Microsoft Office Reference Guide

Mar 26, 2004

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h3>Creating Transparent Animation and Backgrounds

In working with the OfficeFX folks, I came across some uses for a transparent PowerPoint background, which I will share at the end of this update. But it got me thinking (always a dangerous proposition) about how I might create a transparent animated GIF that I could move around my slide with a Path Animation.

Since the most popular program for this type of thing is PhotoShop or ImageReady from Adobe, that's what I use to create my GIF, and then animate it in PowerPoint.

But for an occasional PhotoShop user like me, here's what you do. You take your basic character and select the entire screen, then create a New PhotoShop file, selecting a Transparent Background.

Figure 818

Here, I've created four little robots, with subtle differences between them. I will also create a simple animation with the arm and maybe also the mouth moving (in case I want to add narration in PowerPoint).

When I create my new file, the background Layer is transparent. I will continue to add layers with elements of the Robot in different positions.

So, first, I create a basic arm-less Robot, and save the selected Arm as a separate object. I select the arm, making sure the background swatch is the same White as the other one, and click CTRL + X (Cut.)

Figure 819

Then I paste this into a New Layer in PhotoShop, move the arm over, and use the Magic Wand to select the White around it. I CTRL + X to cut the white out and leave the arm hanging in space.

Figure 820

Now I need the remaining un-armed Robot, which I also select, and paste into another new layer. I move that layer (by dragging it in the Layers palette) between the background and the arm.

Figure 821

Now, I could go to ImageReady and animate my robot and save it as an Animated GIF. But instead I zoom (CTRL + +) into the robot and grab a section of purple that matches the area around the mouth, and copy that to the clipboard.

Figure 822

I paste this into another layer and move it just over the mouth to hide it or a portion of it in case I need it. If I unclick the Eye then the new "hide mouth" shape disappears but I'll leave it on for now.

Figure 823

I'm ready to animate, so I go File > Jump To > ImageReady.

In ImageReady, I start with a single image in my Animation Strip. I unclick the Eye in the hide mouth layer to reveal the mouth.

Figure 824

I change the "Delay" for the first frame to 0.5 seconds and click to make a copy of this frame... But in the copy I select the Arm layer, and the Move tool, and move the arm up slightly.

Figure 825

Now I repeat this frame but show the hide mouth object, covering part of the mouth...

Figure 826

Eventually, I shorten the delay (to speed it up) and create a multi-frame animation.

Figure 827

I use ImageReady's Save Optimized As to create my Animated Gif, which I save to a folder.

When I add the robot to my PowerPoint slide, he is transparent – and I can give him a motion path in Custom Animation...

Figure 828

Now I can have my robot move across the screen as he moves his arm and mouth, and I can add narration to make him "talk."

Figure 829

Figure 830

As I mentioned, you can use a similar technique to make a transparent background in PowerPoint, using PhotoShop, and saving it as a transparent PNG file. That way, you can use any of the OfficeFX animated themes quite subtly behind the background in your slides.

Figure 831

Just remember that there are two transparent file formats in PhotoShop that work in PowerPoint: GIF and PNG. GIF can even be animated. The trick is beginning with a transparent background on your new PhotoShop composite, and making sure to make anything on your other layers that you don't want to appear transparent as well, by selecting and cutting it before pasting the object into your composition's layers.

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