Reveal a background picture step by step by animation in PPT 2019

In previous articles I have shown you how to reveal a picture which was inserted directly on the slide. But what can you do if the picture has been added to the slide background? In that case you will have to mask the background to make it work.

Add the picture to the background by choosing the Design ribbon and the Format background button. In the task pane select the Picture or texture fill. Click the File button and browse to the picture and press Insert.

Below you can see the difference between a background picture and a picture that has been added directly on the slide.

Draw a rectangle with the desired dimensions. Copy the rectangle to the right and below till the complete picture is no longer visible. In the example I want 3 rectangles side by side and 3 rows of rectangles.

Leave the rectangles selected and right-click one of the rectangles and choose Format object. In the task pane Format shape choose the Slide background fill radio button.

The rectangles now have the background of the slide as a fill. They all have a contour but to make it more distinguishable I changed it the using the Shape outline button. You can find the button under Drawing tools, Format tab, Shape styles group.

Now draw a rectangle covering the whole slide. The rectangle will be used to mask the background picture.

Move it to the background, click the Format tab, select the Send backward button and choose Send to back.

Now select the individual rectangles in the order you want and animate them using an entrance animation on click.

Considering that the rectangles have a background slide fill it seems as if the underlying background picture is revealed. Here are the layers and their order:

And here's the result: