Do you want to animate your banners? An animated banner is basically an online advertisement element that contains a moving sequence of images, animation, text, and other interactive objects. It is used for the promotion of a brand, company, or business amongst users. It is a powerful tool to generate awareness about your business in the online world. Now, if you want to make animated banners for free on your Windows PC, this post will interest you. Here, we will discuss multiple methods to design animated banners without paying a penny.
You can create banners in GIF format as it is a common format for banners accepted by most online publishers and advertising networks. It can be a static or an animated GIF banner. A static image banner can be created using any standard graphics designing tool. However, if you want to create an animated GIF banner for free, you can use an online tool like Canva. Or, you can even use free software like GIMP. Both of them allow you to design animated banners in GIF format.
How to create animated banners on Windows 11/10 PC
Here are the main methods to create animated banners on your Windows 11/10 PC:
- Create animated banners in GIMP.
- Use Canva to make animated banners online.
- Create animated banners in Figma using a plugin.
1] Create animated banners in GIMP
You can create animated banners using GIMP. GNU Image Manipulation Program aka GIMP is a popular free and open-source vector graphics designing software for Windows and other operating systems. It can be used for many purposes, including designing new graphics designs and editing existing images. You can make leaderboards, posters, logos, drawings, as well as web banners. It lets you create static and animated web banners that you can use to promote your business/ brand. Let’s see how.
Here are the basic steps to create animated banners in GIMP:
- Open GIMP and click on File > New.
- Choose a web banner template or enter a custom size for your banner.
- Import images as layers.
- Add and design multiple layers in your animation.
- Go to the Filters > Animation menu and select an animation effect.
- Press the Filters > Animation > Playback option to set up animation speed and preview it.
- Click on File > Export as and save your animated banner as GIF.
Let us elaborate on the above steps now.
First of all, make sure you have installed GIMP on your PC. Then, simply open the application and go to the File > New option. Now, click on the Template drop-down button and you will see various web banner templates size to use for your animated banner, like large mobile, large skyscraper, leaderboard, large rectangle, and medium rectangle. You can also enter a custom banner size if you want and then press the OK button.
Now comes the main part which is designing. You can use existing images and animations, or draw your own frames using available painting tools to create an animated banner. To import existing pictures to your banner animation, click on the File > Open as Layers option. You can then edit and enhance the images as per your requirements with the help of its editing tools. To add new empty layers which you can design with custom drawings and text, you can use the Layer menu.
TIP: If you want to make an animated banner with transparent background, you can do that too.
Once you are done with the designing part, you will have to customize animation properties. For that, go to the Filters > Animation option and apply an animation effect like Blend, Burn-in, Rippling, Spinning Globe, and Waves.
After that, click on the Filters > Animation > Playback option to set up the animation speed and frame rate. You can also preview your output animated banner using this option.
When all is done, click on the File > Export as option, select GIF image as output, and tap on the Export button. Now, choose the As animation option (a cross mark will appear) and configure output properties like loop forever, the delay between frames, etc. Finally, click on the Export button and your web banner will be saved as a GIF animation.
GIMP is a great graphics designing software that can also be used to create animations including animated web banners.
Read: Create GIF from a video file in GIMP.
2] Use Canva to make animated banners online
Canva is a well-known online graphic design tool. Using it, you can also create animated banners without putting in much effort. It provides a dedicated Free banner maker that you can use to design banner images and animations. You can design professional animated banners using it.
To design animated banners using Canva, open Canva’s Free banner maker page in your web browser and click on the Start Designing Your Banner button. You will then be navigated to its editor page where you can design your banner.
It provides a dedicated Templates section where you can browse and use a variety of web banner templates. In case you want to start from scratch, you can do that too. Just upload your images/ animations and drag and drop the graphics to the canvas.
You can also use various free images, graphics, shapes, clipart, animations, and more from its online library. Go to its Elements section and search for the required graphics that you need to put in your banner. Furthermore, you can add text in your favorite fonts and styles to the banner.
It also contains a lot of editing features using which you can modify an image or graphical element. These options include crop, flip, brightness, contrast, blur, saturation, etc. Besides that, it provides an Animate option using which you can apply an animation effect to an added text or graphics element, such as Rise, Pan, Fade, Pop, Wipe, Breathe, Drift, etc.
Some additional features that will help you design your banner include Lock (lock an element that you don’t want to edit), Transparency (adjust elements’ transparency), Position (arrange the position of an object), etc. You can also invite other users to edit an animated banner collaboratively.
When you are done making an animated banner, you can download it in MP4 video or GIF format. Besides that, you can also save the banner image in formats like PNG, JPG, PDF, etc. To download the banner animation, click on the Share button and then choose the desired output format.
All in all, Canva is a great animated banner maker using which you can design some beautiful banner animations for your brand and company.
Read: Free Pencil Animation and Cartoon Software for Windows PC.
3] Create animated banners in Figma using a plugin
Figma is a popular collaborative interface design tool. Using it, you can also design banners including animated banners. However, you will be required to use an additional plugin called Bannerify. It is a free Figma plugin that allows you to animate your banners and other designs like a leaderboard, skyscraper, etc. Let us check out how.
How to animate banners in Figma?
- Open Figma in a web browser.
- Add the Bannerify plugin.
- Add a banner frame.
- Design the banner as per your requirements.
- Animate your banner.
- Export the animated banner.
First of all, open Figma in a web browser, and then you need to add the Bannerify plugin in Figma. After that, on the start page, add a Banner frame that you can design and edit as per your requirements.
Now, you can insert multiple frames into the animated banner. It also offers several drawing tools to create lines, rectangles, arrows, ellipses, polygons, stars, etc. Besides that, you can also add text to your banners. You can access all the formatting options from the right side Design pane.
Once you are done designing the banner, select the frame or page and then click on the Bannerify option from the right-side pane. You can now configure various output options including animation speed, enable loop, entry and exit animation effects, add a hover, etc. Finally, you can export your animated banner in formats including GIF, MP4 video, WebM video, and animated WebP. It also lets you export animated banners to an HTML file. You can also batch export all animated banner frames in it.
If you already use Figma, Bannerify is a convenient option to create animated banners. You can try it from here.
See: How to Reverse Animated GIF in Windows 11/10?
How do you make an animated banner ad?
To create an animated banner ad, you can use a graphics designing tool that allows you to animate your banners like Canva. It allows you to add animations to a banner or animate graphics elements present in your banner. You can then export the designed animated banners to GIF or MP4 video format. GIMP can also be used for the same purpose. We have listed some more methods to create animated banners, so check out the post.