116 PCWorld MAY 2020HERE’S HOW MAKE A FUNNY ZOOM BACKGROUND
the more accurate the result. But you should
be able to tell in a flash if the results are
acceptable.HOW TO CREATE A CUSTOM
BACKGROUND IN ZOOM
Creating a custom background in Zoom is
child’s play, honestly. If you click the small
“+” icon, you’ll have the option of selecting
either a static background or video file.
Picture file formats supported include BMP,
JPG, and PNG. With video, you’ll have the
options of MP4 or MOV. You’ll need either a
background image with an aspect ratio of
16:9 and minimum resolution of 1280x720
pixels, or a video file with a minimum of
480x360 pixels (360p) and a maximum
resolution of 1920x1080 pixels (1080p).
Selecting a static image is especially
easy. Recent Zoom calls
among PCWorld staffers have
included background
images of Bridge A from Star
Trek’s U.S.S. Enterprise, and
the Oval Office. Zoom
recommends that you pick a
copyright-free image, but
the company doesn’t seem
to enforce it.
Once you select an image
or video file, Zoom adds it to
the visual index of virtual
backgrounds within the Virtual
Background settings menu.HOW TO CREATE A VIDEO
LOOP AS A CUSTOM ZOOM
BACKGROUND
But what if you don’t want to use Zoom’s
preselected clips, and want to create one of
your own? If you’d like to use an existing
video file, of course, we’ve just shown you
how to do that. The other way is to take an
existing file and trim it down, keeping just
the content that you want to show off.
How you get the file is up to you; we
have an in-depth guide on how to download
videos from YouTube (go.pcworld.com/
dnyt), but you may already have video files
on hand that will suffice. In any case, you’ll
want to whittle it down to a short, looping
clip. Fortunately, there’s a simple video
editor already within Windows that makes
this very easy.If you do end up downloading a YouTube video, you can use the
low-quality option for background use and file size. You’ll also be
trimming it down so you’re just sampling a small clip.