Animation Queries

Many people have asked about how I animate daily problems. In case you have any question feel free to ask. Thank you!

Software I use is Keynote, a mac application. For windows/Microsoft, one can use PPT. From keynote, I export it into a GIF format which can play the animations into the solution panel of brilliant
Time varies a lot. Simple animations such as moving, scaling, and rotating with precision generally take about 30 minutes or so. Longer animations obviously take more time, but not because of making but reviewing and solving errors (such as timing) in the animations.

This discussion board is a place to discuss our Daily Challenges and the math and science related to those challenges. Explanations are more than just a solution — they should explain the steps and thinking strategies that you used to obtain the solution. Comments should further the discussion of math and science.

When posting on Brilliant:

Use the emojis to react to an explanation, whether you're congratulating a job well done , or just really confused .
Ask specific questions about the challenge or the steps in somebody's explanation. Well-posed questions can add a lot to the discussion, but posting "I don't understand!" doesn't help anyone.
Try to contribute something new to the discussion, whether it is an extension, generalization or other idea related to the challenge.
Stay on topic — we're all here to learn more about math and science, not to hear about your favorite get-rich-quick scheme or current world events.

Markdown	Appears as
`italics` or `_italics_`	italics
`bold` or `__bold__`	bold
- bulleted - list	bulleted list
1. numbered 2. list	numbered list
Note: you must add a full line of space before and after lists for them to show up correctly
paragraph 1 paragraph 2	paragraph 1 paragraph 2
`[example link](https://brilliant.org)`	example link
`> This is a quote`	This is a quote
# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"	# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `$` ... `$` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$

Comments

Okay1. What software 2. How much Time

Jaison Varghese - 1 year, 1 month ago

Software I use is Keynote, a mac application. For windows/Microsoft, one can use PPT. From keynote, I export it into a GIF format which can play the animations into the solution panel of brilliant
Time varies a lot. Simple animations such as moving, scaling, and rotating with precision generally take about 30 minutes or so. Longer animations obviously take more time, but not because of making but reviewing and solving errors (such as timing) in the animations.

Mahdi Raza - 1 year, 1 month ago

Then how do you post the keynote file?

Ewald G - 1 year, 1 month ago

@Ewald G – Ah! forgot to mention that I export it into GIF format. Thanks for asking

Mahdi Raza - 1 year, 1 month ago

Thank you for sharing

Jaison Varghese - 1 year ago

@Jaison Varghese – You are welcome. I will write a full detailed answer in some time! Thanks!

Mahdi Raza - 1 year ago

Hey how do you animate on keynote?

IHSAN IMRAN - 1 year, 1 month ago

I will write a full detailed answer in some time! Thanks!

Mahdi Raza - 1 year ago

Thank you

IHSAN IMRAN - 1 year ago

Hi, I think I can animate these things on Powerpoint too, but how do you export it to be used as a solution on the site? Do you make some sort of GIF from the animation? thx on helping. PS: maybe Keynote on Mac is easier on exporting?

patrick De Wachter - 1 year ago

@Patrick De Wachter – I don’t know about PPT, but there will be an option to export the presentation in GIF format by self-playing.

Mahdi Raza - 1 year ago

@Mahdi Raza – Hi, I can export the whole presentation (which I can reduce to only one slide with the animation of cource) to an mp4 video. I'm going to look for a way to convert an mp4 to a GIF.

patrick De Wachter - 1 year ago

@Patrick De Wachter – https://ezgif.com/video-to-gif From this website upload your mp4, and click convert. Save the GIF and add it to your explanation. Make sure it less than 10mb, or else you won’t be able to upload that. Good luck!

Mahdi Raza - 1 year ago

And thank you!

Jack

Jack Leonard - 1 year ago

Mahdi, I too have enjoyed your animations and would appreciate knowing how you do them.

Jack

Jack Leonard - 1 year ago

I will write a full detailed answer in some time! Thanks!

Mahdi Raza - 1 year ago

How are you able to spend so much time on this? I guess you are either appearing for boards this year or you are a JEE aspirant. Isn't it?

Shubhrajit Sadhukhan - 1 year ago

haha, true it should be that way. But I am in the IB board, where there is more time available to students for doing work. And from 3 months the schools are shut, so i do this almost all day!

Mahdi Raza - 1 year ago

That's good!

Shubhrajit Sadhukhan - 1 year ago

@Shubhrajit Sadhukhan – Thanks @Shubhrajit Sadhukhan

Mahdi Raza - 1 year ago

Does PowerPoint work just as well or Keynote is better?

Vinayak Srivastava - 1 year ago

I haven't used PPT that much, but it should work fine i guess (or maybe even better). But i think you can do the same in PPT just like in keynote, because i use basic functions such as move, scale rotate and all. Keep in mind to use a combination of effects, timing and colours. Good luck!

Mahdi Raza - 1 year ago

Thanks!

Vinayak Srivastava - 1 year ago

Hello Mahdi, I'm wondering what template I can use in powerpoint for things like math problems with the daily challenges. Hopefully you will reply to this soon.

Alan Vu - 9 months, 1 week ago

Hi Alan, I don't have a specific template. I begin with a blank document import the image and work around it. For example this one:

I imported the image, used some basic functions with proper timing. And boom, there it is!

Mahdi Raza - 9 months, 1 week ago

Can you give me a tutorial or send me a video

Alan Vu - 9 months, 1 week ago

@Alan Vu – Unfortunately, there are none available. But frankly, I didn't need or use a tutorial. Don't have the mentality of "best or nothing" when you begin with any skill. Explore basic tools and functions and try to understand what's going on in the process. That might give you more insight and allow you to make complex ones. I hope that helps a bit

P.S. If you find any tutorials, please post it here for me :)

Mahdi Raza - 9 months, 1 week ago

@Mahdi Raza – How do you upload to GIF

Alan Vu - 9 months, 1 week ago

@Alan Vu – Export the PPT file into a GIF. If that doesn't happen export it into a video. Now convert video to GIF using any tool online. Make sure it is less than 10mb so that you are able to upload it. All the best!

Mahdi Raza - 9 months, 1 week ago

@Mahdi Raza – How old are you cause I'm only nine years old

Alan Vu - 9 months, 1 week ago

@Alan Vu –

The base of the pink triangle is one half of the side length of the square. If the square shown has an area of 36, my age is equal to the area of the yellow quadrilateral? Figure out my age :)

Mahdi Raza - 9 months, 1 week ago

@Mahdi Raza – This is hard

Alan Vu - 9 months ago

@Alan Vu – Since you have premium, here's the inspiration you'll be able to see. Or maybe a complete solution...

Mahdi Raza - 9 months ago

@Mahdi Raza – Thank you

Alan Vu - 9 months ago

@Mahdi Raza – Since this is scaled by a factor of 3, then does that mean you're 16.5 years old?

Alan Vu - 9 months ago

@Alan Vu – The diagram's a bit different than the question I linked. Try again.

Mahdi Raza - 9 months ago

@Mahdi Raza – ok

Alan Vu - 9 months ago

@Mahdi Raza – this video is a bit shorter than the other one but i found it quite helpful a good short video for keynote.
since creating animations with open office impress is a pain, i'll try to find a video for ppt too.

num IC - 5 months, 2 weeks ago

how doyou makesolutions sofastfor the dailychallenge sorryfor thr lackof spacesmy spacebar jamming up idk why

NSCS 747 - 7 months, 1 week ago

Frankly, I don't know. Maybe, I know the functions well enough in Keynote that the process of thinking to plan how to show the solution to the animation being finished gets faster as I discover more.

Mahdi Raza - 7 months, 1 week ago

Thank you for sharing this. I do enjoy your animations, @Mahdi Raza.

G Silb - 1 year ago

Thank you for valuing that @G Silb!

Mahdi Raza - 1 year ago

Mahdi, you are going to call me weird but, when I looked at your link in the problem to here, what occurred to me to ask was, how do you launch (and browse) discussions?

While thinking it a logical feature for the site, I never found anything resemble a forum of discussions on it. Maybe it doesn't resemble any format I'm familiar...

João Pedro Afonso - 1 year ago

I made a discussion by going into the community tab and then tapped on "start a discussion"

Mahdi Raza - 1 year ago

Thank you. It sure is not anything like as I've seen before. Filtering is only done through a small set of categories, and there is no sense of time or authorship. We can launch a no-topic but that will only appear mixed in all...

João Pedro Afonso - 1 year ago

@João Pedro Afonso – Sorry, i am not getting you. Are you trying to say that this discussion cannot be categorised? If so, i don't mind that, since it is only for those wanting to inquire about the animation if they like. This is not a math discussion which everyone wants so that's even better..

Mahdi Raza - 1 year ago

@Mahdi Raza – I was commenting the overall design of the forum vs others. It might be for the better... without time or authorship, the pieces may stay tall and intemporal by their title alone. This way, the site invites to only place certain topics. But that may works again it also. Some topics may be difficult to categorize, others may be not so but their lack may hint discouragement. Take grievances or complains, for instance. It is hubris to believe those are never going to happen, nothing is perfect. Discussions like that may help people to vent their frustrations, showing what is solvable or what is recurrent. It's bad policy to mix them with other contents but that's apparently what's happening. Take your discussion. Are you going to put a link to it whenever you do an animation? An obvious category would be "Tools", and without that, "Other", but none exist...

João Pedro Afonso - 1 year ago

i create notes by pressing the + Notes-button on my profile page. i was not aware that it can be done from the community tab too.

num IC - 5 months, 2 weeks ago

ty for showing that great tool. in that video: a lot cool keynote stuff and in the last 2-3 minutes he explains how to move an object along a kurved line it looks like there is only the option to save the animation as a movie. does your version have an option to save as gif? (one of your videos has lots of frames, so i assumed you used a screen-to-gif tool)

num IC - 5 months, 2 weeks ago

I did not know it before, but now I found the option of animated GIF

Mahdi Raza - 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Your animations are amazing! Do you think it's hard to learn keynote?

Elliott Chen - 1 year ago

Thank you Elliott :) Keynote is not at all hard to learn. I am not at all a teacher, but from what I have learnt is that over time you develop the skill to make a better animation in less time. In the start not everything will fit into place exactly but ask me if you have any queries! Good luck!

Mahdi Raza - 1 year ago

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$