how to do 3d presentation

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How to insert and animate 3d models in microsoft powerpoint.

Make your presentation stand out and your slides pop off the screen.

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Insert a 3d model in powerpoint, customize a 3d model, animate a 3d model.

If you're looking for a unique way to spruce up your slideshow, check out the 3D model feature in Microsoft PowerPoint. You can insert a 3D image then resize it, rotate it, and even animate it with a nifty effect.

If you have your own 3D model , this is a great way to present it to your client or show it off. But you can also pick one from the online library with plenty of categories to match your slideshow's theme or mission.

Related: How to Use Microsoft Paint 3D

Open your presentation in PowerPoint and head to the slide where you want to add the model. Go to the Insert tab and click the drop-down arrow for 3D Models in the Illustrations section of the ribbon.

Related: How to Draw and Edit a Freeform Shape in Microsoft PowerPoint

Choose either "This Device" to upload your own model or "Stock 3D Models" to pick one from the library.

If you want to browse the Online 3D Models available, you'll see many categories. With everything from animals and avatars to vintage cartoons and vehicles, you're sure to find one to enhance your show. You can also use the Search 3D Models field to find a particular one.

Once you choose the model(s) you want to use from your device or the library, click "Insert" to pop it onto the slide.

After you insert the 3D model, you can move it anywhere on the slide by dragging it or resize it by dragging a corner inward or outward, just like an image. You can rotate it by dragging the icon in the center in any direction.

To customize it further, select the model and go to the 3D Model tab. You can choose a view for the model from a nice collection of options. Use the 3D Model Views section of the ribbon to pick the style you want.

Another useful customization option is the Pan & Zoom feature on the right side of the ribbon. With it, you can focus on a specific part of the 3D model.

To use Pan & Zoom, select the model and click the button in the ribbon. You'll see a magnifying glass appear on the right side of the image. Drag it up or down to zoom in or out. You can also move the image inside of its border, helping you get to the exact spot you want. Click the Pan & Zoom button when you finish to deselect the tool and turn it off.

You can then use the additional tools in the ribbon on the 3D Model tab to add alt text , bring the model forward, send it backward, or align it with other objects on the slide.

Maybe you'd like to add some motion to your model. PowerPoint offers a handful of animations specifically for 3D models that make them shine.

Related: How to Control When a Picture Appears in PowerPoint

Select the model and go to the Animations tab. Choose an effect in the Animations section of the ribbon. You can pick from an Entrance (green), a few Emphasis (orange), and an Exit (red) effect for the 3D model.

After you add the effect, you can customize it like other animations in PowerPoint. Select the effect number, go to the Animations tab, and choose the Timing or Advanced Animation options.

Once you finish inserting, customizing, and even animating your 3D model in PowerPoint, you'll have an entertaining addition to your slideshow.

For more on enhancing your PowerPoint slideshows, take a look at how to add rolling credits or how to insert a video .

Windows 10 Tip: Add 3D to your PowerPoint presentation in 5 steps

• Elana Pidgeon

Did you know that with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update , you can now easily add 3D objects in your PowerPoint presentations, Word, and Excel documents?

3D in PowerPoint, Word and Excel, is now broadly available to Windows users with O365 subscriptions and the Fall Creators Update and will completely reinvigorate and make your standard presentations stand out. With the new 3D features, you can quickly and easily create presentations in just 5 easy steps. Today, we’re going to show you how to make your PowerPoint presentation pop!

First, open a presentation in PowerPoint.

You don’t need any fancy extensions or plug-ins, just the latest version of Office 365 will do.

Inserting a 3D model is just as easy as inserting a photo or a video.

On the Insert tab, you’ll find the 3D Models drop-down to either add a model you’ve created in Paint 3D or grab one from Remix3D.com, an online community and catalog of 3D content.

View, resize, and rotate your 3D object.

Drop it into the slide and use the controls to manipulate the model, rotating, sizing and positioning until you like the way it looks. A new contextual tab 3D Model Tools will appear, and you can use the preset 3D Model Views to choose the specific orientation you want your audience to see.

Duplicate your slide and reposition your model to the next view you’d like to highlight.

No need to find different images to identify different perspectives. With 3D, you are in control!

Use a brand-new transition type, Morph, with 3D models to create cinematic transitions between slides.

The final step is to add the Morph transition to automatically have your 3D object animate and shift in perspective seamlessly across all your slides.

To see what else is new and available in the Fall Creators Update, check out this blog !

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PowerPoint 3D: Creating Immersive Presentations That Pop

• Author PitchWorx
• Published October 17, 2023

With the ever-evolving graphic designing world, Instagram reels and GIF sharing, viewers are no longer satisfied with 2D images and flat text presentations. They need something innovative to resonate with and be convinced to pay attention to the speaker or presenter. So, if you’re finding it harder to make your presentations engaging, it’s high time you mastered the art of animations by using 3D effects for PowerPoint presentations.

Using 3D Effects for PowerPoint Presentations: Elevate Your Pitches Like Never Before

Movement in graphics is the new trend to keep your audience hooked to you!

That being said, if you have an interactive model to present, a complex idea to elaborate, or simply tell a captivating story, you need to enhance your PowerPoint presentations with 3D elements and animations.

3D effects not just look visually more appealing, but they’re also highly effective in creating a lasting imprint on your audience’s minds. So, let’s explore the secrets of using 3D effects for PowerPoint presentations in this breakthrough tutorial.

With our secret tips for making presentations pop with 3D visuals , you’ll also learn to enhance your visual impact with clarity and engagement in a jiffy!

What are the Benefits of Using 3D in PowerPoint?

Your audience is already bombarded with loads of information every single day. What special thing are you doing to cut through the noise? Will they listen to your pitch, idea, story – or whatever? What value are you giving to them to be persuaded?

You need to first capture their attention – which is quite scarce in today’s world. “How?” you ask. Well, let’s explore why should you consider 3D for your powerpoint presentations, and you’ll get an answer for yourself:

• 3D elements can capture your audience’s attention and keep them engaged throughout your presentation.
• You can show them your desired element from all angles by using 3D effects and animations – making yourself more heard and your presentation visually appealing.
• With 3D effects, you can explain a complex process or concept easily.
• You can also create realistic and detailed product demos or informative training presentations.
• Since visuals are more memorable than text, integrating 3D elements and animations into your slides will make your pitch more memorable than your competitors.
• Most importantly, you can create appealing narratives and scenarios with 3D elements, making your audience resonate with you instantly.

Step-by-step Guide on How to Add 3D Elements and Animations to PowerPoint Presentations 

Here are the simple steps for adding 3D effects and animations in a PowerPoint presentation:

1. Launch & Select

• Open the PowerPoint presentation you want to add 3D elements and animations in.
• Go to the intended slide and click on the “Insert” tab in the PowerPoint ribbon.
• Select “3D Models” in the Illustrations group.
• Choose “From a file” to insert a 3D model from your computer.
• You can also select “Online Sources” to browse Microsoft’s 3D model library.

2. Adjust 3D Model

• After inserting, click and drag the 3D model or use the rotation handles to change its orientation.
• You can adjust settings like lighting, colors, and materials in the “3D Model” tab in the ribbon.

3. Add Animations

Here’s where it gets interesting!

• Select the 3D model you want to animate and navigate to the “Animations” tab in the ribbon.
• Click on “Add Animation” to choose an animation effect.
• Customize the animation by selecting “Effect Options” to control how it starts, finishes, or triggers.

You can also refine the animation timings or adjust their order and duration from the “Animations” tab.

4. Finalize & Save

• Once you’re happy with the final preview, save and proceed with other finalizations you need to make.
• Voila! You’re done!

Tips & Tricks to Bring Your Presentations to Life

• Choose only relevant 3D models and animations. Don’t add them unnecessarily.
• Use similar 3D models or animations throughout the presentation to ensure consistency.
• Don’t flood your slides with too many 3D elements.
• Make sure to perfect the timings. Overly fast or slow animations can be distracting.
• Avoid using over-stimulating colors and effects.
• Make sure your slides have some 2D elements too.
• Keep your animations short and to the point.
• Use high quality but optimized 3D elements and animations that work properly on different devices.

Ready to Take Your Slides from Ordinary to Extraordinary?

3D presentations have immense potential to transform boring and complex information into captivating experiences. That being said, we hope you’re now all set to start using 3D effects for PowerPoint presentations and let your creativity shine in your next talk or pitch. Your audience awaits an unforgettable experience!

Remember, simplicity is often the key to success, so start small and gradually incorporate 3D elements where they truly enhance your message. With practice and the tools for creating presentations in 3D , like PowerPoint at the forefront, you’ll become a master at using 3D to engage and impress your audience.

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Make an impact with 3D

Expand the creativity and visual excitement of your documents, presentations and reports with 3D objects in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Office applications work seamlessly with 3D models by allowing you to easily insert a 3D object, change its perspective, and create cinematic animations between slides.

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Take your report to three dimensions with the help of this Word template that supports 3D models.

Explore your subject in visual detail using different views with Word 3D models.

Build 3D models for the classroom using this step-by-step template as a guide.

This template teaches you how to build a 3D presentation and rotate and tilt the models.

Bring your Excel product catalog to life with multiple views using 3D Models.

Use this professionally-designed PowerPoint template to render a custom 3D house model in a dynamic way.

3D template tutorials

Learn how to take your PowerPoint presentations to three dimensions with this training template.

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Get creative with 3D models

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• Slidesgo School
• PowerPoint Tutorials

How to insert a 3D model in PowerPoint

When we talk about 3D, we refer to three-dimensional objects, that is, objects that have three dimensions: length, width, and height. Humans see the world around us in 3D, as we can perceive the length, width, and height of all the objects around us.

Of course, 3D objects can also be found in graphic design. What's more, we can include 3D resources in our PowerPoint presentations to give them an original, but, above all, realistic touch.

So, in this post, we are going to tell you how to insert 3D resources in PowerPoint to make your presentations unique. Don't worry, you won't need the famous red and blue 3D glasses to read this information! Here we go!

Although we would love to have the ability to edit and insert 3D resources in Google Slides, at the moment it is only possible in PowerPoint. If you want to share your presentation or have it in the cloud, you can first edit it in PowerPoint and when you are done, upload it to Google Drive.

Here are some techniques for editing and using 3D resources in PowerPoint. Take note because let's get started!

How to insert stock 3D models in PowerPoint

How to create 3d elements.

PowerPoint offers quite a large amount of stock 3D models as you can find all kinds of elements, from simple geometric shapes to elements of any category and theme such as animals, furniture, avatars, dinosaurs, food and drinks, flowers and plants, sports, and many more. You can also find models with animations.

The procedure for inserting resources is very simple:

• Insert > 3D Models > Insert 3D model from... > Stock 3D models.
• Finally, choose the model you want. As we have mentioned, there is a wide variety of models, some of them animated, you just have to select the one that best suits the content of your presentation.
• Place the element wherever you want and with the size and orientation, you need.
• You can also modify the format of the 3D model, for example, add a reflection effect: Right-click on the model > Format 3D model > Effects > Reflection.

Another way to include 3D elements is to create them from scratch, and then insert them into your presentation. For this, we will use the Paint 3D application.

• Click on 3D Shapes. In this way, we will be able to insert, with the format we want, doodles, objects, or 3D models.
• As an example, let's insert a 3D doodle. In the options menu on the right, we can select the shape of the doodle, the color, or the thickness.
• Let's adapt the sheet to the size of the 3D element. To do this, click on crop and we adjust.
• After we have finished editing the 3D element, let's save it on our computer so that we can export it to PowerPoint. Click in the upper left corner on Menu > Save As > 3D Model. Select the folder where we are going to save it and give it a file name.
• Now we open PowerPoint to insert the 3D resource into the presentation. Click on Insert > 3D Models > Insert 3D Model From > This device > Choose the folder where the 3D model we created is and insert it.

And that's it for this post! You can insert and create 3D elements as we have explained, but if you need to, at Slidesgo we have a selection of templates that you can use in Google Slides and PowerPoint with 3D resources included. Either way, start seeing life in 3D!

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How to Create 3D Pictures in PowerPoint (Step-by-Step)

• PowerPoint Tutorials
• Pictures, Icons, Videos, Etc.
• October 12, 2017

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to spice up your presentations by creating 3D pictures (also known as out of bounds pictures).

And the cool thing about this technique is you can quickly and easily pull it off in PowerPoint (no Photoshop required).

These background removal and picture cropping techniques work in all versions of PowerPoint 2010 and later.

The overall process for creating 3D pictures in PowerPoint can be broken down into three straightforward steps (all detailed below):

• Find a good picture to create the 3D effect with
• Frame your picture in PowerPoint
• Create the 3D effect

[Watch] Creating a 3D picture in PowerPoint

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Part #1: Find a good picture

When creating 3D pictures in PowerPoint, you want to start with good pictures and make sure that the parts that you want to pop-out (the 3D effect) meets two specific criteria.

Picture Criteria #1. High contrast

You want to make sure that your object stands out starkly from its background, as opposed to blending in with its background.

For example, the top of the below apple has good contrast (and is great for the 3D effect), whereas the bottom of the apple with the shadow does not, as it blends in with the desk.

Picture Criteria #2. Completeness

You want to make sure that your object is complete and not cut off.

For example, in the below picture of the couple, the right-side of the photo is good for creating the 3D picture pop-out effect (as everything on that side of the photo is whole and complete) whereas the left-side of the photo is not good for this effect, as the photo is cut off.

Note:  Your picture doesn’t have to be perfect. Keep in mind that only the object within your photo that you want to create the 3D pop-out effect for needs to meet the above criteria. The picture itself doesn’t need to be perfect.

Part #2: Frame your picture

Step #1. duplicate your picture.

Step #2. Add a Border to Your Picture

Step #3. Crop Your Picture into the Shape of a Trapezoid

With the picture frame applied (and the image still selected) open up the bottom portion of the Crop menu, select Crop to Shape and within the Shapes Gallery, select the trapezoid shape.

Step #4. Adjust The Trapezoid Angle

With the picture cut into a trapezoid, adjust the angle of the trapezoid so that you can see the entirety of the shape that you want to have pop-out of your picture (creating the 3D effect).

To adjust the angle of the trapezoid, select the yellow diamond at the top of the shape with your mouse and adjust it manually to fit your picture.

Step #5. Crop Your Picture Down

With the trapezoid angle set, hit the top portion of the Crop command (adds black dashed lines around your picture) and pull down the black lines (the center black line in this case) that frame your photo so that most of your image is cropped out (this will make sense in a moment).

For this image of an apple, I’ve cropped it just below where it will be popping out (in the next step).

For more help cropping your images in PowerPoint, see  how to crop a picture in PowerPoint .

Part #3: Create your 3D effect

With the first picture all set up and cropped, now we’ll use the duplicate image we created in Part 2 Step #1 to create the 3D picture effect.

Step #1. Remove the Background from Your Second Picture

Select the second, duplicated picture (I’ve moved it back into the center of my slide) and from the Picture Tools Format tab, on the far left, select Remove Background.

Next, make adjustments to your photo using Mark Areas to Keep and Mark Areas to Remove commands in your Ribbon, until you have the entirety of your picture framed and the background that you want to remove in pink (see below image).

Removing the background from an image can take some time, depending on your photo and how precise you’d like to be. When you are finished, hit Keep Changes in the Ribbon.

Step #2. Set the Image on Top of Your Cropped Photo

With the background removed from your picture, simply place it over your other cropped picture, aligning the two exactly, and you have created the 3D Pop-Out Effect here in PowerPoint!

If you find that your image is too big at the end, you can reduce your file size by compressing your images.

For help compressing your images in PowerPoint to reduce your file size,  read our guide here .

Note:  You can play around with the background trapezoid image (that we created in Part 2 Step #6) to adjust the 3D Pop-Out Effect

(Optional Step) Moving from the static photo to the 3D pop-out photo in Slideshow Mode :

From here, if you want to create the same 3D pop-out effect that I did in the video tutorial above (transitioning from the 2D image to the 3D image), you can either:

• Set the 2D image on top of your 3D image and use a PowerPoint animation like the Disappear animation, to transition from the 2D picture to the 3D picture.
• Set the images up on two separate slides (in exactly the same position) and use one of the PowerPoint transitions (such as Fade or Wipe) to transition from the 2D picture to the 3D picture.

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A super easy-to-use 3D PowerPoint add-on

Mar 1, 2018 | Articles

Guest blog article by  Wow3D

Wow3D is a software that converts a PowerPoint into an interactive 3Dpresentation and a video in one click from the PowerPoint interface.

It allows companies to differentiate themselves during events and key business meetings and ensures a “wow” effect within seconds of a presentation while not changing any of the processes or legacy content in place (since it is based on PowerPoint).

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Advanced 3D Drawing in PowerPoint

Introduction: Advanced 3D Drawing in PowerPoint

Yes, Thomas above^ is made of 3D shapes in PowerPoint!

I have spent a lot of time trying to get my point across in PowerPoint. Often I have to explain complicated 3D mechanism concepts long before they are properly designed, and 3D diagrams are the clearest way to illustrate these concepts. I call it PowerPoint CAD, and you can get surprisingly good results very quickly once you have had a little practice.

This instructable is aimed at anyone who is familiar with PowerPoint but hadn't realised its 3D illustration potential.

Word of warning: Open Office and other similar applications don't cut the mustard, alas it must be Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 onwards to work as described.

Also note I do not own the trademark of Thomas the Tank Engine or have any affiliation with those that do, I use his likeness as an iconic 3D shape most are familiar with (at least in the UK anyway). I hope no one objects.

Step 1: Setting Up PowerPoint for Drawing

There are some very powerful tools hidden in the depths of PowerPoint that Microsoft appear to have buried for no particular reason. Lets add them to the quick access toolbar so we can work with ease.

Go to the file menu and click options. Then on the Quick Access Toolbar tab under Choose commands from select All Commands . The picture shows some I have selected at the moment. Merge Shapes is the key one here so add that (note in older versions of Office this was called Combine Shapes as pictured, but now the group has been renamed to Merge Shapes , and the new Combine Shapes is just the least useful action in this group, giving something like a union minus the intersect... sort of). I also recommend adding Align, Rotate and Selection Pane ...

Step 2: Introducing the Basics of 3D

Start by drawing a shape. In the example I used a circle.

If you haven't noticed before, to get a nice round circle hold shift as you draw it. Holding control draws from the centre.

Lets round the end of the shape to a hemisphere...

Right click it > Hit Format Shape ... > 3D Format > open the top bevel drop down and select Circle

This adds a round bevel to the edge of the circle, and by increasing the width and height (and keeping them equal) the bevel meets in the middle, making a hemisphere. Fill the circle with a decent colour to make the 3D effect more visible. You can add some depth to the shape to add a cylindrical section.

In the 3D rotation tab select a preset from the drop down or move the rotation controls to view your shape in 3D

Note: you have to select a perspective preset before you can add perspective angle to your shape. Annoying huh?

Note the sides look weird and black... The outline is being stretched over the sides. Set the outline to no line and it looks much better.

Have a play with different bevels and sizes to see what effects you can get.

Step 3: Building a Shape - Basic

Simple shapes are all well and good but to make most things you need to stack multiple shapes together. You already know enough to start making such 3D shapes

This Pawn is made using 4 circles with different bevels

Piling them in the right order (using either send to front, etc. or the arrows in selection pane) and you quickly have a chess piece to fear if you are sitting diagonally from it in the canteen.

But beware, trying to rotate the piece to different views is a pain. All the parts behave separately...

Step 4: Building Rotatable Group Shape

For a shape that is easier to handle long term, it may be worth making a rotatable group shape.

Get your 4 parts and remove all the rotation (the top preset).

Use Align Middle and Align Centre to line them all up as if viewed from above.

Group the parts and rotate them as before. They will all be in a heap.

In the 3D Rotation tab there is a Distance from ground control. Use this to raise the higher parts of the piece back into position. When finished this will rotate to any angle you want without falling to pieces.

This is a powerful tool that simplifies more complex shape assemblies and has other benefits I will explain later. The only down side is the parts all have to face the same way and cannot be resized without first removing the rotation.

Step 5: Materials and Fills

Now have a play with the settings. In the 3D Format tab you will find you can change the material and lighting effects. Experiment to see what you can do.

You can also us special fills from the Fill tab to achieve effects. You can fill with:

• Transparency (allthough this doesn't always render well)
• Gradients (Which can also be used to make stripes, e.g. for illustrating screw threads)
• Combining gradients with transparency can make part of the shape invisible if required
• Pictures - Thomas' face will be made by filling a circle with a picture of Thomas' face

Step 6: Arranging Shapes in 3D - Advanced

To simplify things it is worth trying to make all the shapes face the same way in 3D.

Cubes, Cuboids, Spheres and even sausages can be made in multiple directions (see wireframe versions). Think which is best as you make your illustration!

I hinted that there was more to rotatable group shapes earlier... Powerpoint renders the intersections; this can help give professional looks quickly.

Take the example with the 5 point star and circle. When extended into 3D as a group only the tips of the star protrude, giving rudimentary rocket fins in this case. This is used later where Thomas' side tanks meet his cylindrical boiler.

Step 7: The Hidden Gem - Merge Shapes

That Merge Shapes button we added earlier is a beauty...

(it is the one that looks like a Venn diagram) Called Combine shapes in older versions

What at first seems pretty simple suddenly unlocks pretty much any shape you can imagine. No more need to use edit points in 9 out of 10 cases (found by right clicking the shape if you really have to, mostly useful for curving lines). Make complex shapes by adding, subtracting and intersecting simpler shapes

The five* options are simple:

• Union merges the two shapes into a single shape
• Intersect keeps only the overlapping regions of a shape
• Combine keeps areas where non-overlapping regions exist. This tends not to be very useful except rare circumstances.
• Subtract takes the first selected shape and removes any areas that overlap with subsequently selected shapes.

Fragment * breaks the separate regions of shapes and overlap into separate parts. I haven't used this much but it might be handy on occasion.

* Fragment is only available in newer versions of PowerPoint (2013+ or 365),

A few points on using Merge Shapes :

It won't allow you to use this feature if any shapes are grouped, or if there is text in any of the shapes. Annoying, but there it is.

The order you select the shapes is important. Subtract removes all subsequent shapes from the first one selected. For all options the resultant shape after combining takes the properties of the first one selected, including styling such as line, fill, etc. but also order (whether it overlaps on top/underneath other shapes) and rotation (if the first shape is upside down the merged shape will be upside down too.

This last point gives a neat trick if you want to put level text in a rotated shape (an angled arrow for instance); draw a small rectangle completely inside the rotated shape, select this first, then the rotated shape and union them. Because the rectangle is completely contained the shape is unaffected, but now behaves as if it were the right way up. Text and image fill will be upright, and aligning to other shapes works properly. This also makes 3D rotation work better in some circumstances.

The illustrations give simple examples of use.

Step 8: Applying These Methods - Wheel Example

Taking Thomas' wheel as an example I'll quickly walk through the process.

• Draw a 32 Point star - when selected there is a little yellow diamond that you can drag to adjust the spikeyness, move this nearly to the centre to make the spokes tapered but thin.
• Draw a ring and align centre and middle with the star; use the yellow diamond on the ring to adjust the inner diameter to truncate the ends of the spokes so they aren't too pointy
• Combine shapes - subtract the ring from the star (selecting the star first)
• Draw another ring and add a freeform shape as shown to create the counter weight
• Draw another ring and a circle to act as the flange and hub respectively
• Stack the lot on top of each other and size them appropriately (you can use the selection pane to select shapes behind other shapes rather than having to send to back temporarily)
• Group the parts and rotate them so you can see depth
• Set the appearance (fill, line, material and lighting) as required
• Add depth and Angle bevel to all these parts and size the heights and widths to look right
• In conjunction you will need to set distance from ground for each shape

Ten steps that after some practice will take under 2 minutes to get right. Have a go...

Step 9: Building Thomas Piece by Piece

I won't step through the entire Thomas build as it would be very dry reading, but the same methods are used throughout the build. Here are some top level pointers for you to see how to approach this task:

1. Thomas is too complicated to build entirely in shapes facing one way.

The illustration would need to be deeply compromised, so as shown in the first image I did as much as possible side on and finished the illustration with some other sundries at other angles (whistles, dome and funnel face upwards, the rest forwards)

2. The 2D arrangements are actually quite natural

Most of the drawing is actually just a side on view. Repeated shapes such as wheels need copy/pasting on top of themselves so you have 2 when you get to 3D. As you can see in the second image, it starts to look like a drawing as the parts come together. The lack of outline sometimes makes it hard to see the parts, and some are buried, so again selection pane is very useful here

3. I have cheated a little

I drew Thomas in a race to see who could draw Thomas best in one hour, so was happy to take compromises in order to get it looking good quickly. There are two shapes that are not 3D: the dark blue inside of the cab is a freeform shape, as is the dark grey region underneath Thomas (it looked weird to see across to the wheels opposite as there would be all sorts of seldom drawn suspension, brakes, chassis etc. here)

4. The face and number are surface detail

The number is easy, find an appropriate font ( Calibri in this case), type it in. Adjust text box boarders in 'format shape' to position it, set text effect outline red text colour yellow. Boom.

The face I toyed with drawing but due to the time limit I copied the face from the Thomas The Tank Engine logo. Two options from here (I can't remember which I used this time) Option A) draw a circle and the selected Fill>Picture or texture fill>Insert picture from clipboard - or - Option B) Paste as image and Crop to shape> Circle .

Either way this circle can then be bevelled to a slight dome, and have depth added. The black outline gives the black sides to Thomas' smokebox.

Step 10: Finishing Up

After a lot of nudging, tweaking distance from ground and rotating the different regions to look right together you have a Thomas The Tank Engine.

I particularly like the way you can wire frame the illustration, showing that it is all in 3D shapes!

I hope this is a useful guide. Add comments if there is anything I have missed and I will try to reply - though be warned I have a tendency to forget when I get busy:(

PS can you tell I went through this entire instructable unsure whether to refer to Thomas as him or it?

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Home Blog PowerPoint Tutorials How to Make an Animated 3D Floor Plan Presentation in PowerPoint

How to Make an Animated 3D Floor Plan Presentation in PowerPoint

Presentation skills and aesthetics can make or cut business deals and significantly impact other industries like Real Estate, Architecture, Interior Design, or Construction. How do professionals in these industries prepare to share their insights and ideas with prospective buyers? Is it through drawings, real-time 3D imaging, or with presentation slides showcasing images of the said project?

In this article, we want to share an entirely different approach for Architects, Realtors, Interior Designers, and Contractors – we will learn how to create a professional-quality PowerPoint presentation that features an animated 3D floor plan, also known as isometric 3D view or axonometric 3D view, how to craft custom infographics from it, and how to deliver engaging presentations in a refreshing format.

Table of Contents

Why Should Professionals Make a 3D PowerPoint Presentation?

Isometric vs. axonometric view – are they the same thing, potential use case scenarios of animated 3d floor plan presentations in powerpoint, assets required to make a 3d floor plan presentation in powerpoint, preparing your floor plan for powerpoint, exporting the .obj file from 3d software, importing the .obj file into powerpoint, duplicating slides + animating or rotating 3d objects, creating infographics from 3d floor plan views in powerpoint, exporting the 3d presentation to hd video format, case study: presenting a housing project for real estate, case study: kitchen renovation project presentation.

Although some concepts can be easily explained with words or simple 2D graphics, speaking about spatial design, understanding the relationships between elements in spaces that shall be cohabited for – maybe – simultaneous functions is not an easy feat. 

To simplify this, let’s say you buy a house, a house you intend to be your home, and your office where you plan to meet with customers. Maybe in 2D dimensions, you can get an idea of what the spaces would look like, but only after furniture is arranged into that space can you get a clear picture of how “livable” that ambient would become.

3D graphics and their usage in architecture signified a before and after for professionals, as they can bring a closer experience to their customers of what their projects would look like after they are completed. For this reason, hyperrealism is a sought-after technique many interior designers and contractors apply to attract customers into buying their services. But where does this stand in terms of PowerPoint presentations?

Experience tells us the fancier the graphics, the higher the customer retention rate, and such a statement fits to a T to Real Estate Marketing . Since it is not easy to show 3D images of buildings in live time (mostly due to hardware requirements), professionals sought methods that can create presentations using those 3D graphics and be repurposed as many times as required. PowerPoint bridges as a convenient tool for this adventure, as we can curate the content into impactful presentation slides or help ourselves using Real Estate PowerPoint templates. A 3D PowerPoint template can be streamed on any device, becoming a simplified resource for professionals on the go or as a shareable document between team members working on the same project.

During the introduction, we mentioned two terms: Isometric and Axonometric View . Although the terms are often used interchangeably, we must clarify this difference before creating our 3D models.

Both Isometric and Axonometric Views are terms to define 3D representations of objects in perspective. An Isometric View is a representation method that showcases an object in the three spatial axes (X, Y, and Z, respectively) at equal angles. The angles between axonometric axes sum 120 degrees, which means each view is made at a 30-degree angle. As a result, we get an image without any kind of deformity in terms of size but limited to depicting depth. In real-case usage, it is the simplest 3D view we can get and the preferred choice in technical drawings and 3D view aerial images.

On the other hand, an Axonometric View is a broader category that encompasses different methods of representing three-dimensional objects in 2D mediums. Since the degrees between axes can vary, this signifies the differentiated depth quality of those 3D views. The types of axonometric views are:

• Dimetric Projection
• Trimetric Projection
• Oblique Projection

Define which view style suits your interests best before creating a 3D model. Although professional-quality software will allow you to present the image in any projection format you desire, that’s not always the case with free 3D tooling.

Presenters can benefit from animated 3D floor plan views when customers must understand the spatial relationship between elements. 

Say you are a contractor hired by a family that wants to renew their 20-year-old kitchen. You can put into words the area requirements or a percentage of how much space they will gain if a wall is moved to turn an old kitchen layout into a contemporary open-space concept. Still, it generally doesn’t bring a sense of “completeness” to the consumer. However, presenting an animation where the family can turn the model and visualize how the furniture will fit into the area, how much light will enter the room, or how that kitchen interacts with other rooms in the same house can make consumers much more receptive to hiring the services of that contractor. And no, no 2D plan can make people without a technical background understand the actual livable space of that project. That’s just the way our brain is wired to comprehend spatial relationships.

Another set of viable scenarios are architecture or interior design students who are required to present their projects at university, architectural contests, and Real Estate projects where you want to sell an unbuilt housing unit to a prospective buyer – that same concept also applies to other usages like commercial buildings, factories, etc.

The main asset required is a 3D house plan model, which can be built using free 3D software like Blender, a web-based application such as Sweet Home 3D, or professional tools such as AutoCAD, 3ds Max, Revit, SketchUp, Rhino, Cinema4D, etc. Hand-drawn floor plans can be scanned to help us build the 3D model, or you can work from scratch on any of those 3D modeling tools.

Remember that Microsoft PowerPoint can support *.obj format for 3D objects. 

Once you have built your 3D Floor Plan, you need to consider these three aspects:

• Which viewing mode do you plan to use: Isometric or Axonometric.
• Detailing of your 3D model.
• Which views are modeled for your project.

We would like to emphasize that final one since PowerPoint allows us to have pre-established views of 3D objects using Top, Bottom, Left, Right, Front, and Back views. If any of those views isn’t modeled and we want to use the view, it would be either non-existent or incomplete, and we cannot go back and forth integrating the 3D model with the presentation file as it doesn’t sync changes in live time.

How to Integrate 3D Floor Plans into PowerPoint

To simplify our process, we will use Sweet Home 3D to create the 3D model for this presentation. Instructions on how to export a 3D model to obj format may vary depending on the software used.

In Sweet Home 3D, go to 3D View > Export to OBJ format . Select the location to save your 3D model and file name, then click Save .

Blender exports to OBJ by going to File > Export > Wavefront (.obj) .

SketchUp works by going to File > Export > 3D Model – then you select .obj as the file format.

BIM software like Revit can also export high-detailed 3D models to obj format. Go to your desired 3D view, File tab > Export > CAD Formats > OBJ.

Open your presentation slide and switch to the Insert tab. Then, on the Ribbon, locate Insert 3D Model From > This Device.

Check our article on how to insert 3D objects in PowerPoint for further information on 3D object handling in PowerPoint.

Depending on what you want to present, you must duplicate slides to create multiple animation effects or infographics for your project.

A 3D gizmo allows us to rotate the 3D floor plan to any desired point. We can select the object and upscale its size if it doesn’t look pixelated. 

There are multiple animation effects you can use to present the 3D model:

• Morph Transition
• Motion Paths

Infographics can be built out of 3D floor plan views as we can extrude elements to create new graphics or displace parts of our 3D model, then use visual aids in PowerPoint to create meaningful slides that help our audience understand the concept we want to convey.

Any of these processes require creating a spare copy of the 3D model , applying the required changes to create the 3D infographic, and then saving it with another name (so there are no file conflicts when importing the second 3D model into the presentation). Typical applications of this technique are:

• Showing the material structure of a wall, floor, or window.
• Moving partition walls to present new enhanced spaces.
• Replacing finishing material.
• Adding/removing furniture to a space.

After completing the presentation design, we can play the presentation as a slideshow, or we can use it to create a high-quality video output. This helps us connect with prospective customers via social media or as a shareable that customers can check as many times as they like.

Go to File > Export > Create a Video to export the presentation to a video format . Select the required definition for your video, and remember to assign it to include Use Recorded Timings and Narrations if you added notes or voiceover to your PowerPoint presentation.

We highly recommend you check our guide on how to convert PowerPoint to video for further information.

For this initial case study, we will showcase a presentation for a housing project in Real Estate. The target audience is investors who are interested in purchasing a property in a new beachside private neighborhood. The presenter must highlight the importance of connecting with nature, infrastructure services (high-speed optic fiber internet, grocery stores, party room, laundry, kindergarten, and gym), private security, and distance from nearby cities. Also, the presenter wants to introduce their prototype units, the different configurations available, and the required investment while retaining a highly visual format that removes friction from the buying process.

Our presentation designer selected a template to deliver this presentation and worked with a 3D housing model made in Sweet Home 3D. The title slide contains a rendering made out of the 3D model – an exterior view.

After introducing the agenda slide , relevant data for the project, and speaking about the location, the presenter now shows the 3D floor plan infographic view in a series of slides. First, speaking about selected views from the kitchen area.

Next, the speaker discusses how the living room can serve as a multi-purpose area and also as a spare bedroom. It is possible for the audience to understand these concepts as the 3D furniture gives clear hints about the total livable area.

Finally, the slide discusses the exterior finishing material options since the housing units are customizable.

We can also appreciate the full impact of this presentation in this animated GIF shown below.

For our second case study, we will take from the abovementioned idea: a contractor delivering a kitchen renovation project to a married couple who purchased an old home. The couple wants to move in ASAP, but the house requires a full kitchen renovation, which involves tearing down a partition wall separating the kitchen from the living room to create an open space concept and renewing material finishes, furniture, and appliances.

As the contractor acknowledges the importance of remaining within budget for this young couple, he meets with his customers. He delivers a presentation on what the project is going to be about. The first slide in this presentation is a breakdown of the tasks required to complete the kitchen renewal process.

Then, a Gantt Chart is shown so the couple can see whether the delivery date aligns with their moving plans and when payments should be made to complete each renovation phase.

Finally, the presenter delivers the core slide: a 3D floor plan view of the kitchen’s appearance once finished. This visual element amazes the couple as they can move inside the space and “live” the project they envisioned. Using the 3D images for PowerPoint helped this contractor secure the deal in contrast with another, lower-pricing option the couple also contacted.

As we’ve seen, using 3D models in construction or architectural presentations is vital, as presenters can put visuals into what they envisioned rather than confusing customers with tons of irrelevant data. 

Working with the methodology presented in this article simplifies the process of presenting properties or projects, which used to involve creating animated 3D renderings that took countless hours to craft. Animated 3D floor plan presentations can be handled using a tablet and a projector, two resources presenters have at bay, and not lose quality in the process. Pairing that 3D model with a professional-quality Real Estate presentation template is your ticket to success.

We hope this guide can trigger some ideas on how to build your 3D floor plan presentation. See you next time!

1. Real Estate Listing Template for Floor Plan Presentation

Get ready to introduce any real estate listing using 3D floor plan views with the help of this template. Using rhomboid tiles, the title slide allows you to use multiple views of your 3D model or use 3D renderings crafted out of those views. Presenters can introduce their team, showcase the project’s main amenities, expose the pricing evolution in a pre-defined time, and more.

Use This Template

2. Real Estate Project Presentation Slide Deck

Housing projects that require input from investors require more than fancy icons to convince people to acquire a property. To further complement your 3D floor plan presentation, we invite you to use this Real Estate slide deck that includes tools intended to present an executive summary of the project, investment planning,  opportunities linked to the project, factors that may affect its value, and a series of customizable informative slides. Pair this real estate template with your 3D floor plan model for maximum customer engagement!

3. Residential Real Estate Slides for 3D Floor Plan Presentation

Get your hands on real estate vendors made out of high-quality vector graphics to further enhance your 3D model presentation in PowerPoint. In blue and green layout, this fully customizable template allows you to place any 3D model with ease, illustrating its views from different angles. The titles and subheadings are ideal for discussing the project’s core features while presenting your pitch to prospective sellers.

4. House for Sale Listing Template for PowerPoint

Real Estate agents can benefit from using 3D floor plan views in their listing ads by pairing this template with their model. Introduce images from exterior facades, full aerial 3D floor plan, pricing, main features, and contact data. Ideal to grab the interest of prospective customers with a creative approach.

5. Property Development Real Estate Slide Deck for PowerPoint

3D views and hyperrealistic renderings are among the preferred assets of Real Estate professionals to attract investors to unbuilt projects. You can give them a detailed living experience of your project using an axonometric 3D view of the project and, simultaneously, lay critical information about the company behind the project, team members, a competitive analysis of the sector, a SWOT analysis, etc.

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Design, Microsoft PowerPoint, Presentation Ideas Filed under PowerPoint Tutorials , Presentation Ideas

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How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”

• Guy Kawasaki

Remember: Less is more.

A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some unique elements that make a presentation stand out.

• Fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred for their clean lines, which make them easy to digest at various sizes and distances. Limit the number of font styles to two: one for headings and another for body text, to avoid visual confusion or distractions.
• Colors: Colors can evoke emotions and highlight critical points, but their overuse can lead to a cluttered and confusing presentation. A limited palette of two to three main colors, complemented by a simple background, can help you draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the audience.
• Pictures: Pictures can communicate complex ideas quickly and memorably but choosing the right images is key. Images or pictures should be big (perhaps 20-25% of the page), bold, and have a clear purpose that complements the slide’s text.
• Layout: Don’t overcrowd your slides with too much information. When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences.

As an intern or early career professional, chances are that you’ll be tasked with making or giving a presentation in the near future. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others.

• Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist at Canva and was the former chief evangelist at Apple. Guy is the author of 16 books including Think Remarkable : 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference.

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How to Create Slides That Suit Your Superiors: 11 Tips

When you’re pitching ideas or budgets to execs in your organization, you need to deliver slides that fit those particular people just right. This checklist identifies the key considerations.

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I recently interviewed 20 of my customers, all in senior roles at Fortune 100 companies, and asked them their biggest pain point in presenting to higher-ups and even colleagues. What I heard consistently was that it can feel like Goldilocks bouncing from one option to the next, testing to figure out what’s “just right.” Does the audience want deep reports? Sparse slides? Something in between? Like … what?

Teams often come to presentation meetings with vast amounts of backup content just in case an exec wants to take a deep dive on any given point. There’s often a struggle to anticipate every direction attendees might want to go. It’s frustrating, and it’s not efficient.

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There are many ways to build slides. I’m not just talking about crafting them well versus poorly. I’m talking about all of the important decisions regarding how to organize them, how much text to use, when to lean into a chart, the best ways to use bullets and color, and whether to include an appendix with additional information. Before you make your next proposal or request of the executive team, use this list of 11 tips for your next set of slides as a guide.

Four Things You Must Have in Every Exec’s Slides

Before we drill down into the harder aspects, the ones where your executives’ tastes may vary widely, let’s quickly cover four aspects that you can consider the building blocks — the basics you should never proceed without.

Start with an executive summary. Begin the slide deck with a tight executive summary that follows a three-act structure. First, start with stating the current realities. Second, clearly state the problem or opportunity your idea addresses and its potential impact. Third, explain how your recommendation solves the problem or exploits the opportunity and the next steps you’re proposing.

Have a logical organization. The arc of the deck — the package from beginning to end — should make sense. If your audience reads only the headline of every slide, the order should be coherent and make most of the case for you. The content below each slide’s headline must support the statement made in the title. Remove everything that doesn’t support your point; as writers will tell you, you sometimes need to “kill your darlings” when you’re editing.

Begin the slide deck with a tight executive summary that follows a three-act structure.

Make it skimmable. Help your audience to quickly grasp the point without getting bogged down in details. Create a clear visual hierarchy. Guide the reader’s eye through the content: Use bold headings, bullet points, and numbered lists to break down information into digestible pieces. Highlight key takeaways or conclusions in a different color or font size to draw attention to these critical points.

Focus on concise insights. Succinct statements with clear insights are everyone’s jam. Every slide should serve a purpose and contribute directly to the decision-making process. Distill complex information. Don’t use 100 words when 20 words will nail it. If you’re having difficulty trimming, consider using company-approved AI tools to help you take out the fluff.

Five Preferences to Confirm With the Person You Want to Reach

Now we’ll delve into what your particular audience does and does not want. If you haven’t yet, start by asking the person you’re presenting to what they generally prefer. They probably know themselves well but have not been asked to articulate how they like to receive information.

Ask how dense is too dense. Some executives prefer detailed slides with comprehensive data. Others favor a more high-level approach. You’re weighing how to balance informative content with readability, ensuring that slides are not overloaded yet are sufficiently detailed to support decision-making.

Confirm the delivery format and timing. Some execs like information presented to them. Others prefer a pre-read of the material followed by a discussion. I always recommend our tool Slidedocs (I’ve written a free e-book on them), which are visual documents using both words and images. The templates help presenters organize their thoughts into a document for a pre-read or a read-along. They are designed to be skimmable and able to travel through your organization without the help of a presenter.

I’m a huge fan of pre-reads and prefer to use my time in meetings to ask questions and build alignment. If your audience didn’t review your material in advance, ask at the top of the meeting whether they would like you to present it or would prefer to read through it and then discuss it.

Find out how much data visualization they prefer. Charts, graphs, photos, and illustrations often communicate complex data more clearly than words alone. When execs can see what you’re saying, they often can better understand the impact of your idea. Does the exec want to understand exact numbers? Bar charts allow them to move their eyes across a series of specifics. Does the exec want to know the shape of a trend over time? Line charts can show the pattern. (See “Classic Charts Communicate Data Quickly.”) Some prefer charts with annotations that draw attention to what you think is the most important point. Others want to make their own conclusions from the data.

One of my clients, the CEO of a massive commercial real estate company, doesn’t want anything visualized. He prefers numbers, only in a table, and only in two colors — black and red. You might think this is archaic. But the fact that he’s clear to his teams about what he wants takes all the mystery out of how to communicate with him.

When the stakes are high, have a conceptual thinker help with diagrams and concepts. If you don’t have one on your team, and when it’s high stakes, find an internal designer to help you or hire one. You can’t afford to have the baby (your idea) thrown out with the bathwater (terrible slides).

Identify which details need spelling out. How well do the people you’re presenting to know the landscape and function of the company and products you’re talking about? For example, if your engineering team threw a slide into a deck about an issue that requires executive approval, do the execs all speak geek? Or do you need to explain the technology so that they will really understand the ask? Either eliminate internal jargon and acronyms or unpack those bits, especially if your proposal deeply involves expertise outside of the executives’ domain.

Ask whether appendices will be useful. When you’re organizing a presentation, you often troll data, read through complicated reports, and even hire external experts to figure out what’s best for the company. Do your execs want access to that supporting data? You can add a document to the end of the presentation as an appendix to show all of the data and source material. This allows the main content of the slides to remain focused and accessible while still providing comprehensive background information for those who want more.

Two Tips to Improve Your Presentation Skills

Getting materials in place is the biggest step. They will be your best tools for selling your ideas. But there are two extra areas to pay attention to as a presenter: how you handle questions and how you use every experience to improve.

Anticipate questions, and practice your answers. Before you have your meeting, gather a small team to challenge every point you make. Invite colleagues you trust to role-play as “a rapidly inquisitive exec” or “the doubting naysayer exec” so you are prepared to present your idea well. They’re gonna grill you, and practicing will help you remain unruffled when it happens.

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Ask for feedback after the presentation. Establish a feedback loop with those you presented to. Ask what worked well and how you can improve. If attendees don’t have the time, find people who have had their ideas funded and talk to them about what they did that worked. Advice and some perspective will help you nail your performance even better next time.

Empathetically understanding your audience members and how they process information, whether it’s executives or peers, sets up your ideas for success. Clarity creates efficiency. When a presentation fits just right, you’ve given your great thinking the best chance of moving through your organization and having maximum impact.

About the Author

Nancy Duarte is CEO of Duarte Inc. , a communication company in the Silicon Valley. She’s the author of six books, including DataStory: Explain Data and Inspire Action Through Story (Ideapress Publishing, 2019).

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• Q&A: Tips for viewing the 2024 solar eclipse

Q&A: Tips for viewing the 2024 solar eclipse

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On Monday, April 8, the United States will experience a total solar eclipse — a rare astronomical event where the moon passes directly between the sun and the Earth, blocking out the sun’s light almost completely. The last total solar eclipse in the contiguous U.S. was in 2017, and the next one won’t be until 2044.

If the weather cooperates, people across the United States — from northeastern Maine to southwestern Texas — will be able to observe the eclipse using protective eyewear. Those in the path of totality , where the moon entirely covers the sun, will have the best view, but 99% of people in the continental U.S. will be able to see a partial eclipse. Weather permitting, those on the MIT campus and the surrounding area will see 93 percent of the sun covered, with the partial eclipse starting at 2:15 p.m. and reaching its peak around 3:29 p.m. Gatherings are planned at the Kresge Oval and the MIT Museum , and a live NASA stream will be shown in the Building 55 atrium .

Brian Mernoff , manager of the CommLab in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, is an accomplished astrophotographer and science educator. Mernoff is headed to Vermont with his family to experience the totality from the best possible angle — but has offered a few thoughts on how to enjoy the eclipse safely, wherever you are.

Q: What should viewers expect to see and experience with this solar eclipse?

A: When you’re watching TV (the sun) and your toddler, dog, or other large mammal (the moon) blocks your view, you no doubt move over a bit to try to get a partial or full view of the TV. This is exactly how the path of totality works for an eclipse. If you are exactly in line with the moon and sun, it will be completely blocked, but if you start moving away from this path, your view of the sun will start to increase until the moon is not in the way at all.

The closer you are to the path of totality, the more of the sun will be blocked. At MIT, about 93 percent of the sun will be blocked. Those in the area will notice that things around you will get slightly darker, just like when it starts to become overcast. Even so, the sun will remain very bright in the sky and solar glasses will be required to view the entirety of the eclipse. It really goes to show how incredibly bright the sun is!

Within the narrow path of totality, the moon will continue to move across the sun, reaching 100 percent coverage. For this short period of time, you can remove your glasses and see a black disk where the sun should be. Around the disk will be wispy white lines. This is the corona, the outermost part of the sun, which is normally outshone by the sun’s photosphere (surface). Around the edges of the black disk of the moon, right as totality begins and ends, you can also see bright spots around the edges, known as Bailey’s Beads, caused by sunlight shining between mountains and craters on the moon.

But that’s not all! Although you will be tempted to stare up at the sun throughout totality, do not forget to observe the world around you. During totality, it feels like twilight. There is a 360-degree sunset, the temperature changes rapidly, winds change, animals start making different sounds, and shadows start getting weird (look into “shadow bands” if you have a chance).

As soon as totality ends, and you start to see Baily’s Beads again, put your solar glasses back on as it will get very bright again very fast as the moon moves out of the way.

Q: What are the best options for viewing the eclipse safely and to greatest effect?

A: No matter where you are during the eclipse, make sure you have solar glasses. These glasses should be ISO-approved for solar viewing. Do not use glasses with scratches, holes, or other damage.

If you are unable to obtain solar glasses in time, you can safely view the eclipse using a home-made projection method , such as a pinhole camera or even projecting the image of the sun through a colander.

The best view of the eclipse will be from within the path of totality, but even if you are not within it, you should still go outside to experience the partial eclipse. Use the NASA Eclipse Explorer to find the start, maximum, and end times, and then find a nice spot outside — preferably with some shade — put on your glasses, and enjoy the show.

For a closer view of the sun, find a friend that has a telescope with the correct ISO-certified solar filter. This will let you see the photosphere (or chromosphere if it is an H-alpha scope) in a lot more detail. If you do not have access to a telescope, NASA plans to livestream a telescope view throughout the eclipse. [The livestream will be displayed publicly on a large screen in Building 55 at MIT, rain or shine.]

The only time you can look at or image the sun without a filter is during 100 percent totality. As soon as this period is done, glasses and filters must be put back on.

After the eclipse, keep your glasses and filters. You can use them to look at the sun on any day (it took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize that I could use the glasses at any time instead of lugging out a telescope). On a really clear day, you can sometimes see sunspots!

Q: How does eclipse photography work?

A: This year I plan to photograph the eclipse in two ways. The first is using a hydrogen-alpha telescope. This telescope filters out all light except for one wavelength that is given off by hydrogen. Because it blocks out most of the light from the sun’s surface, it allows you to see the turbulent upper atmosphere of the sun, including solar prominences that follow magnetic field lines.

Because this telescope does not allow for imaging during totality as too much light is blocked, I also plan to set up a regular camera with a wide-angle lens to capture the total eclipse with the surrounding environment as context. During the 2017 eclipse, I only captured close-ups of the sun using a regular solar filter and missed the opportunity to capture what was going on around me.

Will it work? That depends on if we get clear skies, and how many pictures of my 1.5-year-old need to be taken (as well as how much chasing needs to be done).

If you would like to take pictures of the eclipse, make sure you protect your camera sensor. The sun can easily damage lenses, sensors, and other components. Here are some examples of solar damaged cameras . The solution is simple, though. If using a camera phone, you can take pictures through an extra pair of solar glasses, or even tape them to the phone. For cameras with larger lenses, you can buy cardboard filters that slide over the front of your camera or even buy ISO-approved solar film and make your own.

Q: Any fun, unique, cool, or interesting science facts about this eclipse to share?

A: If you want to get even more involved with the eclipse, there are many citizen science projects that plan to collect as much data as possible throughout the eclipse.

NASA is planning to run several experiments during the eclipse , and researchers with MIT Haystack Observatory will also be using four different technologies to monitor changes in the upper atmosphere , both locally and across the continent.

If you are interested in learning more about the eclipse, here are two of my favorite videos, one on “ unexpected science from a 0.000001 megapixel home-made telescope ” and one on solar eclipse preparation .

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