How to Make a Video Using Canva

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Hi SErs! Harmony here ๐Ÿ˜ Today, I have another Canva tutorial for you. This one is all about using Canva to make a free and easy video, which you can use for all sorts of promotional purposes … including a book promo trailer.

For this tutorial, I’m using Canva online rather than my App on my iPad. So some of the screenshots will look different, depending upon which version and App you’re using. However, the instructions are essentially the same.

**You can make videos in both the free and paid options on Canva**

Open Canva and choose a template:

Usually, I start with a blank template. Some of the done-for-you content requires a paid subscription. However, you can start with a done-for-you and swap out the paid images for free graphics–either from within Canva or from an image you upload.

You will need to choose your aspect ratio, which will change depending upon your intended use. See HERE for more information on aspect ratios.

**To resize in Canva, you will need the PAID version**

For this tutorial, I chose ‘book video’, which has given me a square aspect ratio.

From this one template, I can:

  1. change the background
  2. change the length of each frame (which you will see on screen as ‘pages’ until you save the video
  3. change the individual elements
  4. with the paid version, resize

Step One: Change the Background

I typed ‘forest’ into the search after clicking the ‘background’ option.

Step Two: Change the Frame Length

Here, I’ve set the frame to 2.5 seconds. You can use the slider or type in the dialogue box to set the time you want.

Step Three: Change the Individual Elements

I deleted the large shape on the right-hand side.ย  Then I resized the shape on the lower left.

I then changed the colour of the shapes and the text.

Next, I clicked on ‘uploads’ and chose ‘from device’. Below is how to upload and then the finished ‘frame’.

You can continue to add elements and text, etc., as much as you want. The template gives you multiple frames to work with that will form a video once you’re done.

You can also add pages and duplicate the current page. Have a play and see what you can come up with.

The vidoes come with a music track, which you can also change:

Alternatively, to view via YouTube, the finished video for The Glade is HERE.

And there you have it. An incredibly quick and easy way to create a book teaser trailer or other promotional video.

That’s it from me for today. I hope you find this post useful. And I’ll see you again on February 24thย  ๐Ÿ™‚

Harmony Kent

ยฉ2021 Harmony Kent

62 thoughts on “How to Make a Video Using Canva

  1. Reblogged this on The Write Stuff and commented:

    Running a day late, but Harmony Kent’s Story Empire post yesterday was way too good not to pass along! Been thinking about making a video to promote a book or two? Harmony has shared a step by step set of instructions for doing so using Canva. Take a look to see what I mean. (And how about that wonderful example she made with her book The Glade? Fantastic stuff! I’m going to give this a try myself, for sure. After you’ve seen how cool it is, I think some of you will want to do so as well. Hope you’ll remember to pass the post along far and wide, too, so others can see how to do this. Thanks, and thanks to Harmony for a superb lesson! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Perfect timing, Harmony. I have been playing around with Canva’s video features, recently and your post has answered some questions I had. I’m sure I would have figured it out eventually… but you have done the leg work for me. ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ˜Š๐Ÿ™

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Thanks for that – useful. I’ve been using FlexClip since the days before it added a watermark, but I’m reaching my limit of free videos. I’ve ued canva for one of my covers but I don’t go in often and wasn’t aware you could use it for videos.
    I must investigate!

    Liked by 1 person

  4. You make it look easy, Harmony. Thanks for the tutorial. I think trailers are effective in our marketing efforts and having an easy (free or low cost) way to produce them is essential. I’ve used PowerPoint to date, but will play around with Canva and see what I can come up with. ๐Ÿ™‚ Thanks!

    Liked by 2 people

  5. This is extraordinary, Harmony! Thank you for sharing the “how-to”, because I’m on Canva regularly. I had no idea Canva could be used for creating videos. Your post is incredibly helpful. ๐Ÿ’—

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Pingback: How to Make a Video Using Canva | Welcome to Harmony Kent Online

  7. Pingback: How to Make a Video Using Canva | Legends of Windemere

We'd love to know what you think. Comment below.

Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s