Learning outcomes
On completion of this chapter you will know:
- The nature of events
- How to start evens simultaneously or in sequence
- How to use events within a slide
- How to create motion paths
Introduction
So far our animation has fallen very short
of even the most basic of cartoon films.
PowerPoint is capable of more complex animation and objects can be made
to appear, move and disappear on a slide.
By putting the appearance, movement and disappearance of objects in
sequence we can create a simple cartoon film.
In teaching, this technique can be used to
- Demonstrate weather movement or continental drift in geography
- Movements of peoples in history
- Motion of molecules in chemistry or physics
In our case we shall use it to demonstrate
a simple baking recipe that a domestic science teacher could have used.
Events, what are
they?
In everyday life we refer to events as
things that happen, both pleasant and unpleasant things. For an individual, events include: graduating
from university, getting married, being ill, winning a
prize or an award.
Just as events happen to people in real
life, in PowerPoint events happen to objects on the screen. These include appearing on the screen,
moving, stopping, and disappearing. They
also include mouse clicks or pressing any one of the keys: Enter, Page Up, Page
Down or the arrow keys.
We shall now look at how to use those
events to animate our cooking lesson
Animation
example
Here we shall animate the following recipe:
For the animation we shall need simple
drawing of the ingredients. You may use
a drawing programme to create simple drawings of
items involved in the recipe as shown in Figure 3‑1.
Figure 3‑1
They are from left to right: mixing bowl,
unbaked bread dough, ‘cloud’ of baking powder, drop of milk, ‘cloud’ of flour,
packet of flour, box of baking powder, jug of milk, ‘oven’
plate with a ‘fire’ underneath. Of
course, if you don’t have a drawing package, you may use appropriate clip art
or photographs.
Once you have completed your drawings you
are ready for your animated slideshow.
The first step is to create a new presentation and insert a blank slide
into it. Next create a textbox and type
the recipe into it and format it appropriately.
This is shown in Figure 3‑2
Figure 3‑2
Now that the main text of our presentation
is in place we import the rest of the graphics we shall use in the
animation. Your slide will now look as
in Figure 3‑3. The tick marks beside the steps of the method
are graphics created with a drawing package but you may use a simple circle as
well. Ensure that you have a circle or
bullet point beside each of the steps.
Figure 3‑3
We are now ready to start our
animation. To begin this we click on the
Animations tab and then on the Animation Pane icon in order to put the
Animation Pane on the right of the screen.
Figure
3‑4
Next we will have to make the tick or
bullet point beside the text ‘Put flour into a bowl’ appear. We click on this object and then click on the
Add Animation icon. From the drop
down list we select Appear. Once we
do this we get a display as in Figure 3‑5.
Figure 3‑5
Our tick or bullet point has the number 1
beside it. On the Animation Pane itself we have in the display area a box with Picture 10 in it. This is the name of the bullet point or tick.
(You may have a different number beside yours depending on the sequence you
created the objects.) At the left of the
box we have the number 1 again, indicating that this box describes the bullet
point which is marked 1. The number 1
itself indicates that this bullet point is the first object to appear on the
slide after our first click.
Our next task is to animate the flour bag
so that it moves from its present position and places itself over the mixing
bowl. Here it will drop four clouds of
flour into the bowl and then return to its original position. To do this we click on the flour bag itself
to select it. Next we click on the Add Animation icon and scroll down
until we get Motion Paths. Here we select Lines. This is shown in Figure
3‑6.
Figure 3‑6
Once the drop down list disappears we draw
a line from the centre of the flour bag to a position
above the mixing bowl. This is shown in Figure
3‑9. This is the path that the flour bag will
follow. Again notice in the Custom Animation panel in the same
figure that the movement of the bag is recorded as the second part of the
animation with the number 2 appearing beside it as well as beside the actual
flour bag itself. Of course we want the
flour bag to move automatically after the tick appears and thus we click on the
down arrow beside Picture 5 and from
the drop down list select After Previous. The number 2 will now disappear from the
flour bag and a clock symbol will appear beside the name of the flour bag in
the Animation Pane.
Figure
3‑7
Once the flour bag is placed above the
mixing bowl we want four clouds of flour to drop into the bowl. To do this we click on the larger of the
clouds to select it and then click on Add
Animation icon and again select Lines.
We now draw the motion path from the cloud itself to the base of the mixing
bowl so that the cloud disappears behind the bowl. Once again we alter this to
start After Previous. The result can be seen in Figure
3‑8,
where the motion path of the flour into the bowl is AutoShape 18.
Figure 3‑8
By default the motion path will cause the
cloud of flour to drop into the bowl only once.
In our case we want it to drop into it four times. To do this we right click on AutoShape 18 and form
the pop up menu select Timing. Here we alter the value of the Repeat combo
box to 4 which will result in the cloud dropping down into the bowl four times.
Figure 3‑9
To complete the animation of the flour bag
we now draw another motion path for it to return back to its original
position. This is again timed to occur After Previous. By now we have completed the animation of one
of the graphic items on our slide.
Next we complete the appearance of the tick
for adding the baking powder and the animation of the baking powder tin in
exactly the same manner as that of the flour bag. The same applies to the milk jug.
As an exercise you should be able to make
the mixing bowl disappear, leaving the flattened cloud of the bread dough
behind and to lower this cloud down on the surface of the oven for baking.