Simple 2D line animation for presentation

February 3, 2016 10:19 AM

Can you recommend a simple (very simple) 2D line and shape animator?

I need to add an animation into Powerpoint. It is pretty simple as far as animations go, but the imbedded Animation tools in powerpoint aren't flexible enough to do what I want. It is just a line swinging like a pendulum and a circle moving around in 2d space. I am picturing something like MS Paint but with customizable movement paths. Does it exist?

posted by ian1977 to Computers & Internet (1 answer total)

Best answer: I think you might be able to do this in PPT. For the pendulum, draw a line representing the pendulum you want. Then copy it and make the color of the copy the same as the background, Abut two ends, then Group (so you have one long line where only half is "visible"). Now animate that group with a "spin" (specify a custom amount e.g. 90 clockwise), and make one "spin" take the pendulum from one extreme of the swing to the other . Add another spin swinging the other way. Add enough spins to fill the time you need. I tried this and it's little kludgy but seems to work. The circle in 2d space can probably be done with one or more Motion Paths strung together with edited points..
posted by achrise at 10:48 AM on February 3, 2016