← GalleryCity Lights Text Animation for PowerPoint & Slides
City Lights sweeps your title's color continuously around the hue wheel like a neon sign catching every color in turn, on an adjustable-speed loop. Best for a tech or startup deck that wants motion without a specific brand color commitment.
Because the whole point is watching color shift, the hue-cycle rate is one of the few controls this effect opens up — slow it down for a subtler ambient feel, or speed it up for something more energetic. Background is limited to five dark presets since the glow only reads clearly against a dark backdrop. Skip it for a slide with an established one-color brand identity — the constantly shifting hue works against a fixed palette, not with it.
Best for
- Tech & Startup: A product demo's opening slide gets a subtle sense of motion and energy that a static title can't.
- Welcome & Openers: A conference or meetup opener stands out on a big screen without needing custom brand colors baked in.
How to add it to your slides
- Type your text above and adjust color/size until it looks right.
- Click Export and choose MP4 at your resolution.
- In PowerPoint, Insert → Pictures (GIF) or Videos (MP4), then set it to play automatically and loop.
Full PowerPoint/Slides/Keynote guide →FAQ
- What occasions does City Lights suit?
- City Lights works best for tech & startup and welcome & openers.
- Will it work in PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Keynote?
- Yes. Export as MP4 and insert it as a picture (GIF) or video (MP4) — all three apps support animated GIFs and MP4 video natively. Set it to play automatically and loop from the insert menu so it animates during your slideshow.
- Why is there no GIF option for City Lights?
- GIF's palette is limited to 256 colors with no dithering in this pipeline, which visibly bands on smooth glow gradients and dense, high-frequency textures. MP4 (H.264) has no such limit and stays a reasonable file size, so this effect exports as MP4 only rather than shipping a GIF that looks worse than the live preview.
- Can I change how fast City Lights cycles color?
- Yes — speed is one of the few adjustable controls on this effect specifically because the hue-cycle rate changes how it reads: slower feels ambient and calm, faster feels more energetic. Every other effect locks speed at 1x since it's usually just tempo, not a different look.