Powerpoint transparency

[CamaroZ28c]

Hi, my church is starting to record services for online viewing thanks to the pandemic. We have a PTZOptics camera and I was hoping to use a PowerPoint with all the various hymns, prayers, etc that I could use as a second input. Unfortunately, I had hoped the background would be transparent (as PowerPoint described it) but it is white and covering my camera input. I also tried saving all the slides as PNGs, and making it a slideshow input, but no joy. Is there any way to make a powerpoint background transparent, or is there a better way to scroll through the many popups we want to overlay over the camera stream? I initially though PP would work well because it would be easy to update on a weekly basis. I've attached one of the slides for an example that we wanted to overlay over the camera stream. Thank you!

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

We use PowerPoint in windowed (vs full screen) slide show view, and have PPTx window on one side and video feed on other
Even if transparent, you are, I'm assuming, going to have video in background which will have both light and dark colors, which will make any text on screen fairly difficult to read as an overlay to video (what text color/layout would be readable regardless of background?? especially on a mobile device??)
If you really need full width video, most folks go with lower 3rds (ie lower portion, not necessarily exactly 1/3 of frame height) type approach/solution

having used PowerPoint for House Of Worship live stream for last 5 months, I can say the quick day of service editability has been wonderful capability. For us, I use approx 1/3 of left side of canvas for PPTx and right side for video. Actual amount varies based on text content and video (ie, if I can squish text to left, and make video larger (ie singer duet), I will [i.e. PPTx source size in OBS left the same, just move text box within PPT page to left, and have video source in OBS have priority (above) PowerPoint window capture and then resize video frame to fit. For sense of community, we use a lot of pre-recorded video of lay readers, hymns, prelude/postludes, etc intermixing with live video of service

 

[CamaroZ28c]

Thanks for the reply! For the last 6 months, we have been recording on Wednesdays and using video editing software to drop in stuff on top of the full screen video (example screenshots attached) and have been thinking about continuing that with our new camera and OBS because we want to switch over to recording/streaming the actual Sunday service instead of doing the extra one on Wednesdays. So if I understand you correctly, you just leave a set area for the video stream and since that never changes, you can just update the info on the slides week to week? Thanks again for sharing your experience!

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Correct, I basically allocate left side for PPTx, and right side for video.
A challenge is many folks watch on phones, and audio and text size settings for mobile phone don't work from larger screens (tablet, laptop, PC monitor, smart TV). So you have to find a compromise on settings and accept that some users won't get optimal experience

My OBS scene collection is around 15+ items. I advocated for a more interactive service, vs the norm of recording, uploading, and later streaming. And, as I figured out OBS, and was willing to handle the tech to get the stream to work (silly me ;^) we have the interactive service model. So me and priest in church Sunday morning, and members join us for community
My scenes are largely statically configured, and largely (though not completely) alternate from pre-recorded content and live video.
The PowerPoint slides are shown in most scenes, other than those with full screen pre-recorded video (ex. a welcome announcement, or some of the music (varies whether Hymn lyrics are shown or not.. copyright / performance license issues involved). most recently, another full-screen short video was instructions for outdoor, in-person communion only service).

I largely have the same amount of space for PowerPoint on the screen. I do occasionally encroach on it when the video calls for it, and PPTx content can be shifted out of the way, but basically yes a set space for PPTx and video within OBS canvas. Each week, I get a new PowerPoint which is the current week's service bulletin (readings, music, prayers, etc.. the entire liturgy). I also get a set of videos (Readings and music, + misc). I go to each scene and update the video source with the new file. I use Advanced Scene Switcher to move to next scene when video ends. If that next scene is live video feed, then camera feed and wireless mic are turned on. When priest finishes speaking, I manually start next scene (pre-recorded video) and manually advance PPTx [live microphone is not present in pre-recorded video scenes so as to avoid accidental talking over video.. which we've done]
The process is pretty streamlined at this point (took months to get here).
The priest monitors Facebook comments during service (while pre-recorded videos playing), sermon (ask question, talk and await comments due to Internet streaming lag) and replies [replicating asking questions to audience and interacting with responses with in-person worship]. This makes live stream service much more participatory vs a video to simply watch/consume model.

Reach out to me (direct message) if you'd like to do a Teams conference and I can screen share/walk you through my setup. I'm glad to help/share. Note I'm in Pacific (GMT-8) timezone

 

[WhiteNoiseTrash]

You can also create the slide show as you normally would, but make sure all images share the same background color - such as green, blue, etc.
Set a Chrome Key filter on it and filter out that color.

 

[WBE]

We use Image Mask/Blend filters. You provide a masking image like the one below: black is transparent, white will be shown (or other color if set). Having the same PowerPoint layout each week, it's only a one time job to create the masking image(s). At this filter also the opacity can be set, so the video background peeks through a little. As Lawrence_SoCal mentioned: keep in mind that readability should be guaranteed, also on lighter backgrounds. We came to opacity of 85%.

 

[wvanleer]

We use PPT-NDI as presentation programm. This software has an option to hide the background while transfering the slides to OBS.
You must install the NDI-plugin in OBS.