UPDATED: Play Animated 3D Models in Word, PowerPoint, and *Excel*

Anonymous
2018-10-22T20:49:38+00:00

Hey Insiders!

My name is Aimee, and I'm a PM in the Office Graphics team. I’m excited to announce support for animated 3D models in PowerPoint, Word and Excel on both Mac and Windows PC. This new media type can help you get creative, elevate storytelling and build highly immersive documents. To get you started, we've created a library of over 50 animated models available in Office. Enjoy :)

Support for animated 3D models is rolled out to Office 365 Subscribers on:

- PowerPoint and Word on Windows PC: Version 1809 (Build 16.0.102827)

  • Excel on Windows PC: Version 1904 (Build 16.0.11526)
  • PowerPoint/Word/Excel on macOS: Build 16.24.226

This feature is not available on Office Perpetual, namely Office 2019 or 2016. 

Getting Started

STEP 1

Firstly, you'll need to insert an animated model.

Navigate to Insert Tab > 3D Models > From Online Sourcesto peruse Office's library of 3D models.

In the dialogue box, click the All Animated Models category. Insert any that catches your eye. There's novel characters, education-focused examples, realistic animals and many more to pick from:

Tip: All animated models are badged with the ‘running man’ to easily identify:

Alternatively, insert your own animated model if you have one, via the Insert Tab > 3D Models > From File .

Office accepts .gltf and .fbx formats for animated models. Currently only skeletal animations are supported, with morph and node animation support coming very soon. Let us know via Send a Smile in the Office app if there are any issues with your insert.

STEP 2

Your inserted model will now animate in the editor!

STEP 3

To Play/Pause the animation, right-click on the model and select Play/Pause on the Floatie:

Tip: To quickly play/pause, select the model and hitspacebar

STEP 4

Animated models can have multiple animation scenes. To explore these, select the model and navigate to the Format Tab > Scenes:

Tip: To quickly explore the animation scenes, select the model and hitCtr + Tab to toggle through the animations

Feedback

We are actively working on this feature in Office, and your feedback is key to guiding improvements. Use Send A Smile in the Office app to let us know what you think. I read and appreciate all feedback that filters my way. Your thoughts are valuable to making this feature great.

Microsoft 365 Insider | Program announcements and registration | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-04-03T13:10:11+00:00

    Hi Aimee, thanks for helping with the issues in getting animation to play in imported 3D files. I've been trying to use Blender to export animated .GLB files, and see that animation in PowerPoint. No luck so far, unfortunately.

    I'm using Blender 282a (also tried the alpha 283). PowerPoint version is 16.35 (Mac). I've also tested it on the Windows version. The animation is skeletal, a cube driven by a single bone. The .GLB animation plays in MS 3D viewer and Babylon JS Sandbox. FBX also doesn't work. I've tried adjusting different GLB export options, which didn't seem to fix the issue.

    On the bright side...when I extracted the animated dinosaur .GLB that MS supplies, imported that into Blender, exported it as a .GLB...the animation was preserved. So it seems like Blender is capable of exporting animated .GLB files that PowerPoint can show. I just don't know what the "secret setting" is to make my own animations work that way.

    Here is a video illustrating the problem:

    https://youtu.be/gstgT95I1Ww

    Thanks, any assistance is appreciated. I look forward to using this feature. :)

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-04-03T20:22:18+00:00

    Hi Forrest,

    I really enjoyed watching your video!

    'Galoob' 😂😂😂

    I'm passing this to the team to investigate.

    Aimee.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-04-03T20:54:19+00:00

    Hi Forrest,

    I really enjoyed watching your video!

    'Galoob' 😂😂😂

    I'm passing this to the team to investigate.

    Aimee.

    Thanks Aimee, glad you liked the video, I enjoyed making it. :)

    I continued trying to figure out what the issue was, and I think I found it. A single bone driving an object in Blender doesn't work. If you have at least two, then it works, with default .GLB export settings. I'm going to update my video to make it a tutorial. Thanks for the quick response.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-04-03T22:12:10+00:00

    Glad you got it working and good to know you need multiple bones, i'll see if we can get that fixed / documentation updated.

    Appreciate you using the feature!

    Aimee.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-04-18T17:59:49+00:00

    Is there VBA code to start and stop these? 

    It would be fun to have this going while a query loads.

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