Synchronize visual effects with your voice narration by using animations in your presentation. Keep your audience focused by displaying bullet points and images at the exact moment you mention them.
See how it looks
Key Features
- Control the pacing of visual information during playback
- Direct viewer attention to specific bullet points or graphics
- Set animation timing with Autocue when you generate narration
You Need This to Succeed
- Plan: Bigtincan Authoring, Bigtincan Basic Readiness, Bigtincan Elite, Bigtincan Essential, Bigtincan Readiness, or Bigtincan Standard Plus
- Roles and Privileges: Content author, learning author, folder administrator, or company administrator
- Prerequisites: A PowerPoint or Google Slides file with animations applied to slide elements
Do This Step by Step
Create a slide deck with animations
- Brainshark plays animations from imported slides, but you can’t create or edit animations in Brainshark, so build your slide deck with animations in an external app first.
- Create your presentation in PowerPoint, Google Slides, or any presentation tool that can export output in a .pptx file.
- Select the elements you want to animate, such as text boxes, images, or bullet points, and apply animations to each one.
- Save or export your completed presentation as a .pptx file to your local storage.
Add slides with animation to a presentation
- In Brainshark, navigate to the Content tab.
- To create a new presentation with your animated slide deck, follow the steps in this article.
- To add new slides with animation to an existing presentation, open the presentation in the editor and click Slides in the top menu.
- Select Import and choose from:
- Upload files: Drag and drop or click Browse to select your presentation .pptx file from your device, and click Upload.
-
Google Slides: In the file picker window, double-click the presentation from your Google Drive that you want to insert in your Brainshark presentation. A confirmation message appears once the upload is complete.
Note: The first time you connect Google Drive to Brainshark, you will be prompted to Link your Google account. Select Allow to grant Brainshark permission to access your files, then you will see your Drive presentations in the file-picker window.
- Do not close the editor while the file is uploading. Once the upload is complete, Brainshark automatically detects the animations applied to the slide elements.
- When you view the presentation, the animations play back following the same rules you set in PowerPoint or Google Slides.
-
To adjust the timing of on-click animations, drag the animation markers in the play bar, or type the Animation timing on the General tab.
Tip: When you generate narration with text-to-speech, Autocue can set the timing for you automatically. For more information, see the Autocue feature.
Note: You can only adjust the timing of on-click animations. Animations set to With Previous or After Previous play relative to the animation before them, so you can’t set their timing separately.
Tips:
Keep animation types simple: Stick to entrance and exit animations on click. Complex motion paths or triggers may not carry over as expected.
Re-upload after edits: If you update animations in your source file, you'll need to re-upload the PPTX to Brainshark. Changes aren't synced automatically. For more information, see how to Edit and manage slides.
Google Slides users: Google Slides supports a more limited set of animations than PowerPoint.
Supported animations
Brainshark supports most PowerPoint entrance, emphasis, exit, and motion path effects, including PowerPoint Office Online animations. Entrance and exit effects are the most commonly used.
- Entrance effects: Bring an object into view, for example by fading, flying, or bouncing in.
- Emphasis effects: Change an object that's already on the slide, for example by growing, shrinking, changing color, or spinning.
- Exit effects: Move an object out of view, for example by flying off, disappearing, or spiraling out.
- Motion path effects: Move an object along a path, such as a line, circle, or star. The path can start or end off the slide.
Entrance effects
Basic:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| Appear | Yes |
| Blinds | Yes |
| Box | Yes |
| Checkerboard | Yes |
| Circle | No (Renders as Box) |
| Diamond | No (Renders as Box) |
| Dissolve In | Yes |
| Flash Bulbs | Yes |
| Plus | Yes |
| Random Bars | Yes |
| Split | Yes |
| Strips | Yes |
| Wedge | No (Renders as Box) |
| Wheel | No (Renders as Box) |
| Wipe | Yes (Transitions slightly choppy) |
Subtle:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| Expand | Yes |
| Fade | Yes |
| Swivel (Swivels once) | Yes |
| Zoom | Yes |
| Peek in | Yes |
| Fly in | Yes |
Moderate:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| Basic Zoom | Yes |
| Center Revolve | Yes |
| Compress | Yes |
| Float Down | Yes |
| Float Up | Yes |
| Grow & Turn | Yes |
| Rise Up | Yes |
| Spinner | Yes |
| Stretch | Yes |
Exciting:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| Basic Swivel (Swivels once) | Yes |
| Boomerang | Yes |
| Bounce | Yes |
| Credits | Yes |
| Curve Up | Yes |
| Drop | Yes |
| Flip | Yes |
| Float | Yes |
| Pinwheel | Yes |
| Spiral In | No |
| Whip | Yes |
Emphasis effects
Basic:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| Fill Color | Yes |
| Font Color (Changing between 2 colors supported) | No (Multiple colors not supported) |
| Change Font Size (Workaround: Save text box as image) | No |
| Line Color | Yes |
| Grow / Shrink (Text boxes not supported; Workaround: Save as image) | Yes |
| Spin | Yes |
| Transparency | Yes |
Subtle:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| Bold Flash | No |
| Brush Color | No |
| Brush on Underline / Underline | No |
| Complementary Color | Yes |
|
Complementary Color 2 Note: Skips first color |
Partial |
|
Contrasting Color Note: Skips complementary color |
Partial |
| Darken | Yes |
| Desaturate | Yes |
| Lighten | Yes |
| Object Color | Yes |
|
Pulse Note: Displays border, slightly distorted |
Partial |
Moderate:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| Color Pulse | Yes |
| Grow with Color | No |
| Shimmer | Yes |
| Teeter | Yes |
Exciting:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| Blink | Yes |
| Bold Reveal | No |
| Wave | Yes |
Exit effects
Basic:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| Fill Color | Yes |
|
Font Color Note: Changing between 2 colors on selected objects is supported. Multiple colors are not supported. |
No |
|
Change Font Size Note: Alternate animation: Save text box as picture, insert and apply Grow / Shrink animation. |
No |
| Line Color | Yes |
|
Grow / Shrink Note: Grow/Shrink with text boxes is not supported. |
Yes |
| Spin | Yes |
| Transparency | Yes |
Subtle:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| Bold Flash | No |
| Brush Color | No |
| Brush on Underline / Underline | No |
| Complementary Color | Yes |
|
Complementary Color 2 Note: Skips the first color. Only animates the second color. |
Partial |
|
Contrasting Color Note: Skips the complementary color and applies only the contrasting color. |
Partial |
| Darken | Yes |
| Desaturate | Yes |
| Lighten | Yes |
| Object Color | Yes |
|
Pulse Note: Displays the object border and appears slightly distorted. |
Partial |
Moderate:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| Color Pulse | Yes |
| Grow with Color | No |
| Shimmer | Yes |
| Teeter | Yes |
Exciting:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| Blink | Yes |
| Bold Reveal | No |
| Wave | Yes |
Motion path effects
Basic:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| 4 Point Star | Yes |
| 5 Point Star | Yes |
| 6 Point Star | Yes |
| 8 Point Star | Yes |
| Circle | Yes |
| Crescent Moon | Yes |
| Diamond | Yes |
| Equal Triangle | Yes |
| Football | Yes |
| Heart | Yes |
| Hexagon | Yes |
| Octagon | Yes |
| Parallelogram | Yes |
| Pentagon | Yes |
| Right Triangle | Yes |
| Square | Yes |
| Teardrop | Yes |
| Trapezoid | Yes |
Lines & Curves:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| Arc down | Yes |
| Arc Left | Yes |
| Arc Right | Yes |
| Arc Up | Yes |
| Bounce Left | Yes |
| Bounce Right | Yes |
| Curvy Left | Yes |
| Curvy Right | Yes |
| Decaying Wave | Yes |
| Diagonal Down Right | Yes |
| Diagonal Up Right | Yes |
| Down | Yes |
| Funnel | Yes |
| Heartbeat | Yes |
| Left | Yes |
| Right | Yes |
| S Curve 1 | Yes |
| S Curve 2 | Yes |
| Sine Wave | Yes |
| Spiral Left | Yes |
| Spiral Right | Yes |
| Spring | Yes |
| Stairs Down | Yes |
| Turn Down | Yes |
| Turn Down Right | Yes |
| Turn Up | Yes |
| Turn Up Right | Yes |
| Up | Yes |
| Wave | Yes |
| Zigzag | Yes |
Special:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| Bean | Yes |
| Curved Square | Yes |
| Curved X | Yes |
| Curvy Star | Yes |
| Figure 8 Four | Yes |
| Horizontal Figure 8 | Yes |
| Inverted Square | Yes |
| Inverted Triangle | Yes |
| Loop de Loop | Yes |
| Neutron | Yes |
| Peanut | Yes |
| Plus | Yes |
| Pointy Star | Yes |
| Swoosh | Yes |
| Vertical Figure 8 | Yes |
Shapes, Loops & Custom Paths:
| Animation | Supported |
|---|---|
| Curve | Yes |
| Line | Yes |
| Scribble | Yes |
Unsupported PowerPoint® Features
As you review the many animations supported by Brainshark, note that the following PowerPoint® features are NOT supported:
- Animations
-
Repeat until end of slide or until next click
Note: Animations set to repeat a specific number of times are supported
-
- Graphics
- Animated Charts, including SmartArt
- Animated GIFs
- Transitions
- Transition effects between slides
- Morph animations
- Media
- PowerPoint® sound effects
- Embedded video in PowerPoint®
- Linked audio and video files
- Fonts
- True Type Fonts are supported.
-
Custom fonts may not display correctly in Brainshark.
Tip: To make sure custom fonts display correctly, embed them in your PowerPoint file before you upload it:
Windows: Go to File > Options > Save and select Embed fonts in the file.
Mac: Go to PowerPoint > Preferences > Save and select Embed fonts in the file.