PowerPoint Animation – Tracked Vehicles 1

In the previous post, I showed you how to adapt a “rolling wheel” effect to construct conveyor belts that could be used to create lively animations that demonstrate concepts and processes.

This post is about tracked vehicles using the rolling wheel effect; here are the basics:

The wheels have a 1.0 in diameter so they will “roll” without appearing to slip if the wheel moves 3.14 in horizontally to the right while the wheels rotate 360º clockwise. The track (green outline) simply moves without additional effects. All the motions have the same duration (2 sec).  Other dimensions will work as long as the path length is 3.14 times the wheel diameter.

Here’s the animation pane:

The default Line animation Smooth Start/Stop values are set to zero in this example for simplicity.

Here’s a vehicle (bulldozer/earth mover) that I adapted from an illustration on the web:

I “traced” over the various parts of the original illustration using Freeforms and standard Shapes:

Some notes:

• The wheels use three concentric circles and a Star:10 points. The wheels must have some detail; otherwise you can’t see the rotations.
• If you are uncomfortable drawing FreeForms, you can combine standard shapes (Rectangles, Triangles, etc.) to form the component shapes (as I have done in previous posts.)
• Don’t overdo it. Exact dimensions and tiny detail are not important. You want a flat “icon style” image and enough detail to avoid a cartoon look.
• I used the Fill/Eyedropper to steal colors from the original image. Or, you can use your color scheme.

Here’s the animation:

The wheel dimensions and travel distance are the same as the previous example. The blade assembly (a Group) is animated (motion path) separately since it is in front of the track assembly which is in front of the vehicle body.

I used the Animation Painter to make the animation a little easier; here are the steps:

• First, I applied the Right motion path to the blade assembly. For this example it moves 3.14 in as in the example above.

• Next, using the Animation Painter, I copied this motion path to other parts of the machine (the body and belt assembly); the paths are identical so that the parts maintain their relationships:

• Next, I copied the motion path to the first wheel and  added the Spin animation:

• I completed the animation by copying the animations for the first wheel (Spin and motion path) to the other wheels.

Unfortunately, The Animation Painter copies all the animations of an object to a second object, replacing all of the animations of the second object. That’s why I did things in this order.

Motion paths have options called Smooth start and Smooth end. These apply an interval of acceleration and deceleration to the motion path; that is, the object starts and ends slowly.

I usually discard these options since they make it difficult to coordinate motion paths with other animations. However, in this case, the Spin animation also has this option so I can apply “smooth” motion to both the Spin and the motion path for realistic motion:

The animations have a duration of 3 seconds; the interval for the Smooth start and end is 1 sec.

Here’s an application of the bulldozer; the folks over at Acme want to eliminate your legacy technology:

Here’s the layout for this animation:

The red outlines at the right show where the blade assembly and the block will end up. For convenience, I have set the distance at 5 revolutions of the 1 in wheel (3.14).

The trick to this animation is determining when to start the motion of the stone block. You can do this by trial and error or by doing a little arithmetic. Here’s the arithmetic approach:

• The blade moves a distance of 5 times the wheel circumference (3.14 in) in 5 seconds; its speed is 3.14 in/sec.
• I added an outline of the position of the blade when it contacts the block:

• I drew an object to measure the distance the blade travels to reach this position; the distance is 6.3 in.
• The time for the blade to travel this distance is the distance divided by the speed: 6.3/3.14= 2.00 sec (I didn’t plan this convenient number). So, I began the motion of the block at 2 sec; it ends at 5 sec like the other motions.

If you work this out by trial and error, use the tools in the animation pane to adjust the start time.

Here’s an exercise for the reader: make an animation like this where the stone block breaks and piles up in front of the advancing blade.

Another familiar tracked vehicle is the military tank. Here’s one I copied from a web illustration as before:

This time, the tank is made from standard shapes. The turret uses a couple of Chord shapes to supply the curves. The track is a Union of two Rounded Rectangles and two Right Triangles. The tank track slopes upwards at both ends (to assist in climbing obstacles, I guess).

Here’s an animation:

The larger wheels are 0.8 in diameter; the distance traveled for one revolution is 2.51 in. I chose to have the tank travel three times this distance in 4 seconds so the larger wheels will rotate 3 times. The smaller wheels are half the diameter so they rotate 6 times. I used the Animation Painter as before.

Here’s the Animation Pane:

Tanks sometimes travel over rough ground – here’s a simulation of that action:

I replaced the Line motion paths for the wheels, track and track background with Zig-zag paths. However, a single Zig-zag path does not provide enough oscillations for the effect I wanted so  I used two Zig-zags back-to-back. Here’s the process:

Notes:

• I started with the “track.” After determining the length of the zig zag path, I added the motion path and extended the path to the right to the appropriate length.
• Using the handles, I re-sized/compressed the path vertically to get a smaller “bounce.”
• Since a motion path can’t be copied and pasted (!!), I added another identical path from scratch and attached it to the first half.
• Using the Animation Painter as before, a copied the path to other elements and added rotations where needed.

NOTE: You can move, re-size and rotate motion paths as if they were objects; this is sometimes simpler than editing the points of a motion path.

Another challenge for you is to represent the motion by moving the background. Here’s inspiration from an earlier post:

The “track” in these examples doesn’t move around the wheels; this is a challenge I will address in the next post. In the meantime, see the previous post for a “flicker” effect that provides an illusion of movement.

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:

powerpointyblog tracked vehicles 1

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.

Building Your Story – Still More Construction Equipment

OK – so I’ve gone a little overboard making animated construction equipment (see here and here). At least, I think I’m learning how to do these animations a little more efficiently. Since I’m using the same techniques here as in these earlier posts, It may help to review them if I don’t provide enough detail here.

The first example in this post is a “straddle crane/carrier” – used in containerized shipping and large scale manufacturing:

Here’s the animation:

Here’s how I drew the crane using standard shapes:

• The red circles around the “latches” establish the center of rotation for the “unlatch” animation (see below).
• A Star is used to provide detail for the wheel.

Here’s the version with fill color:

The crane object consists of several parts: the “body” of the crane, four wheels, the “lifting frame” (gray) with its cable, two latches, and the load (blue). Each part will be animated separately.

Here’s the slide layout:

• The red rectangles denote the intermediate and final positions of the load. These are the only “targets” needed to do the animation since I will use the Animation Painter as described in the previous posts.
• The “ruler” (green) is used to position the crane (actually, its wheel) a convenient number of rotations to the left of its final position.

Here are the animation steps (the order of steps is intended to make the best use of the Animation Painter and avoid hand-drawing paths):

• Apply a Line/Right motion path to the “load.” Adjust the end point to the center of the red rectangle marking the intermediate position. (Hold down the Shift key to keep the motion path level.)
• Using the Animation Painter, copy the load animation to the crane body. Since the motion paths are identical, the two parts will keep their relative positions as they both move.
• During this process, update the Animation Pane to set the timing and order of the effects (the Painter will put the copied effect at the end of the list).
• Add a Line/Left motion to the body to return it to its original position. This requires moving the start point of the Left path to coincide with the end point of the first Right path and similarly adjusting the end point.

“Chaining” together motion paths is made easier since the motion path points will “snap” to nearby path points.

• Apply a Down path to the load to move it to its final position.

Here’s a place where the “snap” of the motion path points may be a problem since a point may snap to any old unwanted nearby path and be difficult to move. You may be able to overcome this problem by zooming in and providing more space to move the point. Holding down Alt will override the snap but this means that it’s harder to position the endpoint.

This is another ill-designed PowerPoint feature.

• Copy the load animation to the lifting frame using the Painter. Here’s how the animation looks now:

• Add an Up and a Left path to the lifting frame to move it back to its original position; again, this requires moving the end points (and adjusting the Animation Pane).

If I could simply copy a single effect from an object and add it to another object, this would be a lot easier. Unfortunately, the PowerPoint designers didn’t design the Painter this way. Thanks, again.

• Next, copy the frame animations to the right latch. Add a 90° counterclockwise Spin to the right latch. Now, copy the right latch animations to the left latch and change the Spin to clockwise.
• As the lift frame moves down, a gap appears where the cable should be. To fix this, create a short section of cable and position it between the frame and the cross beam of the crane. Apply Stretch and Collapse and edit the Animation Frame (see below) to “fill in the gap.” (The previous post supplies some details on this step.)
• Finish by animating the wheels: apply the body animation to the first wheel. Add clockwise and counterclockwise Spins corresponding to the distance traveled (see earlier posts). You will need to set the Smooth Start/End timing of the Spins to match the simultaneous motion paths. Copy the animation to the other wheels using the Painter.

Here’s the final (annotated) Animation Pane:

The final (!!) example is a fork-lift:

Here’s the drawing:

I Subtracted two Rounded Rectangles to make the wheel openings. There are four parts to the forklift (body, 2 wheels and the fork) that are animated separately.

The layout:

The red wheel and load determine the intermediate position; the green wheel and load determine the final position.

The animation steps (briefly; see above and earlier posts for details):

• Apply motion paths to the front wheel to move to the intermediate position, the final position and back to the original position. Use the Painter to apply these paths to the body (throughout this process you will need to edit the Animation Pane to order the effects properly).
• Apply motion paths to the load: to the intermediate position, up and to the final position.
• Using the Animation Painter, copy the load effects to the fork. Add a motion path to return the fork to its original position.
• Apply the appropriate Spins to the front wheel; copy the front wheel animations to the back wheel.

Here’s the final Animation Pane:

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 – more construction equipment

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.

Building Your Story – More Construction Equipment

The last post introduced the idea of using metaphorical construction equipment to build your PowerPoint story. The post before that showed you how to use animation to introduce list items. This post continues the theme with more construction equipment animations.

Here’s the first example; the folks over at Acme Services, Inc., use an electromagnetic crane to introduce their customer service principles:

The electromagnetic crane is an easy animation because the load simply drops when the magnet is turned off. Of course, its important that the audience recognizes this kind of equipment.

Here are notes on this example:

• The hook assembly is pretty simple except for the hook itself:

• I used Merge Shapes to draw the hook: I applied Union to the circle and square (red) and Subtracted the green oval and then the tilted green square. The rest of the assembly is made from standard PowerPoint shapes. Here’s the hook and magnet drawing:

• The “load” is a Rectangle with text in an impressive font. The gradient fill for the rectangle suggests steel. I added a Bevel/Relaxed Inset to the rectangle and a Bevel/Soft Round and a darker fill color to the text:

• Each animation opens with the crane assembly with the load dropping and pausing above the final load position. Then the load drops to the final position and the crane assembly lifts upward. I started by drawing two target rectangles on the slide, one for the pause position of the load and another for the final position.
• I placed the load and crane assembly in their initial relationship above the slide and added a Line/Down motion path to the load. I set the end point at the “pause” location and accepted the default Smooth Start/Stop for the motion path. Here’s what this looks like:

• Using the Animation Painter, I copied the load motion path to the crane assembly. Since the motion paths are identical, the crane assembly and the load will move down together (see the previous post for more on this).
• I added a Down motion path to the load to get it to the final position; I selected the Bounce end option for realism.
• The Up motion path was added to the crane assembly to complete the first phase. Here’s the animation pane:

• To create the two additional phases, I copied the slide and added the previous load in its final position. The I moved everything else on the slide,  including the red boxes, up, positioning the final position of the current load (red box) just above the previous load(s). The animation is preserved and works for the second and third phases!  The animation takes three slides; here’s the second slide.

The next example is a tower crane; here the “carrier” moves the load on a horizontal boom:

Here are the notes:

• Here’s how the boom is constructed:

• First, draw a Trapezoid (red) and rotate it to use as a guide. Draw a smaller Trapezoid and add diagonal lines (blue). Group the Trapezoid and lines and adjust the height only to form a section of the boom structure. Continue duplicating and adjusting to form the rest of the boom. Delete the guide and group the result. Add the stay cable (diagonal line).
• Now, place the boom and other crane objects (carrier, hook assembly, “straps” and the load) in their initial position. The hook assembly is the same as the last example; the other objects are simple shapes. Add two “targets” (red rectangles) representing the intermediate and final position of the load:

• Add the Line Right motion path to move the load to the intermediate position. (For each of these steps, preview the animation to confirm the effect.)
• Add the Line Down motion path (no Smooth Start or Stop) to the load to move it to the final position.
• Using the Animation Painter, copy the load animations to the hook assembly and the two straps. You will have to re-order and adjust items in the Animation Pane as this process continues to get the correct relationships among the effects.
• Add the Line Up motion path (no Smooth) to the load to move it back to the intermediate position.
• Add the Line Left motion path to the hook and carrier to return them to the off-slide position. You will have to edit the default Line motion path, adjusting its start and end points to move the objects from their current positions to the off-slide position. Since motion paths “snap” together, this is relatively easy.
• Here’s the animation at this point:

• Something’s missing, right?  I’ll add the missing piece of cable and use Stretch and Collapse to fill the gap when the the hook is lowered.
• The size and position of the added cable object is critical for a smooth animation; I used temporary copies of the carrier and hook along with Drawing Guides to get this right:

• Next, add the Stretch/From Top and Collapse/To Top effects and place them at the appropriate point in the Animation Pane.
• Also, add Collapse/From Top to the “straps” holding the load before the hook rises. Here’s an annotated version of the final Animation Pane (the clicks are for convenience in testing the animations):

As I have mentioned before, only a few effects have the Smooth Start/Stop options; in particular, the Stretch/Collapse effects don’t. So, I zeroed out the Smooth options in some of the motion paths so that the motion would synchronize with the Stretch/Collapse of the cable object.

The order of steps in the animation process is not arbitrary; it is meant to maximize the use of the Animation Painter and make the process a little easier.

I have a couple more machines in mind for these kinds of animations; I’ll show you those in the next post.

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 – more construction equipment

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 you want to contact me directly, there is a contact form on the About page.