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(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)
The definitions I have made between "animating" and "animations" are perhaps a bit arbitrary; however, they are useful in this instance because PowToon has given us a huge advantage by providing:
Once again, beware! All of these can be overdone, and you should use them with intent and caution. When you are creating a PowToon Studio project, try and think of it as a coherent whole, not just a collection of linked slides. This will help you use an appropriate amount of animation. This is where storyboarding comes into its own as it reduces the chance of your creating a project than having to go back and rework when you realize the effects have become more important than the message instead of having the effects there to support the message.
If I want to be "very enthusiastic", I make the slides shorter, use the Pow animation more (we'll discuss this later) and use transitions that give a fast "feel" to the project.
Let's begin by looking at each one of these and what is available, and then we'll look at some of the creative ways in which you can use them.
Animations can be added to the start and end of an object's timeline (and also during the middle using the Split feature, which we'll look at later).
Let's imagine that we introduced a ghost image onto our stage, as shown here:
You can set up animating on the timeline, or you can use the Enter and Exit icons at the left-hand side of the window. Both of these areas provide exactly the same functionality.
In the preceding screenshot, you will see that the object timeline starts at 0 seconds and ends at 10 seconds. In this case, neither of the animations will actually be displayed as the object is using up all of the available timeline, and the animations take 0.5 seconds to display. If you want the animation to actually be displayed, grab hold of the vertical bars and reduce the length that the object is on the timeline. When you can see the "sloping lines", you will see the animation.
You cannot change the length of time that an animation takes to display/execute; it is always 0.5 seconds.
Here, you can see that the enter animation ("Pop") starts at 0.5 seconds and the exit animation (again "Pop") starts at 9 seconds. The timing of the animation is represented by the sloping line. You might need to adjust your object timing/animation settings in order to get the precise effect that you want.
Ok, so what animations are available for object Enter and Exit? Currently, there are seven animations, namely, Fade, Pop, Up, Down, Right, Left, and No Effect, as shown in the following screenshot. You can use any mix of them on any object for Enter and Exit. There is also the Hand option, which we will cover shortly.
All of these are self-explanatory, except Pop. For the Enter variant, the image appears and gets larger from the center, becomes slightly larger than the original image you are using and then bounces back to the original size.
For the Exit version, the image momentarily gets larger and then disappears into its center point.
Once again, select animation effects to suit your audience and/or your message. Having several props all "popping" onto the stage at the same time or in quick succession might look fun, but it might detract from your message. It is all about the message, so use the animations wisely.
Very often, you will see examples of PowToon Studio projects where animated objects "crossover" each other. For example, an object will come on from the left-hand side and stop. Then, another object will come in from the left-hand side, crossing over the first object. Visually, and from a design perspective that can look quite ugly, you should use another animation that prevents this (perhaps have the second image fly in from the bottom of the slide).
Any prop or image will have the Pop animation applied as default for both Enter and Exit. Any text that you insert will have the Fade animation applied as the default Enter and Exit animations. You might of course want to change these.
The animation options: Up, Down, Left, Right, and Pop all have the option of adding Hand. I think it's best used with the first four options; I don't think it makes visual "sense" to use it with the Pop animation.
The Hand option can be added in the following two ways:
By default, the Hand option adds a male hand with a blue shirtsleeve. Currently, there is only one option, so although it adds some interest and variation to the animations, this option should be used only occasionally.
I tend to use this effect when I want to place a heading at the top or at the bottom of the page. The shortest and "cleanest" route is to use the Down animation, and sometimes adding the hand can be very effective. You will notice in this example that the distance is short and the blue shirt is not showing; the textbox is just being nudged in using the fingertips.
This way, the hand could almost be male or female because it appears and then exits so fast. I prefer to use the Hand effect this way as there is currently only the one option available:
Here is the same image with the text in a position where the shirt sleeve shows. You have a lot of area where it is possible to place things where the shirt does not show, and for me, it's worth taking a little time to ensure that only the fingers show.
When you have inserted an animation, you can play the slide from the start (using the Play button) to view it; however, there is another option to quickly see whether the animation looks good, usually called "scrubbing", as shown here:
Grab hold of the red slider within the sloping "animation zone", and as you move it from left to right, you will see the animation move. Here, you can see it is a text item that is animated moving in from the left-hand side. As you move the slider, you will see any animations that you have inserted on this slide. It is an excellent and quick technique to review single or multiple animations just to check that they work in the way that you want, are synchronized correctly, and look correct from the visual and design perspectives.
One concept that's fun to play around with is animating multiple objects at once, for example, to clear a screen when you have finished with one concept. Perhaps try making an object enter with the Pop effect in the center of the screen, while making other objects exit to Top, Bottom, Right, and Left while it appears.
In this article, you learned to add movement into your project using objects that move by design, by adding movement to objects when they move on and off the stage, and by adding animations between slides (known as transitions).
Further resources on this subject: