Mask with PowerPoint: Part V
This will be the last tutorial on Masking. In the first tutorial, we talk about simple masking using white circle. The drawback of this method is that, if you intend to mask a black text with a different background, this method does not work. In addition, you can't use this method on a picture. Today, we will cover the tutorial on how to solve this scenario.
Figure 1: Masking a picture and text in PowerPoint.To be able to mask a picture or text in PowerPoint and then animate them, you will need a ring with huge border. The border will act as a mask to screen off the unwanted portion, while the inner circle will show the masked portion as seen on Figure 1.
There are two ways to create this ring. Either in a graphic editing program such as Adobe Photoshop, or using PowerPoint alone. This tutorial will cover the PowerPoint part.
First, click AutoShapes on the drawing toolbar.
Click Basic Shapes > Oval.
Hold down the Shift key on your keyboard while drawing the oval onto the slide.
This will allow you to create a perfect circle. The size is not important at this stage.
Now, double click on the circle to bring up the Format AutoShape dialog box.
Under the Fill section, click on the Color dropdown field and select "No Fill".
Under Line section, modify the Weight so that it is 1584pt, which is the largest border weight you can have.
Click Ok to apply changes.
Now, you probably won't see anything on the slide. Click View > Zoom. Set the zoom to 33% so that you will be able to see the ring which is off the slide.
If the ring is selected, you will see the white handles (the 4 white dots). This allows you to resize the ring.
What we are going to do now is to make the inner circle smaller. You must enlarge the ring in order to achieve that. Hold down the Shift key while you do that.
Make the inner circle smaller until the masked area (the portion where the picture/background can be seen) surround the slide. Do not attempt to make the inner circle too small, or else you will see additional "hidden" stuff blocking the inner circle.
Now, preview it in the slide show and make sure the inner circle is perfect. If something seems to be blocking the inner circle, shrink the ring until the "hidden" stuff disappear when viewing it in the slide show.
Next, click Edit > Cut.
Click Edit > Paste Special.
Select Picture (GIF).
After pasting it as a GIF, you will be able to reduce the size of the inner circle. On top of that, you can add animations such as motion paths and Grow/Shrink effect to improve the impact. The file below shows you two examples. The first slide includes the final masking with animations applied onto the ring. The second slide will show you the ring which has been enlarged nicely for you. To download the file, click the link below:
http://pptheaven.mvps.org/blog/MaskingEffectPartV.zipWe have come to the end of "Mask with PowerPoint". Hope you like it!