In this Tuesday's teacher tech tip video, I'm going to show you how to turn yourself
into an animated GIF. Now, why would you want to do this?
No particular reason, other than just to bring some smiles to your students' faces.
All right, before we jump in be sure to hit the like button and subscribe to my channel,
and definitely let me know in the comments what you think about my pronunciation of the word
GIF. The first step to making yourself into an animated GIF is to take a short video of yourself.
I had my wife take this one of me, using my iPhone, in our house in front of a relatively
plain background. Then you'll want to head over to Unscreen. Unscreen is a program that removes video
backgrounds without the need of a green screen. You can use Unscreen for free, though the free
version limits you to a five second video, and more importantly only allows you to upload video files
with low resolution. Using the free version will also leave a watermark on your GIF. I want to
upload a video file with better resolution, so I'm going to go ahead and set up an account
here by clicking 'Sign In.' After signing in with Google, you'll see that it takes me to a screen
where I'm able to upload a video by clicking on the blue 'Upload Video' button. I'll find the
video file on my computer that I want, click 'Open,' and then my file will start uploading. Once it's
finished, you'll see your original video on the left and the version with the removed background
on the right. At the bottom of the screen you'll see options for how to download your new video.
You can download it as a transparent file, or with video, color, or an image in the background.
So you'll see on the Video tab that there are already videos in Unscreen that you can add to
your background to get a green screen effect, and you'll notice that you could upload your own video
files to the background as well. Next, you could choose from different colors to add
to your background, and then lastly, you can also choose from different images to appear
behind you. Just like the video image, you can choose to upload your own images if you'd like.
Now I want to show you how I can download this video as a GIF that I can add to different
places like Google Slides, so I'm going to go ahead and choose the Transparent option here.
If you opt for the higher resolution video like I did, you'll have to pay $2.99 to download it.
After you pay, you'll need to wait for a moment for it to process,
and then once it's ready, click 'Download.' Let's hop over here to a Google Slide to see how it looks.
In order to add my animated GIF, I'll go up to 'Insert,' click 'Image,' and then locate that
image on my computer. Once it's in, I can drag and drop it around wherever I want it to go.
So here you can see my animated GIF waving to you on this slide. If you enter Present mode, you'll see
that your GIF shows up there as well, which I think would be a pretty fun way to greet your students
tomorrow morning. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks so much for watching my
video to the end. If you're interested in learning all about how to use instructional technology
to increase student engagement, personalize instruction, provide authentic learning experiences,
improve communication with families, optimize your organization systems, and so much more,
then check out my online course, The 21st century Classroom. In the video description you'll find a
link to 21centuryclass.com, where you can learn more about the course, as well as sign up for
the latest enrollment updates. In the video description you'll also find the link to my
website, where you can find additional resources for teaching with technology, as well as links
to my social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and TikTok, where I post 60
second quick tips about teaching with technology. Thanks again for watching and have a great week!