PowerPoint Animation – Tracked Vehicles 2

In the two previous posts, I showed you how to animate conveyor belts and tracked vehicles (a bulldozer and a tank). In both of these posts, the “belt” (or track in the case of the vehicles) did not actually move around the drive wheels.

Nevertheless, the results were pretty convincing. But, I did promise to provide a moving track animation; here’s the result:

 

To give you an idea of how this works, here’s the animation with only the track parts:

 

As you can see, the animation uses four parts that  move and spin to give the illusion of a moving track. Note that the bottom track doesn’t move but essentially provides a “road” for the vehicle.

NOTE: Here are two caveats about this animation you may want to consider:

1. Although the animation itself is not particularly complicated; the construction of the parts and their positioning requires some careful, accurate (and patient) work.

2. The method uses moving “invisible” masks to hide some parts of the animation. Depending on the background of the animation, this may not work. More about this later.

I started by making the circular parts; I used this technique from my posts on gears:

For the gear, I constructed a group consisting of two opposing teeth, duplicated and rotated the group using the Size and Position pane for accuracy, keeping the parts centered (the yellow lines provide a guide).

I’ll use this technique to build the circular parts of the track but I will use a different shape for the track “lugs” made by Subtracting a Rectangle from a Chord shape:

Trial and error led me to this kind of shape; the Trapezoid shape used for the gears caused some “meshing” issues (more about this later).

NOTE: Actually, the meshing anomalies  do occur with the gears; they are a little less obvious so I ignored them.

This is why my PowerPoint gears won’t really work; if they were physical gears, they wouldn’t mesh properly. The design of real gear teeth is pretty complicated; see this article.

Here’s the completed object that will be used to form the circular parts of the track:

The base circle (red) for the object is 1.6 inches in diameter. This means that the object will “roll” 3.14*1.6 in. = 4.98 in. in one revolution without appearing to slip. Here’s the animation combining a 360º Spin and a Right motion path, both with 2 sec. duration. The Smooth Start/Stop intervals for the motion path have been set to zero:

 

The yellow outlined object is the final position for the object (a “target”). It is critical that the distance between the centers of the objects be exactly 4.98 in. (not 5). I did this by drawing a “ruler” object (the elongated Hexagon) and setting its length to the exact value using the Format Shape/Shape options/Size pane:

Then, I set a Guideline at the center of the target, using the Alt key while moving the Guideline so that it can be moved in small (0.01 in.) increments.

Some notes:

• If you don’t have Snap to Grid set, you don’t have to use the Alt key.
• In this case, the dimension could be set by moving a vertical Guideline to +4.98 (using the Alt key for fine adjustments) since the object is at 0.00 on the slide. This may not be convenient in all cases.
• As I finished this project, I remembered the Position option on the Format Shape/Size and Position pane. It is possible to set these measurements to From Center for this purpose, but, unfortunately, the measurements use the upper left corner of the object as a reference, rather than the center.

RANT: If this inconsistency surprises you, you should know that, apparently, PowerPoint coders work in isolated cells and are not permitted to talk to each other.

To construct the straight part of the track, use the centerlines of the object and the “target” to position the two end “lugs.” Add seven more lugs between these two (alignment is not important yet):

Next select the lugs (green) and use Arrange/Align top to align them horizontally. Make sure that the two end lugs are aligned vertically with the lugs on the two wheels. Finally, apply Arrange/Distribute horizontally to the green lugs. This “magic” step spaces the lugs evenly between the two ends:

This animation shows that the rotating lugs align correctly with the row of lugs forming the bottom of the track (I used contrasting solid colors to make the alignment visible:

 

This a critical point – if the lugs are not aligned at this step, you will need to check your work.

By the way, this is how the animation looks with trapezoidal lugs; you can see the reason for the rounded shapes:

 

Next,  I added background-colored masks (red-outlined for clarity) to hide the appropriate parts of the track elements. I used the Animation Painter to copy the animation from the round part of the track to one of the masks, Removed the Spin and Painted the animation to the other mask:

 

The positions of the straight track and the masks are critical – you may have to tweak them to get a good result.

Next, I duplicated the “wheel” and the mask and positioned them both to form the right part of the track.

NOTE: In this example, position of the right part of the track happens to coincide with the “target” so that the length of the track corresponds to one rotation. This is not necessary – the length of the track has no necessary relationship to the rotation (or the diameter of the base circle). However, the arithmetic would need to be adjusted; for example, if the travel was 3.2 times the circumference, the wheel would need to rotate 3.2 times (1152º).

I need a longer lower track for the complete animation; I made this by duplicating the the short lower track and aligning it very carefully with the original piece. Overlapping the end lugs made this easier. Again, this is a critical step to maintain the lug spacing.

Here’s the animation at this stage (the two parts of the lower track are colored differently to help with the alignment):

 

The top part of the track moves left to right with the rest of the track and also moves forward with the vehicle. Since these speeds are equal in our example, the top track moves twice as fast as the vehicle. In PowerPoint terms, this means that it moves twice the distance of the vehicle in the same time interval; i.e., the motion path must be twice as long. Here’s the  layout:

I used two of the “rulers” to establish the end point for the motion path. Since PowerPoint does not allow Guidelines off the slide area (!!?), I used an ordinary Line (blue) to align the endpoint. Here’s the animation:

 

Here’s the animation with the top masks added and uniform colors:

 

Obviously, the track assembly for the earthmover animation is a different size and shape; here are some other notes on the earthmover:

• The body of the machine is copied from a web illustration using Shapes and Freeforms, as usual:

• The base circle diameter is 0.8 inches; the distance corresponds to three rotations.
• The wheels are a combination of circles and a Star as in other examples in this series. The wheels are separate from the track for layering reasons.
• The two masks used to hide parts of the round track elements have been combined into a single Rectangle that forms the “background” for the track assembly:
• Here’s the animation pane (I used the Selection pane to name the components):

• The Spin animations are 360º with a Repeat of 3.
• The layering is important; the Selection pane lists the components in front to back order:

This masking technique only works with certain backgrounds; this simple example has uniformly colored areas behind the masks and the masks are filled to match:

 

Even if you use Slide Background Fill for the masks, the Fill will not change as the animated mask moves against the background (see this post for examples).

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 2

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.

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 – Using Construction Equipment

In the last post, I showed you how to “build” elements of your presentation to help capture the audience’s attention and to increase comprehension.  A couple of the examples in that post used devices (a car and a UFO) to deliver an object to the slide. This post extends this idea by using construction equipment to “build” your story.

Here’s an example:

Here an earth mover pushes a substantial block labeled “integrity” into place, presumably to form the foundation of your company’s value proposition. Additional animations might introduce other layers or components.

As I have done before, I used standard PowerPoint shapes and a clipart image from the web to create the machine:

I pasted the clip art image onto a slide and overlaid several standard shapes (Rectangles, Rounded Rectangles, Triangles, Ovals, etc.) to create a simplified version of the machine. I lightened the image for better contrast and used different line colors to help keep track of the component shapes.

I developed this technique to make original graphics easier for users who are not artists or who are not skilled with other drawing techniques. You’re welcome.

I also occasionally use Merge Shape tools to create new shapes. For example, the knobby tire outline is a 32-pt Star (red in the diagram above) with the points cut off by Subtracting a Donut shape (blue).

Here’s the earth mover with color added:

The machine consists of four Groups: the body, the two wheels and the blade assembly. The blade assembly is in front of the wheel. Each of these is animated separately.

The foundation block (the “load”) is a Rectangle containing centered text in an impressive font:

The Rectangle is filled (Picture or Texture Fill) with a marble texture. I added a 3D Format/Front Bevel/Cross for the edge treatment. An Angle bevel and gold fill completes the text. (If you need more help with bevels, etc., there are tutorials available on the web. indezine.com is a consistently good source for tutorials.)

Here’s the layout for the animation showing the starting and ending points for the animation steps (click on the picture to enlarge it):

• Like a mystery writer, I started at the end by placing the load at the center of the slide.
• I placed the machine elements next to the load.
• I created a ruler with units equal to one quarter of the circumference of the wheels. The circumference is about 3.14 times the diameter (remember?). I set the ruler at the front wheel’s center and extended it left to a point where the machine and load are off the slide to the left. This establishes the starting points for the elements.

A distance increment of 1/4 the circumference is equivalent to a 90 degree rotation of the wheel. Using this increment simply makes it easy to calculate the Spin animation for the wheels.

In creating the animation, I used the Animation Painter to minimize the number of times I had to create identical effects on different objects – the parts of the machine are separate but move together. This may become clearer below.

The Animation Painter is a tool that allows you to copy the animation effects of one object to a second object. However, the tool has a couple of properties that make it less than perfect:

• The tool applies to objects rather than effects. That is, you can’t select individual effects and copy them.
• The tool replaces all the animations of the second object rather than adds to them.

Here’s the first step in animating the earth mover and the load:

This is a Motion path/Line/Right effect. I accepted the default Smooth Stop/Start settings for the motion path (more about this later). Next, I edited the default motion path to set the end point at the load “target” location (the red rectangle).

To edit a Line motion path, select the path and move the start and end points (red and green dots). To preserve the orientation of a Right/Left/Up/Down path, hold down Shift while moving the point.

Using the Animation Painter, I copied the motion path to the earth mover body. Here’s the result:

Since the motion paths are identical, the two objects will move together and end up in the same relative position. This is much easier than drawing the path for the body by hand.

Next, I added the path that causes the body to return to its original position. This a Line/Left path with the end points edited. In particular, the starting point is moved to the end point of the first “entry” motion path and the end point to the start of the first path – here’s what this looks like:

The begin/end points of motion paths will “snap” to other motion path points. In this case, this is convenient since I want the paths connected. In some cases, the “snap” is a nuisance.

The two motion paths are now copied to the blade and the wheels. Here’s the result:

During these steps, you will have to re-order the effects in the Animation Pane to get the right result. Here’s the Animation Pane at this stage:

The first group of effects move all the parts to their first positions and the second group moves the parts back to the left, except for the “load” which is left in the center of the slide. All these parts move together exactly since they have identical motion paths.

Notice that the objects have meaningful names rather than the arbitrary default names assigned by PowerPoint. You can rename objects in the Selection Pane. This is extremely helpful for animations like this (and for providing examples for blogs).

The next task is to apply rotations to the wheels. I applied 720 degrees (2 rotations) Clockwise Spin to the front wheel; this corresponds to the distance traveled as the machine moves into the slide. I also added 720º Counterclockwise Spin to the front wheel corresponding to the exit of the machine.

A couple of notes about the Spin animation: first, the Effects Option Pane has an Amount pulldown where you can set the amount and direction of the Spin. In my example, 720º (Tw0 Spins) happens to be one of the pre-set options:

If you want to set a value that is not one of the pre-sets, you can enter it in the Custom field. You must hit Enter after the value in order for the amount to “take.” This is unusual behavior.

Second, the Spin options include Smooth Start/End like a motion path. However, the default Spin does not include these options. So, in my example, I synchronized the rotation and the wheel travel and by setting the Smooth options to match the motion path. If you use motion paths With other effects, the Smooth options will likely not be available.

The final step is to apply the Spins to the rear wheel (using the Animation Painter) and arrange the order in the Animation Pane:

Notice that the order of steps in this process is not arbitrary – it is meant to allow you to use the Animation Painter to avoid having to enter each of the effects separately. In addition, using the Animation Painter to copy motion paths is useful when a group of objects must move together (that is, in a fixed relative position). Doing this “by hand” can be a little fiddly. So, the Animation Painter is not so bad after all.

I have gone into some detail in this post so I’ll have to include some more construction examples in my next post. As usual, if you would like a free PowerPoint file use the link below and click on the PowerPoint icon to download a “source” file containing these projects:

Powerpointy blog – 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.