When being stubborn pays off - Incorporating morph into Storyline
PowerPoint is underrated. We’ve all heard of death by PowerPoint and for those of us born before 2000, our brains naturally jump to garish WordArt and a star wipe transition.
I have a soft spot for PowerPoint, having used it for many many many years now I think it’s an incredibly versatile platform that has reems of potential beyond it’s intended presentation-based use.
The authoring tool Articulate Storyline is sometimes described as being ‘PowerPoint on steroids,’ and whilst that’s a topic for another day, Storyline is close to being a PowerPoint replica in its basic functionality and façade. However, Storyline is missing one of my favourite PowerPoint features…
…The morph transition.
Now if you haven’t had chance to experience the morph transition then I urge you to go and have a go, it’s loads of fun. (yes I’m aware that’s an incredibly geeky thing to find fun)
Essentially, the morph transition is a way of moving seamlessly through slides to create an animated effect. For example, I could put a photograph on my first slide and then size the photo up on the next slide and use the morph transition between the slides to create the illusion of zooming in.
It just looks snazzy, ok?!
The possibilities are vast with this functionality, and I’ve used it before to create informative, explainer style presentations, to highlight diagrams and more.
But of course, it’s not available in Storyline. *Sighs in fade transition. *
Now I’m a pretty stubborn person and in previous attempts have desperately tried to mimic this functionality in Storyline alone, using a vast range of motion paths and triggers. The result was a huge headache, some colourful language and an ever so mediocre result.
So, recently I decided to take a different approach, by keeping the transition in PowerPoint, but adding the interactivity in Storyline.
It’s the crossover episode you didn’t know you needed!
How is this possible I hear you cry? (I mean I hope you are because why on Earth have you read this far if not?!)
Let’s get into it, have a watch of the video below.
Is it a pain to get this effect? Yes. Do I think it’s worth it? Also yes. But due to the video content, it’s probably best not to use it too often in one course or you may end up with one giant file size and a very ‘laggy’ Storyline.
Here’s a few ideas as to where I think this transition could be great:
To highlight areas of a diagram - this could be a nice way to bring data to life.
To visualise going on a journey, for example within a timeline interaction.
For hidden object, or ‘explore the environment’ type activities.
To show a transformation, for example a flower growing / wilting. This could be a great way to illustrate complex points.
Finally this is plea to Articulate, please give us some more dynamic animation and transition tools! I promise we’ll make great use out of it!
