Apple Keynote is More than just for Presentations

My friend and colleague David Lee @davidleeedtech asked me to create some simple animations for his videos on rapid prototyping.  This is not one of my strengths, however, I was able to leverage my experience using Keynote and some of the capabilities of the Apple Pencil and my iPad Pro.  

Apple Keynote

Apple Keynote

I started out in Keynote by adding a drawing.  I drew two simple images of the characters outlined in David’s script.  I then used the text box to insert names.  Nothing too fancy here.

I then used some of the shapes in Keynote to create props that I did not want to draw.  I don’t consider myself an expert at drawing (take a look at those characters.)  The use of shapes in Keynote allowed me to quickly develop the story.  Probably much faster than if I was to draw it out so that people watching could actually understand.  

Drawings combined with shapes and objects in Keynote.

in slideshow presentations such as Powerpoint, Google Slides, and Keynote, most people leverage the transitions features to make the presentation more interesting.  I actually find it to be a great tool for animating stories.  There are definitely better tools out there, but for simplicity sake, it works quite well.  Below you can see how I took layers and copies of different objects and applied the Dissolve build in and build out animations.  I then added a newer animation called Create Path.  This is what makes the airplane look like it is flying.  The create path animation is really easy to use if you have an Apple Pencil or if you are working from an iPad.

Combining layers of drawings and objects with animation builds.
Using animations and transitions to show movement and action in Keynote.

Finally, one of coolest and easiest transitions to use in Keynote is Magic Move.  This is used when you want to transition between slides.  If are using some of the same elements such as drawings, text or shapes, you can reposition them on the next slide and apply the Magic Move transition.  It will automatically animate the objects from one slide to the next.  I combined this transition with the other animation builds to show the two characters moving off to the side before launching their final airplane prototypes.

Combination of the Magic Move transition with other animation builds to show movement.

Below is the final video David created. I enjoyed the challenge of creating this animation and I’m glad that David thought it was good enough to include in his awesome work.  David Lee is an expert in design thinking and has presented at numerous conferences in the international and American educational communities.  He is an Apple Distinguished Educator and a Google Innovator.  To learn more about what David does, check out his Youtube Channel or his Website.  You can also check out other projects that David and I work on together throughout the year by visiting our school technology website.

Skip to content