Bring Presentations to Life with Cinemagraphs Created with Flixel Apps
We all know that cinemagraphs bring static content to life on the web and in social media. But did you know that the cinemagraphs you create with Flixel apps can also liven up a boring old PowerPoint or Keynote presentation? As the Chief Marketing Officer at Flixel, I’m regularly called upon to present the Flixel Story to audiences around the world. So whether I’m presenting to the senior team at Fortune 500 companies like Disney, Facebook and PepsiCo, or to other Toronto startups, my presentations are always created entirely of eye-catching cinemagraphs created by the Flixel Community. The reaction to cinemagraphs in my presentations is always the same. “Wow!
Mountains of evidence collected by neuroscientists shows that if you want your words to be remembered, you need to present concepts using videos and photographs. That’s a big part of the reason that all presentations given each year at TED are created entirely from visual content.
It’s also why Flixel was invited to TED last year to create cinemagraphs for all the attendees.
They call this the “Picture Superiority Effect” and it works like this: If you hear information delivered verbally, you are likely to remember about 10% of that information three days later. Add an image, and your recall rate will soar to 65%. Put simply, your visuals matter―a lot.
So leave the slides with bullets to Grandpa, and let’s talk about putting cinemagraphs to work.
Modern presentation apps like Keynote and PowerPoint make it very easy to use cinemagraphs. It’s as simple as exporting an MP4 video version of your cinemagraph, importing it to a slide, and then setting it to autoplay and loop. The whole process takes less than minute and the standing ovation you’re sure to get from using cinemagraphs instead of cheesy clipart (or even cheesier stock photos) will put a giant smile on your face.
Let’s get started. I’m going to assume that you know how to make cinemagraphs with Flixel apps and you’re ready to put some of your living photos to work in a presentation. If you need a tutorial on making cinemagraphs with Cinemagraph Pro for macOS or iOS, check-out our collection of videos in the Flixel Learning Lab.
Export a single loop from Cinemagraph Pro as an MP4 video
Whether you are using Keynote or PowerPoint, you will only need 1 loop of your cinemagraph. This will help to keep the file size of the cinemagraph video small, and the overall size of the presentation more manageable. If you plan on using the cinemagraph as a full-screen image, leave the size of the cinemagraph Full. Otherwise, you can reduce it to 1/2 or smaller.
Use the export function in Cinemagraph Pro to create an MP4 video.
Repeat this for all the cinemagraphs you’ll be using in your presentation. Once you have all of your MP4s you’re ready to jump over to PowerPoint or Keynote. We’ll start with PowerPoint.
PowerPoint
Step 1. Go to the slide you want to add the cinemagraph to. Select the “Insert” tab. You should see a “Video” icon at the far right side of the nav bar. Select Movie from File and import your MP4.
Step 2. You now have your cinemagraph video on the slide. You can resize it or leave it full-screen. By default, PowerPoint assumes that you want to click to start the video during a presentation. Let’s change that so it works more like a cinemagraph. Click on the cinemagraph video. A new tab called “Video Format” will appear in the Nav bar.
Change Start to Automatically and select Loop Until Stopped. The cinemagraph video will now autoplay and loop beautifully when you get to this slide during your presentation.
You can have several cinemagraphs on the same slide and add text or other graphics over it just like any object in PowerPoint.
Keynote
Step 1. Keynote makes using cinemagraph videos even easier than PowerPoint. Go to the slide you want to add your cinemagraph video to. You can either drag your MP4 onto the slide or insert from the menu.
Step 2: With your cinemagraph video now on the slide, select the Movie panel on the right side of the screen. At the bottom you’ll see the Repeat option. Set it to Loop and make sure Start on click is off.
That’s it. Your cinemagraph videos will now play beautifully during your presentation. To see just how amazing your presentations will look take a look at this example I created in Keynote and shared via YouTube.
BONUS: Brands Using Cinemagraphs Presentation
Trying to pitch cinemagraphs to a client or even your company? We’ve got a Keynote and Powerpoint deck just for you that showcases brands using cinemagraphs. Download them below (file size: 200 MB).
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