This tutorial is designed as a hands-on, explore the animation settings and learn presentation. The best way to use this presentation is to have the Custom Animation Pane open and the Advanced Timeline visible (click the animation on this slide and from the menu select Show Advanced Timeline). So have fun learning how the animations presented here were created and then taking those skills to your next presentation! Troy Chollar TLC Creative Services, Inc.

PPTLive Here is the PPTLive conference name made “fancy” by using WordArt with a semi transparent gradient fill, bold stroke and semi transparent drop shadow. It is much more appealing than standard text. It is set up to animate on with a nice animation (FADE IN) – a “standard” PPT skill. But we something more in the animation category.

PPTLive Now the animation has a bit of movement to it. This is accomplished by combining two animations together, a FADE IN and a FLY IN that occur simultaneously. Note the animations have different timings (1.4 and .9 seconds). Now the animation has moved out of the realm of ‘standard’ but we are looking to go for the gusto and use all the animation power of PowerPoint.

When someone sees this animation they know we’ve got something happening! To create this animation there is a lot going on, 28 animations, 14 images and lot of custom timing. Take an initial look at the animation timeline (in the ADVANCED TIMELINE). Don’t get overwhelmed, we will break down all of it in the following slides.

First, we moved out of the realm of PowerPoint text and Autoshapes and created 14 images in PhotoShop. Each color bar is created two times, once with a letter, once without. This way we have two identical sized images for each position.

The first step is to add the entrance animation to the solid bars. This is a two animation combination (FADE IN and a short MOTION PATH) and is fairly easy, as both animations have the same animation time (1.5 seconds), same start (WITH PREVIOUS) and the same start time (0). Take a moment and recreate the animation applied to the blue bar on the green bar.

For interest the motion path is alternated UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN until the end of the sequence. To create the flowing animation we need to begin manually adjusting the when each bars animation begins. Each bar begins .7 seconds after the previous. The Green bar animation is applied, but you need to manually adjust the two animation to begin at .7 seconds (either click and drag each animation, or double-click and type “.7” in the delay box).

After the solid bars were all imported and their animations applied, I then imported and positioned lettered boxes and line them up to be positioned exactly on top of their mate. We use the ALGIN tools for this. Take a moment and position the letter ‘P’ bar to be on top of the solid bar: Select both bars. Go to DRAW >> ALIGN OR DISTRIBUTE >> ALIGN LEFT. Then go to DRAW >> ALIGN OR DISTRIBUTE >> ALIGN TOP. Now the blue bars should be exactly aligned on top of one another.

We need the lettered bar to animate on AFTER the solid bar has finished its animation. Because the slide has so much overlapping animation, we cannot use the AFTER PREVIOUS setting. We need to have every element set with a WITH PREVIOUS start and manually position where each is to start on the timeline. So here we have added a FADE IN animation with a VERY FAST speed (When we are done this animation is not going to be seen, it is going to happen behind the solid bar). I made the lettered bars animate .2 seconds after its matching solid bar to assure it is not seen (here the solid bar ends at 1.5 and the lettered bar begins at 1.7 seconds).

Next, send the lettered bar to the back. Select the lettered bar and go to DRAW >> ORDER >> SEND TO BACK. When we run the animation the only reference to the lettered bar animating is the darkening of the drop shadow. It darkens because there are now two overlapping shadows which together are more opaque. This is why we used the FADE IN animation, to be less abrupt and actually create a more intriguing animation.

Next we add a FADE OUT animation to the solid bar. When viewed it looks like the lettered bar is appearing, but in reality it is actually the solid bar leaving that reveals the lettered bar. I set the animation speed to MEDIUM for a bit more drama. Also note that our drop shadow now becomes lighter as there is now only one layer of drop shadow. What is really neat is that now we have added a pulsing animation to the sequence – think of it as a free animation we did not have to create or program!

Here is the entire animation again. Click the “Play” button at the bottom of the custom animation pane) and watch for: The alternating up and down motion paths. The drop shadow pulsating effect And the overall flowing animation timeline. That’s it! Great animation that was once only the realm of Flash or Shockwave, created in PowerPoint. Hope this is a help in showing how complex animations can be developed using standard PowerPoint skills. Enjoy! Troy Chollar TLC Creative Services, Inc. www.tlccreative.com