Learn how to create Star Wars style credits animation in PowerPoint.
Did you want to add a Star Wars credits style animation within your PowerPoint slide? In this style, text crawls from bottom to the top, and the text size reduces until it fades off the slide! This is an amazing effect, and you can make this effect happen in PowerPoint 2013 or any other version.
Follow these steps to learn more:
- First download the StarfieldPowerPoint template from Indezine that has a suitable night sky /space background image.
- You will find both Standard and Widescreen templates in the download. Double-click one of these StarfieldPowerPoint template files to launch PowerPoint with a new presentation, based on this template.Now save the file with a new name. If your presentation has two slides, you can delete one of the slides. Next change the Slide Layout of the remaining slide to Blank, as shown in Figure 1, below.
Figure 1: Slide layout changed to Blank - Now insert a Text Box. Type the credits text, as shown in Figure 2. Align the textas needed. We also changed the color of the text to white.
Figure 2: Text added - Move Text Box to the bottom of the slide. Access the Animationstab on the Ribbon, as shown in Figure 3. With the Text Box selected, click the Add Animation button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3.
Figure 3: Add Animation button - This brings up theAdd Animation drop-down gallery. Choose the Motion Paths | Lines animation option, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Add Line animation
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- You will see a Motion Path animation applied, as shown inFigure 5.
Figure 5: Motion Path animation added - We need the direction of the Motion Path to be Up. To do that, click the Effect Options button in the Animations tab of the Ribbon. From the drop-down menu that appears, choose the Up option, as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Up effect option - Click the Animation Pane button to bring up the Animation Pane, as shown in Figure 7, below. Double-click the Motion Path animation (highlighted in red within Figure 7).
Figure 7: Motion Path within Animation Pane - This will bring up the Up dialog box, as shown in Figure 8. Within this dialog box, access the Effect tab, and match your values to the ones shown in Figure 8, below.
Figure 8: Effect tab within Up dialog box - Next access the Timing tab in the same dialog box and match your values to the ones shown in Figure 9, below.
Figure 9: Timing tab within Up dialog box - Now select the Motion Path on your slide – this is the path that has a green and a red arrowhead on either side. If you see two white handles on either side of the Motion Path, you then know that the path is selected.
Figure 10: Fine-tuned motion path - Drag the white handle on the top of your Motion Path to the top of the slide. Ensure that the bottom of the Motion Path is somewhere close to the bottom of your slide, as shown in Figure 10. You might want to preview the animation to fine-tune the placements of the top and bottom ends of your Motion Path.
- With your text box still selected, add another animation. The animation you need to add now is Emphasis | Grow/Shrink. Next, double-click the Grow/Shink animation in the Animation Pane, as previously explained in Step 7. Within the Effect tab of the Grow/Shrink dialog box, match your values to the ones you see in Figure 11, below.
Figure 11: Effect tab within Grow/Shrink dialog box - Similarly, access the Timing tab of the same dialog box, and match your values to those shown in Figure 12, below. Do note that we changed the Start value to With Previous. This ensures that the selected animation will happen along with our previous animation, simultaneously.
Figure 12: Timing tab within Grow/Shrink dialog box - Let us now explore what we have achieved so far. The first animation we added was a Motion Path that moved the text box from the bottom of the slide upwards. The second animation was an Emphasis animation that reduced the size of the text box. Moreover, the second animation happened at the same time as the first one. We still need to add a third animation so that our text box fades into oblivion as it exits upwards from the slide.To do so, make sure that your text box is selected. Then add an Exit | Fade Next, double-click the Fade animation in the Animation Pane, as previously explained in Step 7. Within the Timing tab of the Fade dialog box, match your values to the ones you see in Figure 13, below.
Figure 13: Timing tab within Fade dialog box Since we require all the three animations to happen simultaneously, we chose the same speed for all three. Notice that the Duration value is set to 3 seconds (Slow) in Figure 13, above. You will notice the same durations for the other two animations in Figures 9 and 12. If you want to choose a different speed, you’ll need to change the Duration value in all three animations. - Next, drag the text box downwards to outside the Slide Area. This will ensure that the text is not seen in a non-animated state while viewing in Slide Show view. Preview and fine-tune again as required. You might want to extend the motion path upwards to compensate for the added downward distance of the text box, as shown in Figure 14, below.
Figure 14: Text re-arranged - Duplicate the text box by copying and pasting as many text boxes you need. Change the text credits as required by typing over the existing text, and then place the new text boxes immediately over the earlier text box. You will repeat to create as many text boxes as required. Since all the text boxes overlap each other, it might be a little difficult to edit the text within them later. Use the Tab key to select each of these text boxes one at a time so that you don’t make changes inadvertently in a text box that you did not intend to edit!
- Preview your slide. You might also want to download a copy of the presentation Geetesh created to check the settings used.
Want something ready to use which is not quite the Star Wars style credits? Download Indezine’s Zoom in Zoom Out Credits and Horizontal Credits credit animation sample files.
About the Author:
Geetesh Bajaj is an awarded Microsoft PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional) for over a decade now. He has been designing and training with PowerPoint for 15 years and heads Indezine, a presentation design studio and content development organization based out of Hyderabad, India. Geetesh believes that any PowerPoint presentation is a sum of its elements–these elements include abstract elements like concept, color, interactivity, and navigation–and also slide elements like shapes, graphics, charts, text, sound, video, and animation. He explains how these elements work together in his best-selling book Cutting Edge PowerPoint for Dummies–the book has several five-star ratings on Amazon.com. He has also authored three subsequent books on PowerPoint 2007 for Windows, and one on PowerPoint 2008 for Mac. His Indezine.com site attracts more than two million page views each month and has thousands of free PowerPoint templates and other goodies for visitors to download. In addition, Geetesh also issues a bi-weekly PowerPoint newsletter on Indezine.com that has a hundred thousand subscribers. And yes–indezine.com has so much more–product reviews, personality interviews, a busy blog, and even a presentation bank. Follow him on Twitter at @Geetesh. Or email him at geetesh@geetesh.com.
