Create Animated GIFs in PPT for Camtasia

Learn how to create Transparent Animated GIFs for Camtasia with PowerPoint. This requires PowerPoint 365 version of software.

Video Transcript

Want to learn how to create transparent animated GIFs in PowerPoint, which you can use in Camtasia Studio? 

Once you understand the process of creating these animated GIFs, you can come up with your own creative variations that can really make your videos come to life. 

Let us learn how to create these Transparent animated GIFs from scratch. 

But before that. 

I'm Ramgopal from ArteRamgopal.com. We help you build your audience on YouTube and monetize your expertise.  

If you are new to this channel, please consider subscribing to this channel. 

Set Right Slide Size in PowerPoint

Here I am on a new presentation and a new slide. The first thing you need to do before you create your animated GIF is to decide on the slide size. 

What are the common mistakes presenters make is to create their animated GIF on the standard slide size and what that does is your animated GIF ends up being very small and when you want to use that in your project, you may have to really extend the size and that will pixelate the image. 

So if you want your animated GIF image to be versatile and can be used in any place without pixelation you need to create your GIFs in a small space.  

So the first thing I'm going to do is to go to design and change the slides size.  

I would like to work with the slide size of 1 inch by 1 inch. So let us go to slide size option in design in PowerPoint then click on this option go to custom slide size and you would notice that the default slide size has 13.33 inches of width and 7 1/2 inches in height. 

Select this delete and we'll have one inch as width and we will have one inch as height and then hit OK. 

Now you will be asked this question whether you want to maximize or ensure fit. 

You can choose any of them because we don't really have any content. 

Right now I'm going to choose maximize and here we have the slide area where we want to create the animated GIF. 

Now I want to have a blank layout here, so I'm going to right click on the slide area. 

Go to layout and say blank. 

I think now that the slide size is fixed, the next thing I'm going to do is to create my graphic. 

I can create my graphic either from symbols or from icons. 

I'll show you both the options here. 

Using Symbols to Create Animated GIF

First, let me go to insert, go to the text box option and click here. 

Now I'm going to use one of the symbols that are right inside PowerPoint to create our first graphic. 

I can once again go to insert, go to symbol and I can choose any symbol that I want, let's say insert and say close. 

Now I have the symbol inserted. 

Let me select this and I can really increase the size of this by going to the fonts option. 

Let us go to home, go to the fonts option. 

And I can go here and increase the size to say around 70. 

If I want it even larger, I can always go to this option here and increase the size of this symbol. 

Now that looks good, the animation option I want to use is data. 

So let us go to the animation options, go to emphasis and choose the option called data and you can see that the hand details giving the feeling that this is a thumbs up sign. 

The duration of This is 1 second. 

It works perfectly well for us. 

We don't really have to do any change right now. 

We can save this as an animated GIF. 

Now there is one thing that I want you to remember. 

If you want to use the symbol as an asset in Camtasia Studio and you want the liberty to change the color of the symbol, then you need to save this symbol in a specific color and this is a very important tip. 

I learned this tip from Ron Hogue. So let's select this and go to home. 

Then go to the font option and choose this color called as white background one darker 50%. This is a special color that allows you to use colorize option inside Camtasia Studio. Therefore you can change the color of this icon whenever you want. So let's select this white background. 

One back a 50% and then let us export it as transparent animated GIF. 

Export File as Animated GIF

For that we go to File, then go to export, then go to create an Animated GIF. 

We will choose the size here. Instead of medium, let us choose extra-large so we have the best resolution possible. 

Then choose this option. 

This is a very important thing to choose, which is make background transparent. 

The seconds to spend on each slide is just one second because our animation has one second duration. 

Then you say, create GIF. As soon as you hit that you get this option where you want to save the animated GIF. 

So let us go to desktop and call this Thumbs Up. 

Now we can use the animated GIF either inside PowerPoint or inside Camtasia Studio. 

Add Animated GIF to PowerPoint Slide

If I want to use it inside PowerPoint, I can always go to PowerPoint and create a new presentation. 

And let me insert the animated GIF. 

Let us go to insert pictures, this device and we had it stored in desktop and we called it thumbs up and let us say insert. 

Now this is the animated GIF. 

When I go to slide show you can see that this picture is animated and I can use it the way I want in any of my presentations. 

Let me delete this. 

Let us go back to the slide that we had created. 

Now let me show you how to create an animated GIF from one of the icons available as part of PowerPoint. 

Now I'm going to delete this one. 

And save this presentation in some other name so I can create a new GIF. 

If so let us go to File Save As and let us go to desktop and let us call this ICON 2 

Then say Save. The reason why I did this is I don't really want to once again go to a new presentation, change the slide dimensions in every slide. 

So I'm just saving some time here now. 

Create Animated GIF with Icons

Let me go to insert icons and I can choose any of the icons to animate. 

The icon that I want to animate is a hand icon, so let me go here and say hand and say enter and you can see that I have a whole bunch of hand icons available. 

Let's select this one and animate this. 

So let us go to insert and you have the icon inserted pretty nicely fitting the slides. 

Guys, the next thing I'm going to do is to ungroup this by right clicking and going to convert to shape option. 

I can right click again, go to group and say ungroup. 

Now this is a separate element and this is a separate element. 

Now if I want to make this into a colored icon I can select this go to shape fill and choose a different color for this. 

And I can go here and choose screen color. 

Now I'm going to animate this. 

Let us select this one, go to animations and let us have this float in and let us have the direction to float down. 

And then let us change the duration 2.5 seconds so this floats down.  

Then right after that we will have the plant growing from the hand. So let us select this and apply Wipe animation and that is a beautiful animation.  

Let us have this as After Previous when I go to slide show the way the animation would play is like this, the hand floats down and then the plant grows from the hand. 

This is a nice animation. 

Now let us export this as animated GIF. 

So let us go to file, go to export and then go to create an animated GIF. 

Extra large, make background transparent. 

You can see all these things are already set up. 

That is because we are taking all this information from the previous presentation that we created for animated GIF. 

Now that everything is in order, I'm going to say create GIF. 

I can choose the place. 

Now the GIF is created. 

Now when I go to a new presentation, right click and have blank layout and when I insert the pictures from this device and when I go to icon two and say insert, you can see that this is the GIF animation and it's quite nice. 

Using Animated GIF in Camtasia

Now let us learn how to use these animated GIFs inside Camtasia. 

Here I have Camtasia open. 

The first thing I'm going to do is to change the background of this by going to the option here and say project settings and choose a different color. 

Maybe I can choose this color and say apply. 

Now we've got a background in place. 

Now I'm going to insert the icons that we just created, so let us go to import media and then go to desktop and we have two of the icons that we created. 

One icon is called thumbs up and the other one is called Icon 2. 

I have selected both of them and I'm going to say open you can see that I have both these available here. 

Let me place this thumbs up over here and let us get closer into the timeline like this and let us play and you can see that this is how the animation happens. 

You can see that it goes away fairly quickly. 

That is because the duration is not so much. 

Now, if you want to have multiple iterations of the same animation, you can always copy and paste it multiple times so I can right click and say copy and I can place this here and press control V to paste it. 

And this is completely in your control. Now I told you that we need to use a specific color for our animated GIF so that we can colorize it later inside Camtasia studio.  

Let me show you what I mean by this, since we've chosen white darker 50% option, I can select this, go to more and say visual effects. 

And here I have the option called Colorize. 

I can apply this effect to the specific GIF and you can see that we have this nasty green color. 

Now let me go to color and I can change the color to any other color. 

Now you can see that I have total control in the way my animated GIF is shown. 

If I want to scale this animated GIF, all I need to do is to go up. 

In the properties and you can see we have the scale option. 

I can reduce the scale and I can place it anywhere on the slide like this. 

Now what if I want the animated GIF to play a couple of times and then remain as a static picture on the screen? 

I'll show you how it is done. 

Let us use the other icon that we had created so that there can be a bit of variety. 

Let us go to media and let us use the second icon. 

Here you can see that this one plays like so and it immediately goes away. 

Let us copy this a couple of times. 

Now after these couple of iterations, I want the icon to remain as a static picture, so I'm going to move the playhead to the right corner and press the shortcut called Shift. 

You need to select the specific clip and then use this option when you press Shift E. 

What it does is it takes a screenshot of the last frame and then sticks it on the timeline like so you can increase the duration for which this static image stays. 

I can just use OK and then if I want to extend the duration I can always click and drag here. 

You can see that this is all just nothing but a still frame of this GIF image. 

So let us see how this works when I go. 

To the play you can see once, twice and thrice and then it is a static image. 

Now this can come in quite handy if you want to create some animated infographic or some kind of explainer video using Camtasia. 

This option of adding still frames really can be a game changer. 

So did you like the tip if you did? 

Then please share it with your friends to encourage us to create more such videos. 

In the meantime, watch these other videos and encourage us. Thanks a lot for watching this video. 

I'll see you in the next one.