Memes are all the rage these days, and have been for some time. As an intractable part of online culture, memes pop up absolutely everywhere. And in this article we’ll show you how to make a meme.
The idea of a meme is to replicate a picture or piece of text but with your own spin on it. Either to make people laugh or say, “Gosh, I relate.” So here’s our step-by-step guide to making your own meme.
How to Make a Meme Using a Meme Generator
The whole point of memes is that they’re quickly thrown together, funny, and relatable. That’s why it’s so important to have an easy way to make them, preferably in five minutes or less.
To answer this demand for quick, viral images, meme generators were born. I mean, you could learn how to create a meme with Photoshop, but Photoshop is an expensive service. Plus, it takes a lot longer to make your own meme with it, so what’s the point?
With meme generators, the process of creating a meme becomes a thousand times simpler. All you have to do is upload your image or text into the generator, then slap it together. Congratulations, you’re done.
If you’re looking for more information on what kinds of generators are available, check out our list of the best meme generators to make your own meme. If you want to see how to make a meme using your own picture, follow the steps below.
Step 1: Research
It should be noted that making a meme is very different from being the originator of a meme. No one can predict when a post will go viral, so we’re not covering that here.
However, you can absolutely add your own spin to a meme that’s already gone viral. The first step to making a meme? Research.
The research you do doesn’t have to be in-depth, especially if you’re active on social media and you’re in-tune with online culture. If you’re out of the loop, however, you need to know what memes are currently trending and which ones are out of style.
I mean, the meme “It’s over 9,000!” was massive back in the day, but it’s so old now that half the people online would probably have no idea what you’re talking about if you used it.
A quick way to know what memes are trending is to check out the website KnowYourMeme.com.
Step 2: Choose a Meme Generator
If you want to learn how to make a meme, choose a meme generator from the aforementioned list. For the purposes of this article we’re going to use Imgflip, as it’s an easy, accessible choice, and has a lot of templates that you can use.
Warning: While easy to use, making memes on this site isn’t exactly private. We’ll have more info on that later.
For this tutorial, we’re going to reconstruct the very simple “Glowing eyes” meme.
In plain terms, the whole point of Glowing eyes is to overlay bright lights on top of the face of a person or an object. This is to show immediate, extreme, focused interest, although the “tone” of the interest can change with the message that you’re trying to convey.
When you make a meme on Imgflip, you can either work with one of the images that they already have, or you can upload a picture of your own.
I’m extremely boring, but because this is a tutorial I’m going to use a picture of my face. For your own version of the meme, use whatever pictures you have on hand, so long as there’s a person or person-shaped object involved.
Step 3: Upload Your Photo
To upload your own picture, click on the Upload your own image button, as seen below.
After that, you can choose the source of your upload. Either:
- Upload image from your device.
- Past an image or image URL into the search bar.
When you are doing your initial upload, you can also check the box that says Allow this template to be shared publicly. I don’t want to share this template, however, so I’m going to leave it alone.
Once you’re done, click Upload.
Next, you’ll be taken to a second image upload screen where you can see a small preview of your picture. Here, you can tweak your uploaded image even further. You can do this by flipping the image, rotating it, or cropping it.
If you decide that you don’t want to use this picture, you can choose to upload another image from your device, or paste the image URL into the address bar.
Once those revisions are done, click the Upload button a second time, seen above in red.
We promise, this is the last time you’ll need to click this button.
Step 4: Add Meme Effects
The thing with memes—at least on the creative side—is that you want to use pictures that are:
- Easy to understand.
- Emotive.
You want people to get a distinct impression for what kind of “mood” you want to convey with the picture, and how that mood is instantly relatable, either through what’s happening in the picture or what’s being said.
After you upload your picture to Imgflip, you’ll be taken to the edit screen. On the left side, you’ll see your image. Along the top of the image are buttons to add meme effects. On the right, you’ll see a box where you can add your text.
To add the “Glowing eyes” to your meme, click on the sunglasses icon above your picture, seen here in red:
This icon will open up a new screen where you can find transparent overlays to add to your image, including the glowing eyes.
Once you add the glowing eye effect, Imgflip will place a single glowing eye onto your picture. You can resize this eye by clicking and dragging a corner of its bounding box. You can also drag it around on the page to position it, or tilt for effect.
To add a second glowing eye, you’ll need to click on the sunglasses icon again, then scroll through the list until you find the appropriate effect. Follow the same process for this eye as you did for the first.
Step 5: Add Text
While you’re moving around your glowing eye, you might notice a pair of bounding boxes at the top and bottom of your image. These bounding boxes are for your text if you decide to add any.
To add text, go to the text boxes on the right side of the generator. Begin typing.
You can choose to add either white or black text, and place it at the top or bottom of your image, depending on what looks best.
Once again when you add text to this meme, you need to make sure that it is:
- Easy to understand.
- Emotive.
The quicker that people understand what you’re trying to convey, the better.
After you’re done editing, check the Private box if you want to keep your meme private, or save it to your device. Check the Remove “imgflip.com” watermark box if you want to remove the watermark that the site places on your finished image.
NB: If you want to remove the Imgflip watermark, you need to pay for a monthly subscription to Imgflip Pro Basic.
After you’ve chosen your download options, click on the button that says Generate or Generate Meme.
Step 6: Download Your Meme or Share It
Once you click on the Generate button, you’ll be shown a pop-up window with your finished meme. If you chose the option to keep your meme private, you’ll see a screen that looks similar to this:
At the bottom of the image, you’ll see some text warning you that the image is currently set to private. Imgflip will only keep the image on their servers long enough for it to be downloaded.
To make sure that you don’t lose your meme, it’s recommended that you download the image right away. After you download it, that’s it. You’re done with your creation.
If you want to make a second meme, click on the Make another button.
Make Your Own Meme and Hope to Go Viral
Making your own meme is not that hard, nor should it be. If memes were hard to make, they wouldn’t be going viral to begin with. And these meme generators make the process even simpler.
Now that you know how to make a meme, you should check out the best memes of all time.
Read the full article: How to Make a Meme: 6 Simple Steps to Follow
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