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

Question

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.

Answer 1

Okay, there goes my weekend.  Too much fun!  Thank you.

Answer 2

This is a great feature and works realy well.  But only skined animation is currently supported.  While this is great for rigged characters what about more basic traslation animation such as position rotation and scaling?   Also not supported is Morph animation / Shape Keys.  Yet both Translation and Morph animations are part of standard glTF specification.

Is support for these animation types planed for PowerPoint (and the MS desktop 3D Viewer)?  And if they are is there a timeframe for implimentation?

Answer 3

Awesome. Can we import our own animation yet? I've tried but the animation doesn't work. Are there instructions somewhere?

Answer 4

Hey great question and you're correct, only skinned animations are supported currently, however morph and node animations are coming very soon!

Answer 5

That's great to hear!  Another thing to consider is that Adobe Animatee CC just got the ability to export to Glb.  It exports images maped onto 3d planes which import into PowerPoint fine, but without their animation.  I think at this point the basic export from Animate to glb is pretty basic (and is a beta feature).  It is mainly intended for webGL but it would be fantastic if Microsoft and Adobe could work together on export options that might be more PowerPoint friendly.  Could be a great way of getting more lively 2D character animation into PowePoint for when full 3d is not needed.  Could also serve as a replacement for Flash swf embedding.