“You can do magic. I know you can,” the whisper in my ear said. Of course, that was the realization that Canva’s Magic Studio makes magic possible. Oh, not real magic like wizards and dragons, but the ability to bend reality to your will. That’s right, with Canva’s Magic Studio, you can adapt images and content to your will. Let’s discover and explore:
- The elements of Canva’s Magic Studio.
- Classroom Magic, a collection of terrific resources for educators.
- GIF tutorials on how to use Magic Studio.
- A Canva AI BINGO card with videos.
BONUS: Listen to the Magic playlist while you read this blog entry. It will put you in the mood to do some “magic!”
The Elements of Canva Magic Studio
Canva has organized AI-powered tools into Magic Studio and they are adding more every day. These tools distinguish themselves in that you can use them to create and transform images, text, and video rather than just edit or adapt them. A new offering includes Classroom Magic, not featured in the elements chart below due to it being so new. Let’s review these AI-powered tools one by one.
Tool #1: Magic Switch
Ever wish you could easily transform a presentation into a blog post? Or turn a Facebook post into an Instagram Reel? Or perhaps you’d like to turn a presentation slide into a whiteboard. Or translate content from your native language to another on the fly. Well, you can do it all in Canva with Magic Switch. It’s like having a genie that turns your designs into a summary, blog post, or song, and then translates them into another language! Take a look at all these options that allow you to transform one type of content into another seamlessly.
Here’s what Magic Switch’s Translate option looks like:
That’s right, Magic Switch makes all these tasks possible from within Canva. No need to go anywhere else! Transform into Doc is one of my favorite tools because you can turn a presentation into a blog post, summary, or really, anything.
For example, I asked it to transform my Canva presentation, You Can Do Magic, into a blog post. You can read it in its entirety, but for now, here’s a brief snippet. It isn’t quite perfect, but it’s easy to improve on:
Ever wondered if there’s a tool that could solve all your design problems? The answer is a resounding yes! Meet Canva Magic Studio, a platform that promises to revolutionize the way we create, design, and animate. This article by Miguel Guhlin takes you through every nook and corner of Canva Magic Studio, helping you understand what it can do for you.
You might ask, “What’s the magic?” It’s the suite of powerful tools that come with Magic Studio. They include Magic Switch, Magic Media, Magic Design. Also, Magic Edit, Eraser, Grab, Expand, Magic Write, and Magic Animate. Each tool addresses a specific task in mind, making design an effortless task.
Isn’t that enchanting? It also does poetry and song lyrics.
Magic Media, powered by DALL*E, Imagen, and others, is a creative powerhouse that can generate an image or video from a text prompt. You may be familiar with prompting AI to generate something for you already. You write a text prompt and watch it become a beautiful (or not) piece of art. With Magic Media, you tap into image-generation tools to create an image OR video. Just type in the description for the image or video you want, and voila! You get a result.
Tool #2: Magic Media
To make it work, follow the directions Magic Media gives and describe what you want to see in the text box provided.
My prompt:
Create a wooded area with thick tree trunks, ravens and crows in their branches, faces in the tree trunks, sheltering a humble cottage with diverse elfin children dancing in a waterfall, as a dwarf protector looks on, clad in silver eldritch. armor.
The image result:
Here is an example video generated by Magic Media. Can you imagine using tools like these to simulate a science lab? Imagine the possibilities.
Tool #3: Magic Design
Now that you’ve seen a few new additions to Canva, you may find yourself oohing and aahing over this one. My colleague, Emily Horn, recently wrote about it on TechNotes. You can use Magic Design to upload images or videos, or you can use your previously uploaded media, and generate fully editable and customizable videos, graphics, templates, and various types of content. Type in a prompt or upload your media, and choose from several designs.
What’s more, it can even add music to generated videos. Take a look at one example video I created in Canva using royalty-free images from Unsplash.
Tools #4-8: Image Editing Tools
Have you labored under the yoke of difficult image editing apps? If you’re like me, your creations never quite achieve your vision of what an image should look like. The creation falls short of my imagination. With these powerful image editing tools, image editing is an artist’s dream. The image editing tool suite includes:
- Tool #4: Magic Edit
- Tool #5: Magic Eraser
- Tool #6: Magic Grab
- Tool #7: Grab Text
- Tool #8: Magic Expand
Each lets you do something fantastic. My favorite is Magic Grab, which makes moving a person or object from an image easy. Consider this image of this TCEA participant:
Canva makes it child’s play to remove an element from an image and place it elsewhere, as shown below:
Another benefit? The empty space left by the removal of the object in the original image gets filled in.
Not only does it grab objects, but it also grabs text! For those who have been dropping text-filled images into Google Keep or OneNote to grab text, I have news for you. Not only does Canva grab the text, but it also makes it completely editable. The text becomes available for your use in the document immediately. What a time-saver!
Want to crop images but the result is less than perfect? Magic Expand can smooth the rough edges of an inexpert image crop. And, Magic Eraser makes it easy to remove parts of an image.
Tool #9: Magic Write
Magic Write is an AI-powered text editor. It can understand your “voice” and create text that is similar to what you would write yourself. You can start with a prompt to get a first draft, summarize text, or elaborate a short text into a longer one.
You’ve already gotten a hint of what’s possible with Canva’s AI-powered writing help. Magic Write can go a step further, taking any piece of writing you have and improving it. Access this tool inside any block text will go or from a Canva word processing doc:
I challenged Magic Write to put together a description of what it can do.
Prompt: Write a magical, mystical description of what Magic Write can do with references to wizards, magic, and dragons.
Generated Text: Magic Write is a wizard of words, a master of the mystical art of writing. With a flick of its pen, it can conjure up the most fantastical stories, weaving together tales of dragons and knights, of wizards and magic. Its words flow like a river of enchantment, carrying the reader on a journey through lands of wonder and adventure. Read the rest of this amazing composition.
This piece of AI-generated writing matched my directions. Although there’s some room for improvement, it wouldn’t take much to get this up to standard.
Tool #10: Magic Animate
Magic Animate brings life to your static designs. Add motion to designs or images and choose from an assortment of animation styles. It’s the perfect tool to make your designs more engaging. Take a heart shape, add the pulse animation to it, and watch it pump. Combine it with a Canva frame to put the face of your favorite wizard or witch inside a heart, and watch your heart beat away.
You can save the image as an MP4 or GIF. See the GIF below:
This Canva Magic Studio tool makes it simple to add some pizzazz to your images and then turn them into animated GIFs. Give it a spin. Here’s a quick walkthrough of Magic Animate.
Bonus: Classroom Magic
You will love Classroom Magic. This tool offers a wealth of features to educators, including:
- 1,000+ engaging teaching resources, such as worksheets, activities, presentations, and more
- 100+ free ready-to-teach lessons for K-8 math, science, English, ELA, and art
- 10+ courses on topics such as critical thinking, AI, and financial literacy
You can view the resources library online once you are logged into Canva. You’ll certainly love the “high-quality education templates.” Explore these and more!
Double Bonus: Canva Magic Studio AI Bingo Card
You’ll find a great variety of resources for Canva Magic Studio online. Educators and students who are verified can get free Canva Pro accounts. So can verified nonprofit teams! Canva does offer a one-stop shop for amazing tools. Put its wands of power to your use! Use this Canva AI BINGO card to explore video tutorials relevant to Canva Magic Studio:
Is More Canva Magic Headed Our Way?
Canva isn’t done innovating on Magic Studio. A few days after writing this blog entry, I stumbled across #11 – Magic Morph. With the Magic Morph app, you can select an element or text. Then, type in what you want that element or text to look like and wait for Canva to work its magic!
Here are two quick examples of a compass and the words “Magic Morph” that have been “morphed” into something new:
As Canva continues to roll out and introduce new tools and features, one thing is for sure. We can count on being amazed at the magic Canva puts right at our fingertips, unleashing unlimited creativity and time-saving advancements. What will you create with Canva today?
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