Using the Presto Wizard for Mac

This section shows Step 4 of 5 for creating a Presto project with your presentation slides and videos from either FCP or Premiere Pro. Go to Step 5.

 

Step 4: Edit

Presto's Edit tab makes it easy for you to show the presenter and slides at the same time. You can choose to have the slides "flat" or in a perspective view ("slant"). Layouts such as "Left, slant" use a cropped close up of the presenter on the left of the slides, with an optional spotlight effect. Layouts such as "Left, pan, slant" show the full height of the presenter video, panning as needed to track the presenter, with the slide in front, and a soft edge to fade out the presenter video. In all two-up layouts, the presenter video uses one third of the width, and the presenter is automatically tracked to keep them in view. You can also show the presenter or slides on their own. 

Presto Layout editing tab

Presto provides a variety of layout choices.

 

 

Changing the layout

You can easily change the layout at different times throughout the presentation. The series of layout choices on the timeline is called the layout sequence. The icons above the ruler show the layout sequence, and the green bar below each icon shows the extent of the timeline that the layout applies to.

Layout sequence

Icons above the timeline's ruler show the layout sequence; a selected layout is highlighted

 

Presto creates a default layout automatically for you at the end of processing. You can re-apply the default layout by right clicking in the timeline and choosing Apply Default Layout.

Click on a layout icon above the ruler, or its green bar, to select it. Modify the selection by choosing a different layout from the layout tab. To delete the selected layout press the Delete button on the layout tab.  The layout will change to use the layout to the left of the deleted layout, or to the right if you delete the first layout.

To change to a different layout at some point on the timeline, place the playhead where you want the layout to change, select the desired layout from the choices in the layout tab, and press the Insert button.  You can also double-click the desired layout to insert it. The new layout will take effect from that point forward until the next transition point, or the end of the presentation if there are no further transition points defined.

The inverted triangle between each layout is a called a transition marker.  Drag a transition marker to adjust the layout transition point. Right click on a layout transition marker to select whether the transition is a cut or is animated. By default, Presto animates layout transitions. The time taken for the animated transition is set in the Project Options, with a default of one second. The animated transition is timed to finish at the transition point.  If you select cut, the layout will change immediately at the transition point. 

NOTE: Any clip on a tracks labelled as Other (such as b-roll video) will be rendered over top of the tracks below, irrespective of the layout selection in effect during that clip, just as it would be in Final Cut Pro.

 

 

Layout Options tab

When a layout is selected, the triangular Show Layout Options button will appear. Clicking this button reveals additional options relevant to the selected layout, as illustrated below. Clicking the button again hides the options.

To make changes to a layout's options, you should first place the playhead somewhere within the time period that the layout applies to so you can see the effect of the changes you make. Then click on the layout icon (or its green bar) to select the layout for editing.

 

Layout advanced options

The layout options control track selection and the presenter's position & size.

 

The Tracks To Use box in the layout options controls which track(s) the selected layout is using. If there is only one track of the appropriate role for Presto to use, the track menu will be greyed out.

For a slides-only layout, or any two-up layout (presenter + slides), Presto uses the Slides track by default. However you can choose the Screen track if you need to show the screen video for the selected layout.

If you have more than one Presenter track, Presto will use the lowest numbered track by default in presenter-only and two-up layouts. You can change this for the selected layout by choosing a different Presenter track from the Presenter tracks pop-up menu.

For any cropped two-up layout, you can adjust the presenter's size and position, and the height of the presenter region.

 

 

Project Options tab

The Layout Transition Time slider determines how long animated transitions between layouts will take. The default is one second.

The Spotlight mask on presenter checkbox determines if a spotlight mask (called a travel matte in Final Cut Pro), with feathered edge, will be applied around the presenter. Presto generates the mask clip items as needed on the Mask track, and saves these mask images in a folder named "Presto" in the same folder as the FCP project that you started your presentation with.

The Rounded corners checkbox enables or disables a rounded corner effect on the slides.

The Export a chapter marker at the start of each slide checkbox determines if Presto will automatically generate chapter markers in the Final Cut Pro project.  These markers are handy for quickly navigating your FCP project and for any rendered output that supports chapter markers.

Under the Movie Export options group you can set various options for rendering the project:

Edit project options

The Project Options tab controls settings that apply to the whole presentation.