Animating a Roller Coaster

A roller coaster ride isn’t always fun. This project uses a roller coaster to symbolize undesirable fluctuations in cash flow (whatever that is) and suggests that my (fictional) company may be able to help.

Here’s the animation:

You will notice that the cars move and rotate to follow the track. In PowerPoint terms, motion paths are combined with Spin effects. If I were to use a realistic roller coaster profile, it would be difficult to synchronize the Spins with the motion path to get a smooth action. On the other hand, if I use a series of straight lines and circular arcs to define the path, there will be no rotations required during the straight segments and a single Spin will work for the arcs. However, I will need to do a little arithmetic to time the Spins. All of this will become clear, one hopes, as we progress.

Here is the layout for the track profile:

Note: You can always click on these images to see a larger version. Click Back on your browser to return to this post.

To make this easy to construct, I used 45 degree lines with equally sized circles and, as you can see by the green dots, I allowed the lines to snap to the 45 degree points on the circle. With this construction, each peak/valley will require a 90 degree Spin, either clockwise or counterclockwise.

The roller coaster will have several cars. Since the animation is not simple, I don’t want to manually animate each car; there are two ways to accomplish this:

• If your version of PowerPoint has the Animation Painter, you will be able to transfer the animation you built for the first car to the next car in a couple of clicks. This is the method I will use but there is a wrinkle for this project; details later.
• If you don’t have the Animation Painter, animate a rectangle picture-filled with the first car image. Then, after the animation is applied, duplicate and change the fill of the rectangle to create animated versions of the next car.

In either case, duplicate the second car several times and position all the cars at the starting point. Then add a delay to the start of the second and following cars to create a “train.”

The cars are create using standard shapes and applying a black fill. I decided to do this project in a silhouette form; you may want a more colorful roller coaster and cars. Here’s my construction:

The wheels are equidistant from the center of the car and the wheel spacing is the same for both cars.

Next, the lead car is sized so that so that the car will go through a “dip” without colliding with the track:

Now, I want to build a series of “targets” on the track to help with the animation; this is a technique I use often in these posts to create accurate motion paths. I converted the lead car to a png and added an outline. I added Lines to the png to identify the center; the Lines (red) snap to the midpoints of each side:

The reason for the conversion to png is to allow these center lines to be easily drawn. Group the lines with the png. Then, position copies of the target at selected points on the track profile and rotate appropriately:

The first target is placed at the starting point, off the slide to the left. The next target is placed at the point where the car enters the curve – the front wheels are at the transition point. I added a rotated target at the bottom of the curve and at the exit, continuing to rotate and position all of the targets.

Next, position the original car at the starting point. Apply a Custom motion path drawn through the center points of each “target.”  Eliminate the Smooth Start/End for the path. Edit the points of the motion path to add the curves. Set the appropriate segments to Straight. Here’s what the motion path (red) looks like:

Now the car will follow the track profile but it does not rotate as it should; that’s the next step.

The speed of the car is constant; it is determined by the duration of the motion path. So, I need to know the distance for each segment so that I can determine the start time and duration of the rotations. To get a “distance,” I drew a dashed line along the track profile and counted the dashes. Here’re the numbers:

The first (straight) segment is about 16 dashes long; the curved segments are about 6 dashes long, etc. Since the smallest increment in animation timing is 0.1 seconds, I won’t need greater accuracy.

I set the duration of the motion path to 3.5 seconds and the total path distance is 54 dashes. Now, the first segment duration is

((number of dashes in the segment)/(total number of dashes))*(total duration) =
(16/54)*3.5 = 1.0 seconds.

That is, the duration is proportional to the distance. By the way, this says that the start of the first curved segment is at 1.0 seconds so this should be the start time of the Spin. I did a little spreadsheet to calculate the duration and start time of each segment (for a 3.5 second total time):

To add the first rotation, select the car and apply Spin/Quarter Spin/Counterclockwise animation effect With the motion path. The start time for this segment is 1.0 seconds and the duration is 0.4 seconds. You can adjust the timing directly on the animation pane by moving and changing the size of the bar representing the effect; using Zoom In on the animation path makes this easier. Here’s the animation pane for the path and the first rotation:

And here’s the result:

Adding the additional rotations using the calculated timing results in this animation pane:

I will use the Animation Painter to add the second car; however, the second car is shorter than the lead car and doesn’t quite track. To fix this, group the second car object with a rectangle that is the same size as the lead car; the rectangle can be made invisible (No outline) later. Here’s the process:

Now, select the animated lead car, select the Animation Painter, and click on the second car group. Position the second car at the starting point of the animation. Using the Animation Pane, delay the effects for the second car by 0.2 seconds. Here’s the Animation Pane:

Duplicate the second car and add the delay as many times as you like to create the “train.”

All that’s left is to create the roller coaster structure. The “track” consists of three lines: the rail (a 4.5 pt line), the ties (a 4.5 pt dashed line) and the base (8pts):

It will take a little fiddling to line these up with the layout and each other.

The structure is built using the “group and dupe” method outlined in an earlier post. Create a group of aligned vertical lines along with groups of lines at plus and minus 45 degrees. Position the three groups over the layout like this:

Now, edit the lines to fit the track; if you hold down the Shift key while editing the lines, the angle will tend to “stick”:

The flags are a Wave shape with a vertical line.

I added the text and the logo to create the final version; I also changed the color of the structure to a light gray to de-emphasize it.

If you want a free copy of the PowerPoint file for this post, please use the link below and click on the PowerPoint icon to download a “source” PowerPoint file:

Powerpointy blog – animating a roller coaster

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.

 

Animations for “Cutting, Slashing and Trimming” – Saws

Using an animation adds impact to phrases like “cut expenses” or “trim overhead.” This post uses saws as cutting tools for the animation; an earlier post uses scissors.

Handsaw

I try to use PowerPoint’s built-in shapes to create icons and images; this is generally simpler for average PowerPoint users than drawing “freeform” shapes. However, the handle on a traditional saw is difficult to create this way. So, I found some more modern saw images and used them for inspiration; here’s the result:

Here are some notes:

• The handle is a pretty klunky group of built-in Shapes; you may be able to do better:

• The blade consists of a Right Triangle, a Rectangle and a group of small triangles for the teeth:

• The teeth can be created quickly using the “dupe and group” technique (see this post). Create the first triangle and then use the Duplicate tool to create the second triangle. Without clicking on anything else, move/Nudge the second triangle to the appropriate position. Now, use Duplicate several times to create a row of triangles. If necessary, use Align/Middle on the triangles to keep them aligned. Now, group the result, duplicate it, adjust as above, and continue duplicating. Finally group the groups. You will probably make adjustments to the teeth group when you assemble the saw blade.
• Group the handle and blade and add fill color.

Usually, a handsaw cuts on the downstroke. So, the blade will make progress during the downstroke and the upstroke will move parallel to the blade with very little motion towards the sawyer. This picture shows the path of the saw:

This layout will help in drawing the motion path. Some notes:

• Add lines (blue) to the saw object to locate its center of gravity.  Flip and rotate the saw to about a 45 degree angle.
• Draw a line (red) from the center of the saw object down and to the right of the saw and then up, paralleling the saw blade to a point level with the starting point. This represents the first downstroke (that will move the saw to the right as well as down) and the upstroke.
• Set up drawing guides at the extremes of the red line.
• Duplicate the red line several times and align (blue lines).

Now, draw the motion path (freeform option) along the lines for this result (the smooth start/stop options are unchecked):

The object that will be cut by the saw represents money; I used a $100 bill image. Here are the steps:

• Rotate the image, create a rectangle (shown in red) the same size as the image, and use Fill/Picture to fill the rectangle with the image.
• Next, apply a 3d rotation (Perspective Relaxed) to the rectangle, add a few points of Depth and remove the outline. I also adjusted the Lighting. Here’s the process:

• Why not just apply the 3d rotation directly to the image? Try it and see.
• As a result of the sawing process, I want the currency image to fall into two pieces. I made the pieces by converting the bill image to a png (Copy/Paste Special) , and using duplicate and crop to create two pieces:

• I added a line to the upper piece to mimic the depth.

Adding the currency images to the saw animation yields and adding some additional animation provides this result:

Here are some notes:

• Place the currency pieces next to the saw blade; adjust the height and width of the saw motion path using the handles.
• Add a Down motion path to the bottom half near the end of the saw animation and adjust the end point. Add a Spin With the motion path.
• Add another motion path (Custom Path/Freeform) and Spin for the bounce. The path may snap to the center of the object when you complete it; just move/nudge it to the end of the first Down path.
• You will probably need to experiment to get the locations and timing so that the animation is convincing.

Here’s the set-up for the handsaw animation:

 Power Saw

I looked at several images of a power/”skill” saw and drew a simplified version using standard PowerPoint shapes:

The blade is a 32-point Star with the depth of the points adjusted. A circle and a Hexagon provide the blade mounting hardware. The upper blade guard of the saw is a Block Arc with handles added. The upper handle is another Block Arc and a Rounded Rectangle; the front handle is an Oval and a Rectangle. The base plate is a Trapezoid.

The lower blade guard (green) is a Block Arc. It will be grouped with the blue circle to assure that it Spins properly.

Note: A Block Arc is one of the PowerPoint shapes that rotates (while editing) and Spins (animation) around different centers; here’s the difference:

The blue lines identify the center of the object when it is rotated while editing (e.g., using the green handle) and the red line identifies the center for a Spin animation. Several other shapes share this anomaly including Arc, Chord and Pie. Surprisingly, transformed text (e.g., Arch Up) rotates and Spins around the same center.

(The PowerPoint animation designers apparently came from a different planet and were not allowed to converse with other designers.)

Here’s the power saw with color added:

I grouped the saw elements into three parts that move independently: the blade assembly, the lower blade guard and the saw “body”:

Here’s how I did the animation:

• Set up a “target” for the animation; this is a copy of the saw positioned at the desired location. This is a technique I use often for animations (see this post on animating vehicles for more).
• Set up drawing guides to identify the centers of the three saw parts.
• Add a Right motion path to each part and edit the motion paths so that the endpoint is at the appropriate center. As usual, Smooth Start/End for the motion paths are unchecked. Here’s what this looks like:

• Add the Spin animation to the blade assemble so that occurs simultaneously With the motion path. For some Spin values,  the blade may appear to spin more slowly than expected, backwards or to stand still (maybe a strobe effect). Adjust the spin duration so that you are satisfied with the animation. I ended up with 1300 degrees Clockwise Spin in 1.3 seconds. The motion paths and the Spin should have the same duration.
• The lower blade guard pivots up when it encounters the object being sawn and drops back when the saw passes over the object. I added a Clockwise spin of 115 degrees near the beginning of the action and the corresponding Counterclockwise spin near the end. Here’s the animation pane:

• And here’s the animation:

• I added a rectangle to represent the object being cut. Later, I’ll use a different object and adjust the blade guard timing accordingly.

You can use the power saw to “cut’ currency (like the handsaw above), or a dollar sign or bar graph like I demonstrated in the scissors post.  Here’s the power saw in another animation involving a graph:

Here are some notes:

• The graph is created with a series of horizontal and vertical lines to form the grid, the label, and the arrow representing growth. The arrow is hand drawn (a Freeform) but you could use one of the built-in arrow shapes or a heavy line with an arrowhead.

•  Duplicate the arrow shape and add Fill color to the two copies; make one copy a slightly darker shade.
• Convert the arrow shapes to a pngs and make two halves using the technique used on the $100 bill above. The break should align with one of the horizontal grid lines on the graph. You only need the top half of the darker arrow. Invert the dark half and align the parts on the graph. Here’s the process:

• Add the animated power saw (three parts). Position the saw along the horizontal grid line and adjust the blade guard timing so that the saw “cuts” between the two parts of the arrow:

• The animation of the cut-off arrow uses Collapse and Stretch animations. There are three steps: first,  the upper part gets an Exit/Collapse to bottom animation. This is immediately followed by Entrance/Stretch/From top for the darker, inverted piece. Finally, there is a Down motion path overlapped with a quick Exit/Collapse to bottom of the darker piece. Here’s the final animation setup:

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

PowerPointy blog – cutting, etc – saws

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.

Bouncing Ball – Part 2

In the first post in this series, I used the built-in Bounce motion path with some other effects to create bouncing ball animations. In this post, I’ll draw motion paths for the bouncing ball in segments; this way I can control the speed (sort of) to get a little more realistic action and synchronize the motion of the ball with other effects.

You can draw the paths by eye or you can take a more “scientific” approach.  One way to approximate the path is to assume that the distances traveled are reduced by a fixed percentage at each bounce. This set of drawing guides was created by reducing the vertical distance by a third and the horizontal distance by 25% at each bounce:

I may document more detail on the creation of this layout later (no mathematics were used!).

The intersections of the drawing guides are used to help draw the motion paths. If you want to eyeball the paths, you can use the paths I develop here as prototypes.

The first motion path represents the “drop” of the ball to the first bounce. Select the ball and then, in the Custom Animation pane, select Add Effect and Motion Paths/Draw Custom Path/Curve. Click near the center of the ball and draw a path directly to the first bounce point:

To shape the path. manipulate the “handles” on the motion path: right click on the path and select Edit Points. Right click on the first point and change the point to a Straight Point (!!) so that a handle appears. Move the handle horizontally to shape the top of the curve. Use the handle on the bottom point to shape the curve so that the “drop” is nearly vertical:

My post on editing motion paths might be helpful.

To add the first full cycle, click on the ball and add another Curve motion path. Click at the end of the first path, at the top of this segment, and at the end/bottom of the segment:

Once you have double clicked to complete the path, PowerPoint will move it back to the ball object. This is because PowerPoint designers have decided that you don’t really want the path where you put it:

Just select the path and drag it back to the end of the first path. I use the path as it is (the default for the 3-point Curve); if you want to modify the shape, use the handles as before.

Continue to add segments to create the entire animation; unclick the smooth start/end option for each path. The last segment has a flat part added to allow the ball to come to a gradual stop:

The duration for each segment is 0.5 sec, except for the first “half segment” which is 0.3 sec. Here’s what it looks like:

You will notice that this is a little different in timing than the built-in Bounce animation I used in the first post. The bounces near the end of the built-in effect appear too fast; this seems closer to reality.

Here’s a version with modified durations:

Here’s the timing for this version:

Note that this is an expanded view of the time scale. Smooth End is selected for the last segment.

One of the issues that remains is the behavior of the ball during the hops. A real bouncing  ball will slow near the top of the bounce; in fact the vertical component of velocity will pass through zero. This problem is most obvious (I think) in the first bounce so I broke the first bounce into 3 segments and slowed the segment corresponding to the top of the bounce:

Here’s what this looks like:

You could break all the bounces into three parts but this is as far as I am prepared to go.

As a matter of fact, you may choose to ignore all this arcanery and use the built-in effect. However, there is an advantage to using the multiple segments (as I will show in the next post) even if you don’t want to fiddle with the timing.

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 – bouncing ball 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.

Wheels of Fortune: Part 2

This post is one of a series on “wheels,” circular graphical objects divided into separate segments. This kind of object is useful in describing parts of a whole or a range of possibilities. The first post in this series detailed a wheel representing a web marketing strategy.

In this post we use a more complicated object called a “Decision Profile Wheel” that represents characteristics of decision makers.

I have no opinions concerning the “Decision Profile Wheel;” I am using it only as an example of a “wheel” graphical object.

This wheel has six basic segments with various overlapping sectors representing characteristics of the basic segments.  See the page referenced above for the original form of the wheel.

My version is constructed using the techniques outlined in the previous post; the layout looks like this: 

The radial guidelines are four connector lines, drawn connecting the eight (convenient) anchor points on the outer circle. The first post in this series describes several ways to create layouts for this and similar wheels. The circles represent the layers in the wheel; their size may be adjusted later.

It’s a good idea to group the elements of the layout into one object and name the object (using the Selection pane). This will help later.

The labels are text boxes with the Text Effect/Transform/Follow Path/Arch Up effect. Here are the first two:

Here are some tips:

• Start with a Centered text box with Top vertical alignment.
• Text must be at least 20 points for legibility for this font (Calibri); 18 points is acceptable for “larger” fonts like Arial.
• Once the transform effect has been applied, size and center the text. Make sure that the text has equal height and width and is centered on the layout. The radial position of the text is determined by the size of the box. You can add additional layout circles to help position the text uniformly.
• Set the angular position manually or numerically by using the Size and Position pane.
• For text on the bottom half of the wheel, use the Arch Down option.
• Use Ctrl/Enter to separate the text into two lines.
• Use the Selection pane to name each text box; this will help you select specific objects later.

In some wheel applications, you may have trouble fitting one or more of the text boxes into the segments. Avoid the temptation to make the text smaller than 20/18 points and try these ideas:

• Adjust the line spacing to get more space radially.
• Adjust the character spacing to get more space; don’t overdo this.
• Adjust the circular guides so that the segment is taller and a little wider.
• “Cheat” the angular size of the segment a little, reducing the size of the neighboring segment. Your audience may not notice if you don’t disturb vertical or horizontal lines.

Here’s the wheel with all 16 of the text boxes nicely (!) arranged:

Again, use the Select pane to name each label.

As in the earlier post, I used Block Arcs to add color. Using a different color to distinguish each segments will be a little garish in this example. There are a couple of options:

• Add contrasting Outlines to the block arcs. This may reduce the space available for text a little.
• Space the elements so that the background shows between them. This may also “steal” some text space. I suggest you add additional guidelines to the layout if you want to try this.
• Use a gradient fill so that a light color is against a dark color to distinguish adjacent sectors; this has the advantage of taking no space from the interior:

I opted for outlines in this wheel. After adding the Block Arcs and changing some of the text colors, I made some final adjustments before removing the layout lines. I also filled the inner circle with an image of a “decision maker.” This is the final result:

This construction has at least 32 separate parts, all on top of each other. It is practically impossible to build without naming the parts and using the Selection 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 – wheels part 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.

Wheels of Fortune, Part 1

A “wheel” (a circle divided into labeled sectors) is a good way to show the parts of a unified whole: product applications, sales markets, etc. A wheel can also represent a set of  outcomes or choices like the traditional “wheel of fortune.”

This series of posts will present a few examples with tips on how to construct and animate these objects. The first example displays the components of a web marketing strategy; the shapes emphasize the idea that each component is important to the overall strategy:

These wheel designs use Arcs, Block Arcs and transformed text. To create and adjust these shapes accurately, it’s a good idea to start with a layout. (My gear and clock posts also demonstrate this technique.) Here’s the layout for the web marketing wheel:

Here’s how to create the layout. First, set up horizontal and vertical drawing guides to help center and align the wheel components. Add and center the two circles. Use narrow outlines and a color that will contrast with the final object.

There are a few different ways to complete the layout:

• Do the math.  Determine the angles needed (divide 360 degrees by the number of sectors) and, using the Size and Position pane, set the Rotation of a number of Lines. If you have an odd number of sectors, center the first sector at the top of the circle. After you have created a few lines, Arrange/Flip and Rotate duplicates of the lines to fill in the rest. This is the technique used in the clock and gear posts.
• Use a pre-defined shape as a guide for the radial lines; lines (connectors) will “stick” to specific points on the shape to automatically establish the angles. Luckily, a circle (Oval with equal height and width) has eight such (red) points so that creating the layout for the web marketing wheel is easy:

Take care when using a pre-defined shape; here’s a 5-Point Star with the height and width equal, compared with one that has been manually “fitted” to the circle:

The differences in the radial lines are small but the first set will cause problems later in the construction of a wheel. Avoid the Hexagon – it’s difficult to make it equilateral; use an adjusted 6-Point Star.

• Use a “SmartArt” diagram as a basis for the wheel. For example, create a Basic Pie, ungroup it and work with the resulting components. Here’s how that might work:

This works if you have 7 or fewer segments. However, since the segments are not Arcs, they can be difficult to edit if needed later in the construction.

Ungrouped SmartArt shapes are not what they appear to be; rather than circles, Arcs, Rectangles, etc., they are Freeforms.

• Use SmartArt to create the layout. Here’s how this might work for a 13 segment wheel using a Basic Radial diagram:

Use whatever method is easiest for you and your project.

To complete the web marketing strategy wheel, start with the layout, create a Block Arc and center it on the layout. Hold down Shift when creating the arc so that the circle which contains the arc has equal width and height. Adjust the diameter and use the handles to fit the shape to the layout:

Adjust the fit carefully and make sure the arc remains centered and that the height and width of the arc are equal.

To make the segment labels, create a text box and apply Text Effects/Transform/Follow Path/Arch Up.  Using the Size and Position pane, set the width and height equal and check Lock Aspect Ratio. Center, rotate and size the transformed text to fit within the segment:

Again, take care that the transformed text is centered an has equal height and width. You may want to add a circle to the layout to help consistently position the text.

Continue the process by duplicating and editing these elements.  For the text, I suggest you rotate each copy of the text to its upright, unrotated position to assure that it is centered and then rotate it to the target position. It’s a little difficult to tell if the text is centered when it is rotated. You can fill (color) the arc and the text as you go along. It is also helpful to group each arc with its text as you complete each sector.

For the text in the bottom half of the wheel, use the Arch Down option for the transform.

There’s a lot of stuff in this graphic, all overlapped, so that it is difficult to manually select the object you want. In these kinds of situations, use the Selection and Visibility pane to help, applying meaningful names to the parts if needed (see this post for details).

The icons are constructed in PowerPoint using the techniques demonstrated in several other posts; this one, for example.

Once the sectors are completed, double check at high zoom to make sure there aren’t any gaps or mis-positioned sectors. Use the Size and Position pane to check that the height and width are equal for the text and arcs and the drawing guides to assure that the elements are centered.

The 3d effect is achieved by grouping all the parts of the wheel, applying a 3d Depth (70 pts) and using the Perspective Right rotation.

Here’s an animated version of the (2d) wheel:

The animation uses the Wedge effect. The way this effect works makes the timing a little tricky, the details of which I will not detail so as to not further bore you .

To get a free copy of a PowerPoint file containing the elements of this post, use the link below and click on the PowerPoint icon to download a “source” PowerPoint file:

Powerpointy blog – wheels part 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.

Animation: Hourglass

This post uses techniques outlined in my previous post on liquids to create an animated hourglass. You might want to look at that post.

The hourglass is constructed from standard PowerPoint shapes, except for the glass itself and its highlights:

Here are some details:

• The top and bottom of the columns are elongated Chord shapes.
• The glass is drawn using the same conventions as the glassware in the “liquids” post: transparent color and highlights. The shapes are hand drawn (Freeforms) but could be constructed using the PowerPoint 2010 Merge Shape tools.
• Symmetric parts have been created once and duplicated and flipped.

The “sand” consists of 3 additional parts placed in back of the glass:

The upper and lower parts of the sand are shapes derived from the glass (point edited or the Merge Shapes tools). The descending stream is an elongated Rounded Rectangle.

Here’s the animation:

Here’s the animation pane:

• The upper sand shape exits with a Wipe From Top effect.
• At the same time the stream quickly enters with a Wipe From Top effect.
• After the stream enters, the lower sand shape enters with Wipe From Bottom effect.
• Just before the end of the lower sand shape effect, the stream exits with a Collapse From Top effect.

If you would like your very own free copy of a PowerPoint file containing these effects, use the link below and click on the PowerPoint icon to download a “source” PowerPoint file:

Powerpointy blog – animated hourglass

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.

Animation: Liquids – Filling, Bubbling, etc.

This post is about animations involving fluids and glass containers: filling, leaking, bubbling, reacting, etc. These animations can demonstrate gains, losses and processes.

Fluids change shape and PowerPoint is not very helpful in “morphing” shapes, so there are limits to this kind of animation. Keep it simple.

Drawing the Vessels

I used simple 2d shapes and heavy outlines to draw a set of vessels. A glass-like appearance is provided by a transparent fill and a couple of highlights. Since the vessels are patterned after labware, I added graduation marks. Here’s how the beaker is drawn:

• The basic shape is a Round Same Side Corner Rectangle, converted to a Freeform and edited by points to create the rim. You can also use the PowerPoint 2010 Merge Shapes/Union tool to combine the rectangle with an inverted Trapezoid. The outline is 6 pts.
• The graduation marks are Lines with Format Shape/Line Style/Cap type set to Round.
• The highlight shapes are point-edited rectangles. The right highlight is a copy of the left one, flipped and narrowed slightly.
• The beaker fill is a light blue, about 70% transparent.
• The highlight fill is white, about 60% transparent.

To show contents in the beaker, create a filled round-corner rectangle behind/in Back of the beaker:

The color of the contents is affected by the semi-transparent fill of the beaker. The second example has no blue fill. You can experiment to get the effect you like but note that any background may affect the result.

Here is some additional glassware made the same way:

Filling

Filling one of the vessels is pretty easy: just create a “contents object” behind the vessel object and add Entrance/Wipe from Bottom animation:

In PowerPoint 2007, the Microsoft geniuses changed the Wipe effect so that it has a “soft” or blurred edge. And there is no option to select the “hard” edged version. Thanks a lot.

For more on this and some work-arounds, see this post.

To add a filling stream, create an elongated, narrow rounded rectangle reaching from a point off the top of the slide to the bottom of the beaker:

Add Entry/Stretch/From Top animation and Exit/Collapse/To Bottom to the “stream.” Set the timing so that the entry precedes the fill animation and the exit is just before the end of the fill. I set the duration of these effects to 0.2 sec (slowing down the animations makes the liquid appear more viscous):

Here’s what this animation looks like:

Here’s a version with a stream of “drops:”

The “drop stream” is a circle with a Fly In/From top animation, Repeated five times. The content object of the beaker is split into two parts; the lower rounded rectangle is static and the upper part has a Wipe/From Bottom animation. The Wipe animation starts when the first drop arrives; here’s the animation pane:

 Pouring

Obviously, it would be nice to pour the liquid from a vessel. Here’s the animation:

This one stretches the PowerPoint capabilities and uses a trick that, unfortunately, doesn’t always work. We want to lower the level of the liquid in the tube while the tube rotates. Here’s how it’s done:

• Create a masking object with a tube-shaped hole. You can use PowerPoint 2010 Merge Shapes tools or draw it by hand (a Freeform). Since PowerPoint doesn’t support true “holes”, the shape is drawn this way:

• Select Slide Background Fill for the masking object. More about this later.
• Rotate the mask counterclockwise to the starting position for the pour.
• Create a Rectangle with the contents color fill and position it behind the mask, aligning its corner with the lower lip of the tube-shaped opening. Here’s what it should look like (I’ll do fine adjustments later):

• Now, create a circle, center it on the lower lip of the tube opening and enlarge it so that it encompasses the mask object. Group the circle with the mask object (not the contents object). If you’ve followed this blog, you will recognize this technique for establishing the center for a rotation:

• Now to test the setup. Apply a clockwise Spin effect to the mask/circle object so that the tube-shaped opening ends up in a horizontal position. Here’s what this should look like:

• Adjust the sizes of the mask and the circle so that the unwanted portion of the contents (blue) rectangle remain hidden during the rotation. Don’t change the opening.
• Now, align the original tube shape in front of the tube opening in the mask. Group with the mask/circle object and remove the outline from the mask and circle. Reapply the animation (Spin).
• Finally, add a stream similar to the one above – an elongated rounded rectangle reaching past the bottom of the slide with a quick Wipe from Top and a Disappear at the end of the Spin.

The problem with this approach is that it uses a slide background fill. Apparently, the team that added animation to PowerPoint were unaware of (or chose to ignore) other existing features. In particular, the background fill of an object does not actually track the slide background when the object is animated. This is not a problem for a uniform background, but makes this “masking” technique fail for a gradient (for example) background:

You may experience other problems with the background-filled “mask” depending on your graphics configuration or when doing video conversions.

Adding the beaker fill animation completes the effect:

Here’s a drop stream from an eyedropper into the beaker:

Each drop is a circle; the animation is Enter/Zoom, followed by a motion path and a Disappear. The motion path has Smooth Start checked but not Smooth End. The “drop” is duplicated to duplicate the animation. Here’s the animation pane:

The levels in the eyedropper and in the beaker don’t change – only a small amount of liquid is added.

Leaking

Here’s an animation from my post on kinetic typography (animated text):

• The “container” is the text, outline only, and the “contents” is a copy of the text, fill only, aligned with the original.
• The text has been tightly spaced so that the characters overlap.
• The emptying action is a Wipe from Top exit applied to the text object with the fill only.
• The drop stream is similar to the earlier examples.

Reactions

To evoke activity or change, you can make the liquid react; here’s a couple of examples of bubbling:

• The bubbles are circles with a lighter version of the contents fill color, about 40% transparent.
• The bubbles are behind the container group but in front of the contents object.
• The bubbles appear with a Zoom In animation, followed by a motion path and an exit effect. The animations are overlapped.
• In the beaker, the motion is from the bottom, straight up to the contents surface. The exit is a Fade.
• For the flask, the bubble path follows the walls and continues above the surface. The exit is a Dissolve Out.

Another way to show a reaction is to use a color change:

• The color change is made by a second content object placed between the original and the container. A Dissolve In animation is used in the first example and Fade In in the second.
• The second example uses the eyedropper and a drop stream to “cause” the color change.

If you are bubbling over with enthusiasm for these effects, use the link below and click on the PowerPoint icon to download a “source” PowerPoint file containing these animations:

Powerpointy blog – liquids

See this page for more on downloading files.

You may also be interested in my post on flows and the one on animating process flows.

If you have questions, praise or complaints, please add a comment below. Liking or following this blog might be a good idea. If there are other topics you would like to see in this blog, please leave a comment or click on “Contact the author” in the banner above to email me.

More Animating Gears in PowerPoint

This is a followup to an earlier post on drawing and animating gears. You might want to review that post before reading this one.

A reader asked me how to make the gears appear one by one while the gears turned. Another suggestion was to use the gears to suggest a group working effectively together – “meshing.” This post will address both ideas.

Here’s a video of equally sized gears that appear sequentially:

The animation is straightforward: the first gear turns one revolution and the second gear appears (Fade) while both turn a revolution. This is followed by the the appearance of the third gear. Here’s what the animation pane looks like; the Spin of the second and third gear is With their Fade entry:

The process is the same for other gear trains designed according to the process outlined in the earlier post. As long as the first gear executes a single rotation and the rotations and relative sizes are set up to keep the gears meshed, there shouldn’t be a problem. Here’s an example using a design with three different gears from that post:

Here’re the relationships between rotations and gear “size” for this animation:

Here is the animation pane:

Here’s an animation using a gear motif to suggest cooperation or synchronization of three organizations:

The video is not as smooth as the PowerPoint animation.

The three gears in the first animation in this post were modified for this animation. If you ungroup the gears to make the modifications; you will lose the animation, even when you regroup. If you keep the gear objects grouped during the modifications, the animation will be preserved. Here’re some notes.

• Select the gear object and select the Donut shape that forms the interior of the gear:

• Under Drawing Tools, use Change Shape to change the Donut to a circle (Oval).
• Crop/resize a face image to the size of the circle and Copy it (placing it on the clipboard).
• Re-select the circle and use Fill/Texture or Picture/Clipboard to fill the circle with the face image. Add a 6 pt outline to the circle.
• If you’ve done this right, the animation effects for the gear object will still exist.
• Repeat for the other gears.

The text legends use the Transform/Follow Path/Arch Up text effect, centered on the corresponding gear. Add a entry Fade animation to the text With the gear appearances to complete the animation.

If you would like a free copy of a PowerPoint file with these animations, please use the link below and click on the PowerPoint icon to download a “source” PowerPoint file:

Powerpointy blog – more gears

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.

Animating a Scale in PowerPoint

A scale (or “balance”) animation is a way to illustrate changes, improvements, etc., like the meters in another post. The scale exhibits a stronger cause and effect relationship than the meters because the action causing the change is explicit. Here’s an example:

To use the scale metaphor, you might label the weights or objects in the scale “pans;” for example, the object in the right pan might be labeled “cost of sales” and the objects that counter balance the costs might be email campaign, webinars, etc. Or a different animation might show the scale coming into balance with the adoption of a new product or service.

Scale Construction

You can find hundreds of examples of scale images on the net. You can select a simple “flat” version and reproduce it using (mostly) standard PowerPoint shapes; here’s an example:

Only the “beam” is hand-drawn (a Freeform). Hint: to draw a symmetric object, draw half of the object, duplicate and flip it (horizontally in this case) and group it with the original object. Also, one of the “pans” is a duplicate of the other.

You can apply gradient fills or 3d effects to complete the scale; here’s an example:

For purposes of this post, I will use a solid light gray fill for the scale to make the animation steps clearer.

Group the scale parts to form four pieces: the central post, the beam, and the two pans (with their corresponding supports). Add a circle (in red below) to the beam group to establish the the center of rotation. Add a pile of “bad stuff” to the right pan. Rotate the beam to the starting position (+30 degrees) and adjust the pan positions. Here’s the result:

Animation

As you can see from the video, the animation involves weights landing in the left pan followed by movement of the beam, pans and the weights. The beam rotates around its center and the pans move down and up, maintaining their connection to the beam. Of course, the weights move with the left pan.

The animation will be implemented by creating duplicates of the elements (“targets”) in the desired positions and applying motion paths using the targets to position the endpoint (see the motion path post for details).

Here’s the process:

• We will use a Fly In for the first animation for the weights so a motion path is not required for the entries of the weights. Create the first weight (a Trapezoid) and position it in the left pan.
• Now, set up the “targets” for the animation. Set a pair of drawing guides to the center of the beam group.Duplicate the beam group, rotate it counterclockwise 20 degrees, and recenter it using the drawing guides. I usually apply a red outline to the duplicate to avoid confusion.
• Duplicate the left pan group with the weight and position it relative to the beam group using its attachment point. Set a pair of drawing guides to the pan group center and to the weight center.
• Repeat with the other pan.
• Set a pair of drawing guides to the center of the target weight (it is in the moved pan).

Here’s the result; the target elements are outlined in red and blue crosses have been added to highlight the positions of the drawing guide intersections.

Now, add the animation. First, apply Fly In/From Top Left to the weight. Next apply Spin/Counterclockwise (20 degrees) to the beam. Finally, create and adjust linear (Down and Up) motion paths for each pan and the weight. Here’s the slide with the animation paths; notice how the path endpoints are at the drawing guide intersections:

Here’s what the animation pane looks like:

Continue the process of creating targets, setting the drawing guides and applying the animation. Here’s what the second stage looks like, with the targets in green:

Notice that the left pan now has two weights in it as it swings down.

This is a fairly complex animation; if you want a free copy of the PowerPoint file for the scale animation, use the link below and click on the PowerPoint icon to download a “source” PowerPoint file containing these objects:

Powerpointy – Animating Scales

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 in this blog, please leave a comment or click on “Contact the author” in the banner above to email me.

PowerPoint Secrets: Motion Paths

Many of my posts are about animation; here’s a post on creating and modifying animation motion paths. This is not meant to be a complete or detailed tutorial but only some helpful (I hope) notes.

Caveat: An Issue

The starting point of a motion path (green) is normally at the center of the object and the endpoint (red) is at a desired location. For example, here’s an object with a Right motion path:

Unfortunately, in some editing circumstances, the motion path points  will  become “unstuck”. In particular, a motion path  point may attach itself to one of the points of a nearby motion path (attempting to breed, perhaps). This happens when there are several motion paths on a slide.

If the starting point is not at the center, the object will instantly jump to center itself on the starting point before the animation takes place – not a desirable behavior. Of course, you will want the endpoint at a particular place.

You can usually re-stick the motion path by moving it (or its points). Zoom in to make this easier.

Pre-defined Motion Paths

PowerPoint provides a bewildering array of 60+ predefined (built-in) motion paths; I have found that all but 5 or 6 of these are useless. And, I have never used a predefined path without modifying it. At the very least, the end point will have to be moved.

A linear motion path (Up, Down, Left, Right) is edited like a line (not a Connector); you click on the path and move the end point to the desired position:

Other predefined paths are edited as if they were Freeforms. You can change the size by clicking on the path and manipulating the “handles.”  You can also rotate the path but it will become unstuck from the object’s center.

Resizing or rotating predefined paths is rarely useful; in most cases, you will edit the points of the path to get desirable results. Just like with a Freeform, right click on the path and select Edit Points. Move, add, delete and modify the points to get the path you want. Here’s an example that starts with a predefined Arc Up path:

“Custom” Motion Paths

Almost always, I create the paths I need (like the paths of the stones in the wrecking ball animation) rather than using built-ins.

To create a path from scratch, using Draw Custom Path; I usually select the Freeform option. Click near the center of the object (the path should automatically snap to the object’s center) and continue to drag and click to draw the path. To edit the path, select it and select Edit Points; you can add, delete or move points on the path. Here’s an example:

For a curved path, select the Curve option when creating the path or edit a Freeform path:

Other Settings

There are some other Effect Options available for motion paths:

• Lock/Unlock – oddly, an unlocked path (the default) is stuck to the object; that is, if you move the object, the motion path obligingly moves with it. A locked path stays put when you move the object. I don’t know what the locked option is for; I’ve never found a use for it.
• Smooth start/end – a “smooth” setting (the default) means that the object will appear to accelerate when starting and/or decelerate when stopping. Sometimes this is effective; however, I often uncheck these options when the motion path is combined with other animation effects (see the discussion of the rolling wheel in the vehicle post).
• Auto-reverse – the motion path will be executed and then is executed end-to-start. I’ve never used this option.

Other Tricks

In some animations, you will need to position the endpoint of a motion path carefully. I often duplicate the object and move it to the desired position (the “target”). Then, set drawing guides to the center of the target object and use the intersection of the guides to locate the endpoint of the motion path. I often use a red outline for the target object to avoid confusion. Here’s a simplified example:

For complex animations, it sometimes simplifies things to use multiple slides to complete the animation – this can sometimes avoid the motion path “unsticking” problem discussed above. However, some extra steps are required. Here’s a simplified example:

• The first slide contains the first step in the animation, the motion and 45 degree spin of the blue square.
• The second slide contains the blue square in the position and orientation that results from the animations in the first slide. Use drawing guides set at the endpoint of the motion path to precisely position the square on the second slide. if the object is not accurately positioned, a “jump” will appear as the slide transitions.
• Add the second step of the animation – the motion of the orange circle.
• On the first slide, set Advance Slide to  Automatically After 00:00 and the slide transition to No Transition. Also, set the animation on the second slide to start After Previous. These steps assure that the second animation will follow the first without a click and with no delay.

This seems like a lot of work but, for complicated animations, it may actually simplify the construction.

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