4. Edit

Layout Editing

Presto provides a variety of layout choices

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

Advanced Layout Options

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

• To adjust the presenter's size for the selected layout, drag the zoom control below the presenter graphic. 

• Click and drag on the graphic to move the presenter. 

• Adjust the height of the presenter region by dragging just below the top edge of the presenter graphic.

Project Options

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

• The Output Size numeric fields set the width and height of the image in pixels
• The lock icon indicates that Presto will maintain the overall aspect ratio of the image, so as you adjust width or height, it automatically calculates the correct height or width to maintain the overall aspect ratio; click on the lock icon to disable this feature, if you need to change the overall aspect ratio of the image
• The Pixel Aspect drop-down menu allows you to select from a variety of standard pixel aspect ratios
• The Video Codec drop-down menu allows you to select from the set of installed Quicktime video codecs; the associated Quality menu sets the video quality
• The Audio Codec drop-down menu allows you to select from the set of installed Quicktime audio codecs; the associated Quality menu sets the audio quality

Rendering a Quicktime Movie

Press the Render Movie... button to start a render. Presto will prompt you for the name of the .mov file.

The render options are controlled in the Project Options tab, as described above.

You can control the part of the project that gets rendered by marking the in and out point:

• To set the In point, place the playhead at the in point, and use Edit > Mark In or keyboard shortcut I
• To set the Out point, place the playhead at the out point, and use Edit > Mark Out or keyboard shortcut O
• To clear the in and out points, use Edit > Clear In and Out or keyboard shortcut Option-X
• You can move the playhead directly to the in point using View > Go To In Point or keyboard shortcut Shift-I
• You can move the playhead directly to the out point using View > Go To Out Point or keyboard shortcut Shift-O

The area outside the in-out region is colored dark grey on the timeline ruler, as illustrated below. Only the light grey region will be rendered.

Sending your Presto Project back to Final Cut Pro

You can send your Presto project back to Final Cut Pro by pressing the Send to FCP button on the lower right of the Edit tab.

Presto appends " Presto 1" to the sequence name, imports the new sequence into your FCP project, and opens the sequence for you.  The next time you send the Presto project to FCP, it appends "Presto 2", and so on.  Presto always creates a new sequence in your FCP project.  It will not modify any of your existing sequences.

NOTE: This option is only available for projects imported directly from Final Cut Pro. For projects imported from an FCP XML file, this option is not available.

You can also export your Presto project in the FCP XML format.  To do this, choose the menu item
File > Export FCP XML...

 

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