You can make an object seem to disappear behind another object, or appear from behind that object. This effect creates a 3D impression and seems quite magical.
In order for this to work, you need to create the appearance of a 3D environment that your object can disappear behind. This takes some experimentation. You also need to play with the order of the objects, by right-clicking and using the Order item on the shortcut menu.
Here’s the slide in Normal view.

normal view

objects separated
The tulip is simply cropped to provide a flat bottom.
Here’s the animation. (I recorded and produced the animation with TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio.)
Thanks to Deborah Gilden who brought this technique to my attention in her submission for the Tell ‘n’ Show contest.
To create this animation, follow these steps:
- Select the object that you want to animate.
- Choose Slide Show> Custom Animation. (In 2007, go to Animations tab> Custom Animation.)
- In the Custom Animation task pane, choose Add Effect>Exit>Peek Out. (If Peek Out isn’t on the list, click More Effects.)
- Specify the Start, Direction, and Speed settings. I used On Click, To Bottom, and Slow, respectively.
If it doesn’t look right, fiddle with the position of the objects and their order on the slide.
Related tips:
I have created a game and I am trying to animate the pieces randomly. Behind each numbered square is a question. I have added animation effects to make the squares go away and reveal the question that is behind it. However, I don’t know how to make a random choice. I want to click #1 and see what’s there. If I decide my next choice is #25 I would like to click that and reveal the question. I hope you can help me to do this randomly. All objects are on one slide.
Najayyah,
It sounds like an interesting project! As far as I know, you need to use VBA programming to get random events. I’m not a programmer, so I can’t help you there. If you do a Google search on powerpoint vba random, you’ll find some content that may be of help. You might want to ask the question at Microsoft’s Answer forum at http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/powerpoint?tab=all. Good luck!
I think what you’d use there is the Action feature rather than animation, which plays in sequential order.