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About this lesson

Make an object move along a defined or custom path to enhance the engagement of your audience or explain in animated form very complex topics.

Lesson versions

Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:

2010, 2013, 2016, 2019/365.

Exercise files

Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ PowerPoint presentations from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

Motion Path Animations.pptx
481.8 KB Motion Path Animations - Complete.pptx
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Quick reference

Topic

Motions paths – a powerful animation option.

When to use

To move an object from an origin on the slide to a destination.

Instructions

  • To open the Animation Pane: On the Animations tab, in the Advanced Animation group, click Animation Pane.
  • Motion Paths are contained in groups titled Basic, Lines/Curves and Special.
  • To add a Motion Path:
    • Select the object you wish to animate with the pointer, and
    • Click a Motion Path animation icon in the Animation group to apply that animation to one or more selected objects. You will likely need to drop the Animation Gallery drop-down arrow and select Motion Paths.
    • Clicking again on an animation icon in the Animation group will change the current animation on any selected object.
    • If an object is already animated, click the Add Animation drop-down arrow to add an animation.
  • The motion path is bounded by a boundary box – handles of the box can be dragged with the pointer to move or resize the Motion Path animation.
  • Drawing a motion path provides a preview of the end destination point of the object. This feature is very useful to determine if the end point is in the place on the slide you wish the object to conclude its animation.
  • Select the boundary box to also see a preview of the object end point of the animation.
  • Color indicators:
    • The green triangle indicates the start of the motion path.
    • The red triangle indicates the end of the motion path.
  • Right-click a motion path to access options of:
    • Edit points – displays points along the path that can be edited with:
      • Right-click a point to add, delete, open a path (if the path is a closed loop), and close a path (if the path is not a closed loop).
      • Point types: smooth, straight or corner.
      • Exit the edit point option, or press the Esc key.
      • Motion path points have edit handles that are similar to those in graphic editing programs- handles govern curvature of the path either side of the point.
    • Keyboard shortcuts:
      • Hold down the Ctrl key and click with the pointer on a part of the motion path that doesn’t have points – adds a path point.
      • Hold down the Ctrl key and click an existing point – deletes that point (the pointer changes to an x).
    • Reverse path direction – to reverse the path direction.
      • A custom path allows you to draw a path with a simulated pencil in any manner you choose.

Also note:

It can be useful to use drawing guides or even drawn lines as cross hairs to help decide the end point of the animated motion path.

Animations can be quickly duplicated by:

Method 1: Click the animated object with the pointer, click Animation Painter, and then click the new shape or picture you wish to animate.

Method 2: Duplicate the object already animated and change the resultant shape or picture to a new shape or picture.

Motion path animations have the same characteristics as other animations in the Animation Pane. Timing and Effect Options can be changed by right-clicking the animation entry in the animation timeline or from various buttons on the Animation tab on the ribbon.

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  • 00:03 This video is all about motion paths in PowerPoint. Now motion paths are part of the animation set that you can choose from that
  • 00:10 allow you to take an object from its origin to a particular destination. The easiest way to demonstrate this is with some real pictures on
  • 00:17 our slide. So first of all I set up my PowerPoint application by going to the view tab, and turn guides on. Now grids and guides are the subject
  • 00:25 of another video and these are effectively lines that are movable and allow you to position objects very easily in particular locations. Now
  • 00:35 you'll notice that each of these pictures is located at the intersection point of two guides. I have vertical guides as well as a horizontal guide
  • 00:43 and the guide will give me the destination for the animation. Let's zoom out a little bit. Select a picture and go to the animation tab, drop the
  • 00:51 little arrow down, more motion paths. Now there are some 63 presets here and 3 groups of basic, lines and curves, and scroll down and we have a
  • 01:03 special group. Some of these are quite complex. I want a ‘turn’ path, down and right, and with the preview effect checkbox enabled, we get a little
  • 01:12 preview of that. Now notice immediately with the motion path selected that I have a bounding box around the path with some edit handles. Now
  • 01:21 the origin of my animation will be off the slide, so I drag the image up here, at the edge of the slide next to the guide. I select the path handle
  • 01:30 and drag it to the location at the destination, which is at the intersection of these two guides. Notice as I drag the motion path I get a preview
  • 01:40 of the object which helps me identify where it will be at the destination location. And so there is the origin of the path and there is the
  • 01:49 destination. Now the little green triangle is the origin of the motion path, and the little red triangle is at the destination of the path. When
  • 01:59 you set a motion path to an object it defaults to the absolute center of that object, so that when the animation commences it doesn’t jump. I can
  • 02:07 right click on those and close the path so that the animation would go back to the origin, CTRL Z to undo that. If I need to I can right click and
  • 02:18 reverse the path direction so it goes in the opposite direction. Again I don't need to do that now. Now the easiest way to apply this
  • 02:25 animation to these pictures is to select the animated object, animation painter button, and then paste the animation to that object, and
  • 02:36 then again animation painter and paste, and now I have motion paths on those two objects that are identical. But it’s also handy to know that
  • 02:44 you can double click the animation painter button to make it sticky, so that I don’t have to keep re-clicking the button to select the
  • 02:52 animation painter. And then when you’re finished adding animations, just it ESC on the keyboard to remove the sticky button. So I’ll move this
  • 03:00 first picture out of the way, the second picture and its origin, move the end point of that motion path to the destination, shift that picture out of
  • 03:10 the way, move the third picture to the origin of the animation, and also move the end point of that motion path to the destination. Now I need
  • 03:19 to line up all of my pictures so I go CTRL A on the keyboard, which selects all of them, format tab, align, align selected objects to slide, align
  • 03:30 middle, align center. And even though all of those pictures are now aligned to the center of the slide I simply drag them to the origin of the
  • 03:39 animation and there they are ready to go. And we can see the red triangle is at the intersection of the guides, representing the destination of
  • 03:47 each of the pictures. So let’s now go to the animation pane; I would like all of them to travel at the same time so we select with previous, we
  • 03:56 preview them with reading view, and they all animate fine; hit the ESC key on the keyboard and we’re back to our presentation. Now notice
  • 04:05 also that the actual motion path takes a slightly different angle or path because of the way that the motion path has been kind of dragged
  • 04:13 across to the right. If I wanted to I can right click, edit points; notice how my mouse changes as I hover over the actual path. If I hold
  • 04:24 the CTRL key, it turns into a little X, which would delete that point under it, but I grab that point with the mouse, drag back to the same location.
  • 04:33 Now I use the corner point handles to manipulate the curve so that it reflects the curve of the motion path beside it. We do the same
  • 04:42 with this motion path, right click on the path, edit points, drag the point across, and again use the point handles to manipulate the curve to
  • 04:52 reflect the other two paths beside it. Now we preview in reading view and the motion paths will follow exactly the same path. So, finally, I’d like
  • 05:03 a little bit of a delay between the commencement of each animation, so I grab the entry in the timeline and drag this one by 0.4
  • 05:12 seconds, and this one by 0.8 seconds. Notice that as I’ve been moving those shapes around the slide that the motion path has also moved
  • 05:21 with the shape. In PowerPoint terminology this means that the motion path is unlocked to the shape; maybe somebody who named this
  • 05:29 feature probably meant to say that it was unlocked relative to the slide; that would make more sense. If I double click one of these entries
  • 05:36 and go into the effect settings and lock the path, the shape can be moved, but the path does not move. Again, I guess it really means the path is
  • 05:45 locked in relation to the slide. So CTRL Z to undo that locking. So, I select the first entry with the mouse, hold the SHIFT key and select the
  • 05:56 last entry. Right click and select effect options and notice also that there is a smooth start and a smooth end option, as well as a bounce. If I
  • 06:06 select the smooth end, bounce immediately snaps back to 0 because you effectively can’t have both at the end of an animation. I give them
  • 06:15 a bit of a bounce, preview the slide, and they look a little bit funny, so CTRL Z to undo. So motion paths are very easy to put into
  • 06:24 PowerPoint. You also get various effect options so that you can change them in terms of direction, locking or unlocking the origin. You
  • 06:32 can even use the menu to edit the points or reverse direction as well as right clicking on the motion path itself to select the various options.
  • 06:40 And so motion paths are such a good animation option in PowerPoint because they allow you to move objects from an origin point to a
  • 06:48 destination along a predetermined path, all to help support your story.

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