Resize Animation

Resize animation changes the width and height of shapes over time, around a center.

It works on shapes that can be resized. Arrows, texts on a path, and cameras can't be.

Resize or scale

• Resize draws the shape again at each new size, as dragging its handles in Creation mode would, so on a vector shape the stroke keeps its width.
• Scale Animation instead stretches or squeezes the whole shape like a picture: everything in it grows or shrinks together, stroke included.

Creating it

1. Select the shapes on the board.
2. In Animation mode, choose Resize Animation in the Actions panel.

After it is created

• It starts at the playhead and keeps the size the shapes already have there, so nothing changes until you set the final size with a target handle or in the Attributes panel.
• It is selected, and its resize indicator shows on the board.

Width and height

• With one shape, Width and Height are the shape's own size.
• With several shapes, they are the size of the selection's box when you create the block.
  • One block resizes all of them around a shared center.
  • Each shape changes in the same proportion from its own size, so they keep their layout, as when you resize a selection in Creation mode.

Texts

• A text changes its width only, so a block with only texts has a single target handle, for the width, and one Easing.
• Its letters keep their size and its lines wrap again, as when you drag its side handles in Creation mode.
• Its height comes from its lines, so a Resize block can't set it. The center decides where new lines go: with the center at the bottom, the text grows upward.
• Height works differently when the block has texts:
  • Texts and other shapes: Height resizes only the other shapes.
  • Only texts: Height can't be edited. It shows how tall the text is at the start and at the end of the block.

The resize animation block in the Timeline panel

In the Timeline panel, resize blocks appear in lime ().

1. Blocks that resize one shape use circular handles.
2. Blocks that resize several shapes use square handles.
3. Staggered blocks show a marker where each later shape starts.

The resize indicator on the board

The resize indicator shows the center and an axis for X and for Y, turned with the shape.

• It shows while the block is selected, or for the selected shapes when Show all animation indicators is on.
• A bar along each axis fills as the animation progresses.
• Arrowheads show whether the width and the height grow or shrink.

Handles

Set them up in this order:

1. Center handle: the point the shapes grow from or shrink toward.
   • It starts at the shape's pivot, or at the middle point between the pivots of several shapes.
   • If the shapes already have an earlier resize block, it starts at that block's center.
   • Drag it to move the center.
   • It responds only while the playhead is at the block's start, and is grayed out at any other time.
2. Reference handles: the rectangular handles on each axis. Each one marks a point on the shapes that the resizing carries to its target handle.
   • They start as far from the center as half the selection's width or height.
   • On shapes only a few pixels across on screen, they're drawn a little further out than the point they mark, so they stay easy to drag.
   • Drag them to measure from another point.
   • They respond only at the block's start. At other times they stay as gray markers.
3. Target handles: the circles you drag to set the width and height.
   • One for the width (X axis), one for the height (Y axis), and one at their corner for both at once.
   • The shapes resize around the center so the point at each reference handle reaches its target handle.
   • They show at the block's start too, so you can set the final size right after creating the block.

Maintain speed

Maintain speed, in the Timeline panel header, decides what changing the final size does to the block's duration, whether you drag a target handle or type the value in the Attributes panel:

• Enabled: the duration follows the size, so the resizing keeps the same speed and a bigger change takes longer.
• Disabled: the duration stays the same.
  • A new block has no duration yet, so its size changes at once, like a jump.

Attributes

The Resize Animation section of the Attributes panel.

Timing

• Time: when the resizing starts and ends, in seconds. Each time is outlined while the playhead sits on it.
• Duration: the block's total length, including staggered shapes and block pauses.
• Speed: speed multiplier relative to the board's base resize speed (200 board units per second by default).
  • It measures the average change of the width and the height.
  • Changing it changes the block's duration.

Size

• Width and Height: two values each.
  • The first is the size at the start, and it can't be edited: the shape's own size, worked out from earlier blocks, or the size of the selection box for several shapes.
  • The second is the size at the end.
  • With Maintain speed enabled, the duration adjusts to the new size, whether you type it or drag a target handle.

Center

• Cx and Cy: the center's board coordinates at the start of the block, editable wherever the playhead is.
  • Cy follows the Y axis direction set in the board settings.

Stagger and easing

• Stagger shapes: when a block acts on multiple shapes, stagger offsets their start times sequentially. See Stagger shapes.
• Reordering panel: with Stagger shapes on, sets the order in which the shapes start. See Stagger shapes.
• Separate easings: gives the width and the height their own easing, Easing X and Easing Y.
  • Off, one Easing applies to both. Turning it off keeps the curve of Easing X.
  • Cubic in and out is the default. See Easing.

Actions

With a resize block selected, the Actions panel offers these block actions:

• Delete: removes the block. See Block actions.
• Cut, Copy, and Paste: move or copy the block to another time or sequence. See Cut, copy, and paste blocks.
• Reassign: changes which shapes the block resizes. See Block actions.
  • The box is measured again, and Width and Height change with it, so the resize keeps its proportion.
• Create Block Pause: holds the resizing for a moment inside the block. See Block pauses.