A free guide by Lauren Dallas Instagram

How To Create The Viral Walking-Through-Your-Carousel Effect Using Canva ✨

Ever seen those Instagram carousels where someone looks like they're walking from one slide straight into the next? It's such a clever way to make your content more interactive, grab attention and give people a reason to keep swiping. And the best part? You can recreate this effect yourself using Canva.

You don't need a different photo for every slide - just one walking video, split across your carousel.

The whole effect comes down to three things: a carousel with a consistent background, one clean walking video with the background removed, and careful positioning so your subject appears to move left to right as someone swipes. Here's the full build.

Step 1

Create Your Carousel In Canva

Open Canva and create a new Instagram carousel design. Recommended dimensions: 1080 × 1350px (4:5 ratio). Decide how many slides you'd like your person to walk across; 0 - four slides works well as a starting point.

Pro Tip

Design your slides with a consistent background so the transition feels more seamless when someone swipes.

Step 2

Record Or Upload Your Walking Video

You'll need a video of yourself walking from the left side of the screen to the right. Keep your camera stationary, walk naturally from left to right, make sure your entire body stays visible, choose a simple background that will be easy to remove, and leave plenty of space on either side of the frame.

Tip

You can also use an AI-generated walking video if you don't want to film yourself.

Step 3

Remove Your Video's Background

Upload your walking video into Canva, select it, and go to Edit Video → Background Remover, if the feature is available on your Canva plan. This removes the original background, leaving just you walking - now you can place yourself over any carousel design.

Step 4

Design Your Carousel Background

Add your brand colours, text, graphics and any other elements you'd like to include, thinking about how your design will flow from one slide to the next - for example, a headline on the first slide with different tips appearing as you walk through the remaining slides.

Placement Tip

Keep your text away from the walking path so your subject doesn't cover important information.

Step 5

Position Your Walking Video Across The Slides

This is where the magic happens. Duplicate your walking video across your carousel pages and adjust the placement or video timing on each slide: Slide 1, entering from the left; Slide 2, moved further toward the centre; Slide 3, positioned toward the right; Slide 4, walking toward or exiting the right edge. Keep your subject the same size and at the same vertical height across every slide - the goal is to create the illusion that you're walking continuously through the carousel.

Step 6

Choose Your Carousel Style

You have two options. Static carousel: choose a different moment from your walking video for each slide, export the slides as PNG images, and upload them as a standard Instagram carousel — as someone swipes, it looks like you're progressing from one frame to the next. Animated carousel: keep your walking footage animated on each slide, trim and position the video segments so the movement progresses from left to right, then export the slides as separate MP4 videos and upload them as a video carousel for a fully animated version of the effect.

Same technique, two finishes.

The static version is the easier build and the safer starting point - if the static version performs well, that's your signal to invest the extra time in the animated one.

Real Talk

Stopping the scroll is only one piece of the puzzle

The content on your slides still needs to be valuable enough for someone to want to take your desired action, whether that's following you, joining your waitlist, or making a purchase.

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