In this Canva Magic Design Tutorial, you'll learn how to save you so much time when creating visual content! Canva's Magic Studio is here and it's packed with AI features, including Magic Design. In this post, we're going to laser focus in on Magic Design and three ways to use it.
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What is Magic Studio?
Magic Studio is an entire suite of AI powered features new to Canva. Canva Magic (AI features) are designed to work with you as you design. I'm focusing in on three time-saving features in this video, but the best way for you to learn about Canva Magic is to open up your Canva account and explore them yourself.
Introducing Canva Magic Design (Full Tutorial)
You can dive into the video below or read on as I walk you through Canva's Magic Design:
Magic Design lets you create images, videos, and presentations in seconds with a few prompts and some media. And stay tuned because at the end of this post I'll share a bonus magic studio feature that takes magic design to the next level and will save you even more time and have you looking like an editing genius.
Is Magic Design a Free or Pro Canva Feature?
Free users can try Magic Design up to 10 times per lifetime across images, videos, and presentations.
Pro users can use Magic Design up to a hundred times a day, which is more than enough across all three types of media. So this really is a Pro feature in Canva.
If you have not yet discovered the many, many ways Canva Pro can fast track your design and productivity, then please take advantage of my 45 day free trial of Canva Pro here.
Magic Design for Images, Video & Presentations
Let's jump in!
1. Canva Magic Design for Images
From the homepage, add your prompt, like “solo travel tips for women”.
Canva generates a series of templates based on your description, including related templates in the Canva Library.
You an narrow down the results by asking for a particular document type, for example “Instagram Posts”.
And if you have media or product images you can upload them from your files and Canva will magically integrate the image into the results, like in this example:
As you can see, Canva Magic Design also pulls in colors from the featured media/image you provide it with.
Choose a template you like, click on it and then you can easily customize the text and/or change up the images.
Tip for using Canva Magic Design for Images
Easily add your brand colors from any brand you have saved and your design is instantly on brand, just like this:
Choose from a pre-saved color palette, and Magic Design will apply your brand colors to the templates:
This is huge!
Pulling your brand assets into Magic Design is a Pro feature and allows you to do more with Images, Video and Presentations in Canva Design. The Brand Kit is really one of the biggest reasons why you would want to use Pro in Canva (get my exclusive extended trial here).
If Magic Design for Images didn't blow your mind, wait till you see Magic Design for video.
2. Canva Magic Design for Video
Let's add some movement to your designs with video. Start with any video format. In this case I'm starting with a blank mobile video document. Canva prompts me in the side panel to use Magic Design to generate videos instantly.
Then choose up to 10 image or video files, or upload from your device if you choose to. Once you add your video prompt (in this case it's “Create a fun, summer-inspired video about my perfect day out in Europe”), Magic Design will go to work:
In seconds, Magic Design creates a multi-scene video, even adding a logo from my brand kit.
The result is the start of a great video, even including transitions between scenes and some decent copy using the power of Magic Write (and note that the resulting video story board is in reasonable chronological order based on merely the images I provided and a title prompt.
Watch the video here to see the full demonstration.
Note that Canva Magic Design for video will automatically add music between scenes using Beat Sync (another Pro feature in Canva). This adds music in time (synced) to your video to match video scenes and transitions. Now, THAT is fun!
And of course, you can edit the template that Magic Design gives you by changing up the text, font or images.
Here's another example using a prompt for a video to promote a new essential oils masterclass (using a Demo Brand Kit I have for a Natural Botanicals Company):
In seconds, Canva creates a video using my images that contains some really relevant copy (using the Canva AI-Driven feature of Magic Write). All I need to do is check the content, edit it and change any images I need to change.
Tip for using Canva Magic Design for Video
If you have a Canva Pro account, then go into the Brand Kit and add your “brand voice personality”. This tells Magic Write (the AI Writing tool within Canva) to use your particular brand voice when creating content. This will help the suggested content to be on brand and more accurate in its representation of you.
My thoughts on Canva Magic Design for Video?
It's still at the basic stage as the AI “learns”, but Canva Magic Design generates a really solid start to a great video. The fun of Canva is being able to edit and shape the video after you get a little helping hand from AI “Magic” features!
I think it's worth noting that the copy (again) in these videos is pretty reasonable and a great place for me to start editing from.
PS I always recommend that you use AI or “Magic” features to help you with ideas or to get started. Avoid using it for the final project and add your own flair, words and design.
Let's move on to Canva Magic Design for Presentations (warning, this may blow your mind with the potential!).
3. Canva Magic Design for Presentations
Watch the full demonstration video here.
Simply open a blank presentation document, then add your prompt to tell Canva what you want to create in as much detail as possible. In this case, tips for using essential oils in the home.
Once you enter your prompt the magic happens. This part simply fries my brain. Canva generates a number of presentations ready for you to edit. They're all multi-pages and contain photos, a great choice of font pairings and headings and copy using Magic Write.
And it does this in seconds. Again, mind blown! Below, Canva has provided me with 3 “Magic” AI-generated presentation templates with unique layouts:
So all I have to do is click on a design and then open that up. As you can see, Canva gives me the option to apply all 7 pages to my document:
Magic Write, the text generator is doing its job and the copy is really relevant with great headings and solid messaging. The font combinations are matched well and there's really nice photo layouts and a simple minimalist color palette.
It's a great start to a presentation without all the hours of work! Can I pause here for a happy dance?
Once I choose the style I like, I can switch up photos or videos, I really like the frames in this one; good for switching up photos. Or even apply my color palette from the brand kit like this:
See Magic Design for Presentation in action and more in full tutorial video here.
I can also then use my Brand Kit to add a logo or maybe a brand-approved icon – whatever you wish. Once you have the basic presentation template suggested by Magic Design you can edit it as you wish.
Tip for using Magic Design for Presentations
With your presentation applied to a document (or you can choose any presentation template in the Canva library), choose Animate in the Tool Bar at the top of the Canva Editor and choose “Magic Animate“.
Magic Animate automagically adds whole page animations and transitions to an entire presentation. You can then go through and preview the different styles it suggests by running your mouse over any animation combination:
Magic Animate does all of this in one click. Normally, I would have to go through and do this slide by slide in order to add animations and transitions between slides which can be tedious. These presets save so much time!
Again, this is a really good start and adds another whole layer to presentations over and above Canva Magic Design to help you add animations in a snap.
See Magic Animate in action and more here in the video tutorial:
Want to try Canva Pro and Magic Design features?
You can grab my exclusive 45-day extended trial of Canva Pro here.
Have fun with Magic Design for Images, Video and Presentations!
The sky is the limit with what you can create with Magic Design. Happy creating (and enjoy saving hours of time).
Donna Moritz
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