# How hard would it be to make an animated YouTube video? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 22, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-would-it-be-to-make-an-animated-youtube-video/554659 "2010-09-22T16:16:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-would-it-be-to-make-an-animated-youtube-video/554659/1 "2010-09-22T16:16:22Z")
I’m a complete novice to video-making. I have never posted on YouTube and never made any animation of any sort, unless you count Java Applets. But I’ve had an idea for something that I’d like to make for my physics class and now I’m wondering whether its feasible without too much effort. What I envision would not need to contain any real motion, nor any 3-D graphics or anything of the sort. All that I really want is to have is text appearing on the screen and basic drawings of lines and shapes, not necessarily moving. For the sake of demonstration, the animation that I have in mind would be kind of like what’s in [this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t63xYSgmKE). I would also want to do a voice recording and add that to the video. I honestly have no idea what software is needed to make something like this, so any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-would-it-be-to-make-an-animated-youtube-video/554659/2 "2010-09-22T16:25:50Z")
Do you have Powerpoint? It is part of Microsoft Office. It can makes those types of presentations. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-would-it-be-to-make-an-animated-youtube-video/554659/3 "2010-09-22T17:41:46Z")
Powerpoint, or if you want more control of the details and for more involved animations maybe something like silverlight or flash. At a very primitive level you could use Word and take screenshots as you type. Then composite them in a video editor like Premier or virtual dub or windows movie maker. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-would-it-be-to-make-an-animated-youtube-video/554659/4 "2010-09-22T17:45:01Z")
I second power point. You can then make animated gifs if you want something more complicated and put those inside the ppt. (Powerpoint can export as a movie, for the record.) ---
**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-would-it-be-to-make-an-animated-youtube-video/554659/5 "2010-09-22T17:58:04Z")
Try Prezi: > **[Presentations and videos with engaging visuals for hybrid teams | Prezi](https://prezi.com/)** > > Welcome to Prezi, the presentation software that uses motion, zoom, and spatial relationships to bring your ideas to life and make you a great presenter. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-would-it-be-to-make-an-animated-youtube-video/554659/6 "2010-09-22T19:34:05Z")
But how do you go from PowerPoint to a video you can post on YouTube? ETA: Hey **ITR Champion** , I interpreted your post as meaning that you want to post on YouTube. Is that the goal, or you just need to present it to your class? ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-would-it-be-to-make-an-animated-youtube-video/554659/7 "2010-09-23T15:36:34Z")
I would like to how to go from a PowerPoint presentation to YouTube. (I do have experience with PowerPoint.) For this particular thing I have in mind, YouTube is not absolutely necessary, but I’d like to know in case I want to share this with other teachers or someone else. There’s also the question of how to incorporate a voice recording. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-would-it-be-to-make-an-animated-youtube-video/554659/8 "2010-09-23T16:33:57Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > I would like to how to go from a PowerPoint presentation to YouTube. (I do have experience with PowerPoint.) For this particular thing I have in mind, YouTube is not absolutely necessary, but I’d like to know in case I want to share this with other teachers or someone else. There’s also the question of how to incorporate a voice recording. > **[Leawo PowerPoint to Video Pro is the best PPT to video converter to convert...](https://www.leawo.com/powerpoint-video-converter/)** > > With Leawo PowerPoint to Video converter, you can convert PowerPoint file to video in all pop formats, like convert PowerPoint to AVI, WMV, MPEG, etc, and put PowerPoint on portable devices like iPod, iPhone, Pocket PC, PSP, etc. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-would-it-be-to-make-an-animated-youtube-video/554659/9 "2010-09-23T19:22:02Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > There’s also the question of how to incorporate a voice recording. PowerPoint supports that. Check out Help under “Narration.” ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-would-it-be-to-make-an-animated-youtube-video/554659/10 "2010-09-23T20:59:11Z")
To clarify, Mac PowerPoint will export “Save as Quicktime Movie” - it’s an MOV file, with narrations intact. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-would-it-be-to-make-an-animated-youtube-video/554659/11 "2010-09-23T23:23:52Z")
Apple Keynote, their competitor to PowerPoint, has a “Share -\> Send to YouTube” option right on the menu. 🙂 You can assemble still images and audio into movies in Windows Movie Maker or Apple iMovie. Many DVD writing programs, such as [Roxio Toast](http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.html) or [Roxio Creator](http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/creator/suite/overview.html), as well as programs specifically for DVD authoring, like [DVD Styler](http://www.dvdstyler.de/), will let you make photo slideshows. This can include hand-drawn images placed one after another on a scanner or photographed by a camera, and kept aligned by a “pegbar”. A lot of the features on traditional [animation tables](http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=oev&rls=org.mozilla:eo:official&q=animation+table&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=lt6bTOnbGYWYnAeu0MWgDQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CDIQsAQwAA&biw=1577&bih=1121) relate to aligning drawings and having several drawings in a stack with light shining through them, so that you can properly draw the next drawing. Adobe Flash was originally created to animate on the computer; even though it’s gone in a lot of different directions since then, it still has all the animation functions that it ever did, like control of the size, shape, and location of moving objects. Flash is pretty expensive though. There is other animation software available, like [ToonBoom Studio](http://www.toonboom.com/products/toon-boom-studio/?sl=US) and [Anime Studio](http://anime.smithmicro.com/index.php). And here’s a [list of free animation software (some of it trial versions)](http://animation.about.com/od/referencematerials/a/freesoftware.htm).