.

We where thinking of having two cameras in the future, one framed like in the video, (legs and up), one framed with mostly the shoulders and head. Without a zoom lens it might be harder to position the face cam and still keeping it out of the picture for the overview cam?

Are there webcams with the same kind of performance that has a (non-digital) zoom lens?

[PeterHazenberg]

Zooming is indeed an issue. Although this depends on your final/output resolution. In one of my projects (http://www.erwinblom.nl/blog/2011/1/28/studio-in-progress.html) I stream 640 by 360 so I can use the digital zoom of the webcams without loosing quality.

With VidBlaster and the very low costs of these webcams you can chose to setup more cams and avoid the need of zooming (of course depending on your content/subject)

[jak]

Zooming is indeed an issue. Although this depends on your final/output resolution. In one of my projects (http://www.erwinblom.nl/blog/2011/1/28/studio-in-progress.html) I stream 640 by 360 so I can use the digital zoom of the webcams without loosing quality.Well, I can also see that with your setup of the people in shot, it doesn't look like framerate will be a big issue;)

With VidBlaster and the very low costs of these webcams you can chose to setup more cams and avoid the need of zooming (of course depending on your content/subject)Yes, I think i'll get one or two of these and try them out. How would you (or anyone else that have tried them) rate the MS cam compared to the Logitech one?

[PeterHazenberg]

I liked the MS cams (HD 5000) specially because of there form factor. Unfortunately they have (auto)focus problems http://www.google.nl/#sclient=psy&hl=nl&q=microsoft+webcam+focus+issue&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&fp=41e6ee62c04995ea which I couldn't solve because of my limited time available. The Logitechs' had driver problems in the past but the once I use at the moment (http://www.logitech.com/en-us/webcam-communications/webcams/devices/6817) don't have this problem and make my very happy :)

[jak]

Yes, I think i'll get one or two of these and try them out. How would you (or anyone else that have tried them) rate the MS cam compared to the Logitech one?Some searches led me to Engadget putting the MS cam ahead (http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/13/microsofts-1080p-lifecam-studio-review/).

Logitech C910 seems to be lacking a tripod hole.

This thread talks about experience from some MS lifecam models (http://forum.vidblaster.com/showthread.php?t=1092&highlight=lifecam&page=3). (Short story - make sure you have latest version of firmware and drivers, and avoid overload of USB bus)

[damn2good4u]

I guess it's time for a chroma key instruction video from one of the experts.

I am in support of the above

[jak]

Hi,

We now have a followup. We used a Microsoft Studio Live cam instead of the old DV-cam we used before, and that raised the quality on chroma-key quite a lot.

The new clip is here (http://vimeo.com/20302680).

I'll give some performance numbers in a hardware thread (http://forum.vidblaster.com/showthread.php?p=11803#post11803), but the quick story is - this worked out quite well.

Except...

We are still noobs in this business, and didn't really think through the aspect ratio issue. With the webcam on wide screen, and the powerpoint capture on a regular ration, I got quite squeezed.

I need to go back and figure out the bet way to handle this. I guess we'll change the powerpoint/VGA2USB to a wide-screen resolution, or is there some simple solution to handle cases where the imput sources have different aspect rations?

I'd be glad for feedback on the quality, and any other comments!

Thanks!

[zenvideo]

We are still noobs in this business, and didn't really think through the aspect ratio issue. With the webcam on wide screen, and the powerpoint capture on a regular ration, I got quite squeezed.

I need to go back and figure out the bet way to handle this. I guess we'll change the powerpoint/VGA2USB to a wide-screen resolution, or is there some simple solution to handle cases where the imput sources have different aspect rations?

I'd be glad for feedback on the quality, and any other comments!

Thanks!

If you're in that situation again, you could use the cropping function on the Camera module to chop off the sides and leave you with what is effectively a 4:3 aspect-ratio shot to match the 4:3 Powerpoint. The crop appears to remove pixels and scale the rest of the image to compensate so it still fills the screen.

As for your lighting, I'd try lifting those two lights at the front that were casting shadows of your arms up onto your shirt and neck (when you moved your arms forward). Light naturally tends to shine down, so set them higher than the lens - light coming from above head height will look more natural. "Uplighting" is not very natural, which is why it gets used in spooky ghost stories and horror movies.

If you want a good key light that doesn't generate too much heat, I'd suggest looking at the type that take 55w PLL tubes, available in daylight or tungsten colour temperature, and available in 2, 4 & 6 tube versions. eg
http://www.videogrip.net/lights-fluorescent-lights-c-7_12/flolight-110w-p-274

[jak]

If you're in that situation again, you could use the cropping function on the Camera module to chop off the sides and leave you with what is effectively a 4:3 aspect-ratio shot to match the 4:3 Powerpoint. The crop appears to remove pixels and scale the rest of the image to compensate so it still fills the screen.Thanks Martin for your feedback! I will try both this solution, as well as trying to rescale the powerpoint that comes through the VGA2USB and see which one produces the best results. It's good to have options!
As for your lighting, I'd try lifting those two lights at the front that were casting shadows of your arms up onto your shirt and neck (when you moved your arms forward). Light naturally tends to shine down, so set them higher than the lens - light coming from above head height will look more natural. "Uplighting" is not very natural, which is why it gets used in spooky ghost stories and horror movies.Again thanks! Yes, lightning is still an issue. We played around with some simple cheap spots to try to improve lightning, bus as you could see, we ended up with them to low. We used most of the direct lightning to make sure that the backdrop was evenly lighted, but the lights that still hit me wasn't good.

I'll take a look at the stuff you linked to, thanks!

[zenvideo]

Chroma keying and a DV source arn't a nice combination because of DVs 4.4.0 sampeling. (the "0" stands vor the color sampeling. Of cource lights are important but won't "fix" the DV problem related to chroma keying.

Just a little correction here. DV does not use 4:4:0 sampling - in fact I don't think there's any commonly-used compression format that does. Actually, it's worse than that. DVCAM and PAL-DV use 4:2:0 and DVC-Pro and NTSC DV use 4:1:1 for their YUV sampling.

HOWEVER, this is the compression format for recordings and transfer over 1394/firewire. Taking a composite or Y/C (S-Video) feed direct from the camera, before recording, bypasses the quality reduction of DV chroma sampling and gives you a full bandwidth colour signal (not withstanding the limitations of composite encoding!).

For the best results, you will need a camera which can output a live feed in either analogue component (YUV) or via digital SDI or HDMI connections (into something like a Blackmagic card) in order to get the best colour bandwidth from which to do your chroma-keying.

[Michael]

Some additional ideas for lighting:

Sometimes, if the talent is standing very close to the green screen, especially if the green screen lighting is as bright or (worse) brighter than the lighting on the talent, there will be a reflection of the green screen around the edges of the talent causing a trashy key instead of a clean one because the reflected green is trying to key as well but can't key evenly because the light level of the reflected green is uneven. You may not even detect this with your eye but may see it on a good monitor.

If you have a large enough green screen, position the talent as far from it as possible and reduce the level of light on the green screen (while maintaining even lighting on it).

Hope this helps.

Michael

[Michael]

By the way, I agree with Martin's critique and your new camera does do a MUCH better job on the chroma key.

Michael

[Maxsalino]

Some additional ideas for lighting:

Sometimes, if the talent is standing very close to the green screen, especially if the green screen lighting is as bright or (worse) brighter than the lighting on the talent, there will be a reflection of the green screen around the edges of the talent causing a trashy key instead of a clean one because the reflected green is trying to key as well but can't key evenly because the light level of the reflected green is uneven. You may not even detect this with your eye but may see it on a good monitor.

If you have a large enough green screen, position the talent as far from it as possible and reduce the level of light on the green screen (while maintaining even lighting on it).

Hope this helps.

Michael

Everything is correct. I add: if you don't have a large green screen, put the camera far from the subject and zoom in, so the field depth (I don't know if this is the correct name), can have the same portion of the foreground on a smaller portion of background.

[Michael]

Jan,

Here are some additional suggestions to polish your effort. (Now we are getting down to details.)
1. Make sure the talent maintains eye contact with the camera lens. When you look away, even briefly, we viewers wonder what has distracted you and we are distracted, too.
2. Maintain a friendly face much as you would when talking to a dear friend or loved one.
3. Reduce the empty space (headroom) at the top of the screen. Move your graphics up a bit and your shot of the talent as well.
4. Change the color or shade of the background to offer more contrast between it and the shirt. This will help the talent "pop" (stand out) rather than blend. A light on the back of the talent about the shoulder and head will also help if you can provide it. (Search for "back light" to see placement for this.)

You already have a much better product than the first video so you are well on your way to the quality you are seeking. Keep up the good work.

Michael

[jak]

Thank you all for your feedback - it's very helpful! We'll try to take all these things into account for our next session.

(It's just the part about "talent" that bothers me, I'm pretty sure it's more of "person in the movie" rather than "talent"... )

[jak]

Hi,

We have done a couple of new recordings, and have tried to take into account as many as possible of your suggestions.

You can see one of the clips here: http://vimeo.com/34615116

Main changes:

* New lights, both on me and on the green screen.
* Recording in 720p, thanks to performance improvements in VB.
* Grabbing the powerpoint content via a Displayport->HDMI converter, and then taking it in using the Intensity Pro card.
* Some small tweaks to on the advanced settings in the Chroma key module.

We are very happy with the quality we got now, so thank you for all your feedback!

[Mike]

There's always room for improvement but you certainly have improved dramatically over the first trial! Additionally something happened to the audio, I can now understand what you are saying :).

[zenvideo]

We have done a couple of new recordings, and have tried to take into account as many as possible of your suggestions.

You can see one of the clips here: http://vimeo.com/34615116

As Mike says, there's almost always something further that could be improved - I can never look at any of my uploaded videos without seeing something!:) I'd tend to say that for shooting in HD it may be your camera that's now the weak link in the chain, although I don't know how much control it gives you.

I do think both the exposure and colour balance could be improved. The image looks a little under-exposed and the colour temperature of the lighting (tungsten?) is lower than the colour balance setting on the camera (daylight?), which is making you look more orange than you look in the other videos and in your Vimeo profile pic. If the camera can't be adjusted to match the lighting, then putting blue or half-blue gel on the foreground lights will help the lights to match the camera. I've attached a couple of split-screen frame grabs from Premiere after applying some colour correction to illustrate the difference.

Also, on the audio side, your levels could comfortably be about 8-10dB higher without clipping. At present the peaks are at about -14dBfs.

[jak]

There's always room for improvement but you certainly have improved dramatically over the first trial! Additionally something happened to the audio, I can now understand what you are saying :).Doesn't mean that it makes sense though...

But thanks, and yes, lot's of improvements compared to earlier, but agreed, there are still room for even more improvements.

[jak]

As Mike says, there's almost always something further that could be improved - I can never look at any of my uploaded videos without seeing something!:) I'd tend to say that for shooting in HD it may be your camera that's now the weak link in the chain, although I don't know how much control it gives you.Yes, I agree, I think we have reached the limit of the camera. The image isn't as sharp as I would like to see it.
I do think both the exposure and colour balance could be improved. The image looks a little under-exposed and the colour temperature of the lighting (tungsten?) is lower than the colour balance setting on the camera (daylight?), which is making you look more orange than you look in the other videos and in your Vimeo profile pic. If the camera can't be adjusted to match the lighting, then putting blue or half-blue gel on the foreground lights will help the lights to match the camera. I've attached a couple of split-screen frame grabs from Premiere after applying some colour correction to illustrate the difference.Thanks, interesting! The lights we have added are marked as delivering a color temperature of 5500, and we did change the camera to match that. (At least, we did that initially, now I'm wondering if when we changed profile we might have lost that setting).
Also, on the audio side, your levels could comfortably be about 8-10dB higher without clipping. At present the peaks are at about -14dBfs.Yes, I think we tried to be to much on the safe side here, we will definitely raise the levels here for the next run.

Thank you so much for your feedback, it's really helpful!

[zenvideo]

Yes, I agree, I think we have reached the limit of the camera. The image isn't as sharp as I would like to see it.

It might be generating a HD-res output, but certainly the lens/sensor combination isn't delivering real HD resolution. HD can definitely look a lot sharper!

Thanks, interesting! The lights we have added are marked as delivering a color temperature of 5500, and we did change the camera to match that. (At least, we did that initially, now I'm wondering if when we changed profile we might have lost that setting).

Now that is strange. With 5.5K lights, the image should be correct if the camera's colour balance is on daylight, or tinted blue if the camera is on the tungsten setting (~3.2K). The way that you normally end up with an orange-tinted image is when the lights are 3.2K and the camera is set to daylight.

That said, part of the issue might have been the (under)exposure setting. The white vest looked fairly white, so it might just be that the colour linearity isn't very good on that camera, with the colour balance changing as the luminence values change? Do you know anyone with a better camera that you borrow/hire for your next test shoot?

[jak]

That said, part of the issue might have been the (under)exposure setting. The white vest looked fairly white, so it might just be that the colour linearity isn't very good on that camera, with the colour balance changing as the luminence values change? Do you know anyone with a better camera that you borrow/hire for your next test shoot?That will be the next thing for us to look into! Again, thanks for all your feedback!

[weconverse]

Jan,
Congratulations! You have really acheived great improvements. As well as created a really interesting sales/training video production setup.

While Martin of course is right regarding the color temperature, I am more concerned about the whiteish artifact on your upper lip. An attention grabber, in a negative sense.

What camera are you using now, and how do you get its signal into VidBlaster.

Otherwise can only advice on some minor details regarding the graphics. You are such a great presenter, and the production format rocks. But the ppt slides are not in par with the rest. Consider doing something else then bullets in rounded boxes. Take a look at www.presentationzen.com (http://www.presentationzen.com) for some inspiration.

Also, I would send the lower third (colored line with logo to the right) to "the bottom" (behind everything else). As it is now the line cuts right across you legs.

[jak]

Jan,
Congratulations! You have really acheived great improvements. As well as created a really interesting sales/training video production setup.

While Martin of course is right regarding the color temperature, I am more concerned about the whiteish artifact on your upper lip. An attention grabber, in a negative sense.

What camera are you using now, and how do you get its signal into VidBlaster.
Tack Rickard!

We are still using the simple Microsoft Lifecam Studio webcam via USB. But it looks like we have reached the quality limit of that camera, and that it is now the weak link in the setup.

I'll start looking into camera alternatives next. I'm very happy with bring the PC graphics in through the HDMI interface on the Blackmagic card, so that one is already taken, but one option might be a second Intensity Pro card and then a camera that can give us HDMI (or component) video in higher quality.

Otherwise can only advice on some minor details regarding the graphics. You are such a great presenter, and the production format rocks. But the ppt slides are not in par with the rest. Consider doing something else then bullets in rounded boxes. Take a look at www.presentationzen.com (http://www.presentationzen.com) for some inspiration.That looks like an interesting blog - I'll take a look at it. One of the other recordings we created uses a different set of graphics, no bullets, no boxes. But this is still work in progress, I think that at the moment, with minor tweaks our current technical setup gives good enough quality, and we'll focus more on the content.
Also, I would send the lower third (colored line with logo to the right) to "the bottom" (behind everything else). As it is now the line cuts right across you legs.One way for me would be to include that graphic in the PPT presentation, then it would end up behind me. Is there another way of solving that in VB - is that the source overlay function in the VE module? I probably need to read up on that.

[weconverse]

One of the cheapest cams JVC GZ-HM30 will give you 720p HDMI (or 576p) into a second Intensity Pro card. I have a couple of those if you want to try. Otherwise they are less than 200 Euro (eg on Netonnet.se).

Since you have a white background, make a jpg copy of your current lower third, and then use it as an input in a PiP where you do the rest over. Either as background, or as input1. Depends on how you have built up the rest of your profile.

[zenvideo]

Otherwise can only advice on some minor details regarding the graphics. You are such a great presenter, and the production format rocks. But the ppt slides are not in par with the rest. Consider doing something else then bullets in rounded boxes. Take a look at www.presentationzen.com (http://www.presentationzen.com) for some inspiration.

Also, I would send the lower third (colored line with logo to the right) to "the bottom" (behind everything else). As it is now the line cuts right across you legs.

Just another idle doodle, whilst I still had the video file in a Premiere project, was to see what it would look like with a "virtual set" background, as below. It could be done live in VidBlaster with the PowerPoint slides ChromaKeyed over the background via Effect No1, and the camera input ChromaKeyed over that in Effect No2.

http://www.dv2broadcast.co.uk/upload/720p30still005.png

[jak]

It's becoming painfully obvious that creating good video is not just about the technology (that I'm slowly getting to understand), but a lot about a eye for the visual design of the screen, and how to make it pleasing for the eye.

Again, thank you for all your feedback, it's very valuable!

[Mike]

Wow, that looks impressively different Martin. It reminds me of the lighting video (http://www.zenvideo.co.uk/services.htm#lightingvid) you did where in text form you would expect the subject is boring, and in fact as dummy at the beginning of the video you still wonder what it's all about, and then some simple changes later you suddenly get that 'wow' moment. If you would do something similar with the topic discussed here (transforming from someone in an empty office to someone who does a presentation in a plant, or whatever), it would make quite an impressive video.

[zenvideo]

Wow, that looks impressively different Martin. It reminds me of the lighting video (http://www.zenvideo.co.uk/services.htm#lightingvid) you did where in text form you would expect the subject is boring, and in fact as dummy at the beginning of the video you still wonder what it's all about, and then some simple changes later you suddenly get that 'wow' moment. If you would do something similar with the topic discussed here (transforming from someone in an empty office to someone who does a presentation in a plant, or whatever), it would make quite an impressive video.

They're not quite the same sort of thing. In the video of mine to which you refer, I transformed the look of a real office using different lighting and simply recorded what the camera saw, whereas Jan's video was a green-screen shoot from the start, and was transformed through the addition of a CGI background (which I originally created in Lightwave 3D). However, with Jan's permission to use his images in various ways, I could show how to create such a workflow as a new section of the Combining Video Effects wiki page.

[jak]

However, with Jan's permission to use his images in various ways, I could show how to create such a workflow as a new section of the Combining Video Effects wiki page.As long as you are not making me look even more stupid than I already do, I'm fine with that!;)

(And if I can support you in creating those wiki articles, please do tell me!)

[zenvideo]

As long as you are not making me look even more stupid than I already do, I'm fine with that!;)

(And if I can support you in creating those wiki articles, please do tell me!)

If you're OK with the composite image I posted here, it won't be any worse than that! I was just going to de-construct it into it's original component parts (in Photoshop) and show which modules would be linked together to create the final effect in VidBlaster. I'll do it today and, once you've seen it, if you'd like to write a personal story of what equipment you've used and how you've developed your setup to get to this stage, that would make a nice addition to the item.

[jak]

If you're OK with the composite image I posted here, it won't be any worse than that! I was just going to de-construct it into it's original component parts (in Photoshop) and show which modules would be linked together to create the final effect in VidBlaster. I'll do it today and, once you've seen it, if you'd like to write a personal story of what equipment you've used and how you've developed your setup to get to this stage, that would make a nice addition to the item.Sounds like a plan, please go ahead, and I'll try to add my comments to it!

[zenvideo]

Sounds like a plan, please go ahead, and I'll try to add my comments to it!

It's now on the wiki here:- http://wiki.vidblaster.com/index.php/Combining_Video_Effects#The_original_video

[Mike]

Nice. Of course instead of saving the powerpoint slides and loading them in a player module, you can also directly import the presentation in a powerpoint module (provided the production machine has powerpoint installed). This would also make it a lot easier for Jan to select the next slide.

[Johan Lundberg]

Great work as usual Martin!
You might also want to mention the ability to use the Powerpoint module instead of a player for the PPTs.

Edit: Dang! Mike beat me... :)

[jak]

Nice. Of course instead of saving the powerpoint slides and loading them in a player module, you can also directly import the presentation in a powerpoint module (provided the production machine has powerpoint installed). This would also make it a lot easier for Jan to select the next slide.Yes, and no... It keeps the setup simpler, but (unless I've missed some feature) it only works when the operator in VB selects the slide.

When I'm in front of the camera, I use a Powerpoint remote (as can be see in my right hand). That one is connected to a separate PC, that outputs the Powerpoint via Displayport->HDMI->Intensity Pro->CameraII.

If the Powerpoint module would accept Page-Up and Page-Down as signals for Previous/Next slide, I could skip the second PC.

There might be ways to remap this using macro programs, I haven't looked into that, and since I'm only on Pro I can't use the API.

Great work on the Wiki - I'll add some comments later tonight!

[jak]

It's now on the wiki here:- http://wiki.vidblaster.com/index.php/Combining_Video_Effects#The_original_videoI have now added a section at the end with a short description on our current setup, with the position of the lights, the camera used, as well as how we print the PowerPoint content into VidBlaster. I hope it's useful, please give me feedback if there's anything else you think I should add!