Getting Started with Presto in Final Cut Pro
Presto uses your videos of the presenter and projection screen, along
with the original presentation slides, to automatically create an engaging presentation video that combines crisp slide images with a closely tracked inset of your presenter. For a quick introduction to Presto, watch our 4 minute video, Using Presto with Final Cut Pro, on our website.

Overview of workflow
This section provides a quick overview of Presto for the Final Cut Pro workflow.
Download the sample Mac project to
experiment with Presto right away.
- Record a video of your presenter with one camera and a video of the
projection screen with a second camera, preferably with presenter audio on
both cameras, so you can use our PluralEyes software to synchronize them. See How to Record an Event.
- Convert your PowerPoint or Keynote presentation into image files.
See How to Convert a PPT or Keynote
File.
- Start your project in Final Cut Pro.
Place your screen video on the
lowest video track, and your presenter video on the second track. Make sure they are in sync. You can sync the clips quickly and
accurately with PluralEyes.
Trim off any unwanted video.
- Start the Presto application. Select your Final Cut project and sequence
from the pop-up menus, and press the Get
Sequence button. The Presto wizard will then lead you through the steps of adding your slide images, applying
Presto's automatic processing, and
fine-tuning the appearance of the presentation.
- Using
the Send to FCP button on the Edit tab, send your Presto project back to Final Cut, for any
final editing and for rendering.
Opening an existing Presto project
The right hand side of the start window lists recently used
Presto project files. Presto project files have a ".presto" file extension.
Setting up your project in Final Cut Pro
This page explains how to set up a Final Cut Pro project that will
work well with Presto. We assume that you are already familiar with using Final Cut Pro. The figure below shows how our sample Final Cut Pro project is set
up.

Follow these steps to set up your Final Cut Pro project for use with
Presto.
- Create a new Premiere Pro project, and import or transfer in the screen video and
presenter video, as well as any additional media you may have for the project such
as independent audio or b-roll video. You do not need to add the slide
images to the project yet; you will do that in Presto.
- Arrange the tracks as follows:
- Place the presenter video on the first video track (Video 1).
- Place the screen
video on the second video track (Video 2).
- Place any b-roll video on higher tracks. (NOTE: if any b-roll clips do not have audio, add them after synchronizing.)
- If you have any independent audio, you can place that on any audio
track that suits you.
- Advanced tip — Track order: if for some reason you would prefer
to have the tracks in some other order, that's no problem. Just remember
that after you bring the sequence into Presto you will need to adjust the track
settings from their defaults on Presto's first wizard tab (Assign
Roles), so that Presto knows which tracks contain the screen and
presenter videos.
- Advanced tip — Multiple presenter cameras: Presto
supports projects with more than one camera angle on the presenter. Place each camera angle on a separate track below the screen track. After you bring the sequence into Presto you will need to adjust the
role settings from their defaults on Presto's first wizard tab (Assign
Roles), so that Presto knows which tracks contain the additional
presenter video camera angles.
- Advanced tip — Applying effects prior to Presto: Presto does not import effects from Final Cut Pro. If there are any effects that you need to apply before importing to Presto (such as color correction or noise reduction), you must render the effected items with the effects applied prior to using them in a sequence bound for Presto.
- Make sure the clips are synchronized. You can sync the
clips quickly and accurately using our PluralEyes software.
- Trim off any video (typically from the start and end) that you don't want
included. Presto supports some limited clip editing, but the best time to
do this editing is prior to exporting the project to Presto.
- Advanced tip — Multiple presenters: If there are parts of the
presentation where there is more than one person visible in the video
for more than a few seconds (such as during a panel discussion), split
the clips so that these parts of the video with more than one person are separate
clips. Then within the Presto app, you will be able to tell Presto
to ignore these clips during its automatic presenter tracking.
Presto does not support tracking multiple presenters in the same shot.
- Be sure to save your Final Cut Pro project.
- Now you are ready to work with Presto. Start the Presto application. Select your Final Cut Pro project and sequence
from the drop down menus, and press the Get
Sequence button to open a new Presto project window containing your
sequence.
- Check that the correct sequence is selected from the sequence pop-up menu on the first Wizard tab. The Presto wizard will then lead you through the steps of adding your slide images, applying
Presto's automatic processing, and
fine-tuning the appearance of the presentation.
Setting the In and Out points
You can control the part of the Final Cut Pro project that gets rendered by marking the In and Out points.
- To set the In point, place the playhead at the in point, and use Edit > Mark In or keyboard shortcut I.
- To set the Out point, place the playhead at the out point, and use Edit > Mark Out or keyboard shortcut O.
- To clear the in and out points, use Edit > Clear In and Out or keyboard shortcut Option-X.
- You can move the playhead directly to the in point using View > Go To In Point or keyboard shortcut Shift-I.
- You can move the playhead directly to the out point using View > Go To Out Point or keyboard shortcut Shift-O.
The area outside the In-Out region is colored dark grey on the timeline ruler. Only the light grey region will be rendered.