Animation overview
What Animation mode is for, and what this section covers.
Animation mode makes the shapes of a board change over time:
- Move and transform: move, turn, grow, or resize shapes, and slide text along a path.
- Reveal and hide: fade shapes, draw their outlines, type text, or show a series of texts.
- Cameras and media: switch and zoom cameras, and play videos and sounds at the right moment.
- Animate custom attributes: animate the shape settings you choose, such as colors, stroke widths, and styles.
- Pace it: time everything on a timeline, add pauses, and keep several animations on one board.
Working in Animation mode
Choose Animation mode in the bar beside the panel controls (see Modes). There, each panel has a role:
- Actions panel: creates blocks for the selected shapes.
- Attributes panel: shows the settings of the selected block.
- Timeline panel: holds the blocks on tracks and plays the animation.
- Drawing tools: stay available, so you can create new shapes at any time.
Animation blocks
An animation block is one timed change applied to one or more shapes. A block has:
- Targets: the shapes it acts on:
- Selecting a group targets the shapes inside it.
- Most blocks take several shapes. With Stagger shapes, each one starts a set time after the previous one starts or ends.
- Text Sequence, Camera Zoom, and Active Camera take one.
- Timing: when the change starts and ends, in seconds of the animation. Most blocks also have a speed, which sets how long the change takes.
- Easing: for most blocks, the curve that sets how fast the change goes between its start and its end.
- Its own settings: what the block changes, such as where a Position Animation ends or the opacity an Opacity Animation reaches.
New blocks start at the playhead, the current time marked on the timeline. Some, such as a Position Animation, change nothing until you set them up: see The default animation block.
Animation blocks covers what every block shares, and the actions that work on any block.
Timing and playback
The Timeline panel, at the bottom of the screen, places blocks in time and plays the animation. These pages cover it:
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Timeline panel | Placing blocks in time, playing the animation and moving through it, and choosing which part plays. |
| Animation pauses | Holding the whole animation with pause markers, or selected blocks with block pauses. |
| Sequences | Keeping several separate animations on one board. |
The kinds of blocks
Each kind of block has its button in the Actions panel, which shows the buttons the selected shapes support.
Transforming shapes
These blocks move shapes, turn them, change their size, or slide a text along a path.
| Block | What it does |
|---|---|
| Position Animation | Moves shapes along a straight line, a curve, or a list of points. |
| Rotation Animation | Turns shapes around a center, with extra full turns. |
| Scale Animation | Grows or shrinks shapes around a center. |
| Resize Animation | Gives shapes a new width and height. Texts change width, and their lines rewrap. |
| Path Crawl | Slides a text on a path along the shape it follows. |
The Transforming shapes overview shows which shapes each block works on. Capture Real-Time records a movement you make by hand as one of these blocks.
Revealing and hiding shapes
These blocks make shapes appear or disappear, or show their content bit by bit.
| Block | What it does |
|---|---|
| Opacity Animation | Fades shapes in or out, or to any opacity in between. |
| Stroke Animation | Draws the outline of vector shapes and arrows. |
| Text Animation | Reveals a text as if typed, by character, word, line, or paragraph. |
| Text Sequence | Shows a timed series of texts in one text, or in one text on a path. |
The Revealing and hiding shapes overview shows which shapes each block works on.
Cameras, videos, and audio
These blocks choose and zoom cameras, and play videos and sounds during the animation.
| Block | What it does |
|---|---|
| Active Camera | Chooses the active camera for a stretch of the animation. With See through active camera on, you watch through it. |
| Camera Zoom | Changes the zoom of a camera over time. |
| Video Animation | Controls how a video plays during an animation. |
| Audio Animation | Plays the sound of an audio shape during an animation, with fades and a volume that can change. |
Attributes
For the settings the other blocks don't cover:
| Block | What it does |
|---|---|
| Attributes Animation | Animates the settings you choose, such as colors, stroke widths, and styles. Colors and numbers blend smoothly; on/off settings and choices switch halfway. |