Creating an Animated Video in PowerPoint 2013

Please Note: 
These instructions are for PowerPoint for Windows. To create animated videos on a Mac, please use Keynote.

PowerPoint is one of those tools that is been used and abused. But it is actually a really useful animation tool. You can insert images, add animation, transitions and narration and then save it all as a video. 

1. Clear the slides of any templates or default boxes. You can do that by right clicking and selecting the blank layout. You want this to look like your video, not a PowerPoint presentation you’ve seen a million times.

2. Next you will start to build your graphics. Use either one bold image or create a scene that will have some movement to it. To add animation, you can choose something simple like fade or something more complex like a motion path. Whatever you choose, try to make it simple or smooth, you don’t want people getting sea sick from watching your video.

The rule of thumb for videos is that you want something happening on screen every 3-5 seconds. Longer than that and viewers might lose interest shorter than that and it might seem too frenzied.

3. Make sure you use bold colours, like black, white, or yellow. Pale graphics might get lost on the screen. And make sure your graphics fill the entire screen. Most importantly Don’t use too much text. 

4. Now you can add some background music. On your first slide click on the Insert menu. Select Audio, and then Audio on my PC. Browse to find the music file. 

Click insert and then “Play in Background”. Make sure to test the music, if it’s too loud, just lower the volume.

If you don’t have a music track you can find one on a site like jamendo.com or the YouTube Audio Library (youtube.com/audiolibrary). 

If you have any trouble with the music track not playing in PowerPoint, try converting it to a WAV file before you insert it, you can use an online converter like online-convert.com

5. Nowyou can get set up to do some narration. First you’ll need a headset, you can borrow one from the library or purchase one for around $20. Plug your headset in to your computer and edit the settings (these are the instructions for Windows 7)::
a) right click on the speaker symbol in the lower right hand corner of your computer
b) select “recording devices”
c) make sure you headset is the default recording device

6. When you are ready to record, go to the Slideshow tab and click on Record Slide Show, you can either start from the beginning or record the slides one at a time. Keep in mind that if you record one at a time, the audio might not sound smooth and conversational. So just try to make it sound as natural as possible.

As you record the narration, just transition through the animations and slides like you normally would in a presentation. Be very careful not to speak while one slide is transitioning to the next or else your voice will get cut-off during the transition.
When you are done your narration just keep transitioning through the last slide. It takes a couple of seconds to end the recording so just be patient.

When it’s finished, you should now see speaker symbols on each slide. Open a slide and test the audio to make sure it recorded properly.

7. You may have to reorganize your animations to ensure the music track is first in the list. On your first slide (where your music track was inserted) go to Animations tab> Animation Pane, drag the music track to the top of the list.

8. To save this as a video, click on Save- Save As and then select either Windows Media Video or MPEG-4 Video. Don’t forget to save your PowerPoint in the usual slide format too, so that you can still make changes.