Let’s be honest – title slides can feel a little boring sometimes. You’ve got the usual name, credentials, and a headshot… and that’s about it. We thought, “why not shake things up”?

In this post, we’re trying out two title slide designs that swap the standard headshot photo for a fun, looping animated GIF. Think boomerang-style: playing forward, then backward, on repeat. It’s a simple way to make your slides feel more modern and a little more alive. Plus, we’ll show you how to make one of these GIFs using Adobe Premiere. It’s easier than you might think! 

To start, here’s a dynamic presenter title slide with a static headshot image of the presenter. Let’s see what we can do to, to make it more dyanmic.

We need to create our “boomerang” video in Adobe Premiere. First, create a square video (1080×1080), which is setup by going to Sequence > Settings > Video.

Add a video of the presenter performing a brief movement of some kind – waving, twisting their shoulders back and forth, nodding their head, be creative. (Tip: this video can be shot on a mobile phone. It should be 6-12 seconds in duration.)

Crop and position the video to fill the square canvas area.

Duplicate the video clip and position the duplicate at the end of clip 1 (Tip: press and hold Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) key, then click and drag the selected clip to duplicate it along the timeline)

Then reverse the second clip (right-click > Clip Speed / Duration > Reverse Speed). This flip sets up the last frame (now the first frame) of clip 2 to now match the last (and same) frame of clip 1, creating a seamless loop.

Finally, export your newly created loop as an animated GIF (Export > Preset > Animated GIF)

TIP: As a reminder, an animated .GIF file cannot have audio. 

Here’s our finished, more dynamic title slide:

That’s it! A small twist, like an animated headshot, can make a big difference in setting the tone for the presentation – more dynamic, more personal, and more memorable. And with a quick edit in Premiere, it’s a trick you can pull off pretty easily and quickly. Hope this idea sparks some inspiration for your next presentation. 

-The TLC Creative Design Team