Animations in medical education: You can do it!

Introduction: Animations are the best suited to convey and create an impact of an idea or concept in media business. Animations are sequential frames of pictures shown across this fourth dimension, namely "time." Cartoons are the best examples of animations; needless to say, animations grab the attentions of every one. Animations can also be effectively used in medical education especially in teaching human embryology. It communicates of a concept of three-dimensional structures against one more dimension, namely time. However, to create a module of animation, knowledge, and operative skills of animation software like Flash® , Author ware® , Macromedia® or other high-ended software is necessary. Aim: To design simple, user-friendly and easy to make an effective animation using one of the office tools of Windows® , Power Point® . Materials and Methods: A personal computer with following configuration was used. Pentium III processor with 1.3 Gz speed, 40 GB HDD, 128 MB RAM, with multimedia kit, key pad, and scroll mouse was used. Programs used were Power Point® and MS Paint® . A screen play of sequences of diagrams was written. Frames consisting of diagrams of stages of development were drawn in MS Paint® , and were pasted in PowerPoint slides and animation tool was applied. Previewing was done at every stage. Results: Stages of development of storyboard have been shown as print screen images, 1-6. Conclusion: Emphasis is that such simple animations can be easily made. It is cheap and does not require any sophisticated software. However, it is time consuming but can be taken up as phased assignments or can be given as undergraduate student projects. This will certainly help to build teaching material in the department