PowerPoint Animation – Conveyors

This post demonstrates how to build an animated conveyor belt in PowerPoint. As I’ve shown you in other posts, I like to use real, concrete devices as metaphors to demonstrate processes and concepts. For example, I can use a conveyor belt in a factory to indicate delivery or transport, even though a real factory may not be involved at all. This produces a lively and engaging presentation that’s easily understood.

You may have seen my post on animated vehicles that shows how to create a rolling wheel; here’s a demonstration:

The “wheel” has a diameter of 1.0 in (for convenience). If the wheel moves 3.14 (!) while it rotates 360º, it will appear to roll smoothly (in our universe). So, in this example a Line/Right motion path of length 3.14 in is With a Spin/360 degrees/Clockwise. For simplicity, I set the Smooth/Start/Stop values to zero for the motion path. Both animations have the same duration (2.0 sec). Any diameter and path can be used as long as the ratio is in multiples of pi (3.14…). Any duration can be used as long as both animations have the same duration.

Modify these motions to get a conveyor effect:

Here the circle Spins 360º but does not move; the black Rectangle moves the requisite 3.14 in.

Here’s a more complete conveyor:

Notes:

• The 1-inch wheels are constructed with an Oval and a 10-point Star; the wheels must have some detail or the rotation cannot be seen.
• The “package” moves 3.14 inches while the wheels spin 360º.
• The wheels happen to be spaced 3.14 inches but this is not necessary.
• The “belt” is a Rounded Rectangle. The belt does not move; more about this later.

Here is a more complete conveyor belt:

Notes:

• Each wheel is constructed from three circles and two Block Arcs:

• The smaller wheels are half the size of the larger wheels; hence they rotate twice (720º) in the time interval.
• The wheels have different initial rotations.

In this example, the belt does not move, as before. It is difficult to create a moving belt in PowerPoint – I’ll have a try in a later post. In the meantime, this example adds an effect to suggest movement:

The Line Color emphasis effect is used on the belt: the Line color changes to a darker gray eight times during the 2.0 sec interval. This seems to me to work pretty well for a simple effect.

Here’s an example with a conveyor in a larger (metaphorical) factory context. The folks over at Acme use a similar theme to describe how they develop and deliver services:

Notes:

• The gadgets on the processing box at the left indicate that it is working. The bars move with Repeated motion paths and Stretch animations. A Teeter effect animates the dial.
• You could show “inputs” to the process using hoppers, pipes, etc. You might include “experience,” “technology” and “training” in this example.
• The conveyor is constructed using three instances of the earlier example, including the animations.
• The hoist operation involves motion paths and rotations for the “grippers.”

As in some earlier posts, I use the Animation Painter to help construct the last stages of the animation which involves four separate objects.

RANT: The Animation Painter copies all of the animations of a given object to a second object, replacing all animations of the second object. This is inconvenient for these kind of animations. An implementation that copies and pastes individual effects would be more useful.

The hoist, its grippers and the package all follow the same motion path that transfers the package to the table. However, other parts of the animation for each object are different. Since it is difficult to create identical motion paths from scratch, I will use the Animation Painter on this part of the animation. Here’s how I did it:

• I animated the hoist using three separate motion paths: lowering the hoist, transferring the package and raising the hoist. I moved the motion paths, aligning the start points with the end points of the previous step.
• I drew the curved path as a Custom motion path.
• I Painted the hoist animations to the package and Removed the lowering and raising steps. I moved the remaining curved motion path to end of the previous package animation.
• I Painted the  hoist animations to one of the grippers and added the Spins to close and open the gripper at the appropriate times.
• I Painted the gripper animation to the other gripper and changed the direction of rotation.

Here are the motion paths and the Animation Pane for this part of the animation:

This may seem like a lot of work but it is systematic and minimizes the fiddling around drawing the individual motion paths. The fact that the motion paths Snap together when they are moved is helpful.

If you are uncomfortable drawing the Custom path, you can use the standard Arc Up path and rotate and position it so that a similar motion is achieved:

Motion paths can also be re-sized using the handles (like an object).

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 – conveyors

See this page for more on downloading files.

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