Tutorial Archives - Page 27 of 56

Animation Using Super Wide Panoramic Photo

Using the panoramic image from the previous post, here is a sample animation. Actually the audience sees a continuous animation, but from the designer view is a series of slides that use Slide Transitions for the animation effect.

1. Insert panoramic image (it is almost 5Xs the width of a slide)

2. Position it by using the Align tools. (1) Align left. (2) Align Middle.

3.Duplicate the slide. Right-click the image >> Format Picture >> Position (left pane) >> set Horizontal to -10.5″ (right pane)

4. Duplicate the slide and repeat process to set horizontal another 10.5″ to the left (-21″)

5. Duplicate the slide and repeat process to set horizontal another 10.5″ to the left (-31.5″)

6. Because the image is not exactly another 10.5″ wide, go to HOME tab >> ARANGE >> ALIGN >> ALIGN RIGHT

7. Select all 5 slides and set the slide transition to WIPE

8. With all 5 slides still selected adjust the slide transition – TRANSITIONS tab >> EFFECT OPTIONS >> FROM RIGHT, so the slide transitions visually act as the on-click animations.

The result is a slide show that lets you pan through image from left to right. Download this presntation here.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-16T10:39:33-07:00January 11th, 2011|Personal, Tutorial|

Create a Panoramic Image in Photoshop

Sometimes presentations need specialty images that are beyond the capabilities of PowerPoint. Here is my process for creating panoramic images:

1. Take a series of photos, aligning as close as possible. Here are my sample images – 4 photos taken from the 11,000′ elevation peak at BrianHead ski resort in Utah.

2. Open PhotoShop and import all images as separate layers. Be sure the layers are in order of what will be the side-by-side order.

3. With all 4 layers selected go to EDIT >> AUTO-ALIGN LAYERS.

4. In the Auto-Align Layers dialog there are a number of options, for this one I am going to use AUTO.

5. The result is (1) a super wide image, that is (2) made up of the layers, each repositioned side-by-side.

6. Then use the cropping tool to remove excess areas and create a clean rectangle.

7. Because my images have slightly different exposures, the individual images can still be seen. First I quickly apply an AUTO TONE, AUTO CONTRAST, AUTO COLOR to each layer. Then I use the eraser tool to blend the edges – which is easy because the AUTO ALIGN tool overlaps the images.

8. Now with the edges blended I have a super wide panoramic image ready to be saved as a .jpg and inserted into a presentation.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-16T10:39:49-07:00January 9th, 2011|Tutorial|

Windows 7 Explorer Previews – See Without Opening!

Windows 7 is without a doubt the best operating system Microsoft has released to date. I find it stable, easy to use, powerful and full of useful features. The core usability of any operating system is how it organizes and allows you to find files. I did a curiousity check and at almost half a million files on my main production computer, and over 3 million files on the main archive server, finding and identifying files easily is a big task!

Here is the standard Windows File Explorer in Windows 7.

This icon in the upper right, opens the very powerful, and very useful, Preview Pane.

Click the Preview Pane icon and Windows Explorer adds an additional information pane on the right.

Select a PowerPoint file and the slides are previewed without opening the full application! The vertical scroll bar on the right takes you through each slide, including transitions and animations!

Select a PDF file and the full PDF, page-by-page is shown in the preview pane. The PDF preview adds navigation buttons in addition to the scroll bar on the right.

Select a movie file, which can be a .wmv, .avi, or quicktime/.mov (if running the 32-bit operating system) are previewed with an active timeline bar and vital stats about it in the bottom bar, such as file size and pixel size.

Select any Microsoft Office document – Word, Excel, Onenote, PowerPoint, and all show up in the preview pane.

Select an image (.jpg, .gif, .png, but not .eps, .psd, .ai) for a preview and the bottom bar with all the vital stats, such as file size and dimensiions.

When looking through dozens, or thousands, of files the Windows Explorer Preview Pane in Windows 7 is GREAT!

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-16T10:41:16-07:00January 5th, 2011|Tutorial|

Creating the “Happy New Year” Text in PPT 2010

2011 started with a “Happy New Year” graphic and message. Creating the graphic was easy in PPT 2010.

1. Type text and size

2. Add style formatting (fill color and 3-D bevel)

3. Duplicate orginal black text slide and apply a custom 3-D bevel

4. Then customize the Surface Material and Lighting

5. Copy the colored text to the 3D perspective text slide and adjust size of each to match

6. I added the TLC company logo, then size/positioned to take place of the dot in the explanation point

The completed slide can be downloaded here.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-16T10:41:43-07:00January 3rd, 2011|Tutorial|

Recolor .png Images in PPT

I am continously reflecting on how much more I can do inside PPT 2010 vs. going out to an external application such as Photoshop when developing slides. Here is an example from a recent project that was done in PPT in a matter of seconds vs. opening image in Photoshop, adjusting, saving, importing new version of image.

Here is my highly stylized trend line (used on a slide to show the economy is making progress, without showing any detailed numbers or facts). It is a .png image I prepared in Photoshop and inserted into the presentation.

Here is the same image, now full screen and on the presentation template backgound – it does not have enough contrast against the background.

By selecting the image and then going to FORMAT >> CORRECTIONS I used the presets (all based on the template color scheme) to recolor the trendline image to a color with more contrast.

Done. Move on to next slide.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-16T10:51:13-07:00November 3rd, 2010|Tutorial|

Small Textures for Big Images

This is can be a great visual effect that can make large images out of very small files. The concept of using repeating pattern images to fill a large object has been used, by me, since the 1980’s for web design. It is still a valuable tool to use for presentations today. Here is an example:

1. Here is my very small image. It is a .png image, 102×102 pixels and only 2KB file size.

2. Here is the large rectagle shape on my slide.

3. I then change the fill from SOLID to PICTURE OR TEXTURE FILL, then FILE and finally choose my seamless texture image.

4. This is the first result – which is not the final result.

5. Click TILE PICTURE AS TEXTURE.

6. This is now the same image. It can be resized, to any size and the pattern background does not distort or loose quality.

7. In addition any of the formatting options can be applied, because it is a PowerPoint shape. Here I used the 3D Rotation and a drop shadow to create a new, very small file size, image for my slide.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-16T10:54:04-07:00October 23rd, 2010|Tutorial|

Gradients for Custom Text

Final gradient sample (for this series). In this slide the gradient fill is used for the text outline, the box outline and the box fill.

One of the really great features is the ability to make lines gradient. On the text close-up it is easier to see the outline is opaque white at the top and gradients into a semi-transparent grey.

1. Select text, open the Format Text dialog and choose TEXT OUTLINE
2. Change Text Outline to GRADIENT LINE
3. Add a white gradient stop. I moved mine to the right to extend the amount of solid white at the top of each letter
4. Add a 2nd stop that is black and semi-transparent (or use an opaque grey for same effect)

For the lower box I combined a gradient fill and a gradient outline. This is great to be able to create a single element with custom design and text all in one element.

For the box fill, the gradient is right-to-left:
1. Choose FILL and angle is 180
2. White stop that is slightly semi-transparent
3. Black stop that is transparent

For the box outline, the gradient is left-to-right:
4. Choose LINE COLOR and GRADIENT FILL with angle 0
5. White stop that is slightly semi-transparent
6. Black stop that is transparent

Also, I set the right indent on the TEXT BOX section to .3 to inset the text equally on all slides.

Download the Gradient Text slide here (34k) .

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-16T11:01:47-07:00October 15th, 2010|Tutorial|

Gradient Triangle Accent Elements

This is another layout recently developed for a project. The goal was to avoid a bulleted list and create a more dynamic, and memorable, graphic layout.

1. Create a tall triangle

2. Using the gradient fill options modify the triangle to move from semi-opaque to transparent

1. Open the FORMAT SHAPE dialog and go to the FILL section
2. Select GRADIENT FILL
3. Make certain the type is LINEAR
4. Stop 1 (top of triangle) is desired color and 20-25% transparency
5. Stop 2 (middle of triangle) is a lighter color and 40-50% transparency
6. Stop 3 (bottom of triangle) is any color and 100% transparency

3. The result transforms the triangle to this

4. And here is an example layout using all PPT shapes and text

5. The great thing is the triangles use transparency and not white, so they can be used on any background

Click here to download the slide layout (29K).

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-16T11:02:24-07:00October 13th, 2010|Tutorial|

Gradient Circle Fill Effect

I have been experimenting with gradient fills for a recent project. First, the gradient tool in PPT 2010 is great! It still has some usability issues, but overall it is easy to use and has a lot of flexibility. Here is one effect I developed and below is a link to download a slide with the gradient shape.

1. Start with an oval. No outline and any fill.

2. After applying a custom gradient fill here is the result.

3. To create the gradient fill I adjusted 5 elements:
1. Open the FORMAT SHAPE dialog, go to the FILL section and for fill type choose GRADIENT FILL
2. Change the type of gradient to PATH
3. Make the far left color black. Slide to position of 10-15%. Transparency = 0% (solid black).
4. Move second color to right side at position of 80%. Make color white, or change Brightness to 100% (white) and set Transparency to 100% (no fill).
5. Add a third color bar/stop even further to the right at position of 95%. Make color white (or set brightness to 100% to change any color to white) and make it slightly transparent with Transparency at 25%.

4. Now position gradient cirle under any object for a bit of perspective.

5. Because the shape was created with transparency, it can go onto any color background.

Download slide with gradient shape here (35K).

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-05-04T09:45:29-07:00October 11th, 2010|Tutorial|

Movie Length When Trimming

PPT 2010 has added lots of very good video editing tools. In working on a recent project with many videos I happily made use of the Trim feature to set custom start/stop times. But after using a calculator to figure the new section duration (for over an hour), I discovered a new function!

Here is my sample video freshly inserted. The End Time shows the duration of the whole video.

Here is the sample video with custom start and stop times setup. Note the upper right corner where PPT is smart enough to automatically calculate and display the new duration of the video (yeah!)

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-16T11:03:11-07:00September 28th, 2010|Tutorial|