Zoom Virtual Backgrounds - How to Use & Create Your Own!

Aug 24, 2023

Zoom Virtual Backgrounds - How to Use & Create Your Own!

Zoom backgrounds can give you a sharper look during your video meetings. In this video, Scott Friesen shows you how to create your own virtual background with branding. Look great in your next Zoom meeting and no longer worry about what’s going on behind you!

Zoom virtual background requirements: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/arti…

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Content

0.323 -> (logo revs)

1.941 -> (logo chiming)

4.08 -> - Are you wanting to add a virtual background

6.29 -> to your Zoom meeting?

7.73 -> Do you wanna add something a little flashy like this,

9.98 -> or perhaps you wanna add some branding

12 -> like your logo in the upper left-hand corner?

15.08 -> Well, in today's video, I wanna show you

16.6 -> everything you need to know

18.33 -> about virtual backgrounds in Zoom.

20.52 -> I also wanna show you how to create

22.76 -> your own custom background using a tool

25.66 -> that you probably already have installed on your computer.

29.05 -> Hello, everyone.

29.883 -> Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity

31.7 -> helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress,

34.58 -> and I think perhaps the number one reason

36.52 -> for using virtual backgrounds in Zoom

39.88 -> is that it hides whatever else is going on behind you,

44.09 -> but let's get started with some prerequisites,

46.43 -> and some of you have been asking me

48 -> why don't I see this virtual background option.

51.74 -> I'm gonna include a link in the description below

54.29 -> for all of the prerequisites so you can check them yourself,

57.73 -> but really the number one reason

59.43 -> is that it comes down to your processing speed.

62.49 -> So depending on what machine

64.39 -> you are using for Zoom conferencing

67.27 -> if you don't have a fast enough processor

70.25 -> you might not have virtual background capability,

73.8 -> but let's make sure that you have

75.58 -> virtual backgrounds enabled,

77.16 -> and in order to do so you wanna go into your Zoom account,

80.56 -> and this is where you would login

82.11 -> as a part of your desktop browser, right?

84.86 -> You wanna log into your full Zoom meeting account,

88.67 -> and under your account settings

90.15 -> we wanna go down to the Admin section.

92.12 -> We wanna click on Account Settings

94.57 -> which is under Account Management,

96.57 -> Admin, Account Management, Account Settings,

99.26 -> and then we wanna scroll down

100.64 -> to almost halfway down this page.

102.32 -> We wanna find the subheading which says In Meeting Advanced.

105.96 -> There's the subheading.

106.88 -> If we scroll down just a little bit further, there you go.

109.28 -> You're gonna see Virtual background.

110.95 -> You gotta make sure that this is turned on

113.35 -> in order for you to see that option

115.51 -> in order for you to upload your own images.

118.23 -> So once that is the case, you wanna go back

120.29 -> to your Zoom desktop client.

122.66 -> You wanna open up Zoom within your computer,

125.22 -> hit this little gear icon,

127.08 -> and here we have a number of different settings.

129.72 -> Now you may think it's under Video here,

132.09 -> and if you have virtual background turned on,

133.82 -> you'll see it here,

135.09 -> but this is not actually where you upload

137.23 -> or adjust your virtual background settings.

139.86 -> You wanna come down here to Virtual Background,

142.49 -> and here you can play around.

143.72 -> They do have a few couple of presets here

146.33 -> that you can toy around with.

148.14 -> If you do want a video background, you can do so as well.

151.41 -> Here you can see I've got the Northern Lights behind me.

153.89 -> Just be wary, of course,

155.24 -> a video background is gonna take us that much more bandwidth

158.49 -> and that much more processing speed as well.

161.08 -> So you might be safer with using a static image

164.22 -> such as this.

165.33 -> Now once you've downloaded a background that you like,

167.42 -> all you need to do is select this plus button here

169.93 -> to add an image or video.

171.42 -> You need to tell it which one that you're adding.

173.84 -> If I say Add image,

175.13 -> I can just go find the image that I want, uploaded here,

178.41 -> and now I can go ahead and start using

180.67 -> that virtual background.

183.16 -> However, you're probably saying to yourself,

185.607 -> "What if I want something a little more custom?

187.837 -> "What if I want to adjust a few things?

189.717 -> "What if I want to add a logo, Scott,

191.857 -> "like you have in your virtual background?"

195.14 -> Well, you might be surprised to learn

196.81 -> that I've created my custom backgrounds,

199.61 -> and in fact, I've created an awful lot of my graphics

202.43 -> over the years in something called PowerPoint.

205.57 -> Yeah, just basic run-of-the-mill Microsoft PowerPoint.

210.013 -> I just find it's a very easy tool to manipulate images,

214.141 -> move things around and create these types of things.

217.78 -> So here you can see I've got my custom background here,

220.47 -> but let me show you how I made it

222.19 -> and how you can make your own as well.

223.87 -> The nice thing about PowerPoint

224.99 -> is that you're gonna have a canvas

226.13 -> like this which is 16-by-9 ratio

229.23 -> which is pretty standard for most of our web cams

231.72 -> and what you're going to want to upload as well.

234.442 -> The next thing that you wanna do is go online

237.19 -> and actually find an image that you like.

240.21 -> Now a place that I go for a number of royalty free images

244.77 -> is a website called Pexels.com,

247.87 -> and I actually typed in a little bit earlier,

249.87 -> I just even typed in Zoom backgrounds,

252.34 -> and you can filter by color and that type of thing as well.

256.17 -> But found something a little colorful here

257.98 -> that I thought I'd like to try, this one here.

259.71 -> Looks like, almost looks like

261.37 -> some kind of maybe traffic lights

262.85 -> behind glass with some rain.

265.11 -> I typically recommend that you choose a background

268.12 -> that is darker in color,

270.09 -> and the main reason is that you're gonna see fewer

272.84 -> ghosting lines between yourself

275.61 -> and the background image, right?

276.9 -> You're not gonna see those little white separation lines

279.7 -> as it tries to figure out where you end and the rest

283.33 -> of the room or the rest of the background begins.

286.06 -> So I'm gonna click on this image here,

287.75 -> and whether you go to Pexels,

289.1 -> whether you just go to Google Images,

290.71 -> wherever you find your image, in most cases

293.54 -> all you need to do is right click on the image,

295.841 -> and then say Copy image.

298.01 -> You can do this with almost any image online.

300.96 -> I'm just gonna say Copy image.

302.41 -> I'm gonna come back into PowerPoint,

304 -> and I'm just gonna paste that image here onto my canvas.

307.93 -> Now you can see that it's not exactly 16 by 9.

311.34 -> So what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna drag it over here,

313.631 -> and then I'm gonna take the corner and just sort of pull it

317.04 -> out of it so it covers the entire space,

319.2 -> and now I can bring this up a bit if I want,

321.06 -> if I want that to be a little more centered here.

323.63 -> I can go up to Picture format and actually make sure

326.09 -> it's aligned center and aligned in the middle like that.

329.8 -> So now it's over my entire canvas.

331.98 -> You can see a bit of a preview here on the left-hand side.

334.88 -> Now what I could do is now go ahead and use this image.

337.81 -> I could have gone straight from Pexels

339.39 -> and just downloaded the image if I just wanted to go

341.872 -> with this image all together,

343.98 -> but I wanna add something to it,

345.81 -> and that's what I use PowerPoint for.

347.63 -> At this stage, I wanna input my logo

350.03 -> like you see on one of these slides here.

352.57 -> Now instead of just copying it here,

353.94 -> all you need to do is go up to Insert.

355.96 -> Let's pretend that I don't have it in this file already.

358.53 -> Just say Insert, select Pictures, save from This Device.

363.06 -> In most cases, it's something

364.25 -> that you've download to your device already,

366.003 -> and here I've got a transparent version of my logo.

369.53 -> You may not have a transparent version, and that's okay.

371.769 -> You can use something else that you have

373.97 -> or something else that you want to use,

375.73 -> but I'm gonna use my transparent logo.

377.25 -> I'm gonna double click on that

378.57 -> which is good to bring it in to PowerPoint,

381.01 -> but that is way too big.

383.07 -> I don't want that on my virtual background.

385.76 -> So again, I'm just gonna drag the corner down to a size

388.13 -> that I think is maybe a little more appropriate.

390.03 -> I'm gonna bring it up here to the top left corner.

393.55 -> Now I recommend that you use the top left corner

396.75 -> if you decide to add some branding or a logo

400.36 -> or anything else that you're adding

401.56 -> to your virtual background.

402.55 -> The reason is this.

404.33 -> At the bottom of the screen, two reasons.

406.09 -> Number one, people's names will appear here

408.32 -> in the bottom left-hand corner,

410.2 -> but number two, and this may be more obvious

412.23 -> is that you and your lower body,

414.85 -> right, like your chest and shoulders,

416.77 -> are going to be appearing here.

418.31 -> So it's gonna block out most things

420.37 -> that you have in the lower part of the frame.

422.73 -> So you want it up top,

424.37 -> but the reason why I recommend the top left corner

427.1 -> is that in the right-hand side

428.42 -> when other Zoom participants hover over your video,

432.456 -> you're gonna see two blue buttons here.

434.72 -> You're gonna see the mute/unmute button,

436.73 -> and you're also gonna see a more button here

439.01 -> which would cover up anything

440.7 -> that is presented on this side.

442.75 -> So just to make sure that it never gets covered up,

444.97 -> you can put that logo or you can put that image

446.88 -> in the top left-hand corner.

448.9 -> Now, the last thing that we're gonna do here

450.36 -> is we're gonna actually go into full-screen mode

453.04 -> as if we're giving a presentation

455.16 -> as if we're giving a PowerPoint presentation

457.07 -> and I'm gonna hit Print Screen.

459.33 -> Now I actually have an additional tool

461.19 -> that I use here to capture smaller parts of my screen,

463.62 -> but if you don't have such a tool,

465.19 -> hitting Print Screen is just gonna capture

466.9 -> the entire screen in front of you.

469.23 -> It's actually copied to the clipboard.

470.88 -> So now we can go anywhere else that we want to.

473.26 -> I use another very simple tool called Microsoft Paint.

476.45 -> Yes, something else that is probably already installed

478.87 -> in your computer, and here I'm just gonna paste it.

481.63 -> I'm just gonna paste it here within Paint.

483.95 -> The reason why I bring it in here

485.38 -> is that it is so easy just to go to File, Save as,

488.23 -> and now I can choose the file type, the picture type,

491.67 -> that I want to save this file as,

493.62 -> and in most cases, you wanna look at something

495.41 -> like PNG or a JPEG.

497.176 -> PNG is often the highest quality that might be available

500.68 -> to you in your default program.

502.66 -> So I'm gonna say save as PNG picture.

505.44 -> That's gonna bring something up here.

506.94 -> I'm gonna call this says Zoom sample.

509.47 -> Let's call this Zoom sample two, how about that?

513.303 -> And I'm gonna save that to my desktop,

515 -> and now all we need to do.

516.55 -> I can close this now.

517.76 -> We can leave this PowerPoint back open.

519.53 -> I'm gonna go back into my Zoom meetings here.

521.79 -> I'm gonna open up my settings.

523.89 -> Come back down to Virtual background,

525.74 -> and let's add this background that we just created together.

528.97 -> I'm gonna hit Plus, Add image.

530.91 -> There is Zoom sample two,

533.16 -> and, hey, yeah, I better watch out for the, I don't know,

536.35 -> the ambulance or the vehicle behind me there,

539.048 -> and it turns out pretty good, there you can see.

541.04 -> There's not too much ghosting or shadowing happening

543.9 -> amongst my hair or my shoulders or anything of that nature.

548.21 -> Now if for some reason things have been uploaded

550.87 -> in the wrong degree, right,

554.07 -> if it's rotated in the wrong area,

555.65 -> you can come up here and select Rotate 90 degrees

558.018 -> and push things around until it finds the one

561.23 -> that is right for you.

562.44 -> The other thing that you wanna pay careful attention to

565.19 -> is this mirror my video.

567.37 -> If this is checked, as you can see my logo is now backwards,

572.11 -> and that is certainly not what I want others to see.

574.27 -> So you may just have to toggle this

576.04 -> depending on how it uploaded to Zoom.

578.89 -> I'm gonna uncheck that

580.34 -> so that my logo comes across nice and clear.

584.01 -> The other check box, you wanna pay special attention to

587.57 -> is that if you're not using a green screen,

589.8 -> do not check this box.

591.15 -> This box is only for a green screen only.

593.29 -> Why?

594.13 -> 'Cause you're gonna look something crazy like this.

596.78 -> So do not check that box

598.2 -> unless you have an actual green screen,

600.49 -> and for most of us, we don't have a green screen available

602.81 -> or something that we don't wanna put up from time to time.

605.6 -> Again, if you have proper lighting in front of you

608.92 -> against your face and if it's somewhat darker behind you

612.56 -> or at least an even color behind you,

614.72 -> you are going to get the best results here

616.95 -> within Zoom virtual backgrounds.

619.26 -> Well, I hope that you found today's video helpful,

621.97 -> and if you have further questions

624.12 -> about Zoom virtual backgrounds

626.13 -> or anything related to Zoom meetings,

628.13 -> be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

631.46 -> Thank you so much for watching and remember

633.76 -> being productive does not need to be difficult.

636.17 -> In fact, it's very simple.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ9Y3AgtGxg