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Add-ins
Animation Carbon
Reviewed by Geetesh
Bajaj, June 6th 2004
Introduction
About Animation Carbon
Download and Installation
Using the Plug-in
Pricing and Support
Conclusion
Introduction
With the launch of PowerPoint 2002 (and 2003), animation metamorphosed
from a simple single click attribute to something much more enriched,
and complicated. Designers spent hours mastering the new motion
paths - and fine-tuned the timings on multiple animations. After
the jaws finished dropping and the wows were over, designers were
expected to create a similar animation effect for another presentation
element!
You get the pattern - hours upon hours were being spent on recreating
the same effects. It was often felt that it would be great if PowerPoint
had a library feature where all such animation procedures could
be stored - and then imparted to objects with a single click. Our
product for review, Animation Carbon fills that void. Let's explore...
You
can download a 15 day trial version of Animation Carbon here...
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About Animation Carbon
Animation Carbon is from Shyam Pillai, a Microsoft PowerPoint
MVP who creates several PowerPoint add-ins. In the past, I have
reviewed his Image Importer Wizard product.
You can learn more about Animation
Carbon here...
I asked Shyam what motivated him to create Animation Carbon:
"Animation Carbon was conceived immediately after PowerPoint
2002 was released. About 80% of the work was done and then lay
idle since my time was shifted to other projects. More recently,
the ability to be able to copy animations from one shape to another
was often requested in the newsgroups hence Animation Carbon was
revived and completed for release. The complexity of the animation
engine in PowerPoint 2002/2003 made this product tailor made for
power users for increased productivity."
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Download and Installation
You
can download a 15 day trial version of the product from the Office
Tips site - the download currently weighs a little over 1
mb.
Installation is an easy affair - Animation Carbon showed up within
PowerPoint 2003 within the Tools menu.
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Using the Plug-in
- I first opened a presentation in which I had created a Star
Wars style credits animation. I selected the shape that was associated
with an animation.
- Then I chose Tools | Animation Carbon | Show Animation Carbon.
The Animation Carbon interface has two tabs: Clone Animation
and Animation Library.
- Animation Library: In simple terms, Animation Library
is where all saved animation sequence styles are stored - and
applied to other elements as required. Also, it's here that you
manage your animations by creating new categories - think of
categories as folders and the saved animation styles as documents.
Right click anywhere within the window to reveal a context
menu that allows you to create a new animation category. Several
animation categories and
styles nested within those categories are included when you first start
Animation Carbon.
Once you have selected an object that is animated within the
active slide, you need to click the Pickup button here to save
the animation style to the
library. By default, Animation Carbon chooses a name but you can right-click
the animation style and choose Rename.
- Clone Animation: If you don't want to save a style
to a library but only copy animation styles between different
elements on a slide, you'll use the Clone Animation tab. The
Clone Animation tab has a drop down box that allows you to select
any animated shape within the active slide - clicking Apply then
copies the animation style to any selected element on the same
slide.
 
- You can also get the Animation Carbon dialog, by right-clicking
any shape and selecting 'Animation Carbon...'
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Pricing and Support
Animation Carbon, priced at US$50 for a single user license is
reasonably priced for what it does. There are also volume discounts
available. All purchases are through secure server. Support is
through email.
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Conclusion
For what it does, Animation Carbon can be a useful tool within
your PowerPoint paraphernalia box. It does exactly what it promises
and receives a positive verdict from me.
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