Up next in 10
Create an ANIMATED Profile Picture with Canva - Easy Tutorial!
21K views
Jan 14, 2024
This video is an easy tutorial demonstrating how to create an animated profile picture using Canva. It likely provides step-by-step instructions, showcasing specific features within Canva for designing and animating profile pictures. The tutorial aims to empower users with the skills to produce a dynamic and visually appealing animated profile picture for their online presence, emphasizing the simplicity of the process through Canva's user-friendly tools.
View Video Transcript
0:00
In this video, I'm going to teach you how to create your very own animated profile picture
0:05
That's right, a profile picture that moves. And I'll show you how to use that profile picture on different platforms like Gmail or TikTok
0:14
Let's go! What is up guys? Ronnie here. Welcome back to the channel
0:19
This is the best place for you to learn about Canva and all sorts of creative tools
0:24
Today, I'm coming at you with a step-by-step tutorial to create your animated profile picture
0:30
So without further ado, let's jump into Canva. I have 10 steps for you to create your moving picture
0:40
Okay, so this is my Canva home screen. And the first step is to simply select the right format
0:46
So you are going to go for a one-by-one aspect ratio. Let's go for the traditional Instagram post
0:54
So for that, I'm just going to start from the social media button right here
0:57
Click on that and then go for Instagram post. You see 1080 by 1080
1:02
That's exactly what we want. Step number two is to decide on what background you will be using for your profile picture
1:14
Me, I like to stay consistent with my personal brand and also the visual identity I have created for that brand
1:21
If you know me, you know that the bright yellow is my main, my dominant color
1:26
But I also like to play around with gradients. And I'm thinking for this profile picture that a nice radial gradient
1:33
so radial meaning the light kind of diffuses from the middle of the gradient
1:39
would look nice as the background of my profile picture. And I have one particular gradient in mind
1:44
and that is the gradient that is on the thumbnail of my Canva Master Course
1:49
which is my best-selling course on Udemy. So I want to stay consistent with that
1:53
I want people to associate me with that course. And to reinforce that, I want to use the same background
2:00
This is kind of like a subliminal message, but still, I think it's a good move
2:06
So let's go fetch that background. I'm going to use the project button here to navigate through my different Canva folders
2:13
because I know I have already created that thumbnail with Canva. So it shouldn't be too hard to go find the thumbnail
2:20
and then bring it to this design, and then get rid of everything else. So in my case, this should be under my folders
2:26
And from here, I have one which is called Roy's Courses, right here, Canva Master Course
2:32
And here it is. This is the thumbnail of my course. I'm going to click on this
2:36
You'll see all the different versions. So probably something you've never seen before
2:40
because only this one is the official thumbnail. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to simply get rid of everything else
2:48
You see, getting rid of that, getting rid of the color here. And this is the gradient that I want to use
2:55
OK, so the only thing I need to do is to stretch it so that it covers the entire one by one photo
3:02
So there we go. I have my radiant gradient for my background
3:07
And of course, you can pick any solid color. You can create a gradient
3:11
You can use texture or you can use patterns for your background
3:15
It's really up to you. But the only thing I would suggest is that you stay consistent
3:21
with the visual identity you have chosen for your brand. OK, so now we need a visual for our profile picture
3:33
So most definitely, I would recommend you use a photo of your face, right
3:39
It's your profile picture. Unless you want to use a logo or something else in that range of ideas
3:44
I personally like to use my face on my profile picture. So I'm going to go to this folder right here that I have
3:51
with a bunch of different photos and select one that I want to be using for my profile picture
3:57
I'm going to be using this photo right here. I think my expression is pretty cool and I have a nice haircut on this photo
4:04
So let's use this one. For this next step right here, I'm going to need a Canva Pro feature
4:10
called Background Remover. If you're not a Pro user, don't worry, don't freak out
4:14
You can still achieve a similar result without having to upgrade to Canva Pro
4:19
You can use a website called remove.bg to basically remove the background of your photo
4:27
So that would work. If you are an iPhone user, you can also achieve that result
4:31
by long pressing on your photo and then copying that photo. It will kind of like extract you from the background and paste that into Canva
4:39
There are different ways you can today get rid of the background of an image
4:43
without paying for Canva Pro. Now, that isn't to say that Canva Pro isn't awesome
4:49
Trust me, Canva Pro is well worth the price. I'm going to leave a link in the description of this video
4:54
for those of you who want to give it a try. We have this 45 days free trial, that is 15 additional days
5:02
than what you would get on the Canva website, for you to try Canva Pro
5:06
This is our affiliate link. It will be right there in the description of the video
5:10
Now, of course, you don't have to go with the exact same style of photo
5:14
that I'm going to be using. Maybe you are fine with just some of the elements
5:19
that are in the free Canva library. You don't need Canva Pro to achieve your animated photo
5:25
But for me, for this specific idea or concept that I have in mind
5:30
I'm going to be using the background remover. So let's go. I'm clicking on that photo, click on edit image
5:36
and then background remover. Canva is going to work its magic and just simply get rid of the background
5:43
So there you go. I have no more background. Do not click on anything right here
5:49
Or at least if you want to follow the exact same technique
5:53
that I'm going to be using in this tutorial. Because what I want to do is to really isolate that head
5:59
from the rest of my body. So I'm going to be using the erase button right here
6:04
I'm going to click on erase. And you should see your cursor change into this eraser right here
6:09
You can also change the size of your brush. So I'm going to be going for the biggest brush available
6:16
I'm just going to clean around my photo without going too close to my face right now
6:25
And now I'm going to resize that brush to make it much smaller
6:29
and work on the details right here. I can zoom in to actually see what I'm doing here
6:36
And this is probably the hardest part of the tutorial. So you need to kind of contour your face
6:48
without messing up too much. That's a high precision job. But the better you do this, the better the result
6:58
So here I messed up a bit. So I need to correct that. Okay, not too bad
7:04
And now moving up here. Now if you screw up at this stage
7:10
okay, you can always use the command Z functionality. You see like this to undo a specific part that you just messed up
7:19
Okay, so I just wanted to show you that. So I'm going to go and do this again right here
7:26
And it's okay. You see I messed up here. Command Z and I do it again
7:35
There you go. Okay, so it is not perfect. Like I took a little bit too much here
7:40
So I could probably restore a little bit. Okay, I'm pretty happy about this
7:48
I'm just going to go ahead and click on the done button right here. Don't forget to click on done
7:53
Otherwise you will lose all of that work. And last step to complete this background removal is to click on apply right here
8:01
So Canva should just take a second, process that photo, and then you should be good to go
8:08
I've seen Canva reacting and there we go. This is the result
8:13
I can resize this. I'm just going to make this frame around the photo just kind of like the right size
8:20
All right, I've moved my background here a bit. So in order to avoid the background here moving
8:25
position it correctly and I'm going to lock it. So now I can move this image around and the background will not move because it has been locked
8:33
You see the little padlock icon right here is closed. All right, let's move on to the next step
8:43
My next step would be to add an outline around my face so that we can hide the
8:48
imperfection of the detouring but also make as if this head was popping on the page
8:53
So in order to do this, first, I'm going to resize this to make it bigger
8:58
Okay, I want this to be quite big here in the middle because at the end of the day
9:03
this is what you will see in a very small profile picture, profile bubble
9:09
Okay, so I don't want it to be bigger than the safe zone
9:13
but I want it to be considerably bigger on the profile picture
9:17
All right, so this is what it looks like at this stage. I'm going to make sure I click on the photo to select it and then go to edit image
9:24
And now I want to find the shadows, okay, the shadow effect right here
9:30
Click on it and what you want to select is the glow shadow
9:34
Okay, click on glow and then click on the little slider button right here to access the settings of your shadow
9:42
Now, I like to use a 12 point size shadow. You see the shadow here around my face
9:50
So that's what I'm working on right now. Transparency, I like to keep it to 85
9:56
So not very transparent. It's not completely solid. And for the last slider right here, the blur, if you go all the way to zero
10:04
your line is going to be straight, like no blur. It's going to be completely plain, I would say
10:09
And if you go all the way to 20, you'd have the largest blur, the largest diffusion around that outline
10:16
I'm going to go for something in the middle, maybe six. Yeah, six looks nice
10:23
It gives me that nice popping effect that I was looking for. So once I'm happy with this, I'm just going to click on apply
10:29
So there we go. We have the base for our profile picture. Now let's work on animating this photo
10:39
The way we are going to animate this photo is to simply duplicate the page
10:45
and start adding some movement to my face. So let's go ahead and do this
10:50
The first thing you will need to make sure of is that you have your thumbnail view here activated
10:55
So it might be that your document looks like this. Just click on the little arrow right here to expand the thumbnail area right here at the bottom
11:04
Next is you are going to select your page number one, and then you are going to duplicate that
11:09
So you can go with the three little dots, duplicate page, or you could simply command C or control C, control V to create a third page
11:18
I'm going to delete the third one for now and just going to concentrate on page number two
11:23
So the thing here, I want to have this little head movement like so, kind of like the Indian head shake that I've never mastered myself
11:30
So I'm going to use Canva to try to recreate that. And then I'm going to add some other kind of motion to the animation
11:38
But let's start with the head shake. So for that, selecting page number two, selecting my image
11:44
and I'm simply going to rotate my head to one side. So maybe minus eight degrees on this side
11:51
Okay, so next, what I'm going to do, I'm going to come back to normal position and tilt the other way
11:57
So normal position will be page one. So if I select page one, control C, then I move to page two and paste, control V
12:05
Now I'm back to normal, okay, normal position. Now duplicating this one once more, page four, page four should be eight degrees on the other side
12:16
So there you go, like so. And then I'm just going to repeat this process, adding frames
12:22
So now back to the middle, like so. And then I can basically copy page two to five
12:30
So I select them all. You see, select page two, hold my shift key, click on page five
12:36
And now I have two, three, four, five selected, command C to copy them
12:41
I go to page five because I want to paste them after page five, command V
12:46
And now this is what I have. If I quickly go through them, I have one
12:54
So this is my animation so far. Okay, so this is a good start
12:59
I want to have this head shaking thing going on, but now I want to take it a step further
13:04
I want to go full circle here and rotate my head entirely, like a 360 degrees right here
13:11
in one direction, and then probably the other direction. And that would be the end of the animation
13:16
So in order to create this, we are going to use the same process of copying my page
13:20
and then slightly rotating. And I believe we can create the entire rotation
13:25
So that would be 360 degrees in 10 pages. So we will need to move or to rotate my face by 36 degrees on each page
13:37
just like starting from the previous position and then adding 36 degrees to the rotation
13:43
All right, so let's quickly do that. Okay, so this is the first page right here
13:47
So I'm going to select page number nine and command C, command V
13:51
There we go. So there. I'm going to be using my good old calculator to add 36 degrees to everything I'm doing here
13:58
So just simply using the calculator. So the first 36 degrees are going to be easy, just moving
14:04
And you see in black here, I have the number of degrees. So go to 36, like so
14:11
And then you copy page 10. And then from here, you add 36 degrees
14:15
So 36 plus 36, 72 degrees. So I need to go to my 72
14:22
There you go. Adding 36 to that, that's going to be 108
14:27
But make sure you copy your page first. Then you go to 108
14:35
Oops, not 7. Make sure you are exactly at 108 plus 36
14:41
That would be 144. Copy the page. Come here, 144. Like so
14:53
Copy the page. Plus 36, that would be 180. So just the middle
14:59
And we are already at halfway here. Okay, so this is good
15:05
And now, copy my page again. And now you see, if I move in this direction, I'm back to the same number
15:13
So it doesn't go like over 180, it goes back down from here
15:17
So I know the number is already 144. All right, so I should have 10 images between 9 and 19
15:32
And we do indeed. Now, what I'm going to do is to simply make the head rotate in the other way
15:38
So for that, I'm going to start with 18, then 17, 16
15:42
I'm going to go the other way around. So another trick, another keyboard shortcut I'm going to show you, if you hold your Option
15:48
key on Mac, you can add a shortcut. On Mac, you can also duplicate
15:55
If you hold it down and grab a photo and move it, you can duplicate that photo, that page
16:00
So I'm going to do that with 17. Just make sure you bring your pages at the right position right here
16:08
So 22, now 15. There we go. So I believe we have 29 pages and that should be the entire animation
16:21
So let's click on page 1. So let's use our keyboard arrows and just go left, left, left to just move from one
16:28
page to the other and see what the animation looks like. Starting with the Indian head shake and then the rotation one way and then the other way around
16:40
All right, this looks cool. What do you think? All right, we have covered the hardest part of the tutorial, which was to create the stop animation
16:52
Let's tweak this to make it a little bit more exciting by adding some animations on
16:57
the first and last frame. I'm going to click on page number 1 right here
17:02
Click on my face and click on animate. I want something like that, like the pop thingy going on
17:09
This is pretty cool. You can choose any of these animations, maybe stomp
17:14
Yes, stomp looks good. I'm going to make sure I animate this on enter only
17:19
This is important, otherwise it would look a little bit weird. So on enter
17:24
Okay, now I have this. I don't want this to last 5 seconds
17:28
Not at all. I want this to be maybe 1 second. Okay, 1 second
17:36
Next, if I click on page 2 or page 3 or whatever page, you will notice that the length that
17:42
the animation stays on that specific page is also 5 seconds, which is way too long
17:48
I want all of the other pages right here to be the shortest time possible
17:53
Okay, so if you drag the slider all the way to the left, you will see that 0.1 second
17:59
is actually the shortest time you can stay on one specific page
18:04
So I'm going to do that. Go for 0.1 second and also apply to all pages
18:09
Okay, like so. And now you see that page 1 also has 0.1 second
18:16
So I need to go back and change it back to 1 second
18:20
Okay, I think this will be good. Now, the last thing I want to do is to go fetch the last page, this one right here
18:26
and to also animate it. Okay, I'm going to click on animate, go for stomp, and this time I'm going to make it
18:33
on exit. The last thing I need to do from this last page right here, if I click on the little
18:39
thumbnail here, is to change the duration from 0.1 second to 1 second
18:44
Okay, I believe this is all good. My total length of the animation is 4.7 seconds
18:51
So I'm going to go ahead and click on that play button. Okay, that looks cool
18:59
I like that at the end, my face disappeared. Let's play that again. Okay, this looks good to me
19:10
I'm going to close the preview right here and I think we are good to go
19:15
Our animation is ready. Now we have to download it in the right format so we can upload it
19:24
The first place where I want to upload this and absolutely try it out is Gmail
19:29
Okay, so for Gmail, I did a little bit of research. You need to export that animation in the GIF format
19:35
So let's go ahead and do this by going to the share button right here, download
19:41
I'm going to change MP4 video for GIF. Make sure this is all my pages, size
19:47
I don't think we need to mess with this for now and I'm just going to hit download
19:56
All right, my file has downloaded. It's right here. I should have given it a name
20:00
So I'm going to change this right now by renaming my document right here
20:04
I'm going to call this animated Gmail profile photo. Profile photo. Okay, all right
20:14
Let's move over to Gmail and see how we can upload this photo
20:19
All right, guys, we are in my Gmail account. Obviously, I don't want everyone to see my private life
20:25
So I've blurred out pretty much everything here. But I want you to pay attention to this little profile picture right here in the corner
20:32
So you're going to click on this and in order to change it, very simple
20:36
you need to click on that little icon right here, the camera icon
20:39
So click on that and you will replace by clicking on change right here
20:44
And here I'm going to select from my computer, upload from my computer
20:50
This should be in my download. So this is the one right here, the GIF one
20:54
So it's going to upload into Gmail. And there we go. My profile picture is ready
21:02
It looks great already. Look at this. Beautiful. So save as profile picture
21:09
And there we go. I think we are good to go here
21:13
Look at this. The profile picture is ready. It could take a day or two to see the changes across all your Google services
21:20
OK, I got it. So I am not completely sure it will be immediately available across my emails
21:25
But it looks like it's already here. See, if I click on the profile picture, it shows my new animated photo
21:32
Now, let me try to send myself an email and see how it looks like from my phone
21:37
because this is where the magic should be happening. So let me just do that quickly
21:42
So, yeah, looks beautiful. From here, we can see the little profile picture I just uploaded
21:47
I sent myself a test email so that you can see how it looks in there
21:52
It looks great. It really catches my attention. So this is what I wanted to show you in this tutorial
21:57
And don't go anywhere. I have one last step for you. And that is to upload that same moving profile picture on TikTok
22:09
I did a bit of research and I found out that in order to have a moving profile picture on TikTok
22:15
you need to have it in the MP4 video. And your video needs to be between 3 and 6 seconds long
22:23
which is great because our video is 4.7 seconds long. So all I need to do is to download this animation from Canva again
22:31
but this time in the MP4 format. So let's go ahead and do this by clicking on download
22:37
I'm going to click the GIF here and choose MP4 video. All pages
22:42
That sounds good. I'm going to download this again, but this time in a video format
22:51
All right, my MP4 file is ready. It's downloaded. It's right here
22:55
What I'm going to do is to airdrop this to my phone, so I can continue to set up this new profile picture on TikTok from my phone
23:04
And by all means, if you have an Android phone, you can transfer that file to your phone
23:08
or you can maybe use the Canva app to download the same video into your phone directly
23:14
It's really up to you. There are plenty of options. All right, guys, I have my video on my phone and I want to upload this to TikTok
23:21
Now, the first thing I recommend you do, especially if you are an iPhone user, is that you go into your settings
23:27
you find TikTok, the app TikTok, and you allow TikTok to access your photos or a couple of your photos
23:35
On iPhone, you can decide which photos a specific app will have access to
23:40
So I need to give TikTok access to this photo if I want to be able to use it
23:44
So for that, I'm going to go to my settings right here and scroll down all the way to the T's and find TikTok
23:52
Tapping on this, tapping on photos, selected photos. So allow photo access to what
23:59
To all your photos, to none or selected photos. I chose selected photos and you can edit which selected photos
24:05
So I need, you see the second one right here, five seconds. This is what I need to give TikTok access to
24:11
So click on done. All good. Now I can get out of here and go to my TikTok profile
24:18
So this is my TikTok profile. I'm going to refresh quickly. And in order to change your profile picture, simply tap on edit profile, change video
24:26
And now I can select that video, which is my moving profile picture and save
24:34
And TikTok should be saving your video. And now you have edited your profile
24:40
It is updated and there you go. It looks great on TikTok. You can go out there and make some damage
24:46
And that's it, guys. I hope you liked this video. Give us a like if you did or subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so yet
24:52
I'm going to leave you with this other video right here to create something else very awesome
24:58
with Canva
#Design
#Online Goodies
#Skins
# Themes & Wallpapers
#Video Sharing