Suggestion for new ability

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Guest

Hi! -- I love all the new animation possibilities in PowerPoint 2003, but
there's still one missing that would be very useful to me (and, I suspect,
many other people). It is the ability to pivot a graphic about some
pre-defined point (an anchor point). This is different than the available
"Rotate" and "Spin" animation -- rather than have an object orbit an
invisible point ("Rotate") or spin a full 360 degrees ("Spin"), I would love
the ability to anchor a graphic at some point (usually on the graphic
itself), and then define a "Move"-style path for the remainder of the graphic
to rotate around the point. In particular at the moment, it would be nice to
make simple animations for the functions of certain muscles on a bone. For
example, a muscle running from the shoulder blade to one of the arm bones --
if the muscle contracts, all the bones connected to the point of muscle
insertion on the arm bone will rotate around the place where the muscle
inserts on the arm bone. An example would be having the lower arm flex or
extend -- the bones need to pivot around the elbow joint (where the "anchor"
point would be). Thanks for taking this under consideration! -- Jerry D.
Harris
 
dinogami said:
For example, a muscle running from the shoulder blade to one of the arm
bones --
if the muscle contracts, all the bones connected to the point of muscle
insertion on the arm bone will rotate around the place where the muscle
inserts on the arm bone. An example would be having the lower arm flex or
extend -- the bones need to pivot around the elbow joint (where the
"anchor"
point would be).
Click to expand...

Hi Jerry,

with a little "trick" this is possible already. In short: you need an
invisible second bone, which you group with the one intended to move. And
change the degree to spin to less than 360. I am currently preparing a
tutorial about that.

The more interesting part of your question is: How will you animate the
muscle? To make the long/thin expanded muscle become short/thick when
contracted seems much more difficult for me (though it should be possible to
find a solution for that, too).

Kind regards,
Ute
 
Hi Ute -

Ute Simon said:
with a little "trick" this is possible already. In short: you need an
invisible second bone, which you group with the one intended to move. And
change the degree to spin to less than 360. I am currently preparing a
tutorial about that.
Click to expand...

Interesting...I look forward to seeing the tutorial! I admit that I'm
not familiar either with with how to make an object invisible or how to
change the spin degree -- when I assign a graphic the "Spin" entrance
command, the "Property" box is greyed out, so I just assumed that it wasn't
possible to change the value from 360...? Did I miss something? (I'm using
the Education version of the program, if that makes any difference.) As for
the "invisible" thing, on the working slide, I just have multiple versions of
the same graphic there -- none are invisible, which does make things kind of
messy to work with (someone else suggested the ability to "lock" some items,
and I agree that this might be helpful, although it isn't critical), but in
the Slide Show, using fades and disappearing exits, the finished product
looks pretty good.
The more interesting part of your question is: How will you animate the
muscle? To make the long/thin expanded muscle become short/thick when
contracted seems much more difficult for me (though it should be possible to
find a solution for that, too).
Click to expand...

I hadn't worried quite so much about that -- I am using a very fast
fade exit for the extended muscle and a simultaneous very fast fade entrance
for the shortened muscle (which is, of course, a separate graphic). This is
actually also my current solution to making the arm bones pivot as well --
neither is quite as nice as making a single graphic of a muscle somehow
contract in size while making the bones pivot, but after all, PowerPoint
isn't supposed to be a program that can make complex animations -- that's
what all the animation software is for (although I admit that I don't know
how to use any of it!). I just thought that, since PowerPoint is already
capable of some rotation movements, adding a "Pivot" option wouldn't be
nearly as big of a leap. However, if you or anyone else involved with
creating future versions of the program wanted to tackle "Contract" or
"Expand" animation options, that'd be great, too! Come to think of it, they
could use a similar sort of "anchor" option that a "Pivot" animation could
use -- select a portion of the graphic that is the point from which the
remainder of the graphic either expands or contracts. Hmmmm...

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my request, and please let me
know when (and where) the tutorial on pivoting will appear! -- Jerry D. Harris
 
Hi Glen -
In addition to Ute's suggestion, I have a hidden pivot example I can email,
if you wish.
Click to expand...

Yes, please -- that would be great! I look forward to "reverse
engineering" it. Do you have access to my e-mail from here, or should I send
that to you some other way? -- Jerry D. Harris
 
dinogami said:
Yes, please -- that would be great! I look forward to "reverse
engineering" it. Do you have access to my e-mail from here, or should I send
that to you some other way? -- Jerry D. Harris
Click to expand...

Hi Jerry,

because you apparently posted via the Microsoft website, we don't see your
E-Mail-Address here. Drop me a mail to my personal E-Mail-Address: us "at"
ppt-user "dot" de. I'll send you a preliminary version of my tutorial then
(do you understand any German or do you need a version translated into
English?). If you like, please also include the graphics you intend to use,
maybe I can taylor my sample file a bit to your needs. How urgent is your
problem? I don't know exactly when I'll be able to send the files out.

Glen,
may I ask you to send me your example, too. I'd be curious to see whether we
are using similar solutions ;-)

Kind regards,
Ute
 
Hi,

Yes. Please send an email to glen at powerpointworkbench dot com

I'll include one to Ute as well. When I get home that is ;-)

--

Regards,


Glen Millar
Microsoft PPT MVP
www.powerpointworkbench.com
Australia

Please, tell us your:
PowerPoint version,
If you are using vba, or
Anything else relevant!
 
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