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1. 4 81 Rehearsing and Recording Your Show 83 Rehearsing Your Show 84 Recording Your Show 4 85 Reviewing Your Show 86 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Table of Contents Publishing Your Show 87 About Visual Communicator Files 88 Show Project Files 88 Output Files 22 e eee 88 Publishing Your Show in a Variety of Formats 89 Publishing to DV Tape lt lt 555 555 255 91 Publishing to Web Pages 93 About Web Links 3 255 2 eee 93 About Chapter Markers 93 Publishing your show to a web page 93 Advanced Web Publishing Options 95 Adding Web Links to Your Page 97 Creating a Web Link to a PowerPoint slide 98 Adding Chapter Markers to Your Page 99 Advanced Web Scripting Options 100 Automatically Adding and Removing Web Links 100 Publishing VC Web Pages to a Web Server 100 Broadcasting Shows toa Large Screen 101 Setting Up a Second Monitor or Projector 102 Playing Media Before Your Show 103 Playing Media Aft
2. 60 Adding Visual Communicator Media Files To Your Show 61 About VC Media Files lt 252 855 2255 61 Dragging Media Files Into Your Show 61 Adding Audio from the VC Library 63 Adding Actions and Effects 64 Transition Effects 64 Customizing Effects with Advanced Effect Controls 64 Creating and Adding Your Own Media 67 Creating Your Own Graphics Files 67 Creating and Adding Your Own Video 68 Adding Live Video From More Than One Camera 69 Capturing Video From Other Recordings 70 Adding Your Own Audio 72 Adding PowerPoint files to Your Show 72 Using V Screen 22 2 75 Using V Screen to Create a Background 76 How V Screen Works lt 2 5 56 5556 ee ee 76 Hanging your Serious Magic V Screen 76 Ordering a Serious Magic V Screen or Making Your Own 76 Setting Your Camera Properties for V Screen 78 Adding a V Screen background 79 Fine Tuning Your V Screen Results 79 Adding an Animated Background 80 Changing BackgroundsWithin Your Show 81 Setting Up More Than One Camera for V Screen 81 Using Virtual Sets
3. Final Position Spin Final Position Changes where the A source spin out ends in a Spin Out effect Double click the Spin Out Pro effect in an Action Tray On the Actions tab click the Advanced button Click Final Position Change the x y and z axis numbers to adjust where the final position of the spin out source will be You can also drag the cursor around in the Final Position box to move the effect around manu ally Spin Initial Position Changes where a spin starts on the Screen Double click the Spin In Pro effect in an Action Tray On the Actions tab click the Advanced button Click Initial Position Change the x y and z axis numbers to adjust where the spin begins You can also drag the cursor around the Ini tial Position box and move the effect around manu ally Spin Count Changes the number of Spins for the A source Double click the Spin Out Pro effect in an Action Tray On the Actions tab click the Advanced button Click Spin Count Use the slider to set spins between 5 0 to 5 0 If you select a negative number it will spin out counterclockwise and if it is positive it will spin clockwise Radius Changes the radius of the circle path in a Swap Around effect Double click a Swap Around effect in an Action Tray On the Actions tab click the Advanced button Click Radius Drag the radius Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Action Trays and Media slider between 0 33 and 0 67 T
4. Financial A fresh corporate look perfect for today s business needs e Generation X The edgy urban look of music tele vision e Industrial A metallic and mechanical look for the new industrial revolution e Kid Power Getting in touch with the inner child in all of us e Nature A theme reflecting the beauty of nature Creating a Show Based on Topic If you create a show based on topic you select a topic such as Business Financial News Personal Birthday Wishes or School Club News VC opens a new project pre loaded with title graphics images and a format appropriate for the selected topic Using the Instant Hollywood Video Templates Instant Hollywood is a unique feature of Visual Communicator that allows you to star in a TV show that includes a professional television host Visual Communicator seamlessly cuts between you on live camera and video clips of the host putting you right into the show In the Media area click the Videos 42 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide tab and select one of the Template folders listed below Double click each file to preview the clips e I Forgot Whether you forgot your mother s birthday or your own anniversary this humorous video is sure to get them to forgive you Superstar Insider Send this witty show to your friends and family to let them know about your secret life as a world famous celebrity Comedy Club Showcase A great way to unleash the stand u
5. in the shadows created by the key light so they aren t completely dark Fill lights are usually located at about the subject s 10 o clock position Back Light This is the light responsible for creat ing some visible separation between the subject Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Setting up Your Studio and the background It does this by illuminating the edges of the subject The back light is actually placed behind and to the side of the subject but out of the view of the camera It has the effect of highlighting the edges of your subject These are the basics of what is called three point lighting Every time you see someone being inter viewed in a TV studio some variation of this light ing technique is being used You don t have to do three point lighting to get good looking images from your camera but it can really help in problem lighting situations You don t even need to have a bunch of professional lights to do good lighting You can make great three point lighting out of an ordinary floor lamp a desk lamp and a piece of white poster board The poster board can be used to bounce light and can replace the need for a separate fill light Try experimenting while you watch the results on your monitor 39 40 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Chapter 5 Experiment With Abandon e Using The Wizard e Creating a One Click Video e Using the Instant Hollywood Video Tem
6. Delete an Action by right clicking the tray handle and select Delete Action The entire tray will be removed Cut an Action to be pasted later by right clicking the tray handle and select Cut Action The entire tray will be cut Copy an Action by right clicking the tray handle and select Copy Action Paste an Action by right clicking in the Action area and selecting Paste Action The right side of the Action Tray holds the video audio or graphic file that goes with the Action When you see a Camera icon here it means that this Action will contain live video from your cur rently selected Video Input Device You can replace the Media in the tray by dragging a new Media File onto the Action Tray For more information about Actions and Media To learn more see Adding Visual Communicator Media Files To Your Show on page 61 e Preview Media by double clicking it e Add Media to a tray by dragging a Media icon from the library into the right side of the tray e Replace Media by dragging and dropping another Media icon over the top of the first one e Delete Media by right clicking the tray handle and select Clear Content Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 11 Visual Communicator Feature and Control Overview The Media Area The Media Area contains all of the content that you add to your show Think of it as a Media library catego rized by format style project or topic You can also use it to browse to any the files on y
7. Ej Desktop E My Documents O Adobe 3 My eBooks ee My Music A My Pictures 9 My Received Files O SnagIt Catalog E Visual Communicator E 3 My Output O My Captured Clips 9 My Published Shows Publishing Your Show in a Variety of Formats Publishing your show enables you to share it with the world in the format that you choose Publish shows to files that can be burned to a CD or sent in an email Save a show file to a server where viewers can download it from the web If you have Studio you can publish your shows to web pages or stream your shows over the internet Visual Communicator gives you options for saving all of these types of shows in a variety of file formats and compression ratios to suit your viewers requirements ees hr n _ lt pa rs ar ae 1 Click the Publish button underneath the Out put Monitor window Publishing Your Show The following windows give you options for saving your show in formats suitable for dif ferent kinds of distribution e Save video to a hard drive or network Saves your show to an output file on your hard disk or LAN e Send video in an email Saves your video to a file which is then attached to an email Once the file is created an email window is displayed for you to complete and send e Publish video to a server on the Internet Takes you to a screen where you can login to your server account to post your movie file e Create a web page with
8. lewton a 17th ientist summed 2 Drag the Pause Teleprompter icon into the Action Area between Actions to create a tem porary Pause during recording 3 Use the extra time to ad lib and then click the Resume button on the Director tab to move to the next action or simply press the Space Bar Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Using the Teleprompter and Scripts 55 56 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Chapter 8 Action Trays and Media e Using Action Trays in the Action Area e About Media Files e Adding Visual Communicator Media Files To Your Show e Adding Actions and Effects e Creating and Adding Your Own Media e Adding PowerPoint files to Your Show This chapter means to enlighten you about the nature of Media files and how to use them in your show You ll also learn how to manipulate Action Trays to get your timing just right The Action Tray is the container for all the dif ferent types of media you can add to your show including music photos live video animated effects titles and more If Action Trays and Media were a multi media snack the Action Trays are the crispy outer shell and the Media Files are the creamy center We ll also show you how to customize the effects we provide to make them your own In addition to the extraordinary number of media files that you get with VC you can also create your own and we ll guide your through the steps to do that as well Se
9. 1024 x 768 position the Visual Communicator window at the top center of your computer screen right below the camera or select Jump to Top of Screen in the Application Settings This way you will be looking in the same direc tion as the camera Connecting your camera to your computer Connect your camera to your computer using the USB analog or Firewire cable that came with it Then turn the camera on Testing your camera outside of VC Once your camera is connected and positioned we suggest that you test it out using the viewing soft ware that came with your web cam or capture card When the camera is working with the software that it came with exit that software and launch Visual Communicator Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Setting up Your Studio Setting up your camera in VC Camera Logitech QuickCam Express Inogt Source coxa p so im Properties Advanced To configure your camera 1 Click the Setup tab and then click the Video button 2 Inthe Video Input Device drop down list select the camera you want to use If your device is a web cam and it is installed properly with a DirectShow WDM software driver you will see its name appear here If you are using a video capture card you may see an additional box that allows you to select which input source on the card you wish to use Clicking the Properties button displays your device s own properties panel that
10. Of course if you re using V Screen you ll also want to avoid the color you ve chosen for your backdrop 50 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Chapter 7 Using the Teleprompter and Scripts e The Teleprompter e Entering Your Script e Rehearsing Your Script e Adjusting the Scroll Speed of the Script e Using the Teleprompter in Full Screen Mode e Pausing the Teleprompter The power of the teleprompter and the right spin doctor has effected our world in ways we may never fully know Well now you too can have that kind of power The well scripted word can be extremely compelling A carefully crafted script gives focus to the message you are trying to convey and Visual Communicator makes it easy to deliver Here we ll show you how to load your script into VC and rehearse it We ll also show you how to finesse the pacing of your script and if you are lucky enough to have Studio display the Teleprompter in full screen mode Spin Doctor not included Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 51 The Teleprompter ty A The Teleprompter is the large area in the top center of the Visual Communicator window where your script is displayed You can import a script or out line from a word processor or type the script directly into the Teleprompter window As you rehearse and record your show the words of the script scroll upwards allowing you to read from the screen as the show progresses
11. Reading your script from the teleprompter really helps you focus on your speaking part lets you speak with greater confidence and keeps you from uttering the dreaded uh that seems to spring from our lips when we are not quite sure what words to use If you ve followed the steps we ve handily provided in Finding your optimal camera position on page 32 you have placed your video camera just over the Teleprompter window After a little bit of practice and rehearsal it will appear that you or the person in your show is looking in the direction of the camera while they are actually reading the words on the screen You don t have to use the Teleprompter to use Visual Communicator You can create presentations slide shows and other communications accompa nied only by music or sound effects 52 Entering Your Script If you can put some time into developing a good script A good script is one that has a clear message is interesting to your audience and is easy for you to read as it scrolls Read Writing Your Script on page 51 for more writing tips 1 Open Visual Communicator and load a show If you don t already have a show one of the demo shows will work just fine 2 Position your cursor at the point where you would like the script to begin This may be at the beginning of the show or in sequence with a particular event within an action tray in the action area Click the mouse in the Tele prom
12. Video Windows Media Video 9 Audio Windows Media Audio 9 I Enable Live Streaming Bee Loads If you find that the profile you loaded is not the right one you can return to this window and click the Load button to try another one Streaming Shows Containing Web Links If you have incorporated Web Links into your show and would like them to trigger while streaming If you are using Windows Media format load a profile that has Web Links Enabled If you are using a Real Networks profile be sure to click the Trigger Links checkbox at the bottom of the summary of Current Settings window 108 5 Click the Configure button e If you selected a Windows Media smp file you will see the VC Studio Windows Media Live Streaming window Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Live Streaming e If you selected a Real Player smp file and have Helix Producer installed you will see the Helix Producer Profile window In the Real Producer Server Destination window select the Remember Password checkbox Account based Push Mode 109 Live Streaming 6 Choose to configure VC Studio for either Push or Pull streaming e Set up Push Streaming e Set up Pull Streaming as shown in Figure A as shown in Figure B Figure A Figure B 3 1 Click the Enable Pull Streaming checkbox 2 Enter the Port Number and click OK videostreem com Click the Enable Push Streaming checkbox 2 Enter the Server
13. explained above Then after your show ends dou ble click a graphic file and or a music file in the Media Area play or display them 103 Broadcasting Live Video from a DV Camera lt p If your show includes live video from a DV camera you can change the resolution used to display it in the Output Monitor window If you don t change it the default setting plays your video at half res or half of the resolution that your camera is providing If you are using the VC Studio Fullscreen Output feature and the video quality is not high enough for the target resolution of your Full Screen Output device you can choose to use full DV resolution To change the setting from half resolution to full reso lution 1 In the Menu bar click Settings then select Per formance Settings 2 Drag the Your computer is slider to the Cus tom setting 3 Click and de select the Use Half Resolution in Preview Window for DV Cameras check box When you have finished using the Fullscreen Out put feature we suggest changing the Resolution back to Half Resolution Leaving the Output Moni tor in Full DV Resolution mode will burden your PC s processing power 104 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Chapter 12 Live Streaming e Streaming Basics What You ll Need to Stream Live Media Setting Up Streaming for the First Time e Testing Your Stream e Show Time Visual Communicator Studio introduces the ability to
14. gt Back Fwd Up Home E i My First_ Show wms Show Bown Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Publishing Your Show To locate your output files in Studio click the Out put tab in the Media area Publishing to DV Tape PRO Visual Communicator Pro and Studio allow you to publish your finished shows to digital video tape using full broadcast resolution If you plan to present your show on a television this method of publishing produces the best image To take advantage of the Print to Tape feature you will need to have a Firewire IEEE 1394 card in your computer and a DV Camera When you publish a video using the Print to Tape feature the video you are publishing is compressed to a DV file and then recorded directly to the DV tape in your camcorder VC also saves a copy of the show to your hard drive in the My Published Shows folder For best results and to take advantage of the full 720 x 480 resolution recording use your DV cam corder or other DV source to record your video in Visual Communicator If the camcorder you want to tape the show to output is also your video input device switch it into VCR mode before publishing 1 Load the project you would like to publish to tape 2 Record the show if needed and then click the Publish button 3 Select the option to Print video to DV Tape 4 Switch the camera into VCR mode and then click the Next button 91 5 92
15. is about a minute long Watch a network television newscast and pay attention to the way the news caster conveys the information everything they say is scripted clear and to the point You ll also notice that the news shows try to avoid being stuck on a talking head for too long They insert graphics video effects and over the shoulder visual elements Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Planning Shows and Script Writing to illustrate what s being said and keep things inter esting Leverage the Power of the Medium Hollywood writers know that a great book can t usually be translated directly into a great movie This is because they are dramatically different medi ums with very different strengths Books and other printed text are ideal for communicating a great amount of detailed information Video can convey information but it also excels at effectively convey ing feelings and the innate sense of something Resist the temptation to cut and paste the text of your entire employee manual into the Teleprompter to make an employee orientation video You would be wasting the most powerful aspects of the new medium now at your disposal as well as possibly boring your audience into a deep coma Video can have much more intellectual and emotional impact than text but to gain this impact you must distill your message into its most essential points If you don t keep your audience interested they will tune
16. it The descriptions above are generalized as audio mixer panel controls vary from card to card If the controls in your audio mixer panel appear different than those described refer to your sound card s manual for detailed instruc tions My microphone vol Try the solution above to reconfigure your sound card ume is too low even at the maximum input volume setting 124 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Frequently Asked Questions Problems with Video Things to Try and Possible Solutions The video in my If you have a slower PC or an older graphics card you may see the video in Output Monitor the Output Monitor window become jerky during rehearsing or recording with window is very jerky V Screen active In this case The show does not 1 In the Menu Bar click Settings play smoothly 2 Select Performance Settings 3 Drag the Your computer is slider to the Custom setting 4 Click and mark the checkbox for Don t Show V Screen During Rehearse Record If you still see the problem deselect Smooth Teleprompter Scrolling in Performance Settings and verify that Freeze Ani mated Backgrounds is selected This change should not affect your published show The Teleprompter See the solution above does not scroll smoothly My Output Monitor Click the Setup tab and check to see that your video source is visible just and selected under the Video Input Device drop down list displays a black
17. jpg Coliseum jpg 4 Click the Graphics tab to view the images 5 Double click the folder called V Screen Extras to see a collection of background images Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Using V Screen 6 Double click some images to preview them in the Output Monitor window 7 Click and drag the image you ve selected on top of the current image on the V Screen tab to replace it Your camera shot with the digital V Screen background should be visible in the Output Monitor window Fine Tuning Your V Screen Results 8 Re position yourself in front of the camera 9 On the V Screen tab click the Advanced but ton 10 Drag the Transparency slider left or right until no parts of your foreground subject are trans parent You may see what looks like static or sparkles in the background this is noise 11 Drag the Level slider to the left or right until all noise is removed 12 When we set up the camera you may recall that we adjusted the Saturation up Now we ll make 79 adjustments to Saturation with the Color slider to return the foreground color to the right lev els Drag the Color slider left or right until the foreground colors look correct in the Output Monitor window Adjusting RGB Levels The Red Green and Blue sliders do not usually need to be adjusted but in some situations they can be helpful Blue is typically the first adjustment to make Blue can have the effect
18. of MSH This MSH file contains everything in your show including your video and audio actions settings as well as your Teleprompter script MSH project files contain the raw ingredients and instructions to make your final show Where Your Project Files Are Saved e If you are using VC Web or Pro your project files are saved to this directory C Program Files Serious Magic Visual Com municator Projects e If you have VC Studio your project files are saved to the My Projects folder under the My Documents folder E 3 My Documents Adobe 3 My eBooks fea My Music A My Pictures O My Received Files e My videos E 3 Visual Communicator E i My Output 9 My Published Shows a ae phy Projects Demos Output Files The end result of these raw movie ingredients and all of your fine movie crafting is something as glam orous sounding as an output file These output files are saved in different formats and here are some equally glamorous definitions WMV Windows Media Video WMV is the for mat that your published movie files are saved in It is a Microsoft file format designed for digital video playback over the Internet or on a standalone com puter This compressed file format can result in some loss of image quality but yields a dramatic reduction in file size and thus download time Any computer with a recent version of Microsoft s freely available Windows Media Player can view WMV videos
19. tions in a bar effect Double click the Blinds Vertical Rotate effect in an Action Tray On the Actions tab click the Advanced button Click Rotation Count and drag the slider between 3 and 3 If you select a negative number the bars will spin counterclock wise if it is positive they will spin clockwise Bar Delay Changes the amount of time inserted between bars in a Blinds Open effect Double click a Blinds Open effect in an Action Tray On the Actions tab click the Advanced button Click Bar Delay Drag the slider between 1 00 and 1 00 to select the amount of delay before each bar begins 66 Name Content Path Content Path Changes the background of an effect Double click a Double Box effect in an Action Tray On the Actions tab click the Advanced button Click Content Path Click the Browse button and search for the background image or video file you would like to use Zoom Changes the amount of zoom in a zoom effect Double click a Zoom effect in an Action Tray On the Actions tab click the Advanced button Click Zoom Drag the Zoom slider from 0 0 to 20 0 The higher the number the closer the first image is zoomed Zoom functionality is not available with all video cards Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Video Effect Spin Out Pro mx The picture spins aut to the center ta Name Description aue e Where the spin out ends reveal new video Spin Count Number of spins
20. type of audio or video input used complexity of shows configuration of out put settings video card type device drivers used and other tasks running on the PC For best performance manage these factors and set your streaming profile for live streaming to use Windows Media 9 or Real Choose a Media Format Before you begin decide what type of media player you would like your show to play in Both Microsoft Windows Media Player and RealPlayer are available as free downloads from the web If you plan to use Windows Media format e Set up an account with a streaming service pro vider that supports Windows Media format Obtain server information from your provider and configure VC Studio with those settings or e To run your own streaming server you will need a separate computer running Windows Media Services which is a component of Windows 2000 and 2003 Server operating systems See Microsoft Windows Media Services on the web for more information If you plan to use Real Media format e Set up an account with a streaming service pro vider that supports Real Media format Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Live Streaming e Obtain your account and server information and configure VC Studio with it or e To run your own Real server running Real Net works Helix Universal Server software configure VC Studio with your server information This software is supported for many different operat ing systems includ
21. 4 Publish your web page making sure to click the Trigger Links checkbox for as shown on page 95 Creating a Web Link to an Image File 1 Inthe Type drop down list select URL 2 Inthe Address field you can type the URL of the image file that you d like to display or you can quickly copy and paste the URL 3 Open your browser and surf to the image file For example http www seriousmagic com images logo gif Right click the URL in the browser address field and select Copy from the pop up menu 5 Return to Visual Communicator Studio 6 Right click in the Address field and select Paste from the pop up menu 7 Now just complete the process from step 2 in Creating a Web Link to a Web Site on page 98 tips amp shortcuts The images or web pages that you create Web Links for must already be published to a live web server in order for web links to work Creating a Web Link to a PowerPoint slide Resizing your PowerPoint slides In PowerPoint once you have finished creating your slide presentation you ll need to save it to a custom sized image file which will fit within your VC Studio web page If your audience will have a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 we suggest saving 98 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide your slides to 8 8 x 6 6 inch jpg images PowerPoint allows you to do this in just a couple of quick steps oS OF ae a Page Setup Slides sized For Orientation E custom
22. 43 Build your show in segments Every story no matter how simple has a beginning a middle and an end Begin with the end in mind Determine the final for mat of your show Will your show be saved in a file and posted to a web server Burned onto a CD If you have Studio you have the additional option of publishing your show on a web page or streaming it from a server See Chapter 11 Publishing Your Show on page 87 to learn about your publishing options 2 All great things start with a list List the scenes in order of appearance and what media or input you ll use for each This will be your shopping list or list of ingredients for making a great effective show For example if you are doing a sales show 1 Script Opening music Opening Title Slate and image Live video of the person announcing product Product photo Existing video of someone using the product PowerPoint slide listing benefits of product Closing comments from salesperson Closing image photo Se et oe eS 0 Closing music 3 Collect your ingredients Go out and create or collect any of the ingredients that don t come with Visual Communicator such as PowerPoint slides person s to act in the video photos of product etc If you re ready to create and add your own photos backgrounds video etc see Creating and Adding Your Own Media on page 67 4 Fire Up Visual Communicator and Build Your Show Enter your script into the Tel
23. AVI Audio Video Interleaved This is an uncom pressed file format for digital video and audio play back Uncompressed files like captured clips are saved in this format Any computer with Microsoft s freely available Windows Media Player can view AVI videos AVI is the best format for exporting your videos from Visual Communicator for use in PC editing software or Video CD creation software AVI files can grow to be very large how ever they offer the highest image quality In general AVI files should not be emailed because of their size DV Digital Video Visual Communicator publishes your video to a DV type 1 type 1 format stores data as a single AVI stream file then records it to the DV device con nected to your PC Visual Communicator Pro and Studio only RM RealVideo The file format developed by Real Networks that is used to stream video over the Internet Where Your Show Files Are Saved e If you are using VC Web or Pro your published shows are saved to this directory C Program Files Serious Magic Visual Com municator Content Videos My Published Videos If you have any captured clips they are saved here C Program Files Serious Magic Visual Com municator Content Videos My Captured Clips e If you have VC Studio your output files are saved to the My Captured Clips and My Pub 88 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide lished Shows folders underneath the My Docu ments Folder
24. BEREE width t Portrait oo Inches Landscape Height Motes handouts amp outline 6 6 Inch MES mS ie Portrait Number slides From e A 1 0 Landscape a ha sil In PowerPoint click File in the Menu Bar and select Page Setup In the Slides Sized for drop down list select Custom In the Width field enter 8 8 In the Height field enter 6 6 and click OK Now click the File and select Save As In the Save As Type drop down list select JPEG and click the Save button When you are prompted choose to export Every Slide in the presentation and click OK Now publish the slide jpg files to your web server Creating a Web Link to Your PowerPoint Slide jpeg 1 In VC Studio click a Web Link icon in an Action Tray and the Web Link properties are displayed on the Actions tab In the Type drop down list select URL In the Address field enter the URL of the slide jpg that you created in PowerPoint You can quickly copy and paste the URL from your web browser Open your browser and load the jpg file In the browser Address field highlight the jpg URL and click the right mouse button Select Copy Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Publishing Your Show 6 In VC Studio right click in the Address field and select Paste Adding Chapter Markers to Your Page Adding Chapter Markers to your Web page allows you to add scene or action selection menus to your web page click
25. Communicator we recommend that you NOT update them because sometimes new drivers can cause things to actually work less well To get the latest drivers for your desktop devices visit the web site of the device manufacturer If you need a new driver for your laptop computer go to the web site of your laptop manufacturer For a list of common hardware devices and driver version numbers that we have tested visit the Serious Magic Technical Support web pages at www seriousmagic com If your device meets the minimum require ments it will probably work with Visual Communicator If you are having problems see Visual Communica tor Help for the most up to date information 120 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Frequently Asked Questions Problems with Audio Things to Try and Possible Solutions There is no audio Make sure your microphone is plugged into the mic jack Your computer being recorded on my may have a mic jack that is colored pink or labelled microphone shows Ensure that your audio is set up in Visual Communicator Click the Setup Tab then click the Audio button Check to make sure that the sound card and microphone input is selected and the Mute checkbox is not selected Make sure that your sound card is working in other programs Try using the mic with Sound Recorder From Windows click Start gt Programs gt Accessories gt Enter tainment gt Sound Recorder In the Sound Recorder Window click the Record but
26. Help system and web site will typically have newer information than this book Online Help You can access the Help system by clicking Help in the Menu Bar or pressing the F1 key on your keyboard Some Visual Communicator windows also contain a Help button which takes you to specific help about the feature that you are using The Help system is fully indexed and searchable Technical Support Web Pages Visit our web site and go to the Support section From the support pages you ll be able to review the latest Troubleshooting Tips updates and send an email to Technical Support If you have registered your product you ll also be able to visit our friendly User Forums All types of users from novices to experts are known to dwell there handing out tips and advice Chances are if you are have a question about VC it most likely has been answered there at some time or another Kindly Human Assistance If you d like to speak to a support representative in person go to the Contact page of our web site for hours of operation and phone numbers to call Updating Your Hardware Drivers The hardware devices attached to your computer such as your mouse web cam and sound card all require files called software drivers that allow them to work with Microsoft Windows Most hardware device manufacturers release new software drivers periodically that can increase performance or fix compatibility issues If your devices are working just swell with Visual
27. Media Files This is a reference to the files used in your show Video audio or graphic files Media Folders In the file structure media files can be stored in folders One Click Video This feature automatically launches Visual Communicator with a pre defined show and starts recording all with one click from the desktop Ideal for quick video emails and notes this feature makes Visual Communicator one of the fastest video creation tools ever Opening Slate The graphic images seen at the beginning of a show Show title date and company or production information can appear in the open ing slate Openin E Sate 133 Output Monitor Window The Output Monitor window displays the video from your camera and show graphics You will also see your show here when it is Reviewed Over the Shoulder This refers to the box of graph ics you sometimes see over the shoulder of a news caster This box has video or graphic images pertaining to the topic being discussed Pro Content This is the option you will want if you are planning on having your videos played ona Television Pro Project The term used for a show in Visual Com municator Projects are saved with the MSH file extension which is unique to Visual Communicator Projects contain the Teleprompter contents and Action Area contents They are not an actual video file suitable for viewing elsewhere which are cre ated by Publishing Publish O
28. Name and Publishing Point 3 Enter a Username and Password if required and click OK 7 Inthe Summary of Current Settings window click the Save As button 8 Enter your new smp file name and click the Save button Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 110 Live Streaming Sb tips amp shortcuts VC Studio remembers and reloads your last saved profile until you load a new profile Video Windows Media Video 9 Transfer Bit Rate 250Kbps Frame Rate 15fps Width x Height 320x240 CI m oe om a Audio Li 9 To choose when you would like streaming to begin click the Enable Live Streaming check box and then one of the radio buttons below e Stream Only During Record Use if you want your show to stream only after you click the VC Studio Record button e Stream Only During Record and Rehearse Use if you want your show to stream after you click either Rehearse or Record e Stream Always Use if you want your show to be available all of the time This is a good option to choose for testing your stream for the first time 10 Click the Apply button to connect to your streaming server and leave this window open 11 Check the Server status box at the bottom of this window to see whether you were con nected Clicking the OK button is the same as clicking the Apply button except that it closes this window after connecting Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide
29. Sets Using Virtual Set effects VC can automatically cre ate the illusion that you or your images are inside a virtual environment VC comes with a wide vari ety of virtual sets for you to use Some sets require that you have V Screen activated while other Virtual Sets will work fine with just the camera source 1 Start with a new show Right click in the Action Area and select Clear All This will remove all actions from the Action Area Be absolutely sure you want to delete all of the actions in the Action Area 2 Inthe Media area click the Video Effects tab and double click the Virtual Sets folder 3 Drag and drop the Wall_Vset mfx file to the top of the Action Area An Action Tray appears showing the virtual set By default the current camera input selected in the Video Input Device drop down is inserted into the wall 4 Tousea still graphic in the environment drag an image in the Graphics library or drop it onto the virtual set in the Action Tray What you just did was tell Visual Communica tor to now use this picture in the virtual set 5 Click the Rehearse button to view the result 81 2 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Chapter 10 Rehearsing and Recording Your Show e Rehearsing Your Show e Recording Your Show e Reviewing Your Show This part of creating your show in some ways is the easiest part Simply click a button to Rehearse Record or Review your show How ever it
30. Shortcuts Smart Position You ll want to make sure the action that follows a video clip is placed far enough below the clip to allow enough time for it to finish playing For example you don t want to cut away to the next action until the person in the video is finished talk ing Visual Communicator provides a simple way to automatically begin the next action at the end of the previous video clip Right click on the left handle of the Action Tray and select Smart Position Next Action from the pop up menu Tighter Action Timing If you have Visual Communicator Studio you can take advantage of the enhanced Action Area and Tray controls The Action Area Tick Mark Ruler pro vides you with a visual measure of time and the blue time tabs let you know the exact location of your tray Overlap and collapse Action Trays to achieve even closer timing For example if you go to the Director tab and set your Scroll Speed to 10 the time between actions can be as short as 1 3 of a sec ond The Tick Mark Ruler ee The Tick Mark Ruler 00 10 The ruler gives you a visual measure of time to place your action trays by Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Action Trays and Media The Time Tabs The Time Tab e Slide the cursor over any part of a tray to display the blue time tab Overlap Trays e Drags trays on top of each other Collapse Trays Action Trays can be made smaller to acc
31. according to the directions Never leave them on when unattended Three Point Lighting Basics Cinematographers refer to their craft as painting with light and that s a good way to think of light ing Here we give you a few quick pointers on how good lighting is done One important aspect of lighting is the absence of light shadows While shadows are generally considered bad you still need some shadows because they give an image its depth A person s nose should cast a shadow on their face or they will look pretty strange on camera The trick is to make sure that your shadows are good shadows and not bad shadows Bad shad ows are shadows that are too sharp or dark Good shadows have two characteristics they are soft edged and they are not completely dark A good way to get soft edged shadows is to diffuse light by bouncing it off of a wall Direct lighting can cause harsh shadows A good way to make partial shad ows that aren t completely dark is to use what s called a fill light Good lighting usually involves three primary lights The lights themselves can be of the same type What s important is which direction they are coming from Key Light This is the light responsible for most of the illumination It is also responsible for creating shadows If you are the subject the key light is usually located at about your 2 o clock position Fill Light This is the light responsible for filling
32. advice you can also open the dxdiag txt file copy the contents of the file and then paste them into your Forum message 126 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Error Messages The following is a list of messages you may see while using Visual Communicator We have included descriptions and possible solutions where appropriate to help you understand the reason for the message already exists Do you want to overwrite this file Indicates that the name you are attempting to assign to the current file already exists An Error occurred uploading the file When you Publish to Server you must be connected to the Internet This message indicates that there is most likely a problem with the Internet connection that caused the file upload to not start or be interrupted Are you sure you want to stop before your show has finished publishing Warns you that you are stop ping the publishing function before it is complete Cannot assign content containing transparency to this effect Please replace the effect with an effect that brings content on screen then try the content again Titles and other graphics E g lower thirds that have transparent areas alpha showing program video in the background cannot be brought on screen using effects such as page peels or other fly off effects because they move video off screen instead of on screen Try another effect with the graphic you wish to use Cannot assign this effect to an
33. already done so pot onea ms soen S Input audio 2 hd Audio Video Audio Input Device NVIDIA R nForce TM Audio hd 37 3 Click the Input drop down list and select Audio 2 4 Click the Audio Input Device list and select the make and model of the second audio source 5 To test the audio input speak into each mike and use the Input Volume meter to check your sound levels as described in Soundcheck on page 36 tips amp shortcuts Troubleshooting Audio problems What Trouble in paradise If you are experi encing problems with the quality of your sound your microphone recording or playing back sound we have lots of suggestions Please see Frequently Asked Questions Problems with Audio on page 121 Lighting Lighting is the single most important factor in mak ing the video from your camera look as good as pos sible In general video shot with a webcam needs a lot of light to look its best The best way to determine whether you have enough lighting is with your own eyes Look at the video of the camera subject on your monitor Is the subject s face evenly lit or does it have dark shad ows Is the subject over lit and washed out or under lit flat and gray Lighting location getting your good side Many rooms set up for computer use are laid out so that the computer is on a desk against a wall with the light coming from somewhere behind the per son s chair This is
34. and Antique C Create Instant Hollywood show C Open with blank video C Set up One Click Video The first time you start VC you are given the option of receiving guidance from the Wizard Like most good wizards this one has some serious magic It can automatically incorporate high quality graphical elements to suit your needs Each of these elements was created by experienced video design ers to instantly give your shows the million dollar look of real television To go straight into Visual Communicator without going through the Wizard click the close icon in the upper right corner of the Wizard window or click the option located in the Application Settings that skips the Wizard and goes directly to the main win dow every time you run the program The Wizard helps you create new shows based on predetermined graphics and other content You have five options e Style e Topic e Instant Hollywood e One Click Video e Blank Video Creating a Show Based on Style If you choose to create a show based on style you can choose from a large assortment of templates Here are some examples of styles e Antique A classic look that brings a sense of his tory to your video communications Celebration Birthdays anniversaries sales pro motions or any special occasion e Contemporary A clean modern look for profes sional and business communications Elegant A tasteful look to add a touch of class
35. between bars in a blinds effect this alters the delay from when one blind will transition to the next Pro Background A picture or graphic used behind a set or person often with V Screen Also used behind on screen text Blank Video Wizard option that takes you imme diately to the Visual Communicator main interface starting with a blank Teleprompter and Action Area ready for you to build a new show Gives you total control from start to finish Camera Frame Rate This is the rate at which a camera or other video device will display video frames The standard frame rate for video is 30 frames per second 15 frames per second is com monly used for Internet streaming video as it reduces the file size and download time by half Chroma Key V Screen Chroma Key is an effect in which a person or object is filmed or videotaped in front of a color background usually green or blue The green or blue background is removed digitally and replaced with a picture or any other type of scene available video or graphic Visual Communi cator s proprietary new technology that allows high quality chroma keying in office school and home environments is called V Screen Content Libraries The Content Libraries are where all of the media files effects and other show ele ments are stored navigated through and selected This is the lower right area of the Visual Communi cator main interface Content Path This is where you can
36. bit of structure to the process This helps you communicate the objective of the movie layout the process and divvy up the work If you ve never fancied yourself a writer and get writer s block just thinking about the task of writing a script reading this section may help you clear the block and hit the keyboard run ning We confess that people in the computer busi ness are not known for their fashion savvy and we ll be the last to hand out style tips But we do know what does and doesn t work on cam era Learn what not to wear on camera here Consider these suggestions use the ideas that make sense and feel free to toss the rest but please seriously consider getting rid of that hounds tooth jacket It s SO 80 s Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 47 Planning Shows and Script Writing Making an Outline of Your Show A show outline is like the blueprint or building plan for your movie It s a great way to communicate what your vision of the movie looks like and what the required ingredients are This is especially useful if there is more than one person working on the show For example in a classroom environment or when you are part of a creative team An outline is a great tool for communicating the vision and production plan and ensures everyone is informed of what s needed and on the same page Here is an example of an outline for one of the VC shows that can be found in your Demos folder within the P
37. com Settings puter s power Options include Your computer speed setting Freeze Animated Video Effects Backgrounds Increase Image Resolution with Mipmaps Smooth Teleprompter Scrolling Preview Monitor Display Frame Rate Show V Screen During Rehease Record Enable VSync Enable Software Vertex Processing Use half Resolution in Preview win dow for SV cameras Use Half Resolution Images During Rehearse Record 22 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Visual Communicator Feature and Control Overview een What it Does Camera Where you adjust camera properties Properties such as Brightness Hue Saturation Controls vary based on your camera Live Stream Where you set up your system for ing Settings Live Streaming Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 23 The Tools Menu Menu Audio Mixer F3 Option What it Does Launch 4dvanced Title Editor F10 Technical Takes you to the Technical Support Support page of the Serious Magic web site Web site Menu Option What it Does Frequently Takes you to the Frequently Asked Asked i i Questions page of the Serious Magic Audio Displays the standard Windows audio Questions web site Mixer mixer or volume control panel Use this panel to trouble shoot problems with Check for Allows you to check for program your audio Updates updates About VC Displays your system information and Advanced software Visual Communicator copyright
38. events in the Action Area will start to scroll upward 2 Look at the Teleprompter and read the words as they pass through the colored Action bar Avoid looking away from the bar E g at your self in the Output Monitor window as it can be distracting to your audience Adjusting the Scroll Speed of the Script If the words are scrolling too fast or too slow adjust the Teleprompter speed by dragging the Scroll Speed slider on the Director tab to the left to slow down the pace or to the right to speed it up If your script ends before the events in the show fin ish space your text out accordingly Add blank lines in between script lines to add time for video clips or long graphic sequences tips amp shortcuts To add blank lines press Enter on your keyboard just as you would with a word processing pro gram Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Using the Teleprompter and Scripts Adjusting Action Timing If you need to adjust the timing of the actions drag them upward in the Action Area to make them hap pen sooner or down to make them happen later You can synchronize the actions with the script by verti cally aligning the action with the words in the Tele prompter For tips on adjusting the placement of Action Trays see Using Action Trays in the Action Area on page 58 If Your Screen Resolution is Higher Than 1024 X 768 If you have your screen resolution set to higher than 1024 x 768 be sure
39. fields If you d like to try more options to enhance your web page click the Show Advanced Options but ton and see Advanced Web Publishing Options on page 95 Click the Next button Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide coc Visual Communicator ideo Publisher Choose the file type and name for your published video Publish to Realideo rm For Internet and email usage Publish a Windows Media video wm For Internet and email usage Publish an Awl Lavi For DY video production and reuse The video will be saved as Amazing Journey _ new Amazing Journey new wry 8 Click a radio button to publish your show to either Windows Media or Real Media format 9 If you d like to change the name of the folder and file that your video file and web page will be saved to enter a new folder name followed by a backslash and a new file name and click the Next button mmunicator ideo Publisher er Se Choose the size and quality for your Windows Media Video Small File Size Lower Quality Suitable for viewers with dial up modems Medium File Size Good Quality Suitable for viewers with DSL Cable Large File Size Better Quality Suitable for viewers on a LAN Network Largest Size Best Quality Quality Based Encoding Best used for file archiving and local playback Customize Custom Size Custom Quality Advanced Users Customize your compression setti
40. find out how to publish to DV tape see Publishing to DV Tape on page 91 Save your show as either a compressed WMV a RM file or an uncompressed AVI Real Video RM for sending over the internet and email Windows Media WMV sending over the inter net and email Publish an AVI uncompressed AVI Suitable for archiving or editing in third party authoring soft ware 3 Select a format enter your file name in the field at the bottom and click Next 90 The options available here vary depending on what format you have chosen Real Video RM Compression Options e Small File Size Lower Quality Suitable for use with dial up modem connections e Medium File Size Good Quality Suitable for use with DSL or Cable modem connections e Large File Size Better Quality Suitable for use over a LAN or network connection Windows Media WMV Compression Options include all of the options above as well as the option below e Largest File Size Best Quality Quality based encoding Suitable for archiving and local PC playback lt p 4 Click Trigger Links if you have published your show to a web page with Web Links See Publishing to Web Pages on page 93 for more information 5 Click 2 Pass Encoding if you wish the codec to process all of the samples for the stream twice The first pass gathers information about the content of the stream The second pass uses the information gathered
41. greeting cards Make a campaign video to get elected to office and send it to the media and your constituents Create a video poetry reading Dress up like your favorite Star Trek character and send your friends messages from Star Fleet Command Use photos of different parts of the world as a background and send your friends regular weekly updates of your world tour Record your own movie critiques Show everyone you can complain about ANY movie Do your own weekly political editorial Do your own nightly newscast Send a Video Love Letter to show her him how much you care Send a Video Dear John Letter to show just how much you don t care anymore Do a Computer Fix It show and post it on your web site 45 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 46 Use a visual communication to propose to your significant other Make a Video Diary with your own stories and illustrations Create your own family slide show from your digital camera with narration Interview your children regularly as they grow up Show all their friends on their 18th birth day Before amp After diet home improvement landscaping okay maybe not diet Create vacation videos to rival those Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous shows Use Visual Communicator to actually do something interesting and cool looking with all that vi
42. it is 100 complete the publishing win dow displays Publishing has completed suc cessfully Click the Ok button Switch your camera back to camera mode Now use the controls on the camera to play back the show you have saved to tape Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Publishing to Web Pages Visual Communicator Studio takes your publishing prowess to the next level Leverage the power of the web and publish your shows to web pages without having to know any HTML VC Studio automati cally creates great looking web pages using the tem plates you choose to quickly add style and polish to your pages Studio creates the page and places your show in either a Windows Media Player or Real Player within your page When your show is done you publish the page to your live web server When you create a show for a web page you can also incorporate Web Links and Chapter Markers About Web Links MAGIC i The New Standard in Presentations H Cras eee Dee panjphnnh in 7 eS oe buure P ti ard garmor produ Baii s b Primi paiia Pie of the Yaaa 1 E m t mF ay amp dobs at Serious Magle Put Web Links in your show to call up live web pages while your movie plays Web Links allow you to synchronize your show with the display of web pages As your movie plays in one part of the browser window live web pages are displayed in another Serious Magic Visual Communicator User G
43. nple Pictures kal dbl_sun jpa HalfmoonB ay pg you can browse to your file by clicking the Browse tab in the VC Media area Once you have located the file in the Media area position the cursor over it and drag the image icon into the Action Area Visual Communicator auto matically creates an Action Tray and places the new image in it Double click the icon in the tray and you will see a preview of the new file in the Output Monitor window Try rehearsing your show with the new file Creating and Adding Your Own Video Using Live Video in Your Show There are at least 3 ways to add live video to your show The easiest way is to set up your camera in the Video Setup tab and then let VC add your active camera input automatically whenever you add new Video Effects See Installing Your Camera on page 32 if you have not already set up your camera e Whenever you add an Effect to your show the new Effect tray automatically contains the active camera icon This way the effect automatically goes back to the active camera unless you change it to something else Whenever you wish to go back to the active cam era simply drag another effect into the show You can replace the active camera icon simply by dragging other media on top of the icon in the Action Tray When you create a new project by clicking the New button on the Project tab it is automatically loaded with two trays The first tray contains a default tran
44. on the first pass to opti mize the encoding process Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide In the Constant Bit Rate encoding mode files that are encoded in two passes are generally more efficient than files encoded in a single pass Quality based VBR variable bit rate which is one pass will produce more consis tent quality than bit rate based VBR which utilizes two pass encoding 6 Click Default Format to select between Win dows Media 8 and Windows Media 9 formats 7 Click Clip Attributes to open a window where you can type author description title and copyright information for your video 8 Advanced users Click Custom Size Custom Quality This option allows advanced users to make adjustments to variables such as con stant or variable bit rate audio and video codec and frame rate etc If you select the custom option for Windows Media Encoder 9 without it installed on your PC you will be given the option to download the free upgrade If you choose not to download the upgrade you will be directed to the Windows Media Encoder 8 options panel Click the Help button to learn more about Advanced compression options 9 Select a Size Quality and click the Next button then Finish to Publish your video Your show is saved to the My Published Shows folder within the Output Folder Of course you can always choose to save your files to a different folder sual Communicator My Qutput My Published shows
45. onten Intro mpg End mpg I 1 In the Media area click the Videos tab You ll see folders of sample video files in mpg format 2 Double click the Campus Update or Reactions folder 3 Double click the mpg files in the Videos library tab to preview the video in the Output monitor window 4 Once you have located an mpg video file that you want to use position the cursor over the file hold down the left mouse button and drag the icon into the Action Area 5 Visual Communicator creates an Action Tray and places the new file in it e To preview the video double click it e To remove the video from the tray right click it and select Clear Content e Replace the video by dragging a new video file on top of it 6 Try rehearsing your show with the new video Adding animated background effects Animated backgrounds require more PC processing power than still backgrounds and the resulting show file can be significantly larger than a show with still backgrounds Try an animated back ground but if your system has problems supporting it consider using a still background To learn how to add an animated background using V Screen see Adding an Animated Background on page 80 Adding Audio from the VC Library Additional audio elements can have a much bigger effect on the audience than most people realize Good music and sound effects add a lot of impact Serious Magic Visual Communicator Us
46. screen instead of my video If you have an NVIDIA graphics card go to the NVIDIA web site to make sure that you have the latest driver for your video card There is a known problem with the NVIDIA GeForce class cards with older drivers Updat ing to driver version 41 09 should resolve the problem Also try de selecting the Enable Software Vertex Processing box in the Performance settings panel 1 In the Menu bar click Settings 2 Then select Performance settings 3 Set the Your computer is slider at the top to Custom 4 Remove the x from the Enable Software Vertex Processing checkbox There is a single col Follow the steps above to determine whether you have an older NVIDIA ored smear across my graphics card driver Output Monitor Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 125 Running DirectX Diagnostics If you are using Windows XP and plan to contact Technical Support you can expedite the Troubleshooting process by having detailed information about your system on hand when you call or email You can quickly get this information by using the DXDIAG Direct X Diagnostic program From Windows XP click Start and then click Run In the Run window enter dxdiag and click OK Once your results are displayed click the Save All Information button Save the file to your hard drive and then attach it to an email to Support seriousmagic com with your ques tion If you are logging in to the User Forums to get
47. show you how you can use it to create great videos While Visual Communicator offers new technology and an innovative new approach to video creation the principles of video go back many decades to the Golden Age of television Read Chapter 13 A Brief History of Broadcast Communication on page 115 at your leisure to learn a bit about the rich history of broadcasting We ve done our best to share the knowledge our team has gained from their decades of video and broadcasting experience We hope this book the online Help system and the resources available on seriousmagic com provide a solid foundation to build from as you enter the world of creating your own video You can use this book as a quick reference guide Chapter 2 provides quick summaries and references to more detailed chapters Or if you prefer a step by step approach let the task specific chapters be your guide In Chapter 2 Visual Communicator Feature and Control Overview we ve tried to briefly define each feature and control with references to more detailed instructions in the other chapters The remaining chapters are organized by task A task might be Printing Your Script or Installing Your Camera Use these task specific headings in the Table of Contents and chapter introductions to find what you are looking for They should make specific instructions easier to find and refer to If you are having problems we have lots of advice and
48. stream your shows to the web con nected world Whether you just want to share your VC shows with your buddy in the cubicle next door or premiere your videos over the world wide web VC Studio can make your show as famous as you d like it to be You set up a streaming server account and we ll guide you through creating your streaming profile within VC Studio We ll also toss in some streaming basics if you need them and show you how to test your stream and server connection Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 105 Streaming Basics To configure streaming within VC Studio it may help you to learn some streaming basics If you are an experienced media streamer you may just want to skim this section Push and Pull Streaming There are many ways to stream or broadcast media over the web and they continue to evolve even as we write this For the purposes of streaming from VC Studio we ll simplify matters by giving you the basics of Push and Pull streaming You should decide whether to use Push or Pull streaming based on your show s availability requirements and those of your audience At the time this manual was written Push stream ing was the most prevalent type of streaming Push streaming is initiated on your PC encoded by the server and ready to be broadcast as soon as a request is received from a viewer Pull streaming is not immediately ready to be broadcast and some communication between your PC and the ser
49. the paint on your wall Several manufacturers make gift wrap in a suit able solid green shade In North America Target stores carry a store brand that works nicely As wrapping paper can be a bit shiny be careful about hot spots that reflect light back into your camera Hardware or paint stores can mix paint to match Pantone colors You can then apply it to a sheet of wood drywall or paneling If your boss or spouse is cooperative you could also apply the paint straight to the wall if your boss is your spouse we recommend extra caution Lighting the V Screen For general advice about good lighting for video see Lighting on page 38 The key to good results with V Screen is to make sure that the backdrop is lit brightly and evenly Look at the image of the back drop coming from your camera in the Output Moni tor window of Visual Communicator To assess your lighting leave the V Screen feature turned off for now Are there any parts of the backdrop that are near black not enough light or parts that are near white too much light Are there hot spots The V Screen technology can t work very well if any parts of the backdrop are too close to colors in the foreground subject The best way to eliminate these problems is to bounce light off of a nearby wall or the ceiling To learn how to bounce light away from your V Screen see Using bounced light on page 38 Wardrobe for Earthlings and other beings By t
50. the small Web Links icon in the Action Tray to display the Web Links properties on the Actions tab Trigger Link a Parameter Wird dr Target ail x Chapter Marker Activate Marker Title Cat Meets Dog 2 Onthe Actions tab click the Activate Marker checkbox 3 Inthe Title field enter the name of the Marker as it should appear on your web page This name will appear as a link underneath the show 4 Repeat this process for any additional Chapter Markers The Markers will be listed in the order of the linked actions in the show 99 tips amp shortcuts Whenever you add a Full Screen Title Slate to your show a Chapter Marker is created for it automati cally If viewers of your page are not able to see or use the Web Links on your page they may need to check their Player Security settings For example in Windows Media Player on the Security tab The Run script com mands when present checkbox must be checked in order to use Web Links Options Player Copy Music Devices Perfomance Media Library Security File Types DWD Network Plug ins Privacy Choose whether to allow script commands and rich media streams bo be run and customize zone settings cantent Run script commands when present C Do not run script commands and rich media streams if the Player is running inside a Web page Security Zone The Player uses Internet Explorer security
51. viewers with some simple instructions and a link to start your show Saving Your Streamed Show You can save your streamed show to a file on your hard drive To save your show while it is streaming choose the option to Stream while Rehearsing or Recording in the Summary of Current Settings window Then save your project and publish it to a file tips amp shortcuts If you would like to find out how many people are tuning in to see your show and what sort of band width your server can support contact your stream ing server administrator or provider 114 Chapter 13 A Brief History of Broadcast Communication This instrument can teach it can illuminate and yes it can inspire But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends Otherwise it is nothing but wires and lights in a box Edward R Murrow discussing television 1951 As you begin using Visual Communicator you are adding your voice to the long and proud history of broadcast communication Of course broadcasting has changed dramatically from the original low power radio stations of the early days to the around the world web broad casting that is possible today From Orsen Welles famous 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds to Martin Luther King Jr s T have a dream speech radio and television broadcasts have played a significant role in defining our culture political arena economics and overall histo
52. wipe effect 4 Click Preview to see your changes Wipe Tiling Enables a mirrored or tiled effect but only after the current wipe effect has been trans formed with the Wipe Transform option Select the Wipe effect you wish to alter then click the Actions tab and click the Advanced button Select the Wipe Tiling option After you have trans formed an effect you can select either the x and or y Mirror checkbox and then use the effect slider to see how these settings change the Wipe Effect Wipe Pattern The grey gradient used as the wipe pattern for the effect Select the Wipe effect then click the Actions tab and click the Advanced button Select the Wipe Pattern option Here you can change the pattern of a wipe by browsing to it with the Browse button The file used to determine the wipe s pattern is a PNG file It will change the wipe for the current show it will not make a permanent 65 change to the wipe effect Click the Revert button to change the Wipe Pattern back to its default setting Mame Description Bar Count Number of bars in the effect Rotation Count Number of rotations Bar Count Changes the number of bars in an effect Insert and double click the Blinds Vertical Rotate effect in an Action Tray On the Actions tab click the Advanced button Click Bar Count and drag the slider left or right to choose the number of bars between 2 and 50 Bar Rotation Count Changes the number of rota
53. would happen if everyone had a personal TV station on their PC We re about to find out il Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Foreword Thank you for purchasing Visual Communicator the tool that takes a revolutionary approach to creating video presentations with a PC You re joining tens of thousands of users who are already using Visual Com municator to create their own video communications Effective communication is often the difference between failure and success and video has proved to be the most powerful communication medium ever created Before Visual Communicator the tools required to communicate in this medium have been too expensive too slow and too complex for most people The requirement of specialized studio equipment costing thousands of dollars or a great deal of time and effort using laborious video editing software is now gone With Visual Communicator this awesome power no longer remains solely in the hands of TV networks Whether you need to communicate for your business school or personal interests your videos can now have the polished look of network TV broadcasts Seri ous Magic s new patent pending technology makes it an automated process that one person can do in min utes with amazing results Visual Communicator is like having your own broadcast television studio on your desk Real television stu dios draft scripts produce graphics and animation shoot video and record audio They
54. CustomWM9 Windows Media Profile Editor General 1137 Kbps Name 12M Description Use for high quality Pro content Target for local playback and audience with 1 2 Mbps connection l Language English United States en us Y Media pepes pp Mode Codec M Audio CER Windows Media Audio 9 IY Video CER Windows Media Video 9 M Script Target bit rates 1137 04 Kbps 1137040 bps You can activate Trigger Links by clicking the Script checkbox in the Windows Media Profile Editor page click the Show Advanced Options button to view additional settings e To change the display resolution from the default setting click the Target Browser Resolution radio button that best fits the browser resolution on your audience s PC e In the Initial Link field you can enter or browse to an image file that displays in the Link Target area of your page at the beginning of your show Or you can enter a URL and display a web page in this area This image or web page remains here unless it is replaced by a Web Link in your show e Drag the Volume slider to the left or right to con trol the initial volume of the movie in the web page player e In the Playback Controls drop down list select which Player buttons to include in your web page underneath your movie e Select Full to show all of the buttons e Select Minimal to display just the Play Pause and Volume buttons 96 Serious Magic Vi
55. Guide 121 Things to Try and Possible Solutions There are a lot of Be sure that you have the current driver for your audio device from the audio pops and or manufacturer Go the their web site and search for updated driver down audio distortions in loads for your device my finished shows Check your Windows microphone controls Click Start gt Control Panel gt Sounds and Audio Devices Click the Audio Tab Under Sound recording click Volume In the Recording Control window Under Microphone select Advanced Under other controls de select 1 Mic Boost 20dB You may be having system performance issues Go into Visual Commu nicator and in the Menu bar click Settings and then Performance Set tings and drag the Your Computer is slider to Medium Disable any additional audio devices that are not in use For example if you have installed a new audio PCI card but previously had an onboard audio chipset go to the Device Manager right click and disable the device you no longer use From your Windows Desktop right click the My Computer icon and select Properties Click the Hardware tab then click the Device Man ager button If you are using a web cam with a microphone your system may have an audio input conflict Go to the Device Manager Double click Sound Video and Game Controllers Right click the web cam microphone and select Disable to eliminate a possible audio input conflict am not getting the Visual Communicator may n
56. Hardware Level If you get low volume from your input source adjusting this slider will make your audio louder Click to allow the microphone output to play through to the PC speakers while rehearsing or recording Use ful feature for live presentations Audio Only Input and Output Silences the corresponding input or output when checked Audio Only Adjusts the output vol ume of the PC s main speakers Audio Only Input and Output Silences the corresponding input or output when checked Audio Only Play audio test file on the PC s main speakers Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Visual Communicator Feature and Control Overview The Video Setup tab What it Does Set Project Director Actions Screen Setup Adjust Colors Brings up the color correction window T camera 1 p lt where you can change the colors and brightness of the selected video input Current Video Input Device Video device When using V Screen adjust col Logitech QuickCam Express hd Setup ors before using Auto Set Key Controls l os Input Source I the current device has more than one Gi input source such as Composite Video Capture Resolution 320x240 S Video or a TV tuner you ll see the Input Source drop down list appear with Capture Frame Rate 30 gt available input sources listed You can Full Screen Output select between them here Enable M Capture Shows the curren
57. Record button tips amp shortcuts Use a pop up menu to add camera icons Right click the right side of an Action Tray and select Assign Camera 2 2 Your new Project name appears in the Project Name field You can change it if you like 3 Click the Capture button to bring up the cam Capturing Video From era and recording controls Other Recordings The Capture feature allows you to record segments of video from a tape in your video camera or VCR that is connected to your PC Connect a VCR to your computer to record video played from a video tape If you are using a DV camcorder or VCR and it is Connect a camcorder to record video from a camera connected to your PC through a FireWire IEEE tape When you have finished capturing the files 1394 cable use the Tape Control buttons at are saved to your hard drive and you can browse to the bottom of the tab Be sure to switch your them from the Media area and add them to your camera into VCR mode show as you would with any other media file If you haven t already connected your camera see Installing Your Camera on page 32 Make sure that your camera is turned on so that VC can recog nize that it is there 1 Ifyou want to add video clips to a new project click the Project tab under the Output Monitor window then click the New button 70 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Capture avi Browse e The Capture File field displays the
58. Unless you selected the option to Stream Always streaming will not begin until you click the Record or Rehearse buttons under the Output Monitor win dow 111 Testing Your Stream Once you are connected to your server start your stream if needed by clicking the Record or Rehearse button and check it s status The color of the Live Streaming Status light indicates the status of your stream and server connection Click the Director tab to see the color of the Live Streaming Status light at the bottom of the tab Each color represents a different status e Dark green Streaming is Off or Disabled e Bright green Streaming is ON Data is currently being streamed to the server and should be viewable e Bright yellow Connected Visual Communicator has established a con nection with the server and is ready to start streaming e Bright red Streaming Failed No data is being streamed and there is no data connection to the server Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Live Streaming Viewing Your Streaming Show on the Web On a separate computer open a web browser and enter the URL for your show To obtain your show URL e If you are using Push streaming in Windows Media format Using the mms protocol your URL will look something like mms servername publishing point e If your are using Pull or port to port streaming in Windows Media format your URL will look like this mms ipad
59. Visual Communicator Files e Publishing Your Show in a Variety of Formats e Publishing to DV Tape e Publishing to Web Pages e Adding Web Links to Your Page e Adding Chapter Markers to Your Page e Broadcasting Shows to a Large Screen Broadcasting Live Video from a DV Camera This is it your show has been crafted and pol ished your pride and joy is ready to be shared with the world or a small chunk of it The fun starts here but not without a few fundamentals Read the section about Output files to gain a good understanding of where all of your efforts end up If you have a Pro or Studio and a DV camera you can publish your show to Digital Video format on one of the tapes from your camera If you have Studio you are in for a real treat as we walk you through the process of publishing your show to a web page You can even bring a bit of the web into your show with Web Links Add Chapter Markers to your web pages and you ve got scene selection which allows your web page visitor to jump to particular moments in your movie And if you re ready to take your show to the really big screen try broadcasting your show to a large screen projector Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 87 About Visual Communicator Files Show Project Files Before you publish your finished show Visual Com municator saves your project as a project file This project file has an extension the three letters after the period in your file name
60. Visual Communicator Shortcuts and Hot Keys Command o T e saeson fones Seren Eaitmenu atse Advanced Setings are Pse foey Help Menu AR Record fe aons o o C e A Teleprompter a E Paseresme forse ooo o C SSC sSC advance e O o CE A O es SERIOUS MAGIC VISUAL COMMUNICATOR These words may be quite tiny but our lawyers still find deep meaning in them Serious Magic Visual Communicator Visual Communicator Web Visual Communicator Pro Visual Communicator Studio Instant Hollywood V Screen and their respective logos are trademarks of Serious Magic Inc All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders Patents pending Specifications features and prices are subject to change without notice Some images were simulated for print but reflect actual output of the product Microsoft Windows PowerPoint and Windows Media Player are trademarks of Microsoft Please respect the copyrights of others No part of this manual may be or distributed transmitted transcribed stored in a retrieval system or trans lated into any human or computer language in any form or by any means without express written permis sion of Serious Magic Copyright Notice 2001 2004 Serious Magic Inc All Rights Reserved All Visual Communicator software and documentation are 2001 2004 Serious Magic Inc All Rights Reserved This document may not in whole or in any part be copied photocopied reproduced transla
61. While this inter nal microphone can be used with Visual Communi cator we strongly suggest that you use an external microphone The internal microphone in your web cam is far enough away from your face to pick up unwanted noise in the room We suggest using a microphone that clips directly to your shirt or lapel A tie clip or lapel style microphone should be attached to your shirt about 3 inches below the col lar The closer the microphone is to your face the better the sound will be There are a variety of these kinds of microphones available at computer and electronics stores Connecting the microphone that came with VC If you have Visual Communicator Web Pro or Stu dio you got a professional quality microphone with VC that attaches directly to your computer s audio card 35 Soundcheck To configure your microphone in Visual Communi cator Connect the microphone that came with VC to your PC s audio card by plugging it into the connector labeled Mic Sometimes the connector has a pic ture of a microphone next to it Often the connector is pink or red Testing your microphone outside of VC Once the microphone is connected we suggest that you test it out using the software that came with your audio card or using the Windows Sound Recorder program located in the Programs Acces sories folder of the Windows Start Menu When the microphone is working in Windows or with the software that came wi
62. a O mn oD o SoryConcade Il In the Device field select your camera In the Preroll field enter the number of sec onds your camera requires to begin recording Cameras vary in the amount of time it takes them to respond to a request to record The number of seconds you enter here tells VC how long it takes your camera to start record ing after you click the Finish button in the next window Black video will be recorded in any excess lead time between VC s request to record and your camera s response You may need to try this a few times to learn your cam era s Preroll time Use the control buttons to move to or cue the location on the camera tape you d like to record to Click the Browse button to go to the hard drive location where you want the show file to be saved and name the file Use the rewind stop pause play and fast for ward buttons to move through the tape in your camera Move to the spot you d like to record your show to Click the Next button 10 11 12 The next page will show you file information on your video Click the Back button if you d like to make changes Click the Finish button to begin the publishing to tape process The first thing you will see is a status bar say ing Your video is being compressed and saved The next window will say Publisher is con necting to Tape Device Finally a message displays Your video is recording to tape When
63. a outside of VC 33 Setting up your camera in VC 5 2 5 eee 33 Installing Multiple Cameras 34 Setting up V Screen for More Than One Camera 35 Removing Cameras 555 e553 eee eee 35 Installing Your Microphone 35 Choosing a Microphone 35 Connecting the microphone that came with VC 35 DOUNGCHECK Sees SS he ee Se Gee eee es eS 36 setting Up Multiple Audio Sources 37 Lighting eee ee eee ee ee re ee ee 38 Experiment With Abandon 41 Using The Wizard 42 Creating a Show Based on Style 42 Creating a Show Based on Topic 42 Using the Instant Hollywood Video Templates 42 Creating a One Click Video 43 Blank Video Creating a Show From Scratch 43 Creative Uses for Visual Communicator 44 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Table of Contents Planning Shows and Script Writing 47 Making an Outline of Your Show 48 Making a List of What You Will Need 48 Describing What Happens in Each Scene 48 Creating a Quick Sketch of Your Scenes 49 Writing Your Script lt 565 555 2552 25
64. action with transparent content Please try an effect that brings content on screen instead Titles and other graphics E g lower thirds that have transparent areas alpha showing pro gram video in the background cannot be brought on screen using effects such as page peels or other fly off effects because they move video off screen instead of on screen Try another effect Cannot preview the selected effect due to missing content You must assign the contents before previewing the effect Indicates that the highlighted Action Tray must have content camera live video graphic etc placed in it before you can rehearse or record The previous Action Tray must also have content assigned to it since the effect needs the end of the previous file to perform Error attempting to save the app settings Defaults will be used next run Ensure the AppSettings xml file in your Bin directory is not write protected Your system may be too low on memory to run the applica tion You may also be out of hard drive space on the drive that contains Visual Communicator Error attempting to save the show The show cannot be saved The hard drive you are attempting to save to may be full or you may not have write permission for that folder Once your camera is positioned for recording move out of the camera s view so that it only sees the back ground green screen and then press the OK button to auto calibrate These instruct
65. ad from the pink bar so you are looking close to the camera If you are not using a script you can look directly into the camera when speaking If the text is moving too fast or too slow click the Director tab where you can change the scroll speed by mov ing the Scroll Speed slider left slower or right faster 84 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide If actions take place too soon or too late you can drag the trays down in the Action Area to make them occur later or up in the Action Area to make them occur sooner Recording Your Show When your show is as polished as you can make it you are ready to record Recording is just like rehearsing except that your camera and audio are recorded to an output file which you can later pub lish to the many different formats that VC has to offer Just click the Record button Your show will run just like your rehearsal but your video and audio will be recorded and added to the project Adjusting Recording Settings Before you record be sure to turn the audio Output Volume down in the Setup tab so you don t get any feedback from your speakers through your micro phone 1 Click the Setup tab and click the Audio but ton 2 Drag the Output Volume slider down toa medium or low level tips amp shortcuts If you are not relying on audio cues for your dialogue you can click the Mute checkbox to completely mute the output for best results Serious Magic Visual Commun
66. agging a new audio file on top of it 5 Try rehearsing your show with the new audio 63 Adding Actions and Effects Transition Effects Transitions can help your video flow more smoothly from one scene or action to another They can add visual interest and help to keep your viewer engaged VC automatically includes a default tran sition whenever you drag new image media into the Action Area The new tray that is created contains the default video transition effect dissolve mfx but you can replace it by simply dragging a new effect on top of it tips amp shortcuts If you like the idea of always using the same default effect but don t happen to like Dis solve mfx you can change the default effect to whatever you like Click Settings in the Menu Bar select Application Settings and next to the Default Effect field click the Browse button to find and select another effect VC transition effects come in a huge and growing variety of styles including but not limited to wipes dissolves page peels shatters flybys over the shoulders multi sparks head to heads moves slides sparks spins squeezes asteroids bubbles swirls pixie dust and many many more The list sounds like something from a fireworks convention but trust us using them is even more fun than nam ing them It would take many pages to describe each effect so instead we encourage you to experiment Click the Video Effects tab experiment with the
67. all and raises the web cam above your monitor We suggest that you not use the base and just secure the camera to the top of the monitor with some tape If you can position the camera forward enough so that it can hang down in front of the monitor s bezel just a bit this is ideal isqaq EY sarssasesarasasrI T ana asnareatnnn Seams ss ga an n mNN ssgsnt TT na Camcorders offer some additional positioning options because they have zoom lenses which allow them to be placed further back on your monitor or even on a tripod behind your monitor For the best results the Action Bar of the Teleprompter should be positioned just below the height of your eyes leaving the camera lens just above your eye level You can achieve this by changing the height of your monitor or by changing the height of your chair Positioning your subject further back from the computer Llp If you have Visual Communicator Studio you have additional positioning flexibility You can expand the Teleprompter to use the entire computer screen and move your subject further back from the com puter One of the benefits here is that it is easier to give the impression that the subject is looking at the camera rather than the Teleprompter For detailed instructions see Using the Teleprompter in Full Screen Mode on page 56 32 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide tips amp shortcuts If your screen resolution is set to higher than
68. ame and description for the selected action in the action tray Video Effects only Displays the current duration of the effect in seconds Change the duration by selecting the text in the field and typing in a new duration Duration is not changeable on some effects that cannot be altered like Cut Pause Time Video Effects only For effects that come field on screen pause and then move off screen Sets the amount of time the effect pauses while on screen Shown in sec onds Smart Video Effects only Pauses the Tele Trigger prompter and Action Areas until a video checkbox file has finished playing or it jumps to the next Action if the video is too short The Teleprompter and Action Areas resume automatically at the right time so that the next effect will integrate properly Smart Trigger is checked at the time the effect is run Conversely Smart Position an option found by right clicking on an Action Tray is a one time function If the length of the video or effect changes Smart Position needs to be re applied Pause Studio Only Click the checkbox to Pause Tele your video after this effect is done prompter checkbox Preview Click to preview or hear the selected Button action media or clip Advanced Click to access more Effect controls See button Customizing Effects with Advanced Effect Gi Controls on page 64 Edit button _ Title Graphics only Click to edit the text in a title Title Ed
69. ar with the dif ferent camera options available and their relative advantages and disadvantages It s also important to point out that a camera is not required to use Visual Communicator You can cre ate shows consisting entirely of pictures titles graphics and pre recorded video clips However to explore all the cool things that Visual Communica tor can do you should still try it with a camera at least once There are two basic types of cameras you can use with Visual Communicator webcams and camcorders Webcams Webcams have been very popular little cameras and are readily available at most computer stores They usually stay connected to PCs and sit on top of the monitor or nearby Early webcams were sphere or egg shaped but today they come in many differ ent shapes and sizes Some PCs even come with a webcam You get what you pay for The earliest webcams were black and white and had fairly low resolution which often meant fairly poor image quality Fortunately webcams have improved greatly over the years and today most possess image quality that s quite good When shopping for a webcam keep in mind that with webcams you generally get what you pay for In other words a webcam that costs 99 usually has better image quality than one costing 49 Picture quality More recent models tend to have better quality as well as better software drivers Another indication of quality is the resolution on the webcam s
70. b db in your application Bin directory Your temporary icon cache file has been corrupted Delete the file and restart the application You can locate 128 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide this file by performing a file find with the Windows search function usually located in the Start panel This will not impact the operation of Visual Communicator as the icon cache file will be rebuilt automatically Visual Communicator cannot run with your current display settings Go to the Settings tab in Display Properties and click the Advanced button Select Small Fonts You must reboot your computer after these changes are made Visual Communicator is already running Indicates that Visual Communicator is already running Check the Windows task bar for Visual Communicator You are running low on disk space Press Ok to continue recording or Cancel if you wish to free up some space before recording This message comes up when you don t have enough free space to record 30 seconds of regular webcam input or 5 seconds of full res DV input The location of your show project deter mines which disk drive the message is referring to You should free up some space on that drive before recording your show You cannot set pause to zero on an inset video Certain video effects that bring a video object on screen in a reduced size are configured to come on screen wait a designated period then automa
71. camera where you plan to put the backdrop and look at the image on your screen to get a rough idea of the field of view you need to cover Optionally move your monitor and web cam closer to the wall this is usually easier than moving the wall closer to the web cam or use an easel stand with a poster board style setup and place it the appropriate distance behind you and your PC Don t place your camera too close to the backdrop material or you might experience problems with shadows Clever ideas from our customers It seems there are almost as many ways to create a V Screen backdrop as there are users Here are some examples A green or blue bed sheet works well if attached to a wall with thumbtacks or tape Most fabric stores have fabric in a reasonably close shade It can be hung with thumbtacks To fill a larger area you can overlap strips of fabric Visual Communicator s V Screen technology will not show small seams where the fabric overlaps if set up correctly Some users have found matte finish plastic or cloth table covers painter s mats tarps or tents in a suitable color Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Using V Screen e Use several sheets of large poster board attached to the wall with adhesive tape looped behind the poster board so as not to be visible Try to get the edges as close to each other as possible to mini mize the visible seams Take care when removing the tape so as not to damage
72. change the content in the background or effect by selecting the Browse button and then searching for the new con tent you would like to use in an effect As an exam ple you could change the background in a double box effect or change the picture used in a Blinds effect Pro Closing Slate The graphic images seen at the end of a show Show title credits and the like are usually in the closing slate Thank You For Watching Color Correction The process used to adjust color variations in the video signal If the people in your video appear green because of lighting conditions you can adjust this to make their coloration look more true to life In Visual Communicator these functions are performed in the Adjust Colors win dow 132 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Countdown Numbers representing seconds until show time On a live news set this countdown is called out by a floor director In Visual Communica tor the countdown is presented in the output win dow with beeps The countdown can be turned off in Application Settings For historical reasons that reach back to the time of Cecil B Demille and the dawn of motion pictures the numeric countdown that is seen before Rehearse Record stops at the number two The number one is not shown and is replaced by black and a beep instead Defocus This will blur the A and B source during a zoom effect This functionality is not available with all vid
73. click Display 3 Click the Settings tab so see your monitor set tings Display Properties ud 6 Themes Desktop Screen Saver Appearance Settings Drag the monitor icons to match the physical arrangement of your monitors a Display 8 2 Plug and Play Monitor on Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead Englis E Screen resolution Color quality Les f Moe Highest 32 bit 1024 by 768 pixels E EE EE E C Use this device as the primary monitor Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor Open Visual Communicator and click the Setup Tab Microsoft DY Camera and VCR Canon Camcorder Click the Enable checkbox to enable Fullscreen Preview The second display shows what was previ ously in the Output Monitor window and the Output Monitor displays the message Pre view inactive when Full Screen Output is Enabled In the Output Monitor drop down list select your second monitor or Projector In the Resolution drop down list select a reso lution Set your resolution to the lowest setting possible while k still maintaining the desired screen image quality and 4 Click the second monitor icon and click the legibility Higher resolutions require more powerful PC checkbox for Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor configurations Setting up your microphone to be heard through your PC If you plan to use a microphone during your live presentation and would like
74. come exponentially greater Moving pictures con vey powerful messages The images in your show are arguably more important than the words in your script Whether you use the images that come with VC or decide to create your own sketching out a quick storyboard can help you get a preview of how the scenes in your movie will flow Create some sim ple sketches of each event in your show Again if you are part of a creative team sharing ideas in this way is invaluable Writing Your Script Understand Your Audience The first rule of communication is to know your audience Everything you do will be to attract their attention entertain them a bit and communicate your intended message in that order Once you have determined a need for a specific presentation or video communication the next step is determin ing who your audience is Usually you ll have some ideas about your audience because you ll be focus ing on a group of people that potentially have an interest in your message Whether it s an inter office communication to your co workers or a message to your softball team each audience will see your mes sage differently Keep it Simple Always be clear and concise when delivering your presentation and write your script so that your information flows smoothly from one topic to the next Try not to over embellish or overwrite your script If you spend too much time on a topic you may lose your audience The average TV news story
75. ction to be com pleted Pro Scrub Bar Moving the slider left or right will cause the selected effect to preview in the output monitor at the speed you move the slider Pro Show The term sometimes used to describe a project in Visual Communicator Shows are saved with the MSH file extension which is unique to Visual Communicator Shows contain the Tele prompter contents and Action Area contents They are not an actual video file suitable for viewing else where which are created by Publishing Show Timer The digital clock in the main interface that tells you the current show duration Can be set to count up or down Smart Position Next Action Found by right click ing on an Action Tray Automatically moves the fol lowing Action Tray to the end of the selected Action Tray Smart Trigger This function pauses the Tele prompter and Action Areas until a video clip has finished playing The Teleprompter and Action Areas will resume automatically at the right time so that the next effect will play properly at the end of the video clip Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Teleprompter A Teleprompter is the device that network newscasters and politicians often use to read their scripts and speeches while looking into the camera Visual Communicator includes the first inexpensive Teleprompter for business and personal use Titling The addition of text symbols and graphic elements to a video show or p
76. d with a video capture card in your computer In general camcorders have much better image quality than webcams and they have become fairly inexpensive over the last few years Camcorders generally fea ture higher resolution imaging chips and better lenses than web cams An additional advantage is that a camcorder usually has a zoom lens enabling you to more easily get the exact framing you want Use the S Video input of your capture card if you have one That will give you better quality When using V Screen turn off all Auto settings on your camcorder and adjust it manually for the best results 30 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide If your PC does not yet have a way to directly con nect to a camcorder this can be easily addressed by installing an internal video capture card into an open slot Analog or FireWire There are two ways to connect a camcorder to your PC analog or FireWire Which one you choose will depend largely on what kind of camcorder you have VHS and 8mm camcorders have analog con nections DV and Digital8 camcorders usually have both analog and FireWire connections also called IEEE 1394 or i Link In Visual Communicator both analog and FireWire connections will usually yield about the same quality If you aren t sure which con nection you have refer to your camcorder s manual S Video Input jack To connect your camcorder via analog install an Analog Video Capture Card in yo
77. deo footage that you ve taken Tell us about a decent band to go see live Make a family history video Make a memory and or photo montage for your anniversary Make a virtual art gallery of your work Make and send baby announcements or pup pies or kittens Annual company reports Prepare a virtual book report for class Make announcements to your committee club or church members Corporate communications Video cooking directions for the culinary chal lenged Documentaries Distance learning Going Away and Welcome Home videos Electronic fund raising Get well soon 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 Human resources announcements and sched ules Industrial training and safety videos Keynote speeches without the plane flight Video office memos Operational video presentations Photo montages for friends or family Political announcements or opinions Public service announcements Sports shows about favorite teams players Lectures Show and tell at school Wedding videos and photos Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Chapter 6 Planning Shows and Script Writing Making an Outline of Your Show e Understand Your Audience e Writing Your Script e What to Wear on Camera Planning your show to the nth detail is not required but in some cases for example if you are creating a show as part of a creative team or in a classroom it helps to add a
78. dress portnumber or this mms servername portnumber To obtain your IP address go to the command or c prompt on your VC Studio PC 1 Click Start gt All Programs gt Accessories gt Command Prompt 2 Inthe Command Prompt window type ipconfig 3 Write down your IP Address and close the Command Prompt window e If you are using Real Media format Using the rtsp protocol your viewing URL will look something like this rtsp servername mountpoint stream name rm 112 If you have an account with a streaming provider they may have a system for wrapping the actual URL into a web link In this case your streaming service will provide you with this information If your PC is within a network firewall and you want to stream to the web you will need to work with your network administrator to provide viewers with a port that will allow them to access your stream Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Live Streaming Stream Troubleshooting If streaming is not working try these steps depend ing on the color of the status light Dark green Streaming is disabled Go to the Current Settings window click the Enable Live Streaming checkbox and click the Stream Always radio button to turn streaming on Bright green Your show is streaming to the server Check with your streaming service pro vider or administrator to find out why it is not streaming from the server to the web Bright Yellow You ar
79. e Brightness and Satura tion controls Some camcorders allow you to Lock or Hold all automatic settings with one switch 3 Turn off any Automatic Settings on your Cam era Some webcams and camcorders have an option which automatically adjusts the white balance gain iris exposure and focus etc For V Screen to work well these automatic controls must be turned off Deselect all the auto settings for your webcam or camcorder 4 Adjust your camera s Gain Saturation FPS or Shutter Speed settings for V Screen and click OK If your web cam or camera has Gain controls set them as low as possible while still having a bright enough picture e Having Gain too high can cause noise in the image If the picture is too dark with Gain at a reasonable setting this may be a sign that your camera needs more light e Set your Saturation at a level that is similar to the color of the background The result that you are looking for is one where the green stands out against everything else in the image tips amp shortcuts For the optimum key the saturation should be similar to the background you are using If you have a brightly colored background set saturation higher If your background color is muted lower the saturation If possible adjust your camera s frame rate To 30 or 15 FPS frames per second If your camera has a shutter soeed or exposure adjustment try setting it to 1 50th of a second to
80. e connected to the server but not streaming to it click Rehearse or Record Bright Red You are not connected to the server Check your smp settings and physical server connection and try to connect to the streaming server again If you are still having problems make sure that you have the latest Visual Communicator program update and check the Help system under Streaming and Troubleshooting for the latest information Of course if you d like human assistance visit our User Forum or contact our Technical Support team Visit our web site to find out how 113 Stopping the Show Summary of Current Settings Server Preview Format Width x Height 320x240 Frame Rate fis Output Format Broadband Use for streaming delivery of video and audi audience has a cable modem xDSL or equ Video Codec Windows Media Video 9 Transfer Bit Rate 250Kbps Frame Rate 15fps 320x240 Audio Windows Media Audio 9 32kbps 44Khz Transfer Bit Rate gt Stream Anii During Record and Reneatse Stream Oley Turn Live Streaming off by clearing this checkbox To stop the stream go to the Summary of Current Settings window and uncheck the Enable Live Streaming checkbox and click Apply or OK Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Live Streaming Show Time Once your show is ready to share with the stream ing world you can use email to send out the show link or create a web page to provide your
81. e of the earliest split screen effects actually relied on mirrors being placed in front of the camera to partially split the view to an alternate scene in another part of the studio Primitive digital video effects DVEs began to appear in the early 1970s and required specialized equipment costing more than most cars did It wasn t until later that more sophisticated DVE capabilities were even made possible such as digital zoom rotation perspective and curves By the early 1990s producers began pushing the envelope with chroma key effects green screen to create virtual set environments built from computer images Over the years we ve seen a wide range of programming styles and classic formats that have stood the test of time including Howdy Doody Meet the Press The Ed Sullivan Show I Love Lucy and even Ses ame Street Some shows were created to entertain some to inform and some to educate We ve seen hyster ical skits from The Ernie Kovacs Show to Saturday Night Live and we ve witnessed unforgettable events like the Kennedy assassination and the September 11 attack on America And then there is the pro found impact of televised words from our world leaders heroes and greatest thinkers Whether it s a rant praise proposal or prayer regardless of good news or bad television has brought countless thoughts and ideas into our homes that may have changed our opinions our knowledge and even o
82. e review vid eos in the style of their favorite TV critics Product managers can create training videos for their products Magazine journalists can create How To and Tips amp Tricks videos for their readers Undiscovered comedians can create stand up style videos and post them online we ve included a brick wall V Screen background Home PC users can play games online by sending video emails that add to the drama one move at a time Future TV celebrities can create their own Screen Tests Jokes of the Day emails can now benefit from TV style presentation Create a video based on the canned Superstar Insider concept and share it with friends Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Experiment With Abandon Human Resource professionals can create video announcements on the network instead of those HR memos which people rarely read Create your own video review show for TV Books Comics etc Two words Video Karaoke Artists can make video galleries to put up on the web or send around the world Musicians can make music videos with cool effects One could create and distribute their very own Sock Puppet Theatre Video term papers and other cool multimedia school projects Video Valentines for all your loved ones Make video holiday
83. ection The publisher was unable to establish an Internet connection To upload a show to an FIP server you must be connected to the Internet This message indicates that the Internet connection is broken or not avail able For modem users try re dialing to your ISP and then select OK to this message The selected action is missing an effect You must assign effects before performing the show Indicates that the highlighted Action Tray must have an effect placed in it before you can rehearse or record The selected action is missing contents You must assign the contents before performing the show Indi cates that the highlighted Action Tray must have content camera live video graphic etc placed in it before you can rehearse or record The selected actions are either missing effects or contents You must assign the missing items before per forming the show Indicates that the highlighted Action Tray must have content camera live video graphic etc or an effect placed in it before you can rehearse or record The specified directory does not exist Do you want to create it Do you want the application to automati cally create the folder you are trying to write to There is not enough available space on the selected hard drive to publish This indicates that you need to free up some hard drive space or select another drive before you Publish If available you can also save to your local network or a FIP site This action
84. edia e Set Current Directory as Home Sets the current folder as the default destination when the Home button is clicked e Reset Default Home Directory Resets the Home button to the program default e Right Click on a file in a library e Delete Deletes selected files e Rename Rename the currently selected file e Add to My Favorites Adds the selected files to the Favorites Folder specified in the Application Settings Dragging Media Files Into Your Show To add a media file to your show simply locate the file you want to add and drag it into the Action Area An Action Tray will be created for it automati cally Then drag it to the place in the show where it should occur Here are a few examples Adding VC Graphics Art Titles or Photos Wieoetfets sles Topes Videos Graphis auio C Program Filesi Serius Madici visual Communicator Content Pictures PF PvP P Colors Environments Pop Ups yp we EAA Y Gcreen Estras 3rd base jpg Baby jpg 1 In the VC Media area click the Graphics tab 2 Locate the image you would like to add and drag it to the desired location in the Action area 3 An Action Tray will be added to the Action area containing the image you selected e To replace the image with a new one sim ply drag a new image on top of it e To remove an image right click it and select Clear Content 61 e To preview an image in the Monitor win dow double click it or rig
85. eedback is to point your soeakers at an angle away from your microphone or simply turn your soeakers down or off when you re ready to record Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Setting up Your Studio Setting Up Multiple Audio Sources If you wish to use the audio from two different microphones in your movie such as a lapel micro phone on each person make sure that they are con nected through the same device a device being a camcorder or sound card This allows the device to control and synchronize the audio from both micro phones and keeps the them in sync B ni If your camera or sound card has only one input for an external microphone you ll need a Y adapter like this one which combines two microphones to one mic jack Radio Shack catalog 274 310 Alternatively you can use an audio mixer to com bine the microphones for input to one device If you have a sound card that supports more than one audio input you can use the additional inputs for extra microphones If your camcorder supports two inputs such as Channel 1 Channel 2 you can plug one microphone into each channel 1 Click the Setup Tab and click the Audio but ton If you previously assigned an audio device such as an audio card the Input drop down list automatically displays Audio 1 and the Audio Input Device field displays the make and model of that device 2 Connect any additional audio sources to your computer if you haven t
86. ents for Web Pro and Studio versions Each version of Visual Communicator requires different levels of computer performance and capabilities Please ensure that your system meets the requirements of the version you are installing Windows Windows 98 98SE ME Windows 98 98SE ME Windows 2000 or XP Version 2000 and XP 2000 or XP Processor Type Intel Pentium Ill equiv Intel Pentium Ill equiva Intel Pentium III equiva alent or higher lent or higher lent or higher 3 Processor Speed Recommended 800MHz 933 MHz or faster 933 MHz or faster 3 or faster RAM 128 MB 128 MB RAM 128 MB RAM Available Disk Space 650 MB 2 2 GB Graphics Card 16 MB AGP graphics card 16MB AGP with 3D acceler 16MB AGP with 3D acceler with 3D acceleration ation for high res input ation for high res input 3 Drive CD ROM CD ROM CD ROM Audio Card Standard PC Standard PC Standard PC Camera or Video Device Webcam or Camcorder 2 Digital Video camcorder or Digital Video camcorder or other high res DV input other high res DV input device device 1 Some 8 MB cards will work See Seriousmagic com for more information 2 Web cams require a DirectShow compatible driver Camcorders require a compatible PC video input port 3 For Live streaming in Studio Pentium 4 2 4 GHz recommended NVIDIA GeForce or ATI Radeon based graphic card required system requirements for Live Streaming features are higher than those for VC Pro St
87. eo cards Pro Dissolve A dissolve is a transitional effect that smoothly mixes between two shots or pictures Duration The duration of the currently high lighted action in seconds You can change the dura tion by selecting the number in the box and typing in anew duration Effects FX Effects are visual accents such as wipes dissolves or special effects like a page peel or shatter Effects are often but not always used to transition from one video or graphic to another Final Position This is where the A source spin out will end in a spin out effect Pro FireWire The Apple Computer trade name for the TEEE 1394 video format Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Flip Wipe Changes the direction of a wipe effect Graphic s Objects flat images original drawings or text displayed on screen IEEE 1394 FireWire The interface standard that enables direct transfer of DV between devices such as a DV camcorder and a computer or two DV devices Initial Position This is the position where the spin starts on the Screen Pro Instant Hollywood A finished TV show that makes you the star Lower Third TV folks can be masters of the obvi ous Hence these text based graphic elements derive their name from where they usually appear on the screen at the lower third Lower Third graphics are usually used to identify a person and can include things like name company position or location
88. eprompter For detailed instructions see Chapter 7 Using the Teleprompter and Scripts on page 51 Place Actions Trays in the Action Area and load them with the media in your list For detailed instructions on manipulating Action Trays see Using Action Trays in the Action Area on page 58 To learn how to use the media that comes with Visual Communicator see About VC Media Files on page 61 5 Rehearse Your Show Now that all of your ingredients are in the pot let s turn on the stove and see how it all comes together Fortunately unlike real life if you don t get it right the first time in VC you get unlimited second chances It s like an endless supply of Get Out of Jail Free cards How cool is that If your audio and video don t quite sync up and your effects are a little over done simply clean up your act and try it again Don t forget to watch for your show s carefully thought out objective and make sure that your mes sage is coming though loud and clear Record Your Show It s a Wrap Every shot is in it s place and your show s message is right on target It s time to record your show It s as simple as clicking the Record button but if you d like to learn more about recording see Recording Your Show on page 85 Publishing Your Show Publishing is as easy as clicking the Publish button and following the onscreen instructions But if you d like to learn about publishing i
89. er Guide Action Trays and Media In the first year of film school students are some times shown a very intense and scary movie such as The Exorcist but with the audio off Without the audio the movie goes from scary to almost funny The difference is amazing in fact you can try this experiment at home with your TV and VCR Visual Communicator provides you with an exten sive library of music but you can also easily import your own music into your project as WAV or MP3 files If you put a bit of thought into audio you ll find it can be one of the easiest ways to add interest to any video project There are separate folders for musical styles such as Classical and Blues amp Jazz as well as a folder for Sound FX 1 Inthe Media area click the Audio tab You ll see folders of sample audio files in wav and wma files format 2 Double click the Sound Bites folder and dou ble click the audio files to hear them 3 Once you have located an audio file that you want to use position the cursor over the file hold down the left mouse button and drag the icon into the Action Area to create a new empty tray for it or drag it onto an existing action to add audio to a visual action 4 The audio will appear as a small speaker icon in the middle of the tray e To hear the audio double click the icon e To remove the audio from the tray right click it and select Clear Content or Clear Audio e Replace the audio by dr
90. er Your Show 103 Broadcasting Live Video from a DV Camera 104 Live Streaming 7 7 77 2 gt 105 Streaming Basics 9 955 oe eee mee ee 106 Push and Pull Streaming 106 Serious Magic Profiles 106 Server Settings 555 ese eee ee eee 106 What You ll Need to Stream Live Media 106 Minimum system requirements for VC Studio Streaming 107 Setting Up Streaming for the First Time 107 Testing Your Stream lt 552 2555 ee ees 112 Viewing Your Streaming Show on the Web 112 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Table of Contents Stream Troubleshooting 113 stopping the Show 114 Show Time 114 saving Your Streamed Show 114 Chapter 13 A Brief History of Broadcast Communication 115 Appendix A Trouble Shooting 119 Check for Visual Communicator Updates 120 Where to Find Help 120 Frequently Asked Questions 120 Online Help 120 Technical Support Web Pages 120 Kindly Human Assistance 4 120 Updating Your Hardware Drivers 120 Frequently Asked Que
91. erious Magic program folder from your Windows Start Menu Project Name Ocy Show Project The One Click Video show you have just created remains the default show that loads from the desk top icon until you create a new one When you go through the Wizard and select One Click Video again your new show will replace the original one If you would like to use another existing show as your One Click Video open the show while you are in your current One Click Video and when you exit Visual Communicator will remember the show you loaded as your new default One Click Video show If you use V Screen within One Click Videos remember to Auto Set Key during the few sec onds before recording starts There is a small time period before recording that Visual Com municator will present the camera in the Out put Monitor window to allow you to check your position During this time you can use the key board shortcut Alt K to calibrate the key then center yourself in the picture Blank Video Creating a Show From Scratch 1 Scratch your head and think for a bit If you haven t already put some thought into what you want your show to say Develop the message or objective until it is a clear statement Keep the objec tive in mind as you develop your show so that the point of your show does not stray off track If you d like to learn more about planning shows see Chap ter 6 Planning Shows and Script Writing on page 47
92. escribe examples of each control 64 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 1 In the Media Area click the Video Effects tab 2 Double click the Slides folder C Program FilesiSerious MagicWisual Communicator Contenti Effects Slide eh P PA Slide Off D own Left Slide Off D ovn Aight Slide OF Down 3 Drag the effect called Slide Off Down Left into the Action Area The Actions tab displays the controls for this effect 4 Click the Advanced button to see the Advanced Controls for this particular effect the Preview slider or scrub bar Preview Scrub Bar Move the slider left or right to preview the effect in the Output Monitor The pre view moves at the speed you move the slider This is very useful for customizing an effect as you can pre view the effect at its halfway point and see the changes you are making Wipe Transform Angle Changes the angle of a wipe effect under the Wipe Transform option Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Action Trays and Media 1 Click a Wipe Effect in an Action Tray 2 Inthe Actions tab click the Advanced button Gray gradient used as wipe pattern For ell Repeat or mirror gradient used on transtc Wipe Transform Transform effect for the wipe Wipe Pattern Wipe Tiling 3 Click the words Wipe Transform This changes the controls at the bottom of the Actions tab Change the Angle number or drag the green grid around to alter the angle of the
93. ess if applicable as well as your personal Broadcast License Number which you can find on your CD sleeve Then click Next Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Installing Visual Communicator tips amp shortcuts Please keep your BLN safe as you will need it should you ever reinstall the software 6 T 10 11 12 When you are ready to begin the installation process click Next Depending on what version you are installing you may be asked to select the hard drive and folder in which you wish to install Visual Communicator If you are installing an upgrade version the upgrade will be installed to the same folders as your existing version Click Next If you have more than one hard drive we rec ommend that you select the one that has the most free space available See the system requirements table at the beginning of this sec tion to determine how much disk space you will need for your version More space will be required as you create shows and publish vid eos Click Next and Visual Communicator will be installed Click Finish If you are taken to a web page to update your version follow the onscreen instructions to install the product update Once you are done please take a minute to register on line by visiting the Serious Magic web site e http www seriousmagic com If you have Web or Pro you can also register from within Visual Communicator Click Help in the menu ba
94. est tutorials 28 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Chapter 4 Setting up Your Studio e Choosing a Camera e Installing Your Camera e Installing Multiple Cameras e Installing Your Microphone e Setting Up Multiple Audio Sources Lighting Visual Communicator turns your PC into a vir tual control room You now have the tools needed to integrate graphics titling and special effects just like the pros at a television station Now that you have the control room inside your PC the next step is to turn the room around your computer into your studio Just about any space from an office cubicle to a bed room at home can be turned into a serviceable studio in a few minutes We ll also show you how to set up your equipment and create the best lighting for your show SH tips amp shortcuts 7 You don t need to have a bunch of professional lights to create good lighting in your studio You can make great three point lighting out of an ordinary floor lamp a desk lamp and a piece of white poster board The poster board can be used to bounce light and can replace the need for a separate fill light Try experimenting while you watch the results on your monitor Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 29 Choosing a Camera If you already have a web cam or camcorder con nected to your PC then this choice is pretty simple However you may still want to review the informa tion in this section to become famili
95. f like buckling your seat belt Our mothers remind us to buckle up over and over because they care about us Believe it or not we re reminding you to register for the very same reason Registering is easy and required for you to take advantage of the following benefits e Free product updates e Product tips Online Tutorials and information e Free access to technical support e Access to the Online User Forum To register Visual Communicator In Visual Communicator click Help in the Menu Bar and select Register for Updates Or go to http www seriousmagic com help and follow the on screen directions Oh yes did we mention the free product updates These free updates will make your experience with Visual Communicator better but we can t let you know about them if we can t find you we re magi cians not psychics Please register now because if you don t do it now you may not remember to later and that would be a shame It only takes a minute and we promise we will never ever give your sacred E mail address to anyone who wants to show you how to MAKE MILLIONS IN MINUTES Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Installing Visual Communicator About Hardware Drivers The hardware devices attached to your computer such as your mouse web cam and sound card all require files called software drivers that allow them to work with Microsoft Windows Most hardware device manufacturers release ne
96. format is most commonly used for photographs on the Internet If compressed too much JPG images can start to appear soft or blocky PNG PNG Portable Network Graphics files are used for lossless compression In english this means that they can be compressed to a smaller file size without a loss of quality One advantage of using PNG files is that they can support images with mil lions of colors PG This is the file type that Visual Communica tor s Advanced Titler program Alpha CG uses Titles files that come with VC are in this format Audio and Video Media files AVI Audio Video Interleaved is a Microsoft file format for digital audio and video playback MPG MPEG Moving Pictures Expert Group is a standard compressed format for audio and video files WAV An uncompressed file format for high qual ity audio most commonly used on Windows based PCs WMA Windows Media Audio is a Windows compatible high quality small file size audio for mat MP3 MP3 is a compressed file format that reduces the size of audio files without significantly compro mising sound quality tips amp shortcuts For information about the VC Output files that VC saves your shows to see About Visual Communicator Files on page 88 60 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Adding Visual Communicator Media Files To Your Show About VC Media Files Visual Communicator comes with an enormous col lectio
97. ge it Project Name My _Firsk_Show Mer Save Open Save 45 1 Click the Project tab and edit the name in the Project Name field 2 Click the Save button To learn what folder your files are saved in read Where Your Project Files Are Saved on page 88 If you prefer you can create your own folder ina handy location on your computer After you save a project to your new folder once VC remembers the location and makes it your new default directory Rehearsing Your First Show Rehearse Record Review Publish Stop 3 Click the Rehearse button under the Output Monitor window When you see yourself appear on camera start talking or reading your script as it scrolls up the Teleprompter window Try it a few times to get comfortable You can click Stop and begin again as many times as you like Relax Tom Broke wasn t smooth as silk the first few tries either 27 tips amp shortcuts To help keep your eyes as close to the camera as possible focus on the words in the Action Bar reading your script as it moves through it Recording Your First Show 4 When you are through rehearsing click the Record button and perform your show a final time This time your camera output and audio are recorded and added to the show Reviewing Your First Show 5 Click the Review button to see the entire sequence played back including your perfor mance If you don t like it you can simpl
98. gt 5 49 Understand Your Audience 49 Keep it Simple 49 Leverage the Power of the Medium 49 What to Wear on Camera 50 Using the Teleprompter and Scripts 51 The Teleprom pier 2 2 s Se ee a Bee eet ee eee see 52 Entering Your Script annman 52 Changing the Font in Your Script 92 DaVING a SelIpt S22 Ss Se a a ae ee 53 Pintong a OChIpt Seana S sieni pia E S ee aE a amp 53 Rehearsing Your Script lt 45 58 2 53 Adjusting the Scroll Speed of the Script 53 Adjusting Action Timing 59 If Your Screen Resolution is Higher Than 1024 X 768 53 Using the Teleprompter in Full Screen Mode 54 Pausing the Teleprompter 5 2 5 55 Action Trays and Media 57 Using Action Trays in the Action Area 58 How Action Trays Work 255545225 58 Putting Action Trays in Your Show 58 Moving Action Trays 58 Removing Action Trays 58 Tray Positioning Shortcuts 5 59 Tighter Action Timing 59 About Media Files ar 60 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide vii Table of Contents Chapter 9 Chapter 10 viii Media File Types
99. he larger the number the larger the path the swap effect will take Revert This button will change the effect back to its default state after it has been altered in the Video Effect 3 sided billboard Bar Delay Advanced settings under the Actions tab pot or e Bilboard Rotate vertical mPx This effect rotates vertical bars like a Mame Content Path Content Path Delay added before each bar start Path to the content in layer 0 inde Path to the content in layer 2 inde mie e iade a Direction of Rotation al a iti Rotation Direction Counter Clockwise Clockwise Rotation Direction Changes the direction of a rotation within an effect Double click the Billboard Rotate Vertical effect in an Action Tray On the Actions tab click the Advanced button Click Rota tion Direction and click the Counter Clockwise or Clockwise radio button Scale Controls how large or small the scaled effect will be Double click a Wipe effect in an Action Tray On the Actions tab click the Advanced button Click Wipe Transform Enter numbers in the Scale field or shift click in the Wipe Transform box and move the mouse up and down to change the scale Creating and Adding Your Own Media Creating Your Own Graphics Files Creating your own media files gives you the oppor tunity to really customize your show and make it your own If you are creating a business video and are lucky enough to have a collection of co
100. hing You should have some experience using FTP software and be familiar with the configuration of your web server and it s file naming requirements Publish your VC files as you normally would making sure to transfer all files in binary mode Be sure to publish all of the files that VC Studio creates with your web page To locate the files to publish to your server go to the My Published Shows folder under the My Docu 100 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide ments folder on your hard drive The name of the show in the following example is River Homes E My Documents E O Visual Communicator E G My Output O My Captured Clips E 2 My Published Shows River Homes Demo Each web page that you create with VC Studio will have a set of files and an images folder which will be saved within a folder named after your show O Images File Folder E content htr 2KE HTML Document El index htm 12KB HTML Document 403 KEE Windows Media Audiovideo file Publish the content htm index htm your wmv file the images folder and it s contents to your web server in binary mode You may not have a con tent htm file in every case depending on your page set up Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Publishing Your Show Broadcasting Shows to a Large Screen STUDIO Visual Communicator Studio enables you to use your PC as a multi media presentation system Use it to play your show or live audio and v
101. his point you ve probably surmised that the foreground subject needs to have different colors than the backdrop in order be differentiated from it Assuming that the subject is going to be you make sure you aren t wearing a shirt or any clothing that s too close to the color of the backdrop Also avoid 77 clothing that is mostly black or mostly white Neu tral colors work best If your skin happens to be the same green color as the V Screen backdrop we sug gest that you see a doctor or a priest before using V Screen If this particular shade of green is your normal skin color may we be the first to welcome you to Earth Klaatu barada nikto Setting Your Camera Properties for V Screen Before you start using V Screen you ll need to check some settings in VC Whether you are using a web cam or a camcorder you ll need to turn off it s auto matic settings and do some fine tuning Web cam Properties can be controlled within VC Camcorders can only be controlled on the camera itself 1 Access your camera properties On a Web cam 1 In VC click the Setup tab and then click the Video button 2 Click the Properties button This will bring up the control panel for your camera or video input device Use the controls in this panel to make adjustments On a Camcorder e Use the buttons or menus on your camera to make adjustments See your camera man ual to find the location of your Automatic Gain White Balanc
102. ht click it and select Preview tips amp shortcuts Create a handy stash of favorite media files and retrieve them quickly without going on a folder search Right click any media file in the Media area and select Add to My Favorites Click the down arrow in the Media Area file drop down list and select My Favorites to see your file added to the folder Adding Titles Text and Templates Visual Communicator comes with a large collection of Title styles and templates These titles are orga nized within the Topics and Styles folder and can be inserted automatically by using the Wizards The Wizards allow you to choose and enter Title styles and text automatically To try adding Titles using a Wizard see Test Driving With a Wizard on page 26 Adding a title manually 1 Inthe VC Media area click the Styles tab 2 Double click a folder to open it and view all of the title files inside Title files all have a pg extension at the end of the name 3 Locate the title you would like to add and drag it to the desired location in the Action area 4 An Action Tray will be added to the area con taining the image you selected e To replace the title with a new one simply drag a new title on top of it e To remove a title right click it and select Clear Content e To preview a title in the Monitor window double click it or right click it and select Preview 62 Editing the text within a title 1 Click the t
103. icator User Guide Rehearsing and Recording Your Show Sound Check Visual Communicator can help you keep your sound levels in check while recording If the audio you are recording is too high you can check an indi cator in the Output Monitor window Lower the recording level and try again In the Menu Bar click Settings then select Applica tion Settings us Magic visual Communicator Content Effects Dissolve mF C Documents and Settings jbaird Local Set ings 4pplication In the Preview Monitor Options section e To see your audio recording level mark the checkbox to Enable Audio Level Clipping Indi cator e Click Enable Recording Light to see a recording status light in the Output Monitor window when you are recording 85 Make Sure You Have Enough Disk Space for Your Recorded Show If you receive the message You are running low on disk space Press Ok to continue recording or Cancel if you wish to free up some space before recording This message comes up when you don t have enough free space to record 30 seconds of regular web cam input or 5 seconds of full res DV input The location of your show project determines which disk drive the message is referring to You should free up some space on that drive before recording your show Start Recording When you are ready click the Record button Just like in rehearsal perform your show except this time you will be recording the video f
104. icro phone input was probably recorded with some distortion and you should re record your show Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 123 Things to Try and Possible Solutions My microphone does Your sound card may not be configured correctly not make any sound 1 In the Visual Communicator Menu bar click Tools and select during the test Audio Mixer In the Windows audio mixer or Recording Control window you should see a Microphone Volume slider control lf there is no Microphone slider shown on this panel click Options in the Menu Bar and select Properties Click the Microphone checkbox and click OK Drag the Microphone Volume slider left or right to adjust the vol ume Click Options in the Menu Bar and select Properties Click Playback and then click OK On the audio mixer panel below the Microphone volume slider If there is a check box labeled Mute it should be selected Return to the Properties panel again and select Recording to view the audio recording controls To increase maximum microphone input volume look for an Advanced button below the Microphone volume slider and click it If your audio card supports a Mic Boost AGC t AGC or Pre Amp option it will be listed here Select the option and try the microphone test in Visual Communi cator again If you experience microphone level problems in the future try resetting this option again by deselecting and selecting
105. ideo capture to large projection screens or second monitors with out the need for publishing or encoding beforehand All you need is Visual Communicator Studio a dual head video card and a second monitor To broadcast to a large screen you ll need a projector To add live commentary you ll need a microphone and to add live video you ll need to connect a cam corder Create your show and script as you normally would Then plan your live presentation listing each source and action Your presentation outline might look something like this Large VC Studio Screen Microphone Display Open Give welcom ing Graphic ing comments Live Capture Live Audio Live Video of from Camera from Micro Guest 1 phone Speaker from Camera 1 Run Show Add commen VC Show tary through Plays microphone Live Audio Live Video of from Micro Product Demo Resume Show phone Microphone Thank Guests from Camera 1 VC Show Plays With a good plan of events and some rehearsal time you and Visual Communicator Studio of course are on your way to presenting a really big show 101 Setting Up a Second Monitor or Projector 5 Connect your Projector or second monitor to your PC You must have a dual head VGA video card to use this feature Before starting Visual Communicator go to the Win dows Control Panel Display Settings 1 Ifyou are using Windows XP click the Start button 2 Click Control Panel and then double
106. in the action tray To see automatic updates in your VC Studio project 1 In PowerPoint make any text edits to the slide 2 Save the slide in PowerPoint The changes you made in PowerPoint will appear in your VC project tips amp shortcuts If you have made changes to your embedded file but are not seeing the changes in VC Stu dio try right clicking the object in the Action Tray and select Update Link 74 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Chapter 9 Using V Screen e Using V Screen to Create a Background e Ordering a Serious Magic V Screen or Mak ing Your Own Setting Your Camera Properties for V Screen e Using Virtual Sets The Serious Magic V Screen is the first afford able live green screen feature available for home and office use You ve seen green screen effects used in blockbuster movies and on the news to place the weather announcer in front of a weather map With V Screen you can get the same results as the pros who use expensive cameras and banks of specialized lighting Once you ve set up your camera hung your V Screen and chosen from the great collection of VC still or animated backgrounds you re ready to create a new version of reality Just think about it you can create a new reality without drugs chemicals or expensive psycho analysis You provide the talent and we provide the tools to quickly and easily chroma key your V Screen Effect Virtual Sets take you to the next le
107. in this tutorial make sure you have a video camera and a microphone plugged into your computer and that they are turned on and working If you have not set up your equipment yet be sure to read Chapter 4 Setting up Your Studio on page 29 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 25 Test Driving With a Wizard Double click the Visual Communicator icon on your desktop or 1 From Windows click the Start button and select Programs 2 Select the Serious Magic folder and click Visual Communicator By default Visual Communicator starts by tak ing you directly to the Wizard Later if you would like to learn about the wizard in detail see Using The Wizard on page 42 3 If you see the window asking what type of show you d like to create choose to create a show for Web format this time around Sian by choosing ihe lype of video you wouid ike fo creale E Create show based on a Style Create an m C Create show based on a Topic Create Instant Hollywood show Open with blank video Set up One Click Video 4 For type of video select Create show based on a Style 5 You ll see an explanation and samples of each show type appear on the right side of the wiz ard Click the Next button at the bottom right of the window 6 Preview some existing style templates by clicking the radio buttons in the Styles list You ll see samples of each style appear on the right For now select C
108. infor Title Editor mation Launch Launches the advanced title editing The VC Window Controls TD 6 Click the down arrow to minimize the VC window The Help Menu Help Tip of the Day Click the X to close the main View Orientation video EAS a VC window Activate Serious Magic Website Technical Support Website Frequently Asked Questions Check For Updates About visual Communicator Menu Option WhatitDoes it Does Hep Launches VC Help You can also press VC Help You can also press the F1 key to launch the Help system Tip of the View one or all of the Tips Day View Prompts you to insert a CD containing Orienta the video tion Video Activate In Studio takes you to a screen where a UDN gt you can activate your software Serious Requires Internet access Takes you to Magic Web the Serious Magic web site site 24 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Chapter 3 Making Your First Show A Test Drive e Test Driving With a Wizard e More VC Tutorials Online Now that you have the power of a television studio on your desktop you may want to take a little test drive and see just what kinds of cool things you can do This tutorial takes just a few minutes and guides you through the making of your first show using the Wizard If you are interested in trying more tutorials visit our web site and see the growing list of step by step tutorials offered there Before you beg
109. ing Video From Other Recordings on page 70 to learn how Saves your project Save As Displays a window where you can choose a new file name and destination for your saved file Print Script Click here to print your script Pro Content Click here if the media in your show needs to be compatible with high resolu tion television quality format renk tibrares Web Content Click here if your media needs to compat ible with the web Zoom to Click here to have the Output Monitor Video Safe zoom in to display just the area visible on Area a television screen Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 13 The Director Tab Controls Use the Director controls when you rehearse or record to control the Teleprompter and Action area If Visual Communicator has a driver s seat this is it Get in sit down and make videos To learn more about using the Teleprompter see The Tele prompter on page 54 14 What it Does Pause and resume the Teleprompter and Actions during Rehearse and Record You can also quickly Pause and Resume by pressing the Space Bar Advance button Scrolls the Teleprompter and Actions down one text line Next Effect Advances to the next tray in the Action button Area End Effect Ends the effect that is currently being button displayed Scroll Speed Slide to the left to slow down the speed Slider of the text in the Teleprompter Slide to the right to speed it up Displa
110. ing Windows 2000 and Win dows XP See Real Networks Helix Universal Server on the web for more information Set up a Mount Point and use it to configure your VC Studio streaming profile Setting Up an Account with a Streaming Service Provider If you want to stream your show over the web and you don t happen to have a spare streaming server lying around don t despair you can sign up for an account with a streaming service provider much like setting up an account with an Internet service provider Search the web for streaming service pro viders to find one that meets your streaming requirements Google has a good list here http directory google com Top Computers Internet Broadcasting Service_Providers Once you ve set up your account be sure to obtain the following information from your provider to set up your VC Studio streaming profile e Publishing Point The name of your streaming session on a Windows Media streaming server e Mount Point The name of your streaming ses sion on a Real Media server e Server Name This might be a name or an IP address e User Name If required e Password If required Port number Required for Pull and port to port streaming only 107 Setting Up Streaming for the First Time To help you get configured quickly we ve provided some generic Serious Magic Profiles otherwise known as smp files for your use You simply select the profile that most closel
111. ings interesting How to Rehearse Your Show When you are ready to start a rehearsal click the Rehearse button Ci CE a aa While rehearsing i than 3800 sq ft this home keep your eyes ee eas is filled with many on the pink will March 2002 ae upgrades designed to colored Action OJy S pamper your every Bar moment The master 5 Bodioome t fath bedroom features a 3 Car Tandem Garage roman soaking tub glass The Rehearse button HED ff enclosed shower all ven a eis mae surrounded by imported tile The main home entry Action Trays play in the Output Monito window as they move through the pink colored Action Bar Temprargrar ie i is finished in a warm Pera Se ae j toned slate transitioning 4 Meus iet Cri GH ect Saat Te Cn E a T E ros A D ee ht ard eir al Lar ity De Wy bik eo i one cane ey Pron art z teo FP up rome Your show will begin _ ia ypnu Umien D A to countdown when 2 8 2 2 you click Rehearse 2 Bea Pees F b 2 2 2 2 dl 2 2 You will see a countdown on the screen and then the show will start to scroll up through the Action Area As Action Trays move up into the pink Action bar you will see the actions take place in the Output Monitor window As the text in the Teleprompter scrolls into the pink Action bar that is your cue to read the words out loud Be sure to re
112. io or video input devices like cameras and microphones and test their connection To learn more about con necting your audio or video devices see Chapter 4 Setting up Your Studio on page 29 The Audio Setup tab judo do deo Audio Setup Controls Logitech Microphone Pro 3000 18 What it Does Input drop list PSTUDIO S If you have VC Studio allows you to select and then set up multiple Audio or Video input devices Audio button Displays audio properties and con trols Video button Displays the video properties and controls Audio Input Device Audio Only Displays the name of drop down list Input Source drop down list Input Volume Hardware Level slider and meter Input Volume Digital Boost slider and meter Pass Thru to Speakers checkbox Input Mute checkbox Output Volume slider Output Mute checkbox Output Volume Test the currently selected audio input device If your audio device is con nected but not listed here it is not installed properly or the software driver is not installed properly Audio Only If you have an audio input device connected to your PC that has multiple input sources available such as Microphone or Line In select between them here Audio Only Adjusts the volume level of your current audio input card Adjust this level first so that the meter is just in the yellow range Audio Only The amount of amplifi cation applied to the
113. ions are for auto matic set up of the V Screen effect which removes the green screen background Be sure you have checked the Active box before you start creating a show with a V Screen effect Screen resolution must be set to 1024x768 or higher You must run your screen resolution at 1024 x 768 or higher Right click on the Windows desktop click on Properties then the Settings tab to change the screen resolution The file dropped entered is not a file type supported by Visual Communicator This message appears when you try to add a file to the Action Area that Visual Communicator does not support The message was not sent When you select Send in an Email during publishing if your Internet connec tion is not working properly or your email client such as Microsoft Outlook is not configured correctly you may not be able to send the email Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 127 The Publisher could not log on to an email account The user has Web Mail i e Hotmail or AOL and does not have a local pop account setup You may be experiencing a technical problem with your email program or the account The publisher does not detect an Internet connection Dial up users need to dial and connect with their ISP DSL Cable modem users are most likely having technical difficulty with their modem network setup or connection Users on a network are most likely experiencing technical difficulty with the network or their network conn
114. is book to bed and use it to induce sleep We just want you to know that this information is here if you need it Use this chapter as a quick reference or road map We briefly list and show all of the features and controls here along with a quick summary of how they work and then if you find you have further questions we tell you where the details are located later in the book Don t nod off yet we re just getting to the good part Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 7 Visual Communicator Feature and Control Overview VC Main Window Feature Map Output Monitor Window Menu Bar Teleprompter Window Action Area Window Controls and Buttons Sale Action 1 Visual Communicator Sy dio cit EE E Trays The Action Bar Y Welcome to another e fo American River Fine Homes Internet tour l m Emily and today we ll be Director Actions v Sereen i me ahs ouring 1175 White Swan 5 ideo Clip E3 d araa Court a wonderful french Length 00 04 The volume The Tabs j m C2 C Program Files Serious Magic Visual Communicator Contenti Styles Me di a T Area Antique Celebration Contemporary Corporate Cyberspace 100 I Mute FPF P BP P enant nn FIRANMAI 2enerahion X alma Hin Am The Output Monitor Window and Buttons Use the Output Monitor Window to view your show Use the buttons to choose whether to Rehearse Record or Review your
115. itle so that it appears in the Preview window on the Actions tab 2 Click the Edit button 3 Inthe Title Line 1 field enter the text that you wish to display 4 If you d like to add a second line click the right arrow button 5 Inthe Title Line 2 field add the text you wish to display and then click the Done button The Title in the Action Tray should now dis play your new text Changing the color style texture and other effects in the title 1 Click the title so that it appears in the Preview window on the Actions tab 2 Click the Title Editor button You ll see a new window open containing the Alpha CG program Alpha CG contains lots of fun treatments that you can add to your titles Experiment with it s features and review it s Help system for more information From within Alpha CG Click Help in the Menu Bar and select Help Topics Also see VC Help for assistance using the Advanced Titler Adding VC video clips Visual Communicator comes with a variety of video clips ready for use in your show The professional talent in these pre recorded clips can add polish and yes even humor to your show without the expense of hiring a professional announcer yourself Depending on your sense of humor you may find some of these clips to be quite funny but then again you may not If not we apologize in advance Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 2 C Program Files Serious Magic Visual Communicator
116. itor Title Graphics only Click to launch the button Title Editing application which allows you to change text fonts styles colors out line shadow pattern etc 15 Actions Tab continued Audio Clip Controls 16 What it Does Volume slider Audio and Video Clips Drag the slider up to raise the volume and down to lower it Normal is 100 Volume Audio and Video Clips Displays the rise meter and fall of your audio clip volume Volume num Audio and Video Clips Displays the cur ber display rent volume percentage Mute check Audio and Video Clips Mutes the audio box associated with the video file or for an audio only file turns the file on or off Preview Audio Video Clips and Still Images Pre button view or hear the currently selected clip Trim button Video Clips Opens the Trim window where you can indicate where you want a video clip to begin and end For more information see Trimming Video Clips on page 71 Adjust Colors Video Clips and Still Images Use the sliders to adjust the brightness hue RGB color contrast and offsets of clips or pho tos Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Visual Communicator Feature and Control Overview Aa Control __ What it Does If you choose to add virtual sets or green screen Control What it Does effects to your show the V Screen tab is where you ll V screen icon Shows the default or selected back select yo
117. level of ease If you have VC Web Web is not directly compati ble with the PowerPoint file format however you can save slides from within PowerPoint as stan dard JPEG or BMP files and insert them into your show as graphics If you have VC Pro you can drag and drop your PowerPoint slides in their native format If you have VC Studio you can embed Power Point slides within your show as OLE objects The difference here is that an embedded slide will be updated automatically within VC Studio as soon as you save the changes within PowerPoint while VC Web and Pro users will not see changes to the slide unless it is recreated in PowerPoint and re saved to a slide Pro Users or graphic Web Users Once you re done you can edit move and work with the new actions as you normally do PowerPoint must be installed to use the ppt import feature tips amp shortcuts For best results create your slides with larger text to make them easy to read within your show For VC Web Users Save your slides as bmp or jpg files and drag and drop them into Visual Communicator Arrange them in the Action Area where you can use the spe 72 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Action Trays and Media cial effects and other options to enhance your show If you change some text in your PowerPoint slides you can simply export the slides to the same direc tory Visual Communicator will use the new files without you having to
118. ll see a Start slider a Length scroll bar and an End slider These controls are used to make adjustments to the start and end point of your clip This will subsequently change how much of your video clip is played tips amp shortcuts We suggest that you record an extra 5 seconds before and after the segment you want to use This extra time makes it easier to adjust the trim on your video clip 3 Drag the Start slider to view the clip and move to the point in the clip where you d like the video to begin Everything in the clip before this point will no longer be seen or heard Repeat the same steps for the End slider changing the end point of your video Any thing in the video after the End slider position will not be seen or heard The Length scroll bar represents the length of the video The length of the scroll bar will change in size as you change the start and end time or shorten your clip When you use the Trim feature your original video clip remains completely intact You do not actually remove any of the clip You sim ply define at what point the clip should begin and end When you drag the Length scroll bar 71 left or right you are sliding a window within the original 10 second video clip 4 To see the results of your trim click the Pre view button You can go back and make any changes you like 5 When you are finished trimming your clip click the Done button 6 To view the final resu
119. lt of the adjustments as they will be seen in your show double click the clip in the Action Tray If you need to you can still go back to the Trim feature and adjust your trim there None of your original clip is lost tips amp shortcuts If you d like to trim your clip one frame at a time click the white Start or End slider and press Start 00 00 Length 00 06 4 lil e the left or right arrows on your keyboard to move one frame ata time When you re finished you can build your show around the clip or save it in a show for later use You can also drag and drop any video clip you capture into any show you have already cre ated Adding Your Own Audio Use your own sound files WAV and MP3 in your shows You can access them anywhere on your com puter or network by using the Browse folder which lets you navigate to external content 1 Click the Browse tab and move through your folders to find your audio files 2 Once you have located an audio file that you want to use click and drag it into the Action Area Visual Communicator creates an Action Tray and places the audio file into it 3 Double click the left icon in the tray and you will hear the new music or sound Try rehearsing your show with the new music Adding PowerPoint files to Your Show Slides from Microsoft PowerPoint presentations can be added to your show no matter what version of VC you have However each version varies in it s
120. m and you ll see what we mean Double click the transition effects so see examples of how they work In this case words fail to do them justice Here is an example of inserting a simple transition effect 1 Click the Graphics tab and drag an opening graphic image from the Graphics tab library to the top of the Action Area 2 Drag a second image file underneath the first Action Tray 3 Click the Video Effects tab and double click the Slides folder to open it 4 Drag the Slide Off Down Left effect to left side of the second tray 5 Click the Rehearse button The first image fades into the opening scene Then as the second action tray passes through the Action bar the first image slides diago nally off to the left to reveal the image in the second action tray tips amp shortcuts If you use a page peel effect on your opening graphic that unpeels to the right try to use a corresponding effect in your closing graphic like a page peel that closes to the left Strive to use effects that are compatible with each other and that move in a direction or way that makes sense and is not jarring to the viewer Customizing Effects with Advanced Effect Controls lt i gt Visual Communicator Pro introduced Advanced Controls for many Video Effects and Studio also includes them Use the Advanced controls to further customize your effects The controls for each Effect vary but we ll show you how to get started here and d
121. n detail see Chapter 11 Publishing Your Show on page 87 Creative Uses for Visual Communicator Communicating with video is a great way to make your messages and ideas stand out You can use it in place of written documents or normal presentations to achieve a much greater impact Visual Communicator enables you to create all kinds of videos The list below is offered to spark your imagination about new and interesting ways to use Visual Communicator 44 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Sales associates can make their weekly sales reports more visual and effective Sales associates can make client proposals more personal Companies can create visual FAQs using on screen examples of how to solve problems Little League Baseball team weekly highlight shows and also recruitment videos Schools campus updates on the web allow par ents to have more insight into school activities Schools can use videos to announce fund rais ing goals and to give weekly updates Online cars sales with a virtual test drive and showcasing the car s features and benefits Online dating profiles The perfect way to make that lasting first impression Create visual announcements for web sites that are more effective than a press release Marketing managers create product over views for sales reps amp worldwide resellers PC users can create online movi
122. n of Media files ready to be added to your shows In fact there are so many to date that we can t possibly list them all here Media files are grouped within these Media tab libraries Video Effects A collection of transitions effects and actions Styles An assortment of pre produced visual ele ments that can be customized with your informa tion These include title graphics and mpg video effects Topics An assortment of title graphics and text templates categorized by topic Videos The Camera input icons which represent your live video camera as well as the pre recorded talent videos in mpg format that you can put in your shows Graphics Solid color still photo and animated backgrounds for use with V Screen or without Sim ulated studio backgrounds cartoon style pop up balloons and graphics text and credits effects Audio Tab TV quality music tracks categorized by music style and pre recorded talent sound bites and sound effects in wav and wma format You can also use your own standard PC audio files WAV and MP3 formats are supported LIBRARY SHORTCUTS We ve provided some shortcuts to help you navi gate and manage the files in the Media libraries e Right click in the white area in a library e Copy Copies selected files for paste in another folder e Paste Pastes previously copied files into the current library folder Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Action Trays and M
123. n window You should see the video coming from your camera in the Output Monitor window at the upper left corner of the screen Position your camera at the top of your com puter monitor centered over the Teleprompter window Position yourself so that your head and shoulders are in the center of the Output Monitor window For additional help see Finding your optimal camera position on page 32 Teens O B Hello This is just a test script NX i which l ve entered here to see how this thing E ray actually works Testing pute eae testing one two three testing Hello this is a test script I ve entered here to e Type a test script in the Teleprompter Insert the cursor by clicking in the Tele prompter area e Click in a line that is level with the second Action Tray in the show The Action Tray with the camera on the right e End your script level with the last Action Tray in the show the Action Tray with black on the right You may need to scroll down a bit This way your script will start and end in time with the video Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Making Your First Show A Test Drive To learn how to use the Teleprompter in detail see Chapter 7 Using the Teleprompter and Scripts on page 53 Saving Project Files Now would be a good time to save your show to a file on your hard disk Visual Communicator gave your project a default file name when you created it To view or chan
124. nagement marketing and other groups You can write the script in your word processing program attach the script to your email or copy and paste it directly into the email When you have received your feedback and made your changes simply copy and paste the script into the Visual Communicator Teleprompter window What to Wear on Camera How you look on camera should be consistent with the type of overall impression you are trying to make Thus your on camera appearance will depend greatly on the topic of your show or presen tation A professional appearance on camera will tell your audience that you are serious about the message you are delivering and in turn they will be apt to pay closer attention A business suit is appropriate for a business presen tation but probably not for a music video show When a newscaster like Dan Rather is in the studio he s wearing a coat and tie conversely when he s doing a story from a war torn city street he s wear ing a field jacket and blue jeans or casual slacks With Visual Communicator s V Screen you can appear to be anywhere so make sure you re dressed appropriately for your locale From a technical point of view you should avoid wearing fabrics with small patterns like herring bone tweeds hounds tooth and small checkered patterns These tend to drive most video cameras a little crazy In general it s a good idea to wear neu tral colors and to avoid solid blacks or whites
125. name of the file that your clip will be saved to We suggest saving clips to file names that will make the con tent easy to identify e To see all of your captured clip files click the Browse button 4 Use the Tape Control buttons to play fast for ward reverse pause or stop your camera The time indicator below the buttons displays where you are on your tape 5 Play your tape to find the segment that you d like to capture Reverse the tape to perhaps 5 or 10 seconds before the segment begins Allowing extra time at the beginning and end of the desired segment allows you extra room for scene transitions and effects 6 On the Project tab name the video clip file you are about to record in the Capture File field 7 When your segment is cued up and you are ready to begin capturing click the Record but ton 8 When you are done capturing click the Stop button 9 To locate the clip you just recorded click the Output tab in the Media Area Then open the Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Action Trays and Media My Captured Clips folder You ll see the clip you just recorded in this folder 10 You can use this video clip as you would any other media file Drag and drop it in the Action Area Trimming Video Clips 1 After you have dragged your clip into the Action Area Click it in the Action Tray 2 Click the Actions Tab and then click the Trim button at the bottom of the tab You wi
126. ngs M 2Pass Encoding Default Format BE Trigger Links windows Mediag clip Attributes lt Back Nexk Cancel Help l Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Publishing Your Show 10 Click the radio button for the file size and cor responding image quality that is suitable for your audience 11 If you have added Web Links to your show click the Trigger Links checkbox to include them on your page tips amp shortcuts If you d like more information about File size and quality choices or Clip Attributes click the Help but ton 12 Click the Next button 13 Review your web page information and click the Back button if you d like to edit any of your previous selections 14 Click the Finish button and VC Studio will compress your video and produce your web page 15 If you like click the Show Web Page When Finished checkbox to display the show in your default browser window when you click OK Advanced Web Publishing Options If you are an experienced user and would like to customize your Windows Media settings and insert your own script commands select Custom Size Custom Quality in the publishing size and quality selection window If you make this selection the Trigger Links checkbox will no longer become avail able however this is the same option as the Script 95 checkbox in the Windows Media Profile Editor win If you would like to further customize yous web dow f SM
127. nitor screen Scrolling will begin a few seconds after switch ing to Full Screen display Normal display will resume at the end of the performance or you can press the Esc key on your keyboard to go back to Normal display immediately Clicking the Rehearse or Record buttons will auto matically take VC into Full Screen mode until you clear the Full Screen During Rehearse Record checkbox tips amp shortcuts You can quickly Pause and Resume Rehearsing and Recording while in Full Screen mode by pressing the Space Bar on your keyboard Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Pausing the Teleprompter In Visual Communicator Studio the Pause Tele prompter Effect allows you to pause your show more easily than the Director Tab Pause Resume button Instead of breaking your focus to grab the mouse to click the Pause button or press the space bar you can add a Pause effect to your show before hand wait for the show to pause automatically and then resume it when you wish Peo tects sles Tones wos Graphies Audo mowe Pr ID C Program Files Serious Magici visual Communicator Content Effects advanced M t lt Dissolve Sre Sto Dissolve Src B to B Dissolve Title To Title Mega Peel Off QW Mega Roll Off Mega Roll On Mega Tornado Pause Teleprompter 1 Click the Video Effects Tab and open the Advanced folder to locate the Pause Tele prompter icon yone today g to learn about hat is Gravity
128. not a good lighting situation for filming video If you have not turned off the automatic settings on your camera a bright background behind the sub ject can cause the camera s auto mode feature to darken the overall image and leaves the subject s face in the dark To avoid this turn the auto settings off or make sure that the light shining on the face of your subject is brighter than the light behind the subject Using bounced light The best way to eliminate this problem is to bounce light off of a nearby wall or the ceiling Bounced light can also even out hot spots and fill in dark areas It s also good to have a fair amount of overall ambient light in the area that will be visible on cam era Experiment by moving your lights around and keep checking the image on your monitor to see what each change does to the quality of your cam era image If you are having trouble getting enough light out of your existing fixtures several inexpensive solutions are as close as your local hardware store A tor chiere style halogen light can throw 300 watts of light on your ceiling or wall at a reasonable cost Another option is using 500 watt portable halogen work lights These can also be quite inexpensive and 38 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide there are a variety of models that come with their own stands or handy clamps Our caring lawyers would like to remind you to always use such lights carefully and only
129. o understand some television industry terms You don t necessarily need to know these terms to use Visual Communicator but since you can now walk the walk we thought you might enjoy talking the talk Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 131 Glossary Action The transition effect that introduces a new piece of video to the screen Actions are placed on the left side of the Action Trays Action Area This is the window on the upper right side of the main interface where you place the Action Trays that contain your media pre recorded videos audio and effects Action Tray The Action Tray is a container for your action and media files Angle Changes the angle of the wipe effect This can make the starting and ending point of an effect as an example on a angle instead of vertical Pro Audio Mixer The Windows audio mixer is where you can adjust the volume and balance of your incoming and outgoing audio Auto Set Key Automatically sets the V Screen green screen chroma key function adjusting it to the color of your V Screen backdrop by taking a pic ture of just the backdrop by itself Background A picture or graphic used behind a set or person often as a chroma key Also used behind on screen text Bar Count Shows how many horizontal or vertical bars will be in the video effect This can be set from 2 to 50 bars that transition one source to the next Pro Bar Delay This is the time inserted
130. of increasing or decreasing the noise in the background Next Green can help to clean up the edges of your foreground subject Finally Red can help correct some noise in the background and also fine tune the edges of the subject If you are unable to eliminate all of the noise in your background you may need to make some further lighting or camera adjustments Jerkiness If you have a slower PC or an older graphics card you may see the video in the Output Monitor win dow become jerky during rehearsing or recording with V Screen active In this case 1 Click Settings in the Menu bar 2 Select Performance Settings 3 Drag the Your computer is slider to the Cus tom setting 4 Click the checkbox for Don t Show V Screen During Rehearse Record This should resolve the issue If you still see the problem deselect Smooth Teleprompter Scrolling in Performance Settings and verify that Freeze Animated Backgrounds is selected 80 tips amp shortcuts Camcorder Users In general camcorders will yield better results with V screen than most webcams However to do this the camcorder must be configured properly All of the auto settings in the camera must be turned off includ ing auto white balance auto gain auto iris auto exposure auto focus etc Some cameras allow you to Lock or Hold all settings with one switch Others allow you to turn each setting off with menu options Consult your came
131. ommodate closer timing To collapse trays right click a tray and select Col lapse Tray from the pop upmenu Drag the collapsed trays as close as you like To expand collapsed trays right click a collapsed tray and select Expand Tray from the pop up menu 59 About Media Files Media files are the source of the images and sound that you put in your show Many Media files come with Visual Communicator or they can be created in programs you already have like PowerPoint or Pho toshop Some media files like titles can be created within VC using the Advanced Titler or you might down load media from the Internet like songs purchased from an online music store Video and audio files can also be recorded and created right in Visual Communicator using your camera and microphone Media File Types Media graphics files can be photos or artwork title graphics opening or closing slates or lower third titles They can also be audio and video files The following graphic audio and video media files types are compatible with and can be read automat ically by Visual Communicator Graphic Media Files BMP BMP Bitmap is a standard graphic file for mat for DOS or Windows compatible PCs It is an uncompressed format that results in relatively larger files but has no image loss from compression JPG JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group is a compressed file format that results in relatively small files JPG
132. ommunicator Updates e Where to Find Help e Updating Your Hardware Drivers e Frequently Asked Questions Problems with Audio e Frequently Asked Questions Problems with Video e Running DirectX Diagnostics e Error Messages We hope that the following chapter will help should you ever find that you have a problem with our product We ll show you how find help update your program and check for the latest device drivers If you don t find the answer in this book we want to make sure that you know about all of the sources of help available to you Whether in the VC Help system our Technical Support web pages or User Forums chances are we have an answer Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 119 Check for Visual Communicator Updates If you are having problems with Visual Communicator and are connected to the Internet we recommend that you try checking for updated program files before you try anything else In the Menu Bar click Help and select Check for Updates Follow the onscreen instructions to check for updates and download if needed This ensures that you are using the latest release of Visual Communicator Web Pro or Studio Even if the update does not fix your problem immediately it improves our ability to isolate your problem and identify a solution Where fo Find Help Frequently Asked Questions Check our Frequently Asked Questions in this User Guide in the Help System and on our Web site The online
133. ommunicator represents a powerful combination of the two Inventors first arrived at the possibilities of television even before the turn of the century Television wasn t generally available to the public until around 1946 and the television boom occurred between 1949 when 940 000 households had a set and 1953 when the number soared to 20 million according to some sources Because Television can encapsulate imagery as well as sound it forced a number of shifts in the way broad cast communications were created where appearance began to matter as much as substance In view of the proverb a picture is worth a thousand words television has irrevocably established that humans are mys tically attracted to the visual message It was largely this effect that shifted politics entertainment and even the news further than we might have imagined The first color broadcasts began around 1953 and soon after the first recorders were available to the net works as opposed to capturing television on film The first home video recorder then appeared in 1963 for a whopping 30 000 The networks could finally eliminate the need to splice film together by electronically mixing video and eventually adding special effects Early special effects began with simple transitions which combined part of the image with part of another image as well as a technique called chroma key which used color variations to control the mixing Amaz ingly som
134. on to the end of the previous video clip so that it doesn t trigger the next action before the video clip is done playing Adding Live Video From More Than One Camera ET i If you have Visual Communicator Studio you can use more than one camera in your show and take advantage of multiple camera angles and have cam eras for more than one person To connect addi Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Action Trays and Media tional cameras see Installing Multiple Cameras on page 34 Camera bmp Camera bmp Cameral bmp 1 After you ve connected your additional cam eras in the Media area click the Videos tab and scroll down until you see an icon for Cam era 2 2 Drag the Camera 2 icon onto the right side of an Action Tray The video image from Camera 2 should appear in the Output Monitor window Transitioning between Cameras 1 Position each camera to capture the desired shot the Camera 1 input gt the earse to E j Transition Camera 2 input Ce ice aaa ea i 2 Drag the Camera 1 icon into the Action Area to create a tray for your first camera input 3 Drag the icon for Camera 2 into the Action Area to create a tray for it 4 Ifyou plan to transition straight from Camera 1 to Camera 2 add a transition effect into the left side of the Camera 2 Tray 69 5 Practice the shots by clicking the Rehearse button until you ve got it down then click the
135. one of the Style templates and then click the Choose button Click the radio buttons to preview styles then select the style you would like to use and click Finish Click the down arrow in the Page Layout drop down list to select a layout The images on the left side of the window rep resent a sample of each page layout option and change depending on which layout you have selected The word Chapters represents where your Chapter Marker links will appear The Link Target area displays any web site that you create a Web Link for The alien like fig ure represents your show Header an Link Target Chapters Footer e If you have added Chapter Markers to your show select Web Links smaller video on the left to create the layout rep resented in the illustration above or Header Link Target Chapters Footer e Select Web Links smaller video on the right or Hoadar FA Chapters Link Target e Select Web Links smaller video on the top or Chapters e Select Web Links larger video including markers or an Footer e Select No Web Links larger video with out markers to display the video ina larger player with no web links Click the Header checkbox if you d like to add a large text heading at the top of the page then type a one or two line heading in the Header fields Click the Footer check box if you d like to add a footer at the very bottom of the page then type a footer in the Footer
136. ontemporary then click the Next button 7 Select one of the three background images Camera Dish or Lens for your opening eraphic title slate 8 Enter the name of your video in the Line 1 field If you want two lines in your show s title enter the second line You can change these later if you like 9 Choose a style for the lower third graphics by selecting Live Report News Bulletin or Top Story Again you ll see samples on the right as you click Open An opaning shat Techolical Editor 10 Type in your name or the name of the person who will be on camera in the Enter your name field and enter your title company or location if you like 11 Click the Next button tips amp shortcuts The Choose a V Screen background option is skipped in this tutorial If you like click through the options to see what they look like 12 Choose your theme music You can preview the music with the provided on screen audio controls 26 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 13 14 15 Select one of the three backgrounds Camera Dish or Lens for your closing graphic title slate Enter the text for the closing slate of your show You can have one or two lines Then click the Finish button You ll see a message indicating that VC is now creating your customized titles and graphics Your new show is automatically built for you in a matter of seconds When it s done you ll see the mai
137. ot see the camera as an audio device and audio through my therefore does not pick up the camera s microphone as a live audio input camcorder source In VC click the Setup tab and click the Audio button Ensure that your audio device appears in the Audio Input Device drop down list Connect a high quality microphone to the mic input jack on your PC s sound card This is preferred because a lapel clip on microphone will deliver much higher quality sound than a microphone mounted on your camcorder Camcorder microphones may introduce room echo as well as computer fan and other room noise If you have connected a microphone to a jack in your camera the micro phone may needs its own power supply Check the instruction manual that came with the microphone 122 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Things to Try and Possible Solutions There is a big red If the audio you are recording is boosted too high or the microphone is too microphone on my close to your mouth you will see a red microphone indicator in the Output screen when I record Monitor shows Review the recorded show and listen to the microphone playback to see how the sound is If it is not that bad try lowering the Digital Boost on the Audio Setup tab while reviewing If that fixes the problem publish the video with the lowered digital boost without having to re record If you have to adjust the Hardware Level to fix the problem then your m
138. our hard drive To find out more about the Media libraries read About VC Media Files on page 61 Content Folder drop down list Back button Fwd button Home button Graphics Tab Browse Tab Projects Tab Media Folder 12 What it does Displays the currently selected folder Click the down arrow to view and navigate to other folders Video Effects Tab Displays the contents of the Video Effects Library Folder Displays the contents of the Styles folder an assortment of pre produced visual elements that can be customized with your information Displays the contents of the Topics folders which are used to create the shows in the Wizard Displays the contents of the Video media folders containing the camera icon s as well as the video files that you can put in your shows Contains image media for use as backgrounds for V Screen effects or as supporting images in your shows Use VC provided images or your own pictures VC supports standard image file formats such as JPG JPEG PNG BMP GIF TGA including 32 bit with transparency Displays contents of the audio media folders including TV quality music tracks and sound effects You can also use your own standard PC audio files WAV WMA and MP3 formats are supported Allows you to locate and load files from outside of VC Useful for loading digital camera pictures files from the Internet and any other media files that may be on your computer or network Displays sho
139. ox and then use the slider to see the effect that it has on the effect Wipe Pattern The grey gradient used as the wipe pattern for the effect Wipe Transform This is where you have the ability to customize the wipe effect Here you can set a new x and y axis for the effect to start at as well as adjust the angel and the scale of the wipe effect White Balance A process used in consumer and professional camcorders and video cameras to cali brate the picture for accurate color display in differ ent lighting conditions Wipe A wipe is a transitional effect usually a hard edged effect like a circle wipe In Visual Communi cator wipes can also have soft edges and color bor der effects applied to them 135 136 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide
140. p comic inside of all of us Campus Update Introduce your school news with the help of a professional newscaster New Product Showcase Introduce any new product in style with this professional show Creating a One Click Video One Click Video allows you to create template based videos that can be loaded each time that you click the One Click Video icon on your desktop Once triggered Visual Communicator will load the One Click Video and you can quickly record a new version This is incredibly useful for recording quick video emails or daily broadcasts such as company briefings daily school bulletins VC remembers the format of the show and you just replace the live sec tions To create a One Click Video start the Wizard 1 Inthe Menu bar click File and select Wizard 2 Inthe first Wizard window click Set up One Click Video and follow the onscreen instruc tions to create your video template 3 Enter your script or outline and make any fur ther desired changes to the show before saving it as your default One Click Video 4 After you have completed this one time setup you can go ahead and record your One Click Video if you like or save it for later when you re ready to perform the live parts Just make sure you save the show before exiting 5 To load your One Click Video click the One Click Video icon on your Windows desktop or Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Experiment With Abandon in the S
141. packag ing Some cameras claim 320 x 240 resolution and others claim 640 x 480 In general the higher resolu tion webcams produce better images The need for speed While most webcams connect to your PC through a standard USB port there are some models that con nect through higher speed ports One type connects to a FireWire port also called IEEE 1394 or i Link Other cameras connect to a USB 2 0 port also called HiSpeed USB Both of these new types of webcams generally feature better quality than USB 1 0 web cams Due to the higher speed interface they use these webcams do not have to compress the image to transfer it into your computer The trade off here is that not all PCs have FireWire or USB 2 0 ports If you wish to use this kind of webcam FireWire or USB 2 0 ports can be added to your PC by installing an internal interface card into an open slot It s all about drivers Whichever kind of web cam you choose it must have a software driver available that is compatible with Microsoft s Directshow WDM driver Almost all web cams now come with such a driver however some older web cams do not Most manufacturers make updated software drivers available on their web sites for free download Almost any WDM driver compatible analog or firewire inputs con nected to your computer can be used with Visual Communicator Camcorders If you d like to get very high quality results you should consider using a camcorder combine
142. pens the Media Publisher screen where you can save a video file of your show to disk a server or send it as an email Radius This is the radius of the path in a Swap effect the larger the number the larger the circular path taken will be Pro Record Runs your show and records the video from your camera and audio from your micro phone Revert This button will change the effect back to its default state after it has been altered in the Advanced settings Pro Rotation Count The number of rotations that a blinds effect bar will have during the transition This can be set to a positive or negative number from 3 to 3 Pro Rotation Direction You can change the direction of a rotation within an effect by selecting Clockwise or Counterclockwise radio button Pro 134 Rehearse Runs your show without recording so you can preview how it will look Review Plays back your completed show S Video Refers to a system of plugs and jacks used to interconnect camcorders VCRs and TV monitors which keeps the chrominance color and luminance brightness information separate Also called Y C luminance chrominance connectors this improves picture quality by keeping any signal interaction to a minimum Scale Scales the size of the effect positively or neg atively Pro Script The text written for actors show hosts and newscasters containing their lines A script is typi cally the first part of any produ
143. plates e Blank Video Creating a Show From Scratch e Creative Uses for Visual Communicator We magicians like to have fun and hope that you do too It is our hope that when you sit down with VC you will let your imagination run wild experiment with abandon and use our product to it s fullest extent Of course we understand some folks are more methodical and analytical in nature Perhaps the kind of people that read this User Guide This message is for them especially Be fearless be bold Don t be afraid to try things outside the norm and above all have fun In this chapter we show you a variety of ways to create shows quickly and easily leaving you to concentrate on adding the fun stuff We ve also listed some creative uses for VC that you may not have thought of Think of us as those friendly folks at the local grocery store who urge you to try their free samples Try it you ll like it Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 41 Using The Wizard The fastest and easiest way to create a show is with the Wizard hands down If you want your show done yesterday and want a consistent professional look use the Wizard Vevual Communicator Wizard MAGIC Start by choosing the type of video you would like to create Style Shows E Create show based on a Style a Create an overall look based on popular r le templates such as Contemporary te show based on a T d Create be on atopic Elegant Gen X
144. played Synchronizing Web Links To effectively time the display of your Web Link media you should understand a bit about when the Web Link happens in relation to the Action in it s 97 tray Web Links occur at the beginning of the action as the Action Tray enters the colored Action Bar However if the previous tray contains a transition effect the Web Link occurs during the transition and your viewer will see the transition and the fade out of the media in the previous tray Creating a Web Link to a Web Site 1 Inthe Type drop down list select URL In the Address field type the URL of the web page you d like to display for example http www seriousmagic com 2 Inthe Target drop down list select where you d like the show to display e To display the media in a second frame within the same window as the video select Embedded in Web Page Studio Content e To display the web page in a new and sepa rate window select External Browser e To display the media in the bottom frame of a Real Player window select Real Player Browser Pane e To display the media in the top right frame of a Real Player window select Real Player Info Pane e To create your own display window select lt Enter Custom gt The Enter Custom option is an advanced feature which allows you to create your own web page frame and frame name To learn more see Advanced Web Scripting Options on page 100 3 Save your project
145. pter window and a flashing T cursor will appear where your text will begin You can either type or paste your script into the Teleprompter window If you are copying your script into the Tele prompter from a word processing program open the other program select the text you wish to copy Right click and select Copy from the pop up menu Next in VC position the cursor in the Tele prompter window Right click and select Paste Changing the Font in Your Script If you d like to change the font that your script is Hello and welcome to our show Today is Thursday March 11th and we are pleased to announce that the cafeteria will be serving corn dogs tater tots and cabbage Mrs Morton our wonderful cafeteria lady asks that students displayed in right click anywhere in the Tele prompter window Then select the font you wish to use Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Saving a Script Your script is automatically saved as part of your project when you save your show Printing a Script You can also print your script This is very handy for obtaining approvals for a business announcement or just to ponder ideas while you re away from your computer Under the File menu select Print Teleprompter Script or press the key combination Ctrl P Rehearsing Your Script 1 With the camera on click the Rehearse button The show will play and the script in the Tele prompter window and the
146. put is enabled enter your device for information In general if drop down list the desired monitor resolution here your device has any Auto settings dis PETINA able these and adjust the device manu GLD ally Advanced Allows you to pause the camera when off button screen Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 19 The Menu Bar The Edit Menu The Menu Bar is located at the top right corner of Undo Ctt the Visual Communicator Window Click a Menu Redo Ctri name to open it Cut Ctrl 3 Copy Chr Paste Ctrl V Select All Ctrl 4 File Edit Director Teleprompter Settings Tools Help O I E The File Menu What it Does Undoes the Teleprompter script edit Redo Performs the last Teleprompter script edit again Mew Ctrl h Wizard krl Open Chrl a Save Cor 5 Save as Cuts text from the Teleprompter script Copy Copies Teleprompter text to the clip board Pastes whatever is on the clipboard Select All Selects all text in the Teleprompter Print Teleprompter Script Ctrl F Recent Projects Exit chro The Director Menu What it Does Rehearse New Opens a new project A Wizard Starts the Wizard a Publish Open Opens existing project stop Save Saves the current project Save As Save current project to new name Print Tele Prints your script What it Does ae Starts rehearsal of your show cript Recent Displays a list of files you worked with ea eye CROW recently P
147. r and select Registration Starting Visual Communicator To run the program double click the Visual Com municator icon on your desktop Or click the Win dows Start button select Programs Serious Magic and then Visual Communicator You will automatically start with a Wizard that quickly steps you through creating a show Now might be a good time to peruse the manual Start with the Chapter 2 Visual Communicator Fea ture and Control Overview on page 7 to get to know your way around the place and then read Chapter 3 Making Your First Show A Test Drive on page 25 If you re in the mood for a movie watch the Visual Communicator Orientation video Locate your VC CD place it into your CD Rom drive and click Help in the Menu Bar and select View Orientation Video Activating Visual Communicator If you have Visual Communicator Studio you will be asked to activate your software when you start the program Activate your software within 7 days of installing it To activate VC Studio 1 In the Menu Bar click Help and select Acti vate 2 Follow the onscreen instructions to activate Studio Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Why Your Mother Would Want You to Register Welcome to the Serious Magic family Like many families we like to stay in touch with the latest hap penings Thus registering is one of those pesky things that we need to remind you to do precisely because some people don t sort o
148. r camera icon to the top of the Action Area An Action Tray appears showing your camera as the media and a dissolve as the action 2 Click the Video Effects tab and drag and drop the green background V Screen Bkgd mfx effect just below the Action Tray with your camera in it 3 Click the Graphics tab and drag an image on to the V Screen background Action Tray What you just did was tell Visual Communica tor When you get to this Action Tray switch to this new background Repeat these steps as often as you wish 4 Click the Rehearse button to view the result Setting Up More Than One Camera for V Screen If you plan to use two cameras using different V Screen backgrounds you must calibrate or Key each camera separately Use the Auto Set Key button as you normally would to calibrate each camera 1 Click the V Screen tab 2 If you already have one camera connected the Input drop down list displays Camera 1 and the background image for that camera is dis played in the small image 3 Click the Active checkbox to activate V Screen Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Using V Screen Y Screen ye nh DefaultBackground jpg Input Camera 2 hd K Suto Set key M Active 4 To calibrate a second camera select Camera 2 in the Input drop down list 9 Select a background image for Camera 2 by dragging one from the Graphics tab library over the existing image Using Virtual
149. ra s manual for details on how to turn all settings off For more information see Turn off any Automatic Settings on your Camera on page 78 Adding an Animated Background 1 Inthe Media Area click the Graphics tab 2 Double click the V Screen Animated Back grounds folder Experiment with the animated mpg files there by double clicking them and watch the preview in the Output Monitor win dow When you find one that is a good fit for the theme or message of your show drag it to the V Screen tab 3 Click the V Screen tab and follow the same steps that you use to add non animated back grounds If you find that your system does not have the processing power to support the animated background click the Freeze V Screen Back ground checkbox This creates a still graphic out of your animated background Animated backgrounds take more processing power than still backgrounds and they can also cause the video file to be larger If you have a slower PC or your viewers have slower Internet connections you might want to choose still backgrounds for your shows Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Changing Backgrounds Within Your Show Ready for a change of scenery Add some life to your show with a set change Change your back ground to reflect changes in your movie s mood or topic 1 Complete the steps in Fine Tuning Your V Screen Results on page 79 Then click the Vid eos tab and drag and drop you
150. ram will dissolve from the graphic to live camera input Putting Action Trays in Your Show Most of the time Action Trays are added to the Action Area automatically when you drag a media file into the Action Area but you can also create them manually Simply right click in the Action area and select Insert Action from the pop menu A new empty tray appears in the Action Area To see how trays are added automatically read Adding Visual Communicator Media Files To Your Show on page 61 Moving Action Trays Action Trays act as a container for Action and Media files so the placement of trays is important The position of a tray determines what happens and when e To move a tray simply click it s right or left edge or center and drag it up or down e To quickly move an Action Tray and every tray below it click the top tray hold down the Shift key and drag the trays up or down e To move a tray and trays above it hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard select a Tray and any tray s above it Release the Ctrl key and drag the Action Trays up or down Removing Action Trays To remove a single tray right click the right or left edge or center of the tray and select Cut this Action from the pop up menu To remove all of the trays in the show proceed with great caution Right click in the white Action Area and select Clear All from the pop up menu Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Tray Positioning
151. re drop them as long as the names to which you export are unchanged 1 Click the Browse tab in the Media area Cutline Slides x New Slide Delete Slide E Slide Design Slide Layout 2 Navigate to your slide file and drag and drop the file into the Action Area For VC Pro Users Eons Slide Transition PRO FS Hide slide 1 Click the Browse tab in the Media area 2 In PowerPoint right click the slide you d like 2 Navigate to your slide show file s and drag to embed and select Copy from the pop up menu and drop the file into the Action Area Visual Communicator Pro creates Actions for each slide and reproduces PowerPoint s transi il Preview tional effects between the slides replacing Y S them with Visual Communicator s smooth Paste Special y running editable effects created especially to es replace the transitions you have imported Clear Content For VC Studio Users 3 Goto VC Studio right click the right side of an STUDIC empty action tray and select Paste Special Studio makes it easier than ever to add slides to from the pop up menu your show by embedding them as dynamic objects 1 In Visual Communicator create an empty tray for each PowerPoint slide that you wish to add Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 73 Microgoft PowerPoint Slide 4 Inthe OLE Clipboard selection window click the Paste Link radio button 5 The slide appears
152. re than one USB camera or more than one FireWire camera you may encounter bandwidth or performance prob lems depending on your system s processing power We recommend that you use cameras that do not share a single USB card or FireWire card 34 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Setting up V Screen for More Than One Camera ap If you plan to use two cameras using different V Screen backgrounds you must calibrate or key each camera separately Use the Auto Set Key button as you normally would to calibrate each camera camera zl Pe ko eee Adjust Colors 1 Click the V Screen tab 2 Ifyou already have one camera connected The Input drop down list displays Camera 1 and the background image for that camera is dis played in the small image 3 Click the Active checkbox to activate V Screen To calibrate a second camera select Camera 2 in the Input drop down list 5 Select a background image for Camera 2 by dragging one from the Graphics Tab library over the existing image Removing Cameras To remove additional cameras select that camera in the Input drop down list and then select lt none gt in the Video Input Device drop down list Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Setting up Your Studio Installing Your Microphone Choosing a Microphone The quality of your microphone has a big impact on the quality of your shows Many web cams have a microphone built into the camera
153. reaming is a pro cessor intensive activity Performance can vary depending on factors including type of input snow complexity output settings video card drivers and other tasks running on the PC 2 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Installing Visual Communicator 1 Insert the Visual Communicator CD into your PC s CD ROM drive and wait for the installa tion program to launch If the program does not launch automatically use the Windows Explorer to view the con tents of the CD and double click the file called setup exe 1 Right click the Windows Start button 2 Click Explore and then click the icon for your CD ROM drive 3 Double click the setup exe application file 2 Follow the instructions in the Welcome win dow and then click Next If your system requires the setup program will proceed to install or update DirectX and other system components You may be prompted to restart your system Setup will resume after restarting 3 Click Yes to restart each time you are asked This ensures that all system components are installed in the correct order Depending on which version you are installing Visual Com municator will prompt you to insert the next CD When all components have been installed you ll see the license agreement appear 4 Read the agreement and if you agree with the terms click I Accept the License Agreement and click Next 5 Enter your name company name and email addr
154. resentation Transition Refers to a means of moving from one scene to another You can use transitional effects like the wipe or dissolve to move between two scenes V Screen V Screen is the name of Serious Magic s chroma keying technology It can create high quality green screen effects without the need for a profes sional camera or studio lighting Video Effects Transitional effects used between two video scenes or images Virtual Set Used in conjunction with chroma key A virtual set is an artificially created set in which people or objects can be digitally placed Visual Communicator Serious Magic s remarkable new communication tool that saves time reduces travel and cuts costs It empowers PC users to com municate in a better way Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Web Content This is the option you will want if you are planning on having your videos played on a PC or over the World Wide Web Pro Wipe A wipe is a type of transitional effect that replaces part of the screen at a time There are differ ent wipe patterns such as a circle wipe or a clock wipe In Visual Communicator wipes can also have soft edges or color border effects applied to them Wipe Tiling This is for enabling a mirrored or tiled effect but only after the current wipe effect has been transformed with the Wipe Transform option After you have transformed an effect you can select the X Mirror or Y Mirror checkb
155. resources for you in Appendix A Trouble Shooting on page 119 This user guide supports three versions of Visual Communicator Web Pro and Studio You can quickly tell whether you are reading about a feature in your version by the icon next to the topic head ing Topics without icons cover features that are included in all three versions Web Pro and Studio Topics with the Pro icon cover features that are only available in the Pro and Studio versions PRO Topics with the Studio icon cover features that are only available in the Studio version You ll also find plenty of movie making tips and tricks pointed out with tags that look like this tips amp shortcuts Finally look for important information not to be missed under these tags Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Table Of Contents Visual Communicator Shortcuts and Hot Keys i Foreword iii Using This Manual 4 iv Installing Visual Communicator 1 Visual Communicator Minimum System Requirements 2 System Requirements for Web Pro and Studio versions 2 Installing Visual Communicator 3 Starting Visual Communicator 4 Activating Visual Communicator 4 Why Your Mother Would Want You to Register 5 About Hardware Dri
156. rious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 57 Using Action Trays in the Action Area How Action Trays Work Action Trays are the containers that hold the specific actions and media that you put in your show Each Action Tray has three parts The left side holds the Action that will take place and the right side holds the Media that the Action effects The space between the Action and Media icon can hold additional icons This action dissolves the video into the graphic on the right The opening title slate Each Action Tray is played as it passes through the pink colored Action Bar The speaker icon represents an audio file which begins to play when this tray passes through the pink bar In this example the first tray creates a dissolve from the initial video state black to the title slate The dissolve happens when the top of the Action Tray reaches the top of the colored pink Action bar In between the action icon and the media icon the small speaker icon indicates that there is an audio file attached to the Action Tray When an Action Tray with an audio file attached passes through the pink action bar the audio file plays You can also create audio only Action Trays by dragging and dropping a sound effect or music file from the library onto the Action Area 58 To hear the audio attached to a tray double click the speaker icon In the last tray the camera icon on the right indi cates that the prog
157. rojects Starts playback of your show Exit Exit Visual Communicator Publish Starts the publishing process for your show Stop Stops Rehearse Record or Review and Preview of Media and Effects 20 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Visual Communicator Feature and Control Overview The Teleprompter Menu Pause Resume Ctr 5PACE Next Effect Ctrl Enter Advance Alt 4 End Effect Alk z Telepro mpter Menu Option What it Does Pause Pauses and then Resumes the Tele Resume prompter scrolling action Next Effect Scrolls the Action Area to the next Action Tray Advance Advances the show to the next effect End Effect Stops the currently playing effect Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 21 The Settings Menu P What it Does Application This is where you can customize the Settings following Application options Default Effect Favorites Folder Wizard Launching Start with New Show Load Last Project Tip of the Day Remember Folder Directories Show Project Type for each Show Disable Custom Skin Enable Tooltips Record Rehearse Countdown Jump to Top of Screen Hide Preview Monitor Output Enable Recording Light Enable Audio Level Clipping Indi cator pplication Settings Alt M Performance Settings Ctrl F Camera Properties Alb Live Streaming Settings Y 5creen Manually Stop Preview Sources Enable Title Safe Area Display Performance Adjust your settings based your
158. rojects tab library Gravity Demo We ve inserted pictures of the action trays here to help you You should create your outline before you have actually created your action trays and can substitute a small sketch of what your tray will look like when it s done Assigned Requirements Person Ingredient List Scene Description Action Tray or Sketch John Intro Music Opening Title Gravity and You jill Title Graphic with music in the background Transition Transitions to live video of Mark Camera 1 Live Video of Mark reading script Microphone Transitions to Isaac Script Mark Image file of Display Picture of Isaac as Isaac Mark Continues to read script Transition Isaac transitions to slide PowerPoint slide Display PowerPoint slide of formula Transition Making a List of What You Will Need Having a list of required ingredients will help you assign the members of your team to a particular job whether it is going out and finding a suitable mp3 music file setting up cameras or writing the script Describing What Happens in Each Scene Scene descriptions help each team member find out the specifics of how their component should work in the movie For example what the title graphic should say what the content of the slide should be etc 48 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Creating a Quick Sketch of Your Scenes We all know what a picture is worth and with Visual Communicator those thousand words can be
159. rom your cam era and the sound from your microphone Reviewing Your Show After recording click the Review button to review what you did Your entire show complete with the on camera performance will play back After Recording and Reviewing your show many types of changes are possible without having to re record your show For example adjusting micro phone boost and clip audio levels replacing media adjusting media colors and even changing title text can be done and immediately reviewed and pub lished Only moving or adding Action trays requires re recording the show If you have VC Studio publishing becomes a bit easier because re recording is required in fewer cases Unless you have captured new audio or video you don t have to re record before you publish You can add Effects and Media without having to re record your show before publishing You can Review as many times as you d like If you feel that you need to change something you can go back and make the changes record again and review You can repeat this process until you are completely satisfied with the results Once you are satisfied save your project file 1 Click the Project tab 2 Enter your file name and click the Save button If you don t save your project before exiting any recording that s newer than your project s last save date will be deleted 86 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Chapter 11 Publishing Your Show e About
160. rporate images and product photos available to you this will be a snap If you need to create your own we ll try and provide some tips here 67 Visual Communicator is compatible with any BMP JPG GIF TGA or PNG graphic file These files can be created in most 2D and 3D graphics pro grams like Adobe Photoshop or PaintShop Pro tips amp shortcuts save your image files in at least 320 x 240 or higher resolution Whatever resolution you choose use a 4 3 width height ratio such as 640 x 480 Use a resolution that will look best in the format that you are publishing to whether that will be a web page or digital video To determine the best resolution preview your image quality by publishing a sample of your show and scrutinize it in it s final format If the quality is not good enough try again in a higher resolution If the graphic you select is not the right size Visual Communicator will automatically scale it to fit Any 32 bit images will be treated as graphics with trans parency Once you have created your image file you can ideo fects Styles Tops videos Granis audio i C Program Files Serious Magic i visual Communicator Content Graphics Backgrounds Closing Slates Extras Lowe D P P move it to the Visual Communicator content direc tory to be included in your show or fects Styles Topes videos Graphis audo Browse DocumentsiMy Pictures py oI Seafoam pg
161. ry The concept of broadcast ing itself has forever shifted the landscape of communications largely because of its immedi acy and ability to convey information and feel ings effectively Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 115 A Brief History of Broadcast Communication It s now clear that we re on the cusp of the next great communications upheaval with the convergence of television and the Internet which is revolutionary by nature but only beginning to reveal its impact Although early pioneers of radio experimented with broadcasting music and voice over radio waves in the early 1900s the radio boom truly began in the 1920s By the 1930s radio began to reshape the dissemination of news around the world from political campaigns to sporting events The dramatic rise in popularity was also attributed to the war with people everywhere glued to their radios seeking the most up to date informa tion Throughout its history the radio communications industry saw a number of important broadcasters from influential reporters like Walter Winchell to insatiable music jockeys like Wolfman Jack They helped pioneer its format and expand its impact on worldwide audiences Yet as powerful as radio became it paled in comparison to the paradigm shift that a new invention called Television soon brought In fact television may be the most significant communications invention to date the only other contender being the Internet Visual C
162. s all the things that need to be done between these steps that take a little bit of time Rehearse Runs your show without recording so you can preview how it will look Record Runs your show and records the video from your camera and audio from your micro phone Review Plays back your completed show Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 83 Rehearsing and Recording Your Show Rehearsing Your Show Practice makes perfect they say and fortunately you don t have to rent an expensive rehearsal studio to get your show down pat All it takes is time so take your time and do what needs to be done to make a great looking show It s not an easy thing to deliver a show which is both polished and keeps the audience s interest Delivery Always be clear and concise when delivering your presentation and use a script or an outline so your infor mation flows smoothly from one topic to the next Try not to embellish or overwrite your script If you spend too much time on a topic you may lose your audience The average TV news story is about a minute long Watch a network television newscast and pay attention to the way the newscaster conveys the information everything they say is scripted clear and to the point You ll also notice that the news shows try to avoid being stuck on a talking head for too long They insert graphics video effects and over the shoulder visual elements to illustrate what s being said and keep th
163. show To learn more about Rehearsing Recording and Reviewing see Chapter 10 Rehears ing and Recording Your Show on page 83 Feature What it does The Output Displays the video from your camera When you double click an effect or media in an Action Tray it Monitor Window displays a preview of that item When you Rehearse Record or Review a show it displays the show Depending upon your PCs processing power and settings the video displayed in the Output Monitor may preview at a lower quality than that of your finished show Rehearse button Runs your show without recording so you can make adjustments Record button Runs your show and records the video with all your final adjustments Review button Plays back your recorded show 8 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Visual Communicator Feature and Control Overview Feature What it does Publish button Opens the Video Publisher screen You must Record before you Publish See Publishing Your Show in a Variety of Formats on page 89 Stop button Stops your show in Rehearse Record or Review modes Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 9 Visual Communicator Feature and Control Overview The Teleprompter Window and Action Area The Teleprompter and Action Area are scrollable areas where you build your show Enter your script in the teleprompter and drag and drop actions into the action area to create your sequence of events Feature Descrip
164. sition and a live video icon representing the camera that you have configured in the Setup tab This is your active camera The second tray contains a tran sition and a Go to Black graphic for the end of your show You can also add live video to your show by drag ging the Camera icon from the Video library tab to the Action area 68 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide To add your existing video files to a show Access your own video files anywhere on your com puter or network by using the Browse folder which lets you navigate to external content outside of the Visual Communicator folders Visual Communicator can use any video clip in AVI or MPG format These files can be created in just about any PC video editing program or they can be previously created Visual Communicator shows that were saved as AVI files Once you have located an AVI video file that you want to use position the cursor over the AVI file hold down the left mouse button and drag the icon into the Action Area Visual Communicator creates an Action Tray and places the new file in it Double click the right side icon in the tray and you will see a preview of the new video Try rehearsing your show with the new video You may need to use Smart Position when you add multiple video clips Just right click on the video clip in the Action Tray and select Smart Position Next Action from the menu This will automatically space the next acti
165. start 5 Calibrate your camera image for V Screen This automatically calibrates the camera to the color of the backdrop material 1 In VC click the V Screen tab 2 Click the Active checkbox to activate the V Screen 3 Move yourself your shadow and your chair out of the view of the camera so that the camera only sees the backdrop material and click the Auto Set Key button or press the Alt K hot keys 78 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide tips amp shortcuts Once you ve clicked the Auto Set Key button keep the camera position lighting and any shadows falling on your backdrop the same If any of these things change too much you ll start to see holes in your vir tual background If this happens do another Auto Set Key to recalibrate You may also need to re adjust your camera settings Getting the perfect key is as much an art as it is a science Adding a V Screen background At the top of the V Screen tab is an icon represent ing the image to be used as the default V Screen background Choose an image in the Graphics library or create an image file of your own If you d like to create backgrounds using your own photos or images see Creating and Adding Your Own Media on page 67 Select an image from the Graphics tab library Graonics municator p se _ gt gt eg BeachO2 jpg 3 Beach01 jpg Big Ben jpg ai MITET Clouds01 jpa Clouds02
166. stions Problems with Audio 121 Frequently Asked Questions Problems with Video 125 Running DirectX Diagnostics 125 Error Messa PCS 4 252 eo Sree ae eee eh ee Re Bc 126 Appendix B Glossary ss 52s ss 2s ses es 2 131 x Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Chapter 1 Installing Visual Communicator e Visual Communicator Minimum System Requirements e Installing Visual Communicator e Activating Visual Communicator e Why Your Mother Would Want You to Register e About Hardware Drivers e Seriousmagic com Again thanks for purchasing Visual Communi cator remember to register and above all have fun with it A bit of planning and preparation can make all the difference between a good video and a great show A few minutes spent jotting down a script polishing graphics pictures or media clips and then rehearsing with the Tele prompter to iron the um s and uh s out of your speaking part helps you reach a truly profes sional result As you try different things you will develop your own methods and style of production That s what it s all about so don t be shy Try things out Not everything will work out the way you hope but some things will surprise you and turn out better than you could have imagined Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 1 Installing Visual Communicator Visual Communicator Minimum System Requirements System Requirem
167. sual Communicator User Guide e Select None to show the Player without buttons e Select Audio Only to show no player at all Use Audio Only in cases where your show is strictly audio and you d like the sound to play with no player controls available to the lis tener e Click the Auto Start checkbox to have the movie play automatically when the page is loaded e Clear the checkbox to keep it from playing without clicking the Play button e If you like enter any Search Keywords for the page The words that you enter here will act like HTML meta tag keywords Enter the word name or phrase using commas to separate each word or phrase For example Serious Magic Visual Communicator Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Publishing Your Show Adding Web Links to Your Page In Visual Communicator Studio when Web Links are used in conjunction with web publishing you can synchronize the display of live web pages images or slides with events in your video 1 In VC Studio click the Video Effects Tab and double click the Advanced folder ive Src E to B Dissolve Title To Title Fause Teleprompter Web Links 2 Drag the Web Links icon to the action that you would like to synchronize ews iT mm I 3 Click the small Web Links icon that appears in the tray 5 http aww seriousmagic corm get bedded in Web Page Studio Content gt On the Actions tab the Web Link properties are dis
168. t Position an Action Tray Right click on the left handle of the Action Tray and select Smart Position Next Action from the pop up menu Studio Enhanced The Time Tab The time tab displays the exact position of a tray Slide the cursor over any part of Action Tray a tray to display the blue time tab Overlap Trays Drags trays on top of each other to achieve closer timing Collapse Trays Action Trays can be made smaller to accommodate closer timing To collapse trays right click a tray and select Collapse Tray from the pop up menu Drag the collapsed trays as close as you like To expand collapsed trays right click the tray and select Expand Tray from the pop up menu To learn more about these features see Tighter Action Timing on page 59 10 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Visual Communicator Feature and Control Overview Feature Description The left side of the Action Tray can contain an Action such as a video effect that determines how the Media in the right side of the tray is introduced to the video For instance if the Action is a Dis solve the incoming Media will dissolve in as the preceding Media dissolves out Add an Action to a tray by dragging an Action icon from the library into the left side of the tray To learn more see Add ing Actions and Effects on page 64 Preview an Action by double clicking it Replace an Action by dragging and dropping another Action icon over the top of the first one
169. t video input informa Output Monitor x Resolution tion DV input of 29 97 FPS is rounded to drop down list 29 in the display only Resolution hd Properties Advanced Adjust Colors f 7 7 Capture Shows the current video input informa Frame Rate tion The captured video is accurately drop down list recorded at 29 97 FPS Control _ What it Does imaa Input drop In Studio allows you to choose which Current Video Video Only Displays the current video down list input device to set up Input Device input device Select which device to use drop down list here If a device is connected but not listed it may not be installed properly or Full Screen In Studio turns on full screen video out Goes Nol nave a standard DES SHOW Output put See Setting Up a Second Monitor or software driver See Installing Your Cam Enable check Projector on page 102 era on page 32 for help bok Properties Video only Displays Control settings for aM button the current device Not a part of Visual Communicator it is a part of the driver Output Moni When Full screen output is enabled you software for the currently selected device tor drop down can select which monitor or projector to Different devices display different settings i use for display here which may include Brightness Contrast Hue Saturation and Sharpness Please refer to the documentation that came with Resolution When Full screen out
170. ted or reduced to any electronic medium or machine readable format without prior written consent in writing from Serious Magic Inc Content included as part of the Visual Communicator software including without limitation all music sound effects images animations video effects 3D objects or font files Content is licensed to You for Your personal use with this software and is subject to all the terms and conditions set forth in the Limited Warranty and License Agreement accompanying the Visual Communicator software License Agreement Please refer to the License Agreement for the terms and conditions Certain icons are copyright Paul Boyer who generously granted permission for their use Certain music files are copyright 2002 SDS Music Publishing Certain sound effects are copyright 2002 Cosmi Corporation Certain images are copyright 2002 Painet Inc Certain fonts are copyright 2002 Bitstream Inc Bitstream Swiss Bitstream Mister Earl WindowBlinds DirectSkin OCX is copyright 2002 Stardock Corporation Special thanks to all our significant others family and friends who have been so generous with their support and encouragement to the Magicians to Peter Jackson for such a awesome films Extra special thanks to DB DS GS JW RS and TR for believing in magic The Magicians at Serious Magic would like to thank AB AW BDK BMK JER JF JJB JMW KVM MAN MCB ML MM SDS TF and TLO What
171. th your audio card then exit that software and launch Visual Communicator 36 pudor x audio video Logitech Microphone Pro 3000 Click the Setup tab and then click the Audio button Click the Audio Input Device drop down list to select the audio device you want Visual Communicator to use Click the Input Source drop down to select the microphone as the source on the device Before testing your microphone input use the Output Volume slider to turn down the Vol ume to 25 or less This will help prevent feedback during the microphone test Now click the Pass Thru to Speakers check box and speak normally into the microphone Look at the Input Volume meter and adjust the Hardware Level slider until the loudest parts of the audio are reaching the high end of the yellow LEDs but not into the red area When finished click Pass Thru to Speakers again Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 8 Now press the Test button in the Output Vol ume section You will hear a pre recorded audio test file from your speakers 9 Adjust the Output Volume slider until you hear the test audio at a very quiet but comfort able volume from your speakers tips amp shortcuts Unwanted feedback Reducing soeaker volume can help prevent echo or feedback while recording your shows That loud obnoxious sound may be caused by your soeakers being heard through the micro phone Another way to reduce f
172. the person to be heard 102 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide through the PC speakers click the Pass Thru To Speakers checkbox Click the Setup Tab Click the Audio button Click the checkbox to turn on Pass Thru To Speakers The second display feature is disabled while Live Streaming is enabled In addition Live Streaming will not work while you are broadcasting your show to a large screen or second monitor Playing Media Before Your Show If you d like to display a graphic file before your show such as a welcome greeting or opening title you can select this option in the Application Settings Window 1 Make sure that you have selected the checkbox to Enable Full Screen Output on the Setup Video tab Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 2 Publishing Your Show In the Menu bar click Settings then select Application Settings Click the Manually Stop Preview Sources checkbox Click the Graphics tab and find an image that you d like to display before the show begins and double click it to display it in the full screen output device or second monitor Now you can go ahead and open the project file for your show and the opening image will remain onscreen as you use the VC window to load your project Playing Media After Your Show If you d like to display a graphic file or perhaps play some closing theme music after your show select the Manually Stop Preview Sources checkbox as
173. tically go back off screen This wait period cannot be zero You cannot set pause to zero on an overlay Title graphics that display on top of other video i e overlays are configured to appear onscreen wait a designated period then automatically go back off screen This wait period cannot be zero You have already Published this show to your hard drive or network with these settings This message lets you know that you have already saved the current show with these settings Your current show has been modified but is not saved Would you like to save it before proceeding This is a reminder that the current show project needs to be saved in order to keep the changes you have made This message pertains to actual saving not recording Even if you have recorded a video of your show you still must save it to preserve the Teleprompter script and Action Area Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 129 130 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Appendix B Glossary e Glossary Lights Camera Action You may recognize these three legendary words which rang out across Hollywood movie sets during Tinsel Town s golden era There are more words commonly used in today s TV stu dios that are a little less familiar but still handy to know Since using Visual Communicator may be your first experience working in a studio we ve pre pared this glossary as a guide to TV production lingo and buzzwords to help you t
174. tion Teleprompter Where you enter and edit text for your script or outline You can also read the text back as it scrolls up the screen while rehearsing or recording The controls for the Teleprompter can be found on the Director tab To learn more about using the Teleprompter see Chapter 7 Using the Teleprompter and Scripts on page 53 TickMark Ruler Gives you a sense of time allows you to see the length of your script and the time when each action will take place Action Area Where you place and arrange Action Trays that contain your Media such as pre recorded videos audio camera input and effects Actions scroll up the Action Area with the words in the Teleprompter while rehearsing or recording To move up and down the show manually drag the scroll bar up and down To quickly move to the top or bottom of the show right click the scroll bar and select top or bottom To quickly move one Action Area Page down or up right click the scroll bar and select page Up or Page Down Action Trays The container for Action and Media files etc The contents and placement of a tray determines what happens and when For more information see page 67 e To quickly move an Action Tray and every tray below it click the top tray hold down the Shift key and drag the trays up or down To move a tray and trays above it hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard select a Tray and any tray s above it Release the Ctrl key and drag the Action Trays up or down Smar
175. to a wall with thumbtacks or adhesive tape It can be attached to the ceiling with thumbtacks and left to hang down behind your chair It can be draped over an office cubical wall or it can even be hung on some cord with clothespins like a sheet on a laundry line What to do about those unsightly wrinkles Since the V Screen comes folded it will have some creases Over time the creases will diminish To accelerate the process place the V Screen on a clean carpeted floor and place some heavy books on it s edges Move the books outward to slightly stretch the V Screen Leave it overnight and miraculously the creases will be diminished by morning No more expensive creams and lotions You can also use thumbtacks to attach the V Screen to a wall or board Stretch it tight as you apply the thumbtacks around the edge It s not necessary or even possible to completely eliminate the creases As long as they aren t too deep they won t be visible in your video The V Screen technology was specifically designed to work with non uniform backdrops If you use thumbtacks to hang the V Screen on a wall fold a small piece of tape over the edge where the thumbtack goes This will reinforce the V Screen where it is pierced by the thumbtack Ordering a Serious Magic V Screen or Making Your Own It s now so much easier being green If you don t already have a nifty Serious Magic V Screen you can order one from our web site Seri o
176. to position the Visual Communi cator window at the very top center of the computer screen right below your camera This way you will be looking in the same direction as the camera 1 In the menu bar click Settings 2 Click Application Settings 3 Under Rehearse Record Options click Jump To Top of Screen and click OK 53 Using the Teleprompter in Full Screen Mode If you have the Studio version of Visual Communi cator the Full Screen Teleprompter feature enables you to have more flexibility in where you position your subject in front of the camera and it improves the impression that they are looking directly at the camera Because the Teleprompter window uses the entire screen the words are larger and the subject can still read the script while sitting further from the computer This means that the angle of the subject s head to the position of the camera lens can be decreased It s sort of like what happens when you arrive at a first run movie late and end up in the dreaded first row of the theater If you d bought your tickets online yesterday you d be sitting back in the com fort zone and the angle of your head to the screen might be less than 90 degrees 54 On the Director tab click the Full Screen Dur ing Rehearse Record checkbox Click the Rehearse or Record button when you are ready to begin rehearsing or recording The Teleprompter window and Action Area will enlarge to use the entire mo
177. ton If the green line remains flat as you record your mic is not working properly in Windows and therefore will not work in VC Try another microphone Check the Windows Device Manager to ensure that the sound card driver was loaded properly and that the audio device is recognized 1 From your Windows Desktop right click the My Computer icon and select Properties Click the Hardware tab then click the Device Manager button Click the Sound video and game controllers icon to list all the audio devices lf you see an exclamation point next to a device there is a problem with it Try using the Windows Troubleshooting tool to fix the prob lem To run the Windows Hardware Device Troubleshooter From Windows click Start gt Control Panel gt Double click Sound and Audio Devices Click the Hardware Tab gt click the device you d like to fix and click the Troubleshoot button Follow the instructions on screen If your sound card is not recognized in the Device Manager or not working in Sound Recorder you may need to re install the driver Try going to the sound card manufacturer s web site to download the latest driver There is an echo of Turn your speaker volume down to reduce any echo or feedback which might the sound from video be heard through the microphone while recording your shows Or on the or audio clips when Setup tab under Audio click the Mute checkbox recording Serious Magic Visual Communicator User
178. uide Publishing Your Show About Chapter Markers You can create a Chapter Markers eeren on the Web Link ameer Actions tab Spiral Stairc ave L ge Bedroom Link But instead of creating a link to something outside of your movie like a web site they provide links to events within your movie They give your viewer control of what scene or event in your movie they would like to see A list of links is displayed underneath or next to the movie depending on which page layout you choose Viewers click the links to jump to the scenes you have created Chap ter Markers for We recommend using Internet Explorer as your browser to achieve optimum results Publishing your show to a web page 1 Once you have rehearsed and recorded your show click the Publish button 93 2 Click the radio button next to Create a web page with your video embedded and then click the Next button ual Communicator Video Publisher Repent Hoadar Target Chapters Footer yout Template 94 Choose the style and layout of your web page R Stole P en And Ink Choose a Web Links smaller vi ideo on the left Web Links smaller video on the lett Web Links smaller video on the right Web Links smaller video on the top Ho web Links flanger video including markers No Web Links larger video without markers Page Layout an M Header Ed Footer Click the Style checkbox if you d like to apply
179. ur PC We suggest that you get an analog capture card that has both composite and S Video connections Some graphics cards also feature analog video input Make sure that the analog capture card has a DirectShow WDM driver compatible software driver available H Ma es FireWire or IEEE 1394 Input jack To connect your camcorder via FireWire install a FireWire IEEE 1394 capture card in your PC These are available at most computer stores Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Setting up Your Studio Many camcorders will turn off automatically after being on for a few minutes This is an auto matic power saving function when there is a tape inside the camcorder Remove the tape and the camcorder should stay on indefinitely In general it s not good for your camcorder to be left on continuously for days at a time so remember to turn the camcorder off when it s not being used 31 Installing Your Camera _ eT et m Finding your optimal camera position Position your webcam or camcorder securely on top of your monitor centered directly above the Tele prompter window on Visual Communicator s main interface You want the lens of your camera to be as close to the top of the Teleprompter window as pos sible so that your eyes will appear to be looking at the camera while you are actually looking at the Teleprompter just below Some web cams have a base or stand that is quite t
180. ur background and perform chroma keying window ground image or video which dis and color correction To learn more about using V plays behind you when you use the Screen see Using V Screen to Create a Back V Screen feature Also displays the name of the file displayed to the right Input Once your camera is connected select the Camera Input you wish to use Active checkbox Turns the V Screen effect on and off Auto Set Key Automatically calibrates the butto V Screen settings ground on page 76 Adjust Colors Brings up the color correction button window where you can change the brightness and colors of the default background image or video Don t Show Disables the V Screen effect during V Screen During rehearse and record only When Rehearse Record selected this can improve checkbox performance on slower PCs and only affects the preview output not the recorded show Freeze V Screen Allows you to use an animated Background background as a still background checkbox Uses less system resources Set to Defaults Sets the V Screen chroma key button function to the program defaults Adjust Colors V Screen Tips Takes you to a Tutorial which shows button you how to set up V SCreen Advanced button Displays the manual V Screen settings window Set to Defaults v 5creen Tips Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 17 The Setup Tab Controls The Setup tab is where you configure your aud
181. ur lives 116 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide A Brief History of Broadcast Communication Television has forever altered our society but here at Serious Magic we don t believe TV has yet reached its full potential to inform educate entertain and enrich our lives To reach its full potential we believe that the power to make television or television like communications must be in the hands of millions of people not just a few thousand broadcasters and video producers We believe that the most exciting events in the evolu tion of TV are just ahead of us Perhaps someday Visual Communicator will be remembered as a major step forward in democratizing the tools of television That would be nice but it s not the important thing The only thing that s really important is what you do with this tool The power to communicate with the visual impact of network television is an amazing thing Use it wisely and try to have a little fun along the way Historical information is provided for general reference Some dates and events were approximated based on information from a variety of sources including articles from Radio and Television www historychan nel com and The Age of Videography Miller Freeman PSN Inc 1996 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 117 A Brief History of Broadcast Communication 118 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Appendix A Trouble shooting e Check for Visual C
182. use teleprompters to enable the on camera person to professionally deliver a message while looking into the camera Studios also use sophisticated green screen video effects to allow the person on screen to appear to be virtually anywhere Visual Communicator places the power to do all this into your hands It s a fundamental technology break through that lets anyone quickly and easily create professional video communications Visual Communicator has caught the imagination of the industry winning rave reviews and Best of Year awards from six national publications We re thrilled by the honors and excitement our new tool is generat ing Each success fuels the deeper vision behind the Visual Communicator product family That vision is sim ple empowering a new breed of video creators People who might never have considered creating their own videos because they lacked the money time or skills required to get professional looking results Now that we ve made the tool we can t wait to see what you ll make with it The Serious Magic Team Note When you register on our support pages you ll gain access to our private User Forum This is a thriving online community where you can post links to your videos share tips ask questions and see what other users are creating Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide lil Using This Manual In creating this manual our goal was not only to explain this exciting new technology but to also
183. usmagic com or you can make one of your own Serious Magic s V Screen technology is quite adapt able but in general a very bright and saturated green color gives best results The best shades are commonly referred to as Kelly Green or Trish Green Kermit the Frog is also a quite suitable shade of green Blue can also be used but green works slightly bet ter The best shade of blue is brighter than Royal Blue but darker and more saturated than Sky Blue In the Pantone color chart the optimal green is number 354 The optimal blue is Pantone Proc C The surface of your green or blue backdrop should be evenly colored and not shiny If you are going to use paint get Flat or Matte and not Gloss or Semi Gloss 76 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide How big does it need to be Strive to attain a 5 by 4 foot area of flat even color If the backdrop is farther away from the camera cre ate a correspondingly larger backdrop to fill the entire frame seen by your camera Roughly for every foot of distance between your camera and the backdrop or wall create approximately one foot of backdrop For example e If the webcam is five feet from the wall your backdrop should be about five feet wide by four feet high e If the webcam is six feet from the wall the back drop should be about six feet wide by five feet high Before buying materials for your backdrop aim your
184. vel and allow you to create the illusion that your subject is within a virtual environment Create a live video picture within a picture effect or display live video within a window reflection Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 75 Using V Screen to Create a Background How V Screen Works V Screen does its visual magic by electronically replacing the backdrop behind you with a digital picture or video clip To do this Visual Communica tor requires that the existing backdrop behind you be a different color than the foreground or subject It s important to note that green screen effects typi cally require some adjustments during set up to achieve the best results even if you are using expen sive equipment in a TV station While it is easy to get the V Screen effects working it will probably take a few tries to get that perfect key Hanging your Serious Magic V Screen If you purchased Visual Communicator Web or a later version you already have an approximately six by five foot square of Official V Screen Material ready to be hung behind you It s made of a rein forced polyethylene material with a matte non reflective finish Hanging out One side has a slight texture and the other is smooth Hang it so that the smooth matte finish side faces your camera straight on not at an angle You ll no doubt have noticed by now that it is a remarkably stylish shade of green The V Screen material can be attached
185. ver must occur before the show can begin to stream Your show is encoded but no data is sent to the server until a request is initiated by the viewer This takes a bit longer but requires less bandwidth Port to port streaming is a type of Pull streaming which enables you to very simply stream shows between a few computers within an office or home network or the web Serious Magic Profiles To help you get configured quickly we ve created generic Serious Magic Profiles otherwise known as smp files for your use These pre configured streaming profiles are provided in a variety of band widths for both Windows Media and Real Player formats For example Real Networks Streaming for Broadband or Windows Media Streaming for Dia lup Select a compression format that suits your audience s internet or intranet bandwidth Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Live Streaming Server Settings You enter your server settings into VC Studio so that the streaming server can identify your PC Depending on the type of streaming you are doing the settings you enter here may be as simple as a Port number for Pull streaming or to do Push streaming you will need the Server name your publishing port your account user name and pass word If you don t manage your own server you ll need to obtain this information from your streaming service provider or administrator If you d like to learn more about streaming and how it works the
186. vers 5 SENLOUSMACICCOM 2 2 Ae Pe ae ee Se eS eee ee eee 5 Visual Communicator Feature and Control Overview 7 VC Main Window Feature Map 8 The Output Monitor Window and Buttons 8 The Teleprompter Window and Action Area 10 The Media Area 12 The Tabs and Controls 13 The Project Tab Controls 5 2 22 ee ee 13 The Director Tab Controls 14 The Actions Tab Controls 15 The V Screen Tab Controls 17 The Setup Tab Controls 5255 55555 18 The Menu Bar 20 The VC Window Controls 24 Making Your First Show A Test Drive 25 Test Driving With a Wizard 5 5 5 26 Savine Project Files See e Soke eee Seve Se a ee i 27 More VC Tutorials Online 28 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Table of Contents Chapter 4 Chapter 5 vi Setting up Your Studio 29 Choosing a Camera 95 5 5 55 ee ee eee 30 Webcam eie Sees ee a ence vee Sree 30 ANIC OIG CRS ep See ee a ee I eet Hee 30 Installing Your Camera 32 Finding your optimal camera position 32 Connecting your camera to your computer 33 Testing your camer
187. w software drivers periodically that can increase per formance or fix compatibility issues If your devices are working just swell with Visual Communicator we recommend that you NOT update them because sometimes new drivers can cause things to actually work less well On the other hand if you are having problems see Updating Your Hardware Drivers on page 120 Seriousmagic com We d like to take this opportunity to let you know about our web site The Serious Magic team is work ing hard to put together some excellent resources there for you You have free access to the carefully crafted information that our staff publishes there You ll find Frequently Asked Questions the latest device and driver information step by step tutori als and as a registered user you have access to our friendly user forums Please stop by you never know who you might run into Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Chapter 2 Visual Communicator Feature and Control Overview e VC Main Window Feature Map e The Output Monitor Window and Buttons e The Teleprompter Window and Action Area e The Media Area e The Tabs and Controls e The Menu Bar This section of the User Guide was designed for those of you who don t read manuals If you are not the type of person who takes software manuals to the local coffee shop and buries their nose in it we are not offended We know that you have a life We don t even mind if you take th
188. w project files Show files are saved with the MSH file extension In VC Studio where all your finished output files are saved Published videos or web pages Each type of Media File has an icon that indicates the media type Some graphic and video files will display a picture from the Media To learn more see About Media Files on page 60 Media files are categorized by Media Folder Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Visual Communicator Feature and Control Overview The Tabs and Controls Control What it Does The Project Tab Controls Project Name This is the name of the project file msh The Project tab provides controls for creating and format that your show is saved to saving Project files To learn more about Project files New Click to create a new show and a new and how to manage them see About Visual Com default file name is entered in the Project municator Files on page 88 You can launch the eo Name field Wizard and start capturing video from other devices Click to display the contents of the My as well as print your teleprompter script You can Projects folder where you select which file also choose whether to use web or television quality to open media in your shows and zoom to view the Video Wizard Click to start the Wizard See Using The Safe area only Wizard on page 42 Capture Click after connecting your camera to capture pre recorded clips from tape Read Captur
189. web has a wealth of informative arti cles What You ll Need to Stream Live Media To stream live media you ll need Visual Communi cator Studio and access to a either a Windows Media or Real streaming server that can broadcast live streaming media for web based streaming or an IP address for port to port streaming You ll also need a powerful PC that can stand up to the demands of streaming If you plan to use Real Media format you ll need Helix Producer software from Real Networks to configure your server settings If you are planning to have a small viewing for example 5 people within the same office you can use port to port streaming without a streaming server If you ll be broadcasting your blockbuster to a large audience for example over the web we recommend using a streaming server Your streaming provider can provide you with the specifics of how many viewers their servers can support 106 Minimum system requirements for VC Studio Streaming e Intel Pentium 4 processor or equivalent e 4 GHz Processor this requirement is currently being tested and will be adjusted based on your feedback and our own internal tests e Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP e NVIDIA GeForce or ATI Radeon based AGP video card is required e Most recent driver for the above video cards Live streaming is extremely processor intensive Your computer s performance can change dramatically depending on factors such as
190. will allow you to make any further adjustments provided by the man ufacturer of that device Click Properties now and try experimenting with the different settings We suggest that you turn off any of your camera s automatic settings such as Auto Gain Auto Iris Auto White Balance 33 Installing Multiple Cameras Visual Communicator Studio version introduces the capability of using more than one camera to shoot your video This new feature enables you to e Record interviews using different cameras for each person e Switch between different wide and close cam era angles to help keep your audience s attention e Switch between the speaker and the product in training or sales videos 1 Click the Setup Tab and click the Video but ton If you already have one camera connected the Input drop down list automatically displays Cameral and your camera s make and model appears in the Video Input Device drop down list 2 If you haven t already done so connect any additional cameras to your computer Assign the make and model of each camera in the Video Input Device drop down list to Camera 1 2 and so on H z Camera 2 LogitecthSueRCanrerc 3000 O80 xj 3 Select Camera 2 in the Input drop down list 4 Click the down arrow in the Video Input Device drop down list and select the make and model of your second camera 5 Repeat the process for any additional cameras If you are using mo
191. will remove all the actions in the window Removes all Action Trays from the Action Area This show has already been recorded Re recording will destroy the previously saved camera microphone input Are you sure you want to do this Re recording a show overwrites previously recorded versions of the show Unable to create the directory There is a problem writing the folder as you have it named Check that you are not naming the folder the same as an existing one and that the entire path exists In Windows certain characters are not permitted in folder names amp etc Unable to initialize the application settings Fatal error Your system may be too low on memory to run the application Close as many other applications as you can and make sure you have the required amount of RAM memory You can also try restarting your computer Unable to initialize the Audio Video System This message informs you of a problem with your camera video capture device or audio input device Check to make sure everything is plugged in and working cor rectly then re start Visual Communicator Make sure your video card meets the minimum requirements and that 3D acceleration is on in your display settings Right click on the Windows desktop click on Properties then the Settings tab Click on Advanced and then the Troubleshooting tab The slider should be all the way to the right Unable to initialize the icon cache Locate and delete the file smd
192. y press Record to try again Publishing Your First Show 6 Once you re happy with how your show looks click the Publish button EA 7 Inthe publishing method window click Save video to hard drive or network and then click the Next button 8 Select Publish a Windows Media Video wmv For our present purposes save to the default folder with the default file name My_First_Show_ WMV and click Next 9 Select Medium File Size Good Quality and click Next 10 Review your show information and click the Back button if you wish to make any changes otherwise click the Finish button Your show will be compressed If the checkbox Play Video when finished is selected click OK to view the finished show in the Windows Media Player Congratulations You have just created and saved your first show More VC Tutorials Online If you enjoy using tutorials to learn about VC fea tures you may find our web site tutorials helpful Our staff experts know all of the VC tips and tricks and are continually working on new tutorials which will get you up to speed quickly on a wide variety of topics Our online Tutorials cover topics such as Capturing Video for Use in Your Shows Advanced Video Effects Using the Mega Move Effect Using Audio Files etc Our collection of Tutorials is updated on a regular basis Visit the Visual Communicator Support section of our web site Seriousmagic com to see the lat
193. y matches your streaming environment and audience and enter the server set tings that you obtained from your streaming service provider or network administrator Settings Tools Help Application Settings Alt M Performance Settings Ctrl F Camera Properties Alb Live Streaming Settings V SCreen 1 Inthe VC Studio menu bar select Settings 2 From the Settings menu select Live Stream ing Settings 3 You ll see some instructions in the Welcome window Click the Load button Lookin C Live Steaming o 2 fal Real Networks Streaming For Broadband smp i Real Networks Streaming For Dial up smp My Recent E Real Networks SureStream_160x120 smp Documents E Real Networks SureStream_320x240 smp 2 Windows Media Streaming For Broadband web Links fall Windows Media Streaming For Broadband smp Desktop Windows Media Streaming For Dialup smp Windows Media Streaming Multi Bit Rates smp The Live Streaming Folder contains a list of generic Serious Magic Profile or smp files which represent Windows Media and Real Networks server profiles of varying audience bandwidths Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Live Streaming 4 Double click the smp profile which best matches your audience s bandwidth and Media Player ummary of Current Settir server Preview Format E Output Format Use for streaming delivery of video audience has a cable modem DS
194. you out and your message will not get through The biggest mistake in many videos especially corpo rate and educational videos is that they contain too much detailed information If you want to give peo ple a lot of technical information send a memo If your goal is to communicate the essentials convey a feeling generate support and inspire action make a video Remember that your audience will have varying levels of knowledge education and sophistication with regard to your subject However almost every one is an expert at watching TV They have expecta tions about how it should look A good exercise is to watch some television shows and analyze the actual content and pacing Notice how they are put together scene by scene Then try to create a script or outline that has similar pacing and content but is focused on your subject or message You will see that the best television programming usually has a lot of visual action and that the messages are kept fairly simple and easy to understand 49 tips amp shortcuts If you have a very long video break the con tent up into chapters or segments Too much information all at once can turn your audience off If you have Studio use Chapter Markers to break up information tips amp shortcuts Sending the Script Through Your Team s Approval Process If you are writing a script for your company it s easy to distribute scripts via email for final approval from ma
195. your video embedded Creates a web page containing your show Uses style elements that you choose and any Web Links to web sites or images You then publish the output files to a live server as you normally would e Print Video to DV Tape Once you have connected a DV camera records your show to camera tape Sending Videos via Email A standard email pro gram such as Microsoft s freely available Outlook Express is required You cannot attach a video to web based email accessed through your Internet browser When choosing the size quality be aware that some email accounts are limited to 3 or 5 MB of incoming email The account you are sending to may not be able to receive large files Large files can also be a problem for people that access their email dial up modems Make sure your videos are com pressed to a suitable file size for your viewers Publishing Videos to a Server VC publishes your video over your Internet connection at the compres sion and quality you specify After selecting size quality and naming your file VC publishes your video to the specified Internet server using File Transfer Protocol FTP You will be prompted for a user name and password for the server 2 Unless you choose to publish your file to a web page or DV tape click the Next button Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide 89 e To learn more about publishing to a web page see Publishing to Web Pages on page 93 e To
196. ys the current scroll speed Full screen Dur Studio Only Displays the Teleprompter ing Rehearse and Action Area using the entire com Record check puter screen during Rehearsing or box Recording Control Pause button Scroll Speed display field Timer Display Displays the current show duration Count Up radio Click to have the Timer count up from button zero Count Down Click to have the timer display the radio button amount of time until the show ends Set button Opens a dialog box that lets you set the Countdown minutes and seconds on the Timer Live Streaming For VC Studio live streaming users Indi Status light cates your live streaming status See TUDIO Testing Your Stream on page 112 Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide Visual Communicator Feature and Control Overview The Actions Tab Controls The Actions tab is where you make timing volume and other adjustments to your Actions and Media Click an effect graphic audio or video file in an Action Tray to display its properties and controls The controls that you see will change based on the type of media or effect selected To learn about Actions Media and their controls in detail see Adding Actions and Effects on page 64 ae Video Effect Controls Title Graphic Controls Serious Magic Visual Communicator User Guide What it Does Icon window Displays a thumbnail image effect name and descrip file n
197. zone settings to display Web content such as that provided in Media Guide and Radio Tuner Advanced Web Scripting Options You can add custom scripting in the Actions tab To synchronize a call to a custom script select lt Enter Custom gt Advanced users can create their own cus tom scripts and synchronize a call to their scripts here 1 Inthe Type drop down list select lt Enter Cus tom gt 2 Inthe Parameter field enter the first parame ter of the script in the Value field 3 Inthe Target drop down list select the win dow or frame where you would like the new action to appear Automatically Adding and Removing Web Links You can create Web Links manually or you can have VC Studio create them for you automatically Insert Action Clear All 4dd Web Links to All Trays Clear All Web Links i e To add Web Links to every tray in the show right click in any white area in the Action Area and select Add Web Links to All Trays e To remove one link at a time right click the link icon and select Delete Web Links e To remove all Web Links from the show right click in the Action area and select Clear All Web Links For each Web Link that is added click the Web Link icon and complete the Web Link properties in the Actions tab as needed Publishing VC Web Pages to a Web Server If you are publishing your VC files to a web server yourself we recommend that you know at least the basics of web publis

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