PowerPoint Tutorial: The Ken Burns effect

A little while ago we received a request on the Presentation Helper Forum to do the Ken Burns Effect in PowerPoint.

The Ken Burns Effect, named after the American documentary maker Ken Burns, is the technique of embedding still photographs in movies, displayed with slow zooming and panning effects, and fading transitions between them. The zooming and panning across photographs gives the feeling of motion, and keeps the viewer visually entertained.

The basic Ken Burns effect that is included in Apple’s iMovie software package is simply a zoom feature.

This is fairly easy to replicate in PowerPoint, by using the Grow/ Shrink command in Custom Animation. The main drawback is that you have to zoom into the centre of the image.

In this case we wanted to zoom in on the old lady to the left of the centre of the picture.

To do this we first need to use a Custom Motion Path to bring her to the centre of the screen.

We then need to play around with the arrows in PowerPoint Custom Animation to get the animation path right. This seems to be quite fiddly to get right and does not seem to line up with where you would think it should go.

If we combine the Grow/ Shrink and the Custom Motion path we get a good approximation of the Ken Burns effect.

An example of these animations is available to download in the PowerPoint File: Ken-Burns-effect.ppt

How we did it

1. Basic Ken Burns effect using Grow/ Shrink Size:150% Speed :Slow

Select Slide Show > Custom Animation

Then on the right hand Custom Animation bar Add Effect > Emphasis > Grow/ Shrink
Then set the timing to Slow or Very Slow

2. Creating a custom motion path

Select Slide Show > Custom Animation > Add Effect > Motion Paths > Draw Custom Path > Line

Move the green and red arrows and keep testing until you get the centre of the picture in the right place (this can be very fiddly to get right)

3. Combining the motion path with Grow/ Shrink to create a combined zoom and panning effect

In custom animation add in the Grow/ Shrink as before
To make both animations start at the same time click on the second animation and change Start > With Previous

You may need to play around with the settings to get it working the way you want.

Click on the link to download a full example of the PowerPoint File: Ken-Burns-effect.ppt