Embedding GIFs/video to your slides

You can embed media to any direct child layer in the parent frames in your slides by pasting a URL (linking to to a .gif file, .mp4 file or a YouTube/Vimeo video) or using the built-in search options (powered by GIPHY and Pixabay).

Video Tutorial: Embed videos and GIFs

This video tutorial is a complete step-by-step guide showing you how to embed GIF and videos from YouTube/Vimeo into your Figma slide deck designs, that you can use in real presentations using the Pitchdeck plugin.

Searching/inserting GIFs to your slides ​

To add GIFs using the built-in GIPHY search integration, you can click the GIFs/Videos tab, then hover over the child layer where you would like to embed the GIF; then click on the GIPHY button to open the search panel. Type a keyword in the search field, then click the Search button to load the list of GIF results for your keyword search.

To insert a GIF result into your selected layer, you can click on any of the GIF thumbnails in the GIPHY search results list.

To remove a GIF from any layer, you can delete the URL from the text input field for that layer.

You can embed your own .gif URLs. If you have a GIF hosted on your own website or another website that you would like to embed, you can manually paste the valid direct link to the .gif file into the embed text input.

Native GIF layer fills inside the Figma document are supported. Any GIFs added "directly" inside your Figma designs will be included automatically during export.

Searching/inserting stock videos to your slides ​

To add stock videos using the built-in Pixabay search integration, you can click the GIFs/Videos tab, then hover over the child layer where you would like to embed the video; then click on the Pixabay button to open the search panel. Type a keyword in the search field, then click the Search button to load the list of stock video results for your keyword search.

To insert a video result into your selected layer, you can click on any of the video thumbnails in the Pixabay search results list.

To remove a stock video URL embed from any layer, you can delete the URL from the text input field for that layer.

You can also add your own .mp4 video, by hosting it on something like Backblaze B2/Dropbox and copy/pasting the URL into Pitchdeck.

Videos are only used for web presentations. Please note that any video embeds that you add will only be used in a presentation uploaded to the Pitchdeck web app; this means that no videos will be included in your Keynote or Google Slides exports.

If you have MP4 Video URL (linking directly to an .mp4) embeds in your layers, you can optionally enable the Include MP4 Video URL Embeds toggle in your PowerPoint export settings, which will ensure your MP4 video is embedded as a playable video layer that's supported in the PowerPoint app.

Embedding external video URLs to your slides ​

To add external video URLs from YouTube and Vimeo, you can click the GIFs/Videos tab, then hover over the child layer where you would like to embed the video; then paste any valid video URL from YouTube or Vimeo into the text field to embed it.

You can also add your own .mp4 video, by hosting it on something like Backblaze B2/Dropbox and copy/pasting the URL into Pitchdeck.

To remove an external video URL embed from any layer, you can delete the URL from the text input field for that layer.

Videos are only used for web presentations. Please note that any external video embeds that you add will only be used in a presentation uploaded to the Pitchdeck web app; this means that no videos will be included in your PowerPoint/Keynote/Google Slides exports.

If you have MP4 Video URL (linking directly to an .mp4) embeds in your layers, you can optionally enable the Include MP4 Video URL Embeds toggle in your PowerPoint export settings, which will ensure your MP4 video is embedded as a playable video layer that's supported in the PowerPoint app.

Toggle autoplay for YouTube/Vimeo embeds. By default, YouTube and Vimeo video embeds will be set to autoplay when the slide it's on loads; you can toggle this by clicking on the Autoplay (YouTube/Vimeo) toggle switch under the embed URL. Please note, that this setting will be ignored if you're presenting a web presentation via the remote control; in this case, videos will always autoplay, as you're likely away from the computer/mouse.

Scaling your GIF and MP4 video embeds ​

You can select the way your GIF embed is scaled by using the Scale select box located directly underneath the URL input.

  • Selecting the Fill GIF/MP4 option will ensure the GIF covers your entire layer, with some possible outer cropping.
  • Selecting the Fit GIF/MP4 option will ensure the entire GIF is included inside your layer, with some possible blank space either on the left/right or top/bottom.

Embedding MP4 video URLs into your PPTX exports for PowerPoint (Optional) ​

Video Tutorial: Export PowerPoint files with MP4 video embeds from Figma

This video tutorial is a complete step-by-step guide showing you how to export PowerPoint (.pptx) files with MP4 video embeds from Figma using the Pitchdeck plugin.

If you have MP4 Video URL (linking directly to an .mp4) embeds in your layers, you can optionally enable the Include MP4 Video URL Embeds toggle in your PowerPoint export settings, which will ensure your MP4 video is embedded as a playable video layer that's supported in the PowerPoint app.

You can also customize the video thumbnails from the plugin dropdown options below:

  • Automatic Video Thumbnails from MP4: Automatically use a frame from your video embeds for thumbnails (from the start, middle or end of your videos)
  • Use Figma Layer for Video Thumbnails: Use the content of your Figma layer (that the .mp4 file embed is on) as a totally custom thumbnail
  • No Custom Video Thumbnails: Don't set any thumbnail (which is what it was previously doing, where PowerPoint sets its own default play button thumbnail)

Please note that the "Fill" sizing property isn't supported in PowerPoint, so the video will "Fit" into your Figma layer size, regardless of aspect ratio.