Motion Path Accuracy

I'm just starting to use motion paths to develop some animations, and I'm
having trouble making them accurate enough to keep my objects aligned. For
example, say I have a group of four boxes (upper left, upper right, lower
left, lower right) that form a grid. I want to show those boxes moving
around to show a particular reordering of data that I'm illustrating, but
when the boxes come to their final resting places in the same grid, they are
not well lined up because the motion paths don't seem to "snap" to where I'm
wanting the boxes to move (meaning, the end points of the paths are not in
the right place).

Are there tricks to making accurate paths? I've found the same
disappointment in general when working with freeforms - I don't know how to
put the points exactly where I want them when drawing or editing.

Thanks,

Eric
-------------------------
If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet,
what happen if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?
Steven Wright (1955 - )

Bill
Wed May 07 20:18:01 CDT 2008

For this I use temporary shapes. What I do is create a simple cross line
(horizontal line and vertical line grouped together) that I place at exactly
the location I want the center of the object to be. If I am not sure where
the center should be I may create the cross line scan to be the exact same
size as the object that I am moving.

Then I make sure that I have the "Snap objects to other objects" checked
(Ctl G dialog box).

Now I'll go into my custom animations screen and select my object and a
custom line motion path. Select the center of your object and drag the line
to the center of the cross line object. It should snap into place for you.

After I get the motion paths set, delete the cross line objects. Let me
know if I'm not being clear in my explanation.


--
Bill Dilworth
A proud member of the Microsoft PPT MVP Team
Users helping fellow users.
http://billdilworth.mvps.org
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"egun" <egun@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:417D59EE-333F-445E-804B-BEEA37604913@microsoft.com...
> I'm just starting to use motion paths to develop some animations, and I'm
> having trouble making them accurate enough to keep my objects aligned.
> For
> example, say I have a group of four boxes (upper left, upper right, lower
> left, lower right) that form a grid. I want to show those boxes moving
> around to show a particular reordering of data that I'm illustrating, but
> when the boxes come to their final resting places in the same grid, they
> are
> not well lined up because the motion paths don't seem to "snap" to where
> I'm
> wanting the boxes to move (meaning, the end points of the paths are not in
> the right place).
>
> Are there tricks to making accurate paths? I've found the same
> disappointment in general when working with freeforms - I don't know how
> to
> put the points exactly where I want them when drawing or editing.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Eric
> -------------------------
> If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their
> feet,
> what happen if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?
> Steven Wright (1955 - )

john
Thu May 08 02:09:00 CDT 2008

As well as Bill's method (which we use and works great!) If you want a shape
to END at an accurate position another way is:

Start with the shape in the final position. Creat a path to the approx
start. Reverse the path and then set it to LOCKED. Move the shape to the
start position. There may be a little jump at the start but the end position
wll be accurate.
--
-------------------------------------------
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http://www.PPTAlchemy.co.uk
http://www.technologytrish.co.uk
email john AT technologytrish.co.uk


"egun" wrote:

> I'm just starting to use motion paths to develop some animations, and I'm
> having trouble making them accurate enough to keep my objects aligned. For
> example, say I have a group of four boxes (upper left, upper right, lower
> left, lower right) that form a grid. I want to show those boxes moving
> around to show a particular reordering of data that I'm illustrating, but
> when the boxes come to their final resting places in the same grid, they are
> not well lined up because the motion paths don't seem to "snap" to where I'm
> wanting the boxes to move (meaning, the end points of the paths are not in
> the right place).
>
> Are there tricks to making accurate paths? I've found the same
> disappointment in general when working with freeforms - I don't know how to
> put the points exactly where I want them when drawing or editing.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Eric
> -------------------------
> If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet,
> what happen if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?
> Steven Wright (1955 - )

egun
Thu May 08 14:20:01 CDT 2008

Thanks for both of your inputs. Since I want the start AND end locations to
be accurate, I'll try the temporary shapes idea first. The other idea I'll
keep in my back pocket!

Eric