It was the day before St. Patrick’s Day. I was holidaying at a beach campsite in Dublin, and the usual Irish rain was bucketing down.
While I may be painting a soggy picture, the tinny, repetitive noise of rain bouncing off my campervan roof is like a soothing meditation — one of my favourite sounds in the world. I was in my happy place and felt inspired to do some marketing (which, if you know me, is not very often!).
So I got out the MacBook, played with my favourite program, and created an animated LinkedIn post to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
How I Made It
- I downloaded a stage mock-up image from Envato.
- I cleared the screen area in Photoshop and exported it as a PNG.
- For the MP4 to have a 16:9 ratio, I used Photoshop’s AI tool Generative Expand on the PSD. It did a great job and offered three variations — much quicker than the old-school way of editing the canvas size and filling empty space manually.
- For the screen area, I downloaded a beautiful bokeh background movie from Envato.
- After laying out my assets in PowerPoint, I inserted a 3D model of a shamrock from Adobe Stock.
- I duplicated, scaled, and rotated my shamrocks, added text, and applied Morph transitions across three slides.
- I exported the result as an MP4 file and uploaded it as a LinkedIn post.
- If you’d like to see screenshots of the process, you can download a PDF here.
A Bit About Me
Hi! My name is Orlagh Finegan. I set up my business, Pixelpool Design, in 2006 and have designed presentations for some of the world’s biggest brands.
My career has brought me all around Ireland and internationally — including Lisbon, Cape Town, and Sweden — and my decks have been projected to audiences in the UK, America, Canada, and China.
I first started working with PowerPoint in 2002 while designing for Ireland’s largest AV company. Working in the events industry was thrilling — I got to play with programs like 3D Studio Max and After Effects, creating 3D logo loops and event intro animations that I’d blend into the title slide of an event. Once the client confirmed the look, I’d spend hours creating and polishing the decks.
Designing with PowerPoint has given me a niche career for over 20 years, so I owe this program a lot of kudos! I spend most of my time in PowerPoint now — a testament to its power, functionality, stability, and brilliance as an event tool.
What Bugged Me Making This Clip
Technically, this should perfectly loop, as the first slide (frame) is the same as the last, so they should loop seamlessly in the MP4. There’s a very slight glitch as the 3D models morph into position — which, of course, totally wrecked my head!
As my late dad would’ve said, “A galloping horse wouldn’t notice!” So I hit the post button.
I’d love to see how you use 3D in your PowerPoint!