I am sure we have all attended many presentation sessions and we came out either being wowed or extremely disappointed and sometimes lost. It is not because the topic was not interesting or the content was not meaningful. Very often it is how they were presented verbally and visually.
Many factors contribute to an effective and great presentation that will wow the audience. One of those many factors is the application of carefully selected transition effects. I call them Magical effects, because these are the final touches of the visuals that will bring our presentations to life.
With the advancement in software technology, there are dozens of effects available in today's presentation software. Many of the conventional 2D effects like the good old Fade, Dissolve, Blinds, Iris, Wipe, Push, Radial, and Checkerboard are still very popular among presenters. The newer 3D effects like the popular Cube that we see often in Keynote, Droplet, Page Flip, Doorway, Reflection, Twist and others.
Selecting the correct transition is important in enhancing our presentation visuals. Not doing so will likely to cause distraction and impairs efficiency. Many presenters chose transitions that they like without consideration of the impact on their audience. Depending on the subject or content being presented, a carefully selected and appropriate transition effect can enhance your message.
Without doing much, a safe an easy way is to use neutral transitions such as Fade, Dissolve, Wipe, Push, or None. These transitions are general suitable for most situations. To further enhance the experience of our audience, we want to advance our visuals seamlessly from one slide to the next. This advanced effects technique is named object transformation. Instead of transitioning between slides, we move individual objects in and out of the slides as the presenter tells his story.
The images below briefly illustrate how object transformation is achieved. The top row shows transformation in action. The bottom shows completed slides.
Depending on the presentation software used, we can also transform text objects either by paragraph or by individual characters. This can give effects like characters flying into the slide, rearranging itself, dropping and bouncing on its edges, and other effects.
Although it is magical to be able to create these effects, it is also important that we experiment and select the appropriate effects or a combination of appropriate effects. Caution must be observed as not to over use these effects. Over using them can cause distraction and annoy our audience.
With careful selection and application of appropriate effects, we can achieve visuals that sync seamlessly creating an exciting visual experience as the presenter tells his story.
