This article provides a detailed explanation of the Virtual Booth Sites page creation process and an overview of the many options that can be applied to customize and enhance your users' experience.

1.

To create a new Virtual Booth Site, login to your Photo Party Upload account and navigate to the "Virtual Booth" tab. In the "Virtual Booth Sites" section, click the "Create New" link.


Try out the new "Clear Search" button to easily start a new search. 


If you want to make changes to a site you've already created, click the "Edit" link in the table that's in the same row pre-existing site to which you want to make changes.

2.

Once inside the creator, you'll see the different "pages" that are part of a Virtual Booth website listed on the left, as well as a "Realtime Preview" window on the right, which you can reposition, resize, or close as needed. 


When you close the Realtime Preview window, a button will appear on the right that you can use to reopen it.


The Realtime Preview window is an extremely useful tool, because...

  • It shows you what each section of your Virtual Booth will look like once it's published and shared.
  • As you click on each section listed on the left, you'll see that the Realtime Preview updates accordingly, showing you each page while you're working on it. 
  • Changes you make on each page will update in the Realtime Preview (you guessed it) in real time.
  • Resizing the Realtime Preview window itself will show you how the graphics will respond to different-sized browser windows, and you can scale it such that you can see how it would look on different mobile device displays, as well.

For instance, here's how a page might look on a desktop browser...


And here's the same page, resized to the way it might look on a mobile device:


Now, let's talk about the different tools and options you have available to make your Virtual Booth Site look the way that you and/or your client wants it to look, in order to create a customized "guest" experience.


3.

The first section listed on the left is the GLOBAL menu. Click there to open up the options menu. This section allows you to edit the aspects and features that apply to the whole website. 

  • Start and End Date: Enter the dates for the first day of the event and the final day of the event. 
  • Time Zone: Here you can choose the time zone of the event 
  • Background Work: The three different methods of removing background on the site. Each method is charged differently. You can learn about Virtual Booth pricing HERE 
    • Automatic: The fastest and most seamless background removal option. It uses AI to identify the subject and remove the background
    • Manual: A more cost effective solution for background removal. The guest will draw lines on what they want to keep and what they want to remove. Adds and extra step to the process for your guests
    • Overlay Only: No background removal at all! Should be used if you only want to add an overlay to your guests' images.
  • Name: Enter the name of your Virtual Booth website in this field. If you are using the "Default URL" option (see below) then, this name will become part of the URL. There can be no blank spaces. Use an underscore "_" or a dash "-" instead if you want to separate words.
  • Website URL: This field displays the web address URL for your Virtual Booth page. If you are using the "Default URL," your site Name will be added to the end of our Virtual Booth's default server domain. If you opt to "Use Custom Domain URL" (see below) then you can enter a custom address for a domain that you own.
    • Use Custom Domain URL / Use Default URL (link): Click this link to toggle between the Custom Domain URL and Default URL link options.
    • Note: If you want to use a custom domain, you must have control of the domain you enter, and set your DNS record for that domain to our server: 52.27.158.245
  • Graphic IDs: This section will list all of the animations (aka image and GIF graphics) that are available in your account which can be used on your Virtual Booth website(s). For information on how to create animations, check out our tutorial HERE. Select only the graphic(s) that you want to use on this particular site. Select as many or as few as you like. You are required to select at least one in order to save changes to your Virtual Booth site.
  • Admin Email: This is the email address provided as being the administrator of your Virtual Booth. This will auto-populate with your PPU account email address, but you can input any functioning email address into this field. This is also the email that will be used to send any email shares from your VB.
  • Background Color: This option allows you to select the background color that will be used for every page in your Virtual Booth website. You can do this by either a) clicking to open the color selector, or b) entering a specific hexadecimal code for the color that you want to use.
  • Background Image:  Choose the image to be set as the background of the virtual booth site. A good size is 1920x1080.
  • Tile Background Image: Check this box if the image is set to be repeated in a tile pattern. The background image should be a tessellating pattern so no "seams" are seen between each image as it tiles. A good size is 500x500.
  • YouTube Embed Link: Here you can add a YouTube video link to appear and play on your Virtual Booth page. Vimeo links will work as well.


The LOGOS and META TAGS sub-menus can be expanded/collapsed by clocking on the +/- symbols next to each one.


LOGOS

  • Favicon: A "Favicon" is the tiny image that appears on the browser tab next to the page title. You don't have to use one, but if you would like to, make sure that it is a "*.ico" file. (You will not be able to see this in the Realtime Preview).
  • Logo - Top:  Here you can upload any standard image file to serve as your "Logo" (essentially a Header image) that appears at the top of all pages.. Once uploaded successfully, this will appear in your Realtime Preview.
  • Logo Tooltip: This is the text that appears when your guest hovers their cursor over the logo image on the site.

ADVANCED 


META TAGS

  • Page Title: This is the page title as it appears when the page is linked or shared.
  • Page Description: This is the page description as it appears when the page is linked or shared.
  • Keywords: Meta keywords are types of meta tags in the HTML source code of a webpage. They describe the content of a website shortly and concisely, and are therefore important indicators of a website's content to search engines.


4.

Next is the HEADER AND FOOTER section. Click on the name to expand the menu. The Header and Footer are visible on all pages/steps of the Virtual Booth process, above and below the options on the screen. The settings available here can be customized to fill out your site with images, videos, descriptive and/or promotional text.



5. 

Next is the IMAGE PREPARATION section. Click on the name to expand the menu. Guests to the site will only see this if the site is using Manual background removal.



6.

Next is the IMAGE PROCESSING section. This is a pop up that appears after the Manual background removal process. It's intended to let your guests know that the process was successful, and tells them how to make changes. It only appears if you selected Manual background removal.



7. 

Next is the IMAGE PLACEMENT section. Click on the name to expand the menu. This page allows the guest to place the image they took, and to select from the available graphics.



8.

Next is the STICKERS section. Here you can add Stickers/Digital Props for your guests to add to their images.

If you want to use Stickers, check the Use Stickers box at the top. Then click the name of one of the folders on the left, and click on the Stickers/Digital Props that you want to use on the right. You can add to your library of Stickers/Digital Props by going to the Digital Props tab of Event Manager. Learn how to do that HERE


9.

The final section is SHARING This menu allows you to customize the last page in the Virtual Booth experience and the responses and instructions associated with each share option.  All sharing options are enabled for every Virtual Booth. These are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SMS (text), and Download. 


(section continues in screenshot below)

  • Share Creation: When your guests arrive on this page, another Instructions prompt will appear (using the "Instructions' title from Page 2a, above). This field allows you to edit the text that appears in the prompt, instructing your guests on how to share their creation!
  • Share Options: Check the box next to the share options that you want to have available for your guests after they have created their content. Note that "Download" is always available, by default. SmugMug isn't a share option for your guests, it's a way for you to link your own SmugMug account to create a gallery of the content created using your Virtual Booth site. For more information on that feature, check out this article.
  • Twitter: 
    • Tweet Instruction Title: This is the title of the prompt that appears when the guest selects the Twitter share option on this page.
    • Twitter Message: This is the content of the prompt that appears when the guest selects the Twitter share option on this page.
    • Twitter Success Msg: This is the message that appears when the guest has successfully shared to Twitter.
    • ADVANCED: This option opens an additional sub-menu of options which you can use to customize the Twitter share experience even more.
      • Twitter Success Tab: This is the header of the prompt that appears when a Twitter share is successful.
      • Twitter Error Tab: Here you can customize the text that appears if the Twitter share failed for some reason.
      • Post to Twitter Btn: You can customize the text that appears in the button the guest uses when they are posting to Twitter. 
  • SMS: 
    • Text Me Title: This field customizes the header text of the prompt that appears when the guest chooses the Text share option. 
    • Enter Mobile: Customize the text next to the mobile number field.
    • Send SMS Btn: Customize the text in the button which sends the text in this prompt.
    • Invalid Mobile: If someone enters an invalid phone number when attempting to text their content, this will be the message that appears.
    • Valid Mobile: When a valid number is entered, this is the text that appears next to a "checkmark" graphic in the in prompt.
    • SMS Message:  This is the actual text that will appear in the text message along with the content being sent to your guest's mobile.
    • SMS Success: When a text has been sent successfully, this is the message that will appear for your guests.
  • Download GIF Body: When the guest selects the "Download" option on a mobile device, these instructions will appear, explaining how to save their creation.

  • Email: 
    • Email Image Title: Customize the text in the header of the email sharing prompt that appears when the email option is selected.
    • Enter Email: Customize the text next to the field where guests enter their email address.
    • Send Email Btn: Customize the text that appears inside the button that, when clicked, will send the email.
    • Enter Email: Customize the text that appears if the guest does not enter a valid email address when attempting to share.
    • Email Subject Line: Customize the subject line of the email that the guest will receive, containing their shared content.
    • Email Success Msg: Customize the message that appears when the guest has successfully shared their content via email.
    • Email Error Msg: Customize the text that appears when for some reason the email has failed to send successfully.
    • Email Gif as Video Body: Customize the instructions that appear when your guest is sending a GIF that they've created, explaining that it will be sent as a video file.
    • Email Gif as Video Title: Customize the header of the prompt that appears when your guest is sending a GIF file that will be converted into a video.
    • Email Body - Gif as Video: Customize the body of the email that will be received by the guest when they've shared a GIF file that will be/has been converted into a video.
  • Instagram: When a user selects the Instagram share option, the email settings are used, sending them a version of their content which can be uploaded to Instagram from their PC or mobile device. 


9.

Once you've customized the pages of your Virtual Booth website, be sure to click the SUBMIT button at the bottom to save it all.

There's also a CANCEL option if you want to scrap everything and return to the Virtual Booth section of Event Manager without saving. Please note that if you click CANCEL, all changes made during this visit to the editor will be lost and cannot be recovered.



**NOTE** Please be aware that you cannot delete a Virtual Booth event site from your individual user account currently. This feature will be available in the future but for now, it is not available. To have a site removed from your account, please contact our support team via email with your site's url and our team will remove it for you as long as the site is not being billed.

Check out MORE VIRTUAL BOOTH TUTORIALS!

Questions? Contact [email protected]