PowToon: Punch Up Your Presentations
At AM:PM we make an enthusiastic effort to discover new technologies, platforms, Apps and programs to improve communication, whether online, in the conference room or in front of live audiences. We’ve been following new trends in animation that offer more engaging ways to present information to respective target audiences, and our new favorite technology is a fun platform called, “PowToon.”
In simple terms, PowToon is a web-based service that allows you to create your own animations with pre-designed templates and characters. All you have to do is choose from the menu of actions and props, drag, drop, and scale your scenes, and shorten or lengthen each item in the animation using an easy sliding scale at the bottom of the slide. The rest of the set-up works very much like Powerpoint or Prezi.
The basic version of the program is available on www.powtoon.com and is functional, but has limited options for character styles and export options. When you are finished with your animation, the only easy export option available is Youtube. You can also copy the embedding code and convert it into a QuickTime movie. Either option allows you to easily embed the video into a presentation platform. Conveniently, if you embed your PowToon video into Prezi as a Youtube video, it will play automatically once you click to that slide.
Besides more animation options, the other benefits to the paid version of the program is removal of the PowToon branding from the lower right corner of your video, and higher quality video available for export. However, for its more basic functions, PowToon is a user friendly program worth checking out.
Enjoy our intro video we created using PowToon and then try it for yourself. Happy animating!
