[kman42]

I frequently make graphical models for my presentations and would like to add some fairly simple animation, like the ability to move objects, etc. The Windows version of PowerPoint has some rudimentary animation features built in, but the Mac version doesn't have them. Keynote (my preferred presentation app) is also missing these features.

I was in the Apple store yesterday and ran across Motion, which seems to do exactly this plus a whole lot more. The problem is the cost. Is there a less expensive way to accomplish simple animation?

kman

[jamil5454]

For simple animations and models (as I'm no artist!) I use Blender3d. It's a highly respected open-source project. I'm not sure if you'll be able to integrate the animations into a Keynote or PowerPoint presentation, but you might be able to find a Python script that does this from Blender.

[Thinine]

Upgrade to Keynote 2. It has some basic animation abilities, as demoed by Steve at Macworld.

[kman42]

Originally posted by Thinine:
Upgrade to Keynote 2. It has some basic animation abilities, as demoed by Steve at Macworld.

I was playing with it at the Apple store and couldn't really find much beyond what Keynote 1 does. You can fly objects in and make them appear, etc, but you can't move an object from one point to another. The text animations are a pretty big feature though.

kman

[Gavin]

The poor man's solution:

Use any drawing program like appleworks, omni graffle or photoshop to make your object

Take a screen shot, move the object, take another screen shot.
Drag the images onto a quicktime movie frame by frame.

Just to prove to myself that this would actually work I made a proof of concept video. It took about 10 min. It's 45 frames. http://sites.clark-ip.com/test95235/files/ani-test.mov


Something like omni graffle is probably scriptable.

[Millennium]

I forget if PixelShox Studio allowed export, but if it does then that may be worth a try. It's unsupported, and the technology was never documented all that well, but the price is right, and if you can get over the near-vertical learning curve then you can do some truly impressive stuff with it.

As for why it's unsupported, the creator mysteriously got a job "somewhere" which had "something" to do with this technology, such that he is no longer allowed to develop it on his own. It is theorized that Apple was the company which employed him, and that Motion is a descendant of PixelShox.

[theolein]

Originally posted by Millennium:
I forget if PixelShox Studio allowed export, but if it does then that may be worth a try. It's unsupported, and the technology was never documented all that well, but the price is right, and if you can get over the near-vertical learning curve then you can do some truly impressive stuff with it.

As for why it's unsupported, the creator mysteriously got a job "somewhere" which had "something" to do with this technology, such that he is no longer allowed to develop it on his own. It is theorized that Apple was the company which employed him, and that Motion is a descendant of PixelShox.

That's exactly what I thought when I first saw Motion, except that PixelShox has many features that are nowhere to be found in Motion.

[theolein]

Originally posted by kman42:
I frequently make graphical models for my presentations and would like to add some fairly simple animation, like the ability to move objects, etc. The Windows version of PowerPoint has some rudimentary animation features built in, but the Mac version doesn't have them. Keynote (my preferred presentation app) is also missing these features.

I was in the Apple store yesterday and ran across Motion, which seems to do exactly this plus a whole lot more. The problem is the cost. Is there a less expensive way to accomplish simple animation?

kman

This is a pity sometimes on the Mac, that software choice is a bit limited. Flash would do what you need except it costs even more than Motion. Corel's Rave 2 would also be ideal ($29 from Amazon), except it's Windows only.

Edit: the cheapest tool I could find on the Mac that does 2D animation is ToonBoomStudio Express for $149.