As part of their Unit of Inquiry on advertising, the year 5s and 6s have been making 30 second commercials (see post titled Making advertisements with Windows Live Movie Maker.)  As well as using video clips taken from a video camera, some students chose to incorporate video clips that were created from an animated MS PowerPoint presentation.

To create animations (moving objects) in MS PowerPoint, the students followed these steps :

1. Add text, shapes, pictures, clip art etc to the presentation as usual.
2. Select one or more of the above objects and select the “Animations > Custom Animation” option.
3. Select “Add Effect > Entrance”.  This sets special effects for the way the object enters the presentation.  Some examples include “Fly In”, “Spiral In” and “Checkerboard”.
4. Select “Add Effect > Emphasis”.  This sets special effects that occur on the object after it has entered the presentation.  Some examples include “Grow/Shrink”, “Spin” and “Blast”.
5. Select “Add Effect > Exit”.  This sets special effects for the way the object leaves the presentation.  Some examples include “Fly Out”, “Dissolve Out” and “Wheel”.
6. Steps 3 to 5 can be repeated for many objects or groups of objects and the timing, movement and sequence of the animations can be specified.

The result is a self running presentation.  The presentation can then be converted to a video file, such as an “avi” file, using a separate program such as Wondershare PPT2Video Pro.  This video file can then be imported into Windows Live Movie Maker along with other video, image and audio files.