Zoom Video Camera Hacks

hi everyone kevin here today i want to show you my favorite top 10 video camera hacks in zoom video conferencing we spend so much time in video conferences we might as well have a little bit of fun with it so what do i mean by video hacks well the easiest way to explain is to look at a few examples you could for instance show up in your next meeting looking like a viking this is one sure way to show your audience who's the authority all hail kevin or maybe you want something a little bit more casual for example maybe you want to play a looping video in back of you and zoom includes two different looping backgrounds out of the box and i'll show you how you can access a massive catalog of lots of different looping videos that you can use to make your video look more interesting now we've been having a lot of fun so far but maybe you need to get down to business and you want to present in front of a powerpoint presentation you can do that and you don't even need any add-ins and you don't even need a green screen to be able to pull this off and one of my favorites i can turn my screen in front of me into a transparent or a glass whiteboard so here for example i could just go ahead and start scribbling on my screen along with that i can also throw up post-it notes if i want to type in some notes this way it'll make instruction a little bit easier to follow i'm going to show you 10 different video hacks today and it'll probably take a little bit of time to learn how to do all of them so i'm also going to show you a hack where you can pre-record yourself and then show that as your video feed in zoom so maybe you have a big meeting coming up where you have to give a speech you can record it ahead of time and then simply play it back you just have to watch out and make sure that no one asks you any questions in the middle of your speech oh that was pretty slick and keep in mind those were just a few examples of the hacks that i'll be showing you today i'll walk you through step by step how you can recreate each one of those hacks what's really cool is a whole bunch of them don't require any add-ins as long as you have zoom you can pull them off also for a few of them we're gonna have to download third-party software and i'll walk you through which ones those are if there are certain hacks that seem more interesting to you you can use the timestamps down below in the description to jump around this video alright well let's jump on the pc and let's recreate some of these hacks hack number one you can use snap camera together with zoom if you've ever used snapchat before on your phone you can access similar lenses characters and effects on your pc let's say you want to be a viking or maybe you want to be a cat you can very easily pull that off this works on both windows and mac to get started head to the website snapcamera.snapchat.com i've also included a link down below in the description you can just click on that once you land on the website click on download and run through the installation process once you finish installing launch the application and you'll see an interface that looks like this right up above i can preview what i look like once i apply the different lenses right down here i can search for lenses or part of the fun is simply browsing around to see what all of the different options are here for example i could click on some of these featured ones and here i threw all these flowers on my face or maybe i want to have these massive heart sunglasses with some red lipstick please don't take a screenshot of this and post it on the web also right down here i have all of these different categories with even more lenses in the introduction i showed myself in a viking outfit so here i could throw on my viking helmet and now i have this massive beard right now we're applying all of the different effects in snap camera but how do we get it to zoom well let's jump over to zoom and let's see how we can use these within zoom to use your new snap camera let's go down to the bottom left hand corner where you have the camera icon there is a carrot icon right next to that and click on that right here you can select the camera that you want to use and there's now a new option called snap camera this will take the feed from snap camera and this will bring it to zoom go ahead and select this option once you have it selected turn on your video feed and look at that your webcam in zoom is now showing the output from snap camera how cool is that video hack number two you don't have to install third-party apps to get access to all of these filters zoom includes some of its own to access these let's go down to the bottom left hand corner and click on this carrot icon next to the video camera right here we see an option for choose video filter let's click on this this opens up a view with a whole bunch of different video filters and there are a whole host of different options let's say for example well maybe you're meeting with a grumpy audience and you want to turn that frown upside down you can use this meet happy filter and look at that that's going to put anyone into a good mood you also have other options like an analog tv i've always wanted to be on the tv and if i scroll all the way down here here oh look at that it's google glass v2 and this now brings us to hack number three there are also a whole bunch of different studio effects and it's currently in beta that you can also apply i'll turn off my google glass and let's check out these studio effects within studio effects if my eyebrows weren't already big enough i can make them even bigger here i'll apply even bigger and darker eyebrows check that out it's almost like a forest above my eyes if i look down a little bit i'm always so clean shaven in my videos i could throw on some facial hair look at that that's what i look like when i have a beard if i could even grow one and if i go farther down for the second time today you get to see me in lipstick how lucky for you hack number four i want to show you how you can set up a looping video background right now i just have this boring background you see my wall you see some acoustic panels let's spice things up with video right down here just like we did previously let's click on the carrot icon except this time let's click on choose virtual background this once again drops us into backgrounds and filters and this time we're on the virtual backgrounds tab here we see a few different images and we see two sample videos now of course you could click on this plus icon and you can add images and you could add videos now the only problem though is when you add a video ideally you want a video that loops if you have a video that doesn't loop it'll keep cutting off maybe every 5 or 10 seconds or whatever the video length is for but where do we find these looping videos i'm going to show you a massive collection of looping videos that you can get using the app microsoft powerpoint let's jump into powerpoint within microsoft powerpoint to access all of the looping videos let's go to the top ribbon and click on insert within insert let's go down to pictures and click on the second option called stock images if you didn't know about this this is one of my favorite new features in microsoft powerpoint it's also one of the best kept secrets hidden underneath that pictures icon here you get access to thousands of different royalty-free images that you can use in your creations now we want to use a looping video and up here across the top there's an option for videos let's click on this within videos i now have access to thousands of different looping videos that i can use within zoom right up here at the top i can choose one of these different categories or i could even search for a specific type of image let's go with the natural category to see what's available right here i see a bunch of different options i'll go with this desert one when i hover over i see a quick preview of what it looks like i'll select this one and then click on insert i now have this video file on my slide but how do we get this into zoom all right click on the video file and right down here there's an option to save media as i'll click on that and then i'll save this video file to my desktop back now within zoom i want to apply my new looping video background to use it right up here i'll click on the plus icon and then let's click on add video this opens up the windows file picker and i'll select my new media file next i'll click on open and look at that i am now in the middle of the sahara and hack number five you can now touch up your appearance now i don't really have that much of a skin routine but it's good to know that i've now discovered the fountain of youth to be able to use this let's go down to the bottom left hand corner and once again just like we've been doing all along click on the carrot icon next to the camera right here let's click into video settings within video settings there's a check box next to touch up my appearance this has been available for some time let's check this on and now what's new is there's a slider next to it so we could decide how much we want to touch up our appearance so maybe just a little bit this buys me maybe another five years and here i can go all the way back into my early twenties look at that i look so much younger now hack number six you can now present in front of a powerpoint presentation and the awesome thing about zoom especially compared to a lot of the competitors you don't need any third party add-ins you don't need a green screen as long as you have zoom you're able to do it right down on the bottom to access this let's click on share screen within share screen by default we land in the basic view this functionality is hidden under the advanced tab when we click on that you'll see an option that says powerpoint is virtual background let's click on this and then click on share next navigate to where you have the powerpoint on your computer and then double click on the file and check that out i am now in front of my powerpoint presentation once again no green screen no other software required right here i can click on my image and i can move where i appear on the screen also if i want to make myself larger i can adjust the size of the rectangle so here i'm a little bit larger in front of this and maybe if i get a little bit closer to this cookie here i can start eating it right down here if i'm tired of showing my video i can click on this ellipsis and i can split the video from the powerpoint so some pretty nice functionality that's included as part of zoom for the last four hacks we're going to use software called obs this stands for open broadcaster software you can download it at obsproject.com i've also included a link in the description obs is free it's open source and it works on all major platforms with obs we'll be able to compose a scene and just like with snap camera in the first hack we'll send the output to zoom go ahead and download and install obs hack number seven you can show your company logo or maybe your school mascot along with your title and your name on top of your video once you've finished downloading and installing obs launch the application when you land in obs you'll simply see a black screen we need to start building out our scene as a first step let's add our video right down here in sources click on the plus icon and let's add a video capture device this is a fancy way of saying your webcam this opens up a prompt let's click on ok next you can go through and choose the properties of your camera i'm going to go down and select my camlink 4k this now opens up my camera this all looks good so i'll click on ok back on the main canvas my camera looks really huge and i want to resize it i can right click on my new source and here i'll go to resize output and then click on yes so here now i fit within the scene next i want to throw my company logo on top of my image to do that let's add another source right down here let's click on the plus icon and within this menu go up to image here i'll just click on ok this opens up properties for the image and here i can select the image file on my computer i'll click on browse and then navigate to where you have the image on your computer here i've selected my image i'll click on ok here now i see my new image on the screen and here i see that it's on top of the list of sources that means that it's the topmost layer here if i moved it down one it would be the bottom layer and we can't see the logo anymore we don't want that so i'll move it right back up to the top and this way it'll be the top layer here now that i have my image on the screen i can adjust the size so here i can make it a little bit bigger maybe i'll put it up here in the top left hand corner and then i can go move on the side of it so now when i present in zoom not only will you see me but you'll also see my company logo we have to do one more thing before we can take this scene that we just composed and send it to zoom down in the bottom right hand corner we see a whole bunch of different controls one of the options is called start virtual camera let's click on this and then let's jump over to zoom within zoom just like we did earlier let's go to the bottom left hand corner and click on the carrot next to the camera right here we see all of our different cameras and just like we did with snap camera let's now select the one called obs virtual camera once you have that checked let's turn on the camera and look at this here i am next to my logo and the resolution is pretty good on it one thing you might notice is it looks like it's backwards why is that well when you look at your video in zoom it appears as a mirror image but for all of your attendees in a meeting it'll appear the proper way just like we saw in obs as a quick tip if you want to build your own logo or your nameplate you can do so directly in microsoft powerpoint simply build it out and once you're all done select all of your different items and you can right click on it and then save it as a picture then when you're in obs select that picture and add it to your scene hack number eight you can pre-record yourself and then play that recording in zoom for this we're also going to use obs here i am in obs and i already have a source added with my video we did that in a previous hack so i won't show you how to do that again once you add your video well first off we have to record ourselves saying something over on the right hand side you can click on start recording so right now i'm recording and maybe i pre-record my speech or maybe i record myself just sitting here so it looks like i'm present in a meeting once you're all done go down and click on stop recording now that the recording's done we need to add it as another source over here under sources click on the plus icon and instead of clicking on an image like we did in the previous example let's click on media source next let's click on ok and now let's navigate to where you saved the file on your computer i've now selected my file if you want the video to loop check the box that says loop if you're just content playing at one time no need to check this i'm going to set it to loop once you're all done with the different settings let's click on ok back within the main view of obs here now i can see my new media source and it's the topmost layer so we're going to see the video playing here here i could pause it or i could stop the video once i'm ready to send this over to zoom over on the right hand side just like we did before i can start a virtual camera and that's how i can show a pre-recorded video in zoom hack number nine this is the glass or the transparent whiteboard and to pull this off you just need to use some type of app that you can draw on here i just have a super basic application i have paint that comes with windows but you can use microsoft onenote you can use the whiteboard app or microsoft whiteboard which is free to download any application will work just for simplicity i'm going to use paint once you have paint downloaded within obs let's go down to sources and then click on the plus icon for this let's click on window capture i'll leave the default name and click on ok here for the window let's go down and choose the paint window here i see paint selected that looks good so let's click on ok i now see the paint window on my canvas and i'm going to adjust it so just the white area fills up the screen so here i'll expand it and right now my screen is pretty much all white next we want to set this white color to a transparent color so any markings on top of it show through over in sources let's click on window capture and then click on the option that says filters within filters let's click on this plus icon and here let's select a color key basically we're going to say which color we want to have be transparent and i want to make white transparent in this case let's click on color key here i'll just leave the default name and click on ok this opens up a prompt where i can choose my key color type right now it's set to green but i want to set it to white so i'll go down to custom color here i'll click on select color and let me go with white down here and then click on ok this all looks good so i'll close this here now you can see paint in front of me but the white canvas is now transparent so here as i start painting in paint it'll show through and so in a sense now i have my own transparent whiteboard in front of me so i could write on the screen i don't know this is a pretty cool one what do you think and once again to send this to zoom once you're all ready with your scene here in obs go down and click on start virtual camera and this will show up in your zoom meeting and this now brings us to our very last hack of the day this is hack number 10. don't be too sad i'll have more videos like this in the future in this one i want to show how you can have ending credits appear on your video so maybe this way you can maybe have a subtle note to other people in the meeting that it's time to end so many meetings run over shown credits is the perfect way to get people to you know just move on to their next meeting to add ending credits let's go over to sources and click on the plus icon right here we first want to add text when i click on text i'll leave the default name and then click on ok here i'll just paste in some sample text and then i'll click on ok i see all the text on my screen i'll resize this so it's not quite as big and i'll place it over here on the left hand side now i want it to scroll like credit scroll to have it scroll i'll go down to text and then click on filters within filters let's click on the plus icon and there's the option to scroll let's click on that i'll leave the default name and click on ok within scroll i can set a horizontal speed or a vertical speed now i want it to be credits that go from the bottom to the top so i'll set a vertical speed on it what's interesting is with the horizontal speed let's say that you want to have a ticker go across the bottom of the screen you can use the horizontal speed to pull off something like that i'll just go with this vertical speed that looks great to me so i'll click on close and look at that i now have credits going on next to me so this way or actually next to me on that side so this will nudge people a little bit just to remind them that the meeting is ending just like we've been doing all along to get this over into zoom click on start virtual camera and then that'll show up as part of your video feed in zoom alright well those were my top video camera hacks in zoom if you have any others i would love to hear about them down below in the comments i'm always looking at expanding my arsenal of different tools that i have if you enjoy this video please give it a thumbs up if you want to see more videos like this make sure to hit that subscribe button also if you want to see me cover any other topics in the future on this channel leave a note down below alright well that's all i have for you today i hope you enjoyed and as always i hope to see you next time bye you

Channel: Kevin Stratvert

Views: 73,140

Rating: 4.9475513 out of 5

Keywords: kevin stratvert, zoom, tricks, zoom tricks, zoom hacks, tips and tricks, tips, hacks and tricks, zoom tricks for students, zoom tricks and tips, camera, zoom meeting, zoom trick, zoom tips and tricks for students, student, kevin stratvert zoom, stratvert, zoom features, zoom secrets, zoom meeting tricks, zoom camera tricks, camera tricks, tip, trick, how to use zoom, zoom app tricks, app, meeting, tips zoom, how to, zoom hack, hack, hacks, advanced, obs, snap camera, background, filter

Id: ImSBKHZBSnI

Length: 19min 16sec (1156 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 19 2021