A Look Back, and an Updated Version of our “It’s a Small Social Media World” Animation
We pulled the original PowerPoint slides from our archives and did a makeover to the animation. In 2014, we posted 4 slides we designed as part of a client presentation. Great layouts, clean messaging, and engaging animation!
Here is the 2019 version of the slides and animation:
For 2025, the first thing was updating the social media logos and icons to companies that are still available (that is a good history lesson!).
Next was revising some aspects of the animation – although the original motion was great (!) it was a complex combination of motion paths and other animations. Morph was introduced in 2016 – 2 years after we created this animation. So our updated version leverages morph for almost all of the motion and animation.
Because we are continuously integrating video into presentations as design elements, we updated the slide styling with 2 embedded videos that are seamlessly integrated into the design (eg. the videos are part of the graphics and not seen as a “video”).
And here is our 2025 version of “It’s a Small Social Media World”:
-The TLC Creative design team
The “Waterfall” Animation Technique
At TLC Creative, we use a technique we call the ‘waterfall’ to make animations feel smooth, connected, and dynamic. It’s all about overlapping animations—not stacking them, but letting each start just before the last begins.
Let’s build our waterfall using five simple shapes. You’ll see how just a few clicks can create a professional-looking sequence!
For starters, a typical animation has every element set to “Click” on the slide:
Or “After Previous” is set for every element:
Let’s create an animation “waterfall” which is an effect only available in PowerPoint (not Google Slides, Keynote, or Canva).
1. Remove all animations (if needed) and then Apply a “Fade” Animation to all elements:
- Select all of the shape elements
- Go to the Animations tab
- Choose “Fade” from the animation gallery
2. Open the Animation Pane
This will give you more detailed control. You’ll now see an animation entry for each box shape.
3. Change the animation Start to “With Previous” as this is key to the waterfall effect:
- Select each animation (you can select them together)
- Change the animation Start from “On Click” to “With Previous”
Why? This makes each shape element animate with one another, not waiting for a click or full completion.
4. Adjust the Delay for Each Animation
Now the magic happens!
- Select the second box and set a Delay of 0.30 seconds.
- Set the delay for the third box to 0.60 seconds
- Set the delay for the fourth box to 0.90 seconds
- Set the delay for the fifth box to 1.10 minute
Each shape element now starts with the previous one but is delayed just a bit — producing a staggered, overlapping fade-in.
This process can be a bit tedious – but the PowerPoint animation effect is worth the effort! However, the design team here at TLC Creative kinda cheats. We use the ToolsToo PowerPoint add-in to automate the animation settings process to make overlapping (aka waterfall) animations!
Let’s continue the tutorial! Using ToolsToo, here’s what we do:
- Set the last shape element to the time you would like the animation to end
- Select the shapes in the order they will animate in, clicking on the final box last
- Navigate to the ToolsToo tab
- Ensure the “Stagger Animation” is selected
- With all shapes still selected, click “Animation Resequence”
Now all of the shape animations are spaced out evenly in an animated sequence! (So much faster this way, right?)
Animating slides is my happy place, so… happy animating waterfall animations!
-Christie and the TLC Creative Design Team
PowerPoint Video in a Custom Shape!
Want to make your PowerPoint videos stand out and grab some extra attention? Videos do not need to be limited to the standard rectangle. Imagine a video playing inside a circle, a star, a speech bubble, or even a custom shape! It really adds a creative touch that feels way more immersive.
Typically, all videos are inserted onto a slide as a rectangle.
Videos can be cropped, resized, and positioned anywhere on the slide – all using native PowerPoint features. Videos can also have styling effects applied; drop shadow, outline, recolored, etc. – also all using native PowerPoint features.
Change the Shape
Now for the fun part. Change the rectangle into something else. Native to PowerPoint is the ability to change to any of the shapes in the Shape Library; circle, triangle, parallelogram, 3D cube – pick whatever you like! Select the video > go to Video Format > open the Video Shape selection > pick a shape!
All of the PowerPoint shapes work flawlessly, automatically masking a video to that shape. So don’t hold back! Video shapes, just like the rectangle, can be customized with a border or effect. How about an oval video?
Or how about a thought bubble (using PowerPoint’s preset thought bubble shape)?
TIP: use the CROP tool to resize and reposition the video within the new shape.
Add a Video to a Custom Shape
The basic PowerPoint shapes are nice, but what about a complex shape with multiple parts or a logo? With the use of the Merge Shapes tool and a vector graphic as the custom shape, virtually anything is possible. For example, let’s make a video play inside this shape.
- First, add the video to the slide (Insert > Video)
- Add then add the custom vector art to the slide.
- NOTE: This must be a vector art file (eg. .SVG)
- TIP: If the Merge Shapes step below does not work, select the shape(s), copy, delete (yes, it’s okay to delete), then “Paste Special” and select “SVG”
- Resize and move both the shape and the video to the desired placement. Keep the vector art on top of the video.
- Select the video first, then hold Shift and select the shape (the order you select the shapes is critical to this working).
- Go to Merge Shapes > Intersect.
Now your video takes the shape of whatever you picked. Use the Crop tool to adjust the size and position of the video as needed.
And that’s it! It’s a great effect, all done within PowerPoint, and can definitely level up your slide and impress the audience!
-Mike, and the TLC Creative design team
A Look Back – 40 lines of PowerPoint Amazing Animation
During the crazy year that was 2020, we at TLC Creative had several internal design challenges. This particular challenge was to create a dynamic PowerPoint animation – using just 40 lines. The premise was simple: take five slides, integrate exactly 40 lines, and build something visually captivating and animated – in under two hours of design time.
Making it Happen
The rules were flexible and open to interpretation to encourage lots of creativity, while keeping the focus of the slideshow on the lines themselves. Each line could vary in color, length, position, arrangement, width, etc. All that mattered was that the 40 lines were the centerpiece of the animation!
The result of the design team’s creations was a mesmerizing two-minute sequence, built entirely within PowerPoint, that showcased the power of simple design elements when thoughtfully animated.
The Update
If you go back to the original blog post, the animation from five years ago was rendered in 480p resolution (not certain why – but it was). We remastered it in full 1080p, to bring a fresh level of clarity to the line movements and transitions – along with a fun upbeat music track.
What began as a small challenge turned into a showcase of how a tool like PowerPoint can be pushed to create Adobe-style animations!
Final Thoughts
This project gave us a reminder that creativity thrives under constraints. Sometimes, setting a few boundaries can create the perfect environment for creative breakthroughs!
-Troy and the TLC Creative Design Team
New Podcast Episode Available! “Beyond 16:9: The Art and Science of Ultra-Wide Presentations”
New episode of The Presentation Podcast now available!
Ever wondered how those stunning ultra-wide presentations you see at big corporate events, concerts and trade shows come to life? In the latest episode Troy Chollar is joined by Lori Chollar for an all TLC Creative Services conversation. And the topic of the day? Ultra-wide presentations! These presentations are becoming increasingly common, as more events use LED walls along with multi-projector setups, the opportunity to use PowerPoint for content that is beyond 16:9 grows. Troy and Lori share their biggest insights when it comes to creating these kinds of templates and presentations, with many tips for setup and design in this unique presentation format! Listen on your favorite podcast app, or at The Presentation Podcast site here.
Morph is the New “Tweening”
If you’ve been designing presentations for a while, you’re already familiar with Morph transitions. It’s the PowerPoint transition that creates animations to smoothly move objects from one slide to another. It can be a shape or color change, words and text that magically rearrange, or photos and tiles that fly in across the screen, doing whatever you tell them to. Whether it’s changing location, becoming other objects or shapes, rotating, or spinning, Morph transitions can make it happen!
Since 2016, PowerPoint has been offering this amazing feature that simplifies the old tweening process between objects.
What is Tweening?
For years, tweening – short for “in-betweening” – was the way to animate graphics in video, games, and presentations. The term actually goes back to the early days of hand-drawn animation.
It’s the process of creating images that go between keyframes – a keyframe being the start or end rendering of an animation. In hand-drawn animation, the main artist would draw the keyframes, and the start and end looks. Then the “inbetweener” artist would draw several frame-by-frame animations to create a smooth movement connecting the start and end looks (aka Keyframes).
Today, the legacy term “tweening” is still in use. Adobe Flash (now Adobe Animate) adopted the term and process pre-2000. It is also used in Adobe After Effects. With Flash, the artist set the start and end keyframes, and the software accomplished the “in-between” animation frames.
Furthermore, Flash had three different types of tweens, depending on what type of motion animation you needed.
- The Classic Tween: Just a basic move, scale, or rotate.
- The Motino Tween: Added additional motion and effects within the move, scale, or rotate.
- The Shape Tween: Changed one shape to another. The definition of this is literally Morph!
What is Morphing?
So how does PowerPoint Morph compare to tweening? Well, basically Morphing is a form of advanced tweening: a simple-to-use transition effect that animates smooth movement and transformations of objects, photos, and text between slides.
For those with old-school Flash experience, the one thing PowerPoint’s Morph is missing is the ability to see the “in-between” frames and modify them (with additional keyframes). It’s the cost of simplification, where more of the software is empowered to make the decisions.
Essentially, with PowerPoint, the motion is smooth because Morph understands structure, whereas tweening uses numeric values. Think of it this way: Tweening says, “Move from A to B.” Morphing says, “Become B.”
Why is Morphing the New Tweening?
Well, first, Morph just feels more natural. It’s simple to use. And it fits into presentations seamlessly. When things Morph from one shape to another, you’re not jumping from slide to slide or screen to screen; you’re watching things actually change.
This enhances presentations because it’s easier on the brain. Sudden changes on screen can be kind of jarring and distracting. Morphing helps ease you into what’s coming next by showing the transition, not just the end result.
The best part is that moving content with Morph just looks really cool. For PowerPoint, Morph adds a modern, professional vibe without making things overly flashy. It gives presentations a “wow” factor with minimal effort.
Here is an example of PowerPoint Morph (aka tweening) by the TLC Creative presentation design team. Only 4 slides, each is a keyframe. Slide 1 is the start keyframe. Slide 2 is the end keyframe for the slide 1-to-2 animation, AND the start keyframe for the slide 2-to-3 animation. Slide 3 is both an end keyframe and start keyframe, and slide 4 is the end keyframe for the slide 3-to-4 animation (This is probably the most complex aspect of Morph, and all you really need to do is set up the 1st slide, adjust on the 2nd slide, set to Morph transition, done). 
A Look Back at Presenting in Teams 2021 vs 2025
A few years of use and improvement is always fun to review and compare the before-and-after! We are reflecting on our December 20, 2021 post series, “Teams – Presenting with PowerPoint”, which was a 4-part series on Teams PowerPoint Presenting.
This was Teams in 2021:
And this is Teams in 2025 (pretty much the same interface, although I have updated my preference from the Teams dark mode to light mode):
Overall, it’s the same UI and layout with several feature updates. Here are our summary notes on Teams PowerPoint Presenter View improvements and newer features.
Edit Speaker Notes Directly in Presenter View
We can now edit speaker notes during a presentation; something very recently added to most builds of Desktop PowerPoint. Presenter View continues to (only) have basic text formatting, including keyboard shortcuts like bold (Ctrl+B) and italics (Ctrl+I).
Teleprompter View with Auto-Scroll
In Teams PowerPoint, speaker notes can auto-scroll like a teleprompter, something also available in Desktop PowerPoint’s record feature, but not available while actually presenting. The adjusted Presenter View layout and speaker notes auto-scrolling is great for the smooth delivery of presentations!
Enhanced Magnify Capabilities
Zoom, as in to enlarge, into parts of your slide while presenting. Desktop PowerPoint Presenter View has a zoom/magnify icon that magnifies the slide content at a fixed 200% larger. Teams Presenter View makes the magnification adjustable, up to 400%!
Cameo Integration
Presenter View now shows a live preview of your camera feed when using the Cameo feature embedded into slides. Cameo is a really great PowerPoint multimedia feature that has not received enough attention, or use, yet. The Teams Presenter View integrates Cameo into a seamless experience, and coordinates with the actual Teams meeting with the option to remove/turn off the Teams webcam of the presenter so attendees see the Cameo-enabled webcam directly in the slides.
Private View Button Now Visible and Prominent
The Private View button, previously hidden or buried in settings, is now clearly accessible in Presenter View.
▶️ Tip: USE THIS FEATURE. It prevents meeting attendees from advancing through slides on their own or downloading the full deck—a security must for confidential presentations. Go to Slideshow > Set Up Slide Show and ensure the checkboxes for “Browsed by an individual” and “Allow viewers to navigate” are unchecked.
“Present in Teams” Button Now Built Into PowerPoint
PowerPoint now includes a Present in Teams button directly in the desktop app and web version. This lets you present slides natively in Microsoft Teams without screen sharing, launching into Teams Presenter View automatically.
▶️ Bonus: Your audience sees crisp slides, while you keep full Presenter View control
Present in Teams Button in Desktop App
Provides full Presenter View, including access to speaker notes, slide thumbnails, and upcoming slides.
Present in Teams Button on Web Browser
In a Teams meeting go to “Share” and a list of available presentations is seen in the “PowerPoint Live” section, which means the presentation will open up in Teams Presenter View.
In PowerPoint desktop app the top right corner has a “Present in Teams” button which opens up in Teams Presenter View.
In PowerPoint Online click the “Present” dropdown and select “Present in Teams” to open the presentation in Teams Presenter View.
That’s our observations on Team Presenter View updates and improvements. Overall, many good things as Microsoft Teams continues to mature.
-The TLC Creative design team