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Cool Parallax Slide Transition in PowerPoint, part two

Continuing our tutorial on making a parallax slide transition in PowerPoint.

In Parallax Effect in PowerPoint, part one we setup the extended slide with the image and text boxes needed.  We showed how to add text boxes outside the visible slide area, the vital selection pane, renaming objects so they are easier to identify and grouping objects.

All that in preparation for animating the objects to make the parallax effect.  There are two animations created then synchronized to move together.

In this part, we’ll see some PowerPoint animation basics and tricks …

  • Animation Pane
  • Motion effects
  • Animation trigger, on click
  • Making multiple animations play at the same time.
  • Manually adjusting the motion path
  • Animation timing, making the action go faster or slower.

Up animation

The first animation is the main one to move the second ‘slide’ plus both text boxes upwards to cover the photo.  We’ve already grouped these three text boxes together.

Choose the group then Animations pane | Animations gallery | Motion Paths | Lines.

If you can’t see ‘Motion Paths’, look for a ‘Rise Up’ effect.

Then go to Animation Effects on the same pane and make sure the direction is ‘Up’.

Now comes a tricky bit.  The default ‘up’ motion doesn’t travel far enough to fully cover the photo. We need to lengthen the motion path.

Above and below, you can see the slide with the motion path visible.  The green dot or wedge is the start, the faint dotted line is the motion path and the red dot/wedge is where the animation stops.

Select the red dot and drag it upwards so the bottom ‘slide’ covers the image.  The objects will move as you drag so it’s easy to judge where the animation needs to stop.

Image animation effect

That gives you the major covering animation that hides the image.  What makes the parallax effect is the second animation on the image itself.

The original slide image needs to move ‘up’ at the same time, so it seems that the new text is pushing the image aside.   This effect is the same as the one we’ve already done.

Select the image from the selection pane then choose the same animation effect again. Animations pane | Animations gallery | Motion Paths | Lines.  Make sure the Effect Option is set to Up.

Yet again, drag the red wedge of the animation path upwards so it extends as far as necessary.

Now we have the two animations in the slide.  All we needare some final touches

Animation Pane

Similar to the Selection pane for objects, there’s also an Animation pane.  The Animation pane lists the animations.

Each animation has a pull-down menu of useful options.

Click the Play From / Play All button to see the animation running.

Animations play together

For the Parallax effect we need the two animations to play at the same time.

By default, the two animations are separate and are numbered 1 and 2 like this.

To make them play simultaneously, right click on the second animation and choose ‘Start with Previous’.

Now the animations are grouped under one number.

Triggering the parallax effect

What starts the parallax effect?  You should not have to change this because the default is what you need.

The default is ‘On click’ meaning you click on part of the slide and the animation starts.  Select the animation then look at Animations | Trigger | On Click of …

Animation timing

Finally, choose the duration of the animation.  The default is a mere two seconds which is probably too quick for the parallax to be appreciated.   We changed it to 5 seconds.  Make sure you change the duration for both animations to the same value.

 

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