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Show your travel pics without taking over Zoom
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Want to see the best way to show your vacation pics on Zoom with your Mac? If you find screen sharing awkward, you’d like to draw and zoom in on your photos, play videos with sound or even put together a video to share with your family, you’re in the right place. What’s the secret? All you need is one simple tool, a ‘virtual camera’.
What is a virtual camera?
A virtual camera gives super powers to your webcam. It shows up in Zoom and FaceTime like any other camera, and you can select it without anybody knowing.
But then, in that crucial moment when you want to add a little something extra, like a holiday pic, there it is. And nobody had to give screen sharing permissions to anybody first.
What can CueCam’s virtual camera do?
With CueCam you can share a picture directly on your webcam.
You can draw on it with your iPad.
Or you can use a laser pointer.
You can even zoom in.
It’s not just pictures. You can share videos too. With sound.
Videos work just like pictures. You can zoom in, draw and laser point to your heart’s content.
How to set up CueCam
CueCam is available to download from https://cuecam-presenter.com
If you’re just sharing pictures and videos, you don’t need to pay a penny, ever.
When you start building and running presentations, that’s when you might want the $4.99 plan.
Download CueCam and drag it into Applications. When you first launch the app, it will ask you for some permissions. Do this now so you don’t get slowed down later!
Now in CueCam’s main window, you can pick your mic and camera.
AI-Generated Grandma sets up her camera.
Select CueCam in Zoom (or Teams, or Meet, or FaceTime etc...)
Pick CueCam as your camera.
Using CueCam
Now any time you join a video call, make sure CueCam is running.
How to instantly share a picture
You can drag any picture straight onto CueCam’s dock icon and it will show up immediately on Zoom.
CueCam’s dock icon
Clicking the Share Bar and selecting “Share Image...” will let you choose an image from your computer by clicking “Open Image...”
You can copy-paste pictures
Say you have a picture in your Photos app. You can right-click and copy the picture.
Now you can right-click in CueCam and select “Paste Image” to put it on Zoom.
How to draw on your pictures
To draw on your pictures you’ll need an iPad. Install Video Pencil on your iPad and run it. CueCam will connect automatically.
Now your virtual camera shows up on your iPad’s screen. Draw anything and it will come through on Zoom, right on your Mac.
How to zoom in
If you’re using an iPad, you can pinch to zoom in on whatever you’re sharing.
If you’re on your Mac, pinch with your trackpad in the main CueCam window, or use your mouse wheel.
Picture In Picture
Your camera will be placed on top of the picture when you’re sharing. You can either be in a circle, or if you choose “Enable Virtual Green Screen” to be placed this way.
How to share a video
Sharing videos is just as easy.
If you have something in Photos, first drag it to your desktop.
Then drag it into CueCam.
Now you can press play to start the video.
How to make a travel presentation
Chances are you’ll have a few pictures you want to share. If you want to surprise people with an impromptu holiday tour, you can create a Script in CueCam.
Start by pressing “New Script” in the main window.
Collect your photos and videos into a folder.
Now in CueCam, click the dropdown next to the Add button and select “Add Media...”
Use Cmd+A to select everything in the folder and press Open.
This will give you a presentation with all your pictures. You can drag the cards around to change the order. Press Present run this on your webcam.
If you want to make a video, just press Record and then talk people through your photos, zooming in and drawing on them as you go.
Extra credit - captions and travel maps
If you travelled to multiple places, why not include animated travel maps? Here’s something I made last year to take people through my travels (App Lab #87).
I added titles by tagging my text to create lower-thirds.
CueCam’s trim feature makes it easy to split your video across multiple cards, with your other pictures in-between.
If you’d like to learn more about this, you can register for my weekly webinars where we try out CueCam’s features together on Zoom.