Animations

**JimR** · 18 June 2010, 08:39 PM

I'm doing technical drawings/illustrations in Xara and sometimes it would be cool to be able to make a small movie/animation using the Xara parts. I'm thinking simple 2D drawings (with gradients simulating 3D). The picture example could be animated by moving the inner piston.

The simplest animation could be just to move parts around without having to change the parts during the animation. The next level could be to animate while parts change shape (like a spring or parts that bend).

Would Xara be able to make animations that works inside Powerpoint for meeting presentations?

JimR

**jon404** · 18 June 2010, 08:52 PM

Xara 6, either version, does Flash animations very easily... and you can show the SWF output file on a Powerpoint slide (usually! Sometimes Powerpoint burps on Flash SWFs, but this can happen whether they come from Xara, Flash itself, or any other SWF-making program.

I like Xara's Flash feature because it is so fast to use... and to edit. Just wish I could add sound... but, you can always add a sound clip or two to any Powerpoint slide.

Another way to go at this could be to bring the Flash SWF into a PDF via Adobe Acrobat Pro... where the users can view the animation with free Adobe Reader. This opens you up to embedding your animation in a PDF of, say, a user manual. If printed, you'll get the first frame of the animation, but users will have the motion when the PDF is viewed onscreen.

**bcire68** · 18 June 2010, 08:55 PM

Jim,

You can make GIF and simple Flash animations in XX5.

For more advanced flash animations I would suggest Swish Max.

You can show flash animations in powerpoint.

Eric

Edit:John beat me to it.

**jclements** · 18 June 2010, 10:43 PM

Here's is a flash animation I did with Xara.
The green "buttons" on the bottom allow you replay the animation at specific places.

**JimR** · 19 June 2010, 08:02 AM

Brilliant, that's just the things I would like to be able to do.

Your wood pieces look great, I'm pulling them apart learning new tricks

JimR

**JimR** · 19 June 2010, 09:25 AM

Making the animation was pretty easy though I must read more about the limitations of Flash programming. It seems to be a fine way of supplementing presentations with nice moving parts

I have to work more with Powerpoint 2007 though. You have to save as a .pptm file that won't open with Powerpoint as default and then you have to get past a security warning too before running the show.

JimR

**Xhris** · 19 June 2010, 11:12 AM

Originally Posted by JimR

I'm doing technical drawings/illustrations in Xara and sometimes it would be cool to be able to make a small movie/animation using the Xara parts. I'm thinking simple 2D drawings (with gradients simulating 3D). The picture example could be animated by moving the inner piston...

Hi, a helpful resource on this common topic (that's rarely cited in threads like this on TG unfortunately) is available here (see Flash tutorial). Hope it helps.

**JimR** · 20 June 2010, 01:42 PM

Great Chris, I'm going to print that one out and read it all.

Add-on question: How do I convert the animation into a normal video file (like AVI) for further editing in Sony Vegas (adding music, narration, etc.)?

I could use Cam Studio to record the screen while previewing but it would be nice to do it a little more elegant.

JimR

**jon404** · 21 June 2010, 06:28 PM

JimR -- doesn't Camtasia Studio let you convert Flash SWFs into AVIs or WMVs? Might work... otherwise I'd look for a SWF-to-AVI convertor.

**amoore** · 21 June 2010, 08:23 PM

CamStudio is not the same as Camtasia Studio. AFAIK, CamStudio is freeware.

In Camtasia, you can record the flash animation and produce it as an AVI or WMV. However, you can't directly convert from one format to another.