Drawing in PowerPoint – Simplified Jigsaw Puzzles

I have written three posts on drawing jigsaw puzzles in PowerPoint (part 1, part 2 and part 3). A jigsaw puzzle can represent bringing together parts to form a whole: experts to form a service team, segments to form a market or parts of a solution, for example. The interlocking pieces suggest unity, interdependence or cooperation.

These earlier posts asked you to draw Freeform shapes for the pieces – a tricky task, especially making the pieces interlock seamlessly. Starting with a simpler puzzle layout and using standard shapes, along with Merge Shape tools, is a much easier and more accurate technique, especially if you’re not comfortable with Freeform drawing. Here’s a comparison of a puzzle piece from the earlier posts and a piece created using the simpler method:

The first piece reflects the traditional jigsaw puzzle appearance; each piece is separately  created. The second piece is much simpler and there are only a relatively small number of variations.

It may also be that the simpler approach is graphically cleaner and more appealing; you can decide.

Here’s how:

• I started by setting the grid spacing to 0.1 inches and setting Snap to Grid. This makes it easier to draw and position objects accurately.
• Each puzzle piece is based on a 4×4 square. A rectangle forms the basis of the edges. The oval and a small rectangle will form a knob. Size the shapes so that they snap  to the grid. The oval just touches the top of the edge rectangle.

• Applying Merge Shapes/Union to the parts completes the “knob edge:”

• To create the “socket edge,” Subtract a copy of the knob edge (orange) from an edge rectangle:

• Now you can create a bunch of puzzle pieces using the knob and socket edges (plus a filler rectangle). You will need to rotate copies of  the edges; use Rotate 90 degrees and Flip for accurate rotations.:

As a trial, duplicate this puzzle piece several times and apply the Union operation to the pieces. Rotate some of the trial pieces 90 degrees. The pieces should snap together precisely:

If this doesn’t work, the original parts of the piece were misaligned and should be corrected before proceeding. Small pixel size gaps are apparently unavoidable; ignore these.

Tiny steps in the piece outline or extra line segments after the Union operation indicate that the parts are misaligned:

I have found that the easiest way to correct this is to move one of the parts of the piece diagonally a short distance and then move the other pieces to realign them. Of course, the Snap To Grid option is essential (you didn’t ignore that, did you?).

All the puzzle pieces can now be made from these four parts – the “knob edge,” the “socket edge,” the straight edge and the filler rectangle:

It’s a good idea to check Lock Aspect Ratio in the Size Pane for each part.

Duplicate, rotating if needed, selected parts, assemble carefully and apply Merge Shapes/Union to create the six basic puzzle pieces. Again, use Rotate 90 degrees or Flip to get accurate rotations:

You can create all of the (internal) puzzle pieces you need by rotating one of these six pieces.

You can make all the edge and corner pieces by rotating these nine basic pieces:

I will use a 3D Bevel to get a realistic puzzle piece. The appearance of the bevel is influenced by 3D Lighting which depends on the rotation of the piece:

The first row shows a puzzle piece and the same piece with Bevel applied. The second row shows the original piece rotated right 90 degrees and the rotated piece with the same Bevel applied. You can see that the results are different by comparing the top edge. This becomes more obvious when differently rotated pieces are assembled into a puzzle.

I want all the pieces in a puzzle to be uniform. Since many of the pieces will be rotated, I will want to reset the rotation handle on these pieces. To reset the rotation handle, Union the piece with an unrotated rectangle; here’s the process:

Select the rectangle first before the Union operation; an object created by a union inherits its properties from the first object selected.

NOTE: I plan a separate post on resetting the rotation handle for different kinds of objects.

Here’s a puzzle layout created from these pieces:

Here’s an application of this layout:

Rather than fill each piece with a fragment of the picture (as I did in the previous puzzle post), I used the puzzle layout as a semitransparent overlay with Bevel/Top/Circle to give each piece the rounded edge effect. The Material is Clear providing the transparency.

Here’s a 3D rotated version:

The 3D lighting caused the image to wash out so I increased the contrast of the image to compensate. I also added Depth to the underlying picture to create the edge.

If you want to animate the assembly or disassembly of this puzzle, each piece must separately contain a fragment of the image. In the original puzzle post, I did this with Fill/Picture; an easier way is to use Merge Shape/Intersect (see the post on animating breakthroughs for details of this method). Here’s a breakup animation using these techniques:

Each piece is animated by a motion path combined with Exit/Basic Zoom/In Slightly.

You can also assemble puzzle pieces with separate images to show a team, for example:

The original puzzle post used Fill/Picture to create the pieces. It’s easier to position the puzzle piece over the image and use Merge Shapes/Intersect:

For this kind of application, you may want to build your puzzle pieces with smaller knobs and sockets; this leaves more space for the individual pictures.

NOTE: A more recent post demonstrates an easier method for filling the puzzle pieces using “slide background fill.”

If you want to see more details, use the link below and click on the PowerPoint icon to download a free “source” PowerPoint file containing these projects:

Powerpointy blog – simple jigsaw puzzles

See this page for more on downloading files.

If you have questions, praise or complaints, please add a comment below. If you appreciate my efforts, liking or following this blog might be a good idea. If there are other topics you would like to see on this blog, leave a comment or email me (see the “contact author” tab in the banner).