Animating 3D tiles using PowerPoint’s Morph transition

Inspired by the Microsoft keynote at Build 2022

As an ex-Microsoftie and a self-confessed PowerPoint nerd, I always get excited to catch a glimpse of the live events I used to help produce when I worked for the company. Build is one of my favorites. A few weeks ago, while watching Satya Nadella’s keynote from the comfort of my desk at home, inspiration struck. I found myself scooting forward in my chair and wondering out loud, “Whoa, how did they do that?!”

As Satya was speaking, 10 rounded 3d tiles smoothly flipped around on the screen and then slid themselves neatly into a stacked docking position on the right edge, acting as a cue to highlight the current topic. It was like Cupid’s arrow straight to my presentation designer heart. (See the clip below.) These gradient-filled tiles also conveniently expanded and contracted in size as a visual container for detailed presentation content during each keynote “chapter”. Simple and so effective.

I wasn’t 100% sure, but my gut told me those PPT ninjas over in Redmond, WA built this entirely in PowerPoint.

Naturally, I couldn’t resist having some fun with it, and attempted to reverse-engineer what I saw on…