You may not be able to talk or walk, but you can ace any presentation with the right help. And there’s no better helper than an animated powerpoint. Presentations have a way of making us feel uncomfortable, so why not make things a little more fun? With the right tools, animations can transform dry slides into vibrant mini-episodes that are much easier to follow than words alone ever could be. It may seem like a lot of work to create an animated powerpoint, but once you have some basic principles down it’ll take you just 10 minutes per slide. Here are five tips for creating the best animated powerpoints possible:

Keep your animations simple

When it comes to animated powerpoints, less is always more. We recommend keeping your animations to a maximum of six seconds. Anything longer than that and you risk losing the audience’s attention. If the visuals are really important to the message, you can always break this rule a little. You can make a point by using a spectacular animation that lasts a little longer than six seconds. So long as the message still comes across, you can use these long animations to add impact to your slides. But remember, you don’t want to be distracting. Keep your animations simple, too. You don’t want to use complicated motion paths and shapes, especially when creating simple illustrations. Stick to the basics and avoid unnecessary detail. It’s okay to use basic shapes like circles, squares and triangles, but avoid complex paths and shapes. You can add more visual interest by using basic colours and patterns, but most importantly, keep your animations simple.

Don’t carry over animations from previous slides

When building your animations, you should think of the order in which your visuals will play. If you decide to include an animation from the previous slide, you should avoid including it on the same slide. This is because the order in which the visuals are shown could change the order of how the audience sees the new visuals, which could be confusing. If you decide to move the visuals from the previous slide to the new one, do it as if it’s for the first time. This way, the audience will never see the same animations twice. If you want to include a simple illustration on the first slide and a longer animation on the second slide, that’s great. Just don’t carry over the illustration from the first slide. The audience should see the illustration for the first time on the second slide and only see the new visuals on the third slide. If you need to include the same illustration on the first slide and the second slide, you can use a different illustration. The same goes for if you need to include the same illustration on both slides.

Play with colours

Colours are powerful, so we recommend using them to their fullest potential. The best way to do this is to change the colours of your text. You can do this by using different colours or different patterns, or simply by making the text smaller on one or more of the slides. This could be the first slide, where the audience would see it for the first time, or the last slide, when it could be shown for the last time, for example. Another way to play with colours is to add some visual interest by using different patterns and colours on a single slide. This could be a specific object that plays a key role in the content of the rest of the slides. For example, a specific colour could be used to help the audience understand the meaning of something important, or a pattern could appear in front of a map to help the audience understand their location better.

Be careful with text animation

Text animation is probably the most basic and common type of animation. And while it might sound easy enough, it actually has a lot of variations. Depending on the style, text animation can be very quick and subtle, or it can be very slow and intense. Make sure you’re using the right text animation for the right slide. You don’t want to use a text animation that looks great on the first few slides, but is too fast or intense to read on the rest of the slides. This could confuse your audience or leave them wondering what you’re trying to say. The best text animations blend together smoothly, so even on the last slide of the presentation, the audience can still easily read your words.

Be careful with object animations

Object animations are a great way to add more visual interest, but they should only be used with objects that are clearly visible. Otherwise, the audience won’t be able to see the object move, leaving them with nothing to focus on. And when it comes to object animations, the best thing to do is to keep them to a minimum. You can create more intense reactions by making the object shake or wobble, for example, but you can do this without making the object blurry or hard to see. Make sure the object is clearly visible and less than a second long. If a certain object plays a key role throughout your presentation, don’t ruin its appeal by making it move every few seconds. Instead, make it move only once, but make it move in a unique way.

Combine different types of animations

Many of the best animated powerpoints are those that include a combination of different types of animation. This could be simple illustrations with some colour and pattern changes, or it could be complex movements and extreme timing between multiple visuals. In this way, you can create visual effects that are hard to replicate with words alone. It’s important to remember that the order in which you show your visuals doesn’t matter. This means you can go back and forth between two visuals, play with the speed of each one, and change the order in which you show them. When it comes to combining different types of animation, you can create as much uniqueness as you want.

Final Words

The best way to learn how to make animated powerpoints is to try it. There are no shortcuts or hidden tricks to learning how to make animated powerpoints, so the best thing to do is to start creating them right away. Just make sure to follow these five tips for creating the best animated powerpoints possible and you’ll be creating amazing animations in no time. Now that you know what to do, let’s take a look at some examples of the best animated powerpoints on the internet. From dinosaur walkovers to epic space battles, these examples will give you some inspiration for creating your own animations.