Animation Masking

Why?

Save yourself animation build time by masking PowerPoint animations.

This example shows how to mask objects for various animations. Note, it works in PowerPoint 2002 and 2003. I don't think it works in previous versions.

First, I set up the page for a wide screen format. It makes no difference but it suits the image I am using.

I have used a 16:9 format which translates to 32 by 18 centimetres for me.

The image is set to Fade In.

I then draw a number of rectangles over the top of the image. While they have no fill and a white border, we are about to change that.

We go to Format Autoshape on each rectangle.

The Background option will allow any object to pick up the slide background. Now, you have to be careful here. If you use a Design Template, it will pick up the background, but NOT any objects on top of the background on the Slide Master.

The rectangles are animated with an Entrance Effect of Strips. They are all timed to complete at the same time. You can see this is the downloadable example.

Another example is where I added custom autoshapes by drawing them with the freeform tool.

Using the same Background effect, it masks the image and when the Fade In, it makes the image seem to disappear.

Masking.ppt