Need help with a flashlight effect

That's pretty easy to do. In Power Point insert your image and then recolor it. The you  just create an round object. I used auto shapes and then I set the color to white and the transparency to 44%. For the rest of this effect simply use motion tweens to move it around the screen. You could could then pop the text and then add a second round shape with that is a little brighter. The best way to handle multiple shapes is to use your selection pane in Power Point. Overall it's a real easy effect to create.   I'd make a screenr but where I am at has a lot of background noise but you'll just have to take my word for it. This effect is a piece of cake to create.

The other way is to add a black rectangle shape larger than the slide  set the transparency to 80-90%, then add a circle the size of your flashlight , if you are in 2010 choose subtract from shape, which gives you a shape with a hole you can move around as your flashlight.

In 2003/2007 you can do this but it needs more work, again add your rectangle set the transparency, then add the circle and set the circle colour to red, with no outline.  Group the two objects and save as a png.

delete you two shapes insert the png you created and set the transparent colour as red, and again you have a shape with a hole you can move around as your flashlight.

Phil

Here is Phil's 2007 solution. For all you non-flasher designers, this technique is called masking. This is a nice effect if you wish to highlight something. The reason you save the image off as a PNG is because there is no shape subtract and you have to convert the shapes into an image so that you may make the red transparent. You also need to make sure the rectangle is larger than the stage so you may apply the motion tweens to move the circle around the stage. If you have Flash CS3 you can do a shape subtract and create this same type of mask.

thanks James. I have an example at work but I am at home so tried to explain it as best I could

Phil

I like it! What about adding a soft shadow to the circle to reduce the sharpness of the edges?

Very cool effect, though. Reminds me of that Bed Bugs course someone posted a while back.

You could add a  transparent circle same diameter  on the top  layer with a glow effect, use a custom yellow colour.

Phil

You could also add a flashlight

Terrific! Thanks James and Phil. I new there was a better way to do this. I don't have PowerPoint 2010 unfortunately but now I know how to do it in 2007!

Well, I'm confused. I'm not comprehending your instructions James.

" Here is Phil's 2007 solution. For all you non-flasher designers, this technique is called masking. This is a nice effect if you wish to highlight something. The reason you save the image (which image) off as a PNG is because there is no shape subtract and you have to convert the shapes into an image so that you may make the red transparent. You also need to make sure the rectangle is larger than the stage so you may apply the motion tweens (what is a tween?) to move the circle around the stage. If you have Flash CS3 you can do a shape subtract and create this same type of mask."

I attached my image. The city scape is behind the shaded rectangle. I inserted a red circle and made it transparent but it did not "cut out" the center of the circle like your example. As you can see, the outline of the red circle can be seen but it is not transparent. like yours. I cut and pasted the red circle as a PNG and made it transparent. What am I missing hear?

Phil,

Are you using Power Point 2007 or 2010?  What's interesting is I got the same red outline when I tried this on Power Point 2010 which makes me think that's actually what you are using. Here are both solutions in more detail.

On Power Point 2010

1. I dragged a rectangle onto the stage. it must be larger than your stage. Scale back the view to say 46%.

2. Format the rectangle. I formatted it to black with 75% transparency with no line fill.

3. Next drag a circle onto the stage.

4. Make the Fill red with no line fill.

5. If you did everything right you should be looking at two shapes. (A rectangle and a red circle).

The following must be done in this order.

6. Click on the Rectangle.

7. Hold down the shift key.

8. Click on the Red Circle.

9. Click Shape Subtract.

On PPTX 2007

1. Insert your image onto your slide.

2. From Autoshapes pull a rectangle onto your stage.

3. You want to make sure the rectangle is bigger than your stage so you will need to move the slider bar in the lower right hand corner to say 25% or 50% of original size.

4. Right click on the Rectangle and set the fill color to black 55% transparent

5. Set the line color to no fill.

6. Close the format window.

7. From the autoshapes, pull a circle onto the screen.

8. Make the image as big as you want.

9. Right click on the circle which is typically blue.

10. Left click on format shape.

11. Click On Fill and make it red

12. Click on Line and set the color to NONE.

13. Close the format shape window.

14. Click on the circle.

15. Hold down the shift key and click the rectangle and click the circle

16. Press ctrl+g to group the rectangle and the circle.

17. Right click on rectangle and circle  and click Save as Picture.

18. Save them as a PNG to your desktop. I.e. mask.png

19. Delete the rectangle and circle from your slide.

20. Click Insert Image and insert the mask from desktop.

21. Now set your circle's red to transparent.

Yes, I am using 2007. Thanks for the outlined instructions. I was able to figure it out while waiting on your reply. Any reason why you suggest using red as the fill color? I used a light yellow which also worked. When I use red I get a transparent circle with a red outline.

Hi James

Great instructions.

I am using 2010 now most of the time so shape subtract would be the best way forward, the other solution was what I used to do when I was using 2007 unfortunately the outline is an unwanted effect, I would  normally try and  mask this with a transparent circle with a glow effect.

If you have photoshop you could of course make your mask in photoshop, which means you would not get the outline

Phil

The only reason I used red was so it would contrast against the black rectangle. You white or yellow would also be a good contrasting color.

Okay. Again, thanks for the instructions James . The effect works great and looks much better than the way I was doing it. I never thought of making the shaded rectangle move. I was trying to make the circle move. I guess if I had 2010 I could do that. 

If you had flash you could. Basically it's a motion tween in flash with a mask applied. But in Power Point 07 or 2010 you have to basically move the rectangle to create the effect. Same effect from Flash  just done differently in Power Point.

BTW, the reason you had the red circle was because  the outline of the rectangle was red line and the line color for the rectangle should have been set to none. I discovered this by accident.

Glad it worked.