Animated powerpoint in FCP

HELP!

This is the biggest brain scratcher I've dealt with. I just don't know the answer and I'm hoping one of you do.

I have a powerpoint presentation with animation in it. (Images show up at different times, move around, etc.) Does anyone know if I can bring in the file into FCP and still keep all that animation?

This topic has been covered a few times before:

[www.lafcpug.org]

if i recall, the best way is to do it is export the ppt as a quicktime movie. ive dont it a few times and its never come off without something going wacky

>
> I have a powerpoint presentation with animation in it. (Images
> show up at different times, move around, etc.) Does anyone
> know if I can bring in the file into FCP and still keep all
> that animation?

The answer is no.

If the presentation just has avi or quicktime files in it, you can output the PP background as a graphics file and then import the animation separately; you will then recreate the PP "slide" on an FCP timeline with 2 layers - one the background overlayed with the animation.

If you're dealing with the cheesy stock moves provided by PP, you're hosed. But see below...

I've dealt with a million of these, and even Keynote is wonky - you may or may not get what you want. but i have only used Keynote V1; V2 is out, and may handle things better.

The easiest but probably the lowest quality way is to output the powerpoint pres and record it on something, then just import/capture that.

the last one of these i did, i found a laptop that had an S-VHS output (quite a few do), connected that output to a DV deck and played the powerpoint presentation into the deck and recorded it. it actually looked respectable.

I swear to God, I want to beat the living daylights out of "presenters" who use that crap in presentations.



HarryD

as a presentation professional who over the last decade or so can attribute conversationally, give or take a half million dollars of gross income to designing powerpoint shows, i'm quite used to defending powerpoint saying "it has its uses". and sadly it does.

- KEY WORD being "sadly"

but personally i despise everything powerpoint and believe that it has single-handedly lowered the bar of business communication over the past 10 years - AND is a very, VERY good example of the whole handed "mediocrization" of the american culture at large.

I have done some very nice work in PP, but that was me - I know design, and not one thing associated with those presentations came from the stock library that ships with powerpoint. And the only things animated that I ever used were page transitions, and darned few of those, too.

I have been able to make PP look really good in FCP/video, but it requires considerable work using Photoshop and Acrobat. Try outputting the slides in PP to jpg and you'll see why there has to be another way. But when I see the animations in a presentation, I know they're just not going to make it into any video that I make.

And, there is not a PowerPoint presenter alive who understands what "title safe" means. Just good composition is often beyond them.

Keynote does have considerably better output, but is also not without its flaws. Those mostly being concerned with the user.

On a parting note, one of the things I love is when presenters who overbuild their presentations decide to skip a slide in mid-presentation - you know, the shows that have every line or bullet animated to come in on a keystroke. They usally have too many bullets on the page anyway, and then they just have to stand there and keep hitting the spacebar until all the text and the page changes. And they always have something dumb to say as cover for them while doing this. This from otherwise extremely intelligent people.

It's simply poor presentation skills, but yes, it's become accepted.



HarryD