Animation Factory PowerPoint Article SeriesFilling Shapes with Photos
by Rick Altman |
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The Altman household enjoyed a monumental event over a recent weekend, when 12-year-old Jamie's softball team completed an undefeated season with four consecutive one-run victories to earn a hard-fought championship. We were doubly fortunate that two of the dads were accomplished amateur photographers who snapped hundreds of photos across the season. When it came time to create the post-season video, I was like the kid in the candy store. This gave me an opportunity to expand upon a technique that I wrote about in basic form a few months ago: filling a shape with a photo. When you turn a shape into a mask, the photo that is behind it peeks through. This is easily done in any graphics or image-editing program, but can also be done in PowerPoint, where it can be integrated with animation. I chose as my shape the team's final record of 20-0, and that provided a small wrinkle, because regular text cannot be used as a mask and cannot be filled with a photo. There are three different ways to create the image in the first illustration, and each offers different creative options.
The False Background.
Pour the Photo Into the Shape.
Use a Transparent Shape. From here, there is a myriad of possibilities for creative animation, and the type of action you choose will influence the shape you use to create the transparent PNG. I like applying a Grow animation and a simultaneous motion path, the idea being to make the shape become so big that the entire photo behind it becomes visible. You can also create a giant pan, where the words meander across the slide, exposing different parts of the photo. This requires that you create a wide rectangle with a lot of empty space. Download filling_shapes.ppt to see this in action and to see examples of all three of these techniques. Rick Altman is the host of the PowerPoint Live User Conference. It covers the whole of the presentation community—message, slide design, software technique, and delivery—and limits enrollment to 250. Complete details are available at PowerPointLive.com. |
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