Storyline 360: Adding Animations

Storyline 360 has a gallery of entrance, exit, emphasis, and motion path animations that you can apply to shapes, images, text, characters, and more.

To learn about synchronizing animations, see Syncing Entrance and Exit Animations and Syncing Motion Path Animations.

In this user guide, we'll cover:

• Adding Animations
• Adjusting the Speed of an Animation
• Renaming Motion Path Animations
• Choosing Effect and Path Options
• Fine-Tuning Motion Path Animations
• Copying Animations from One Object to Another
• Animating Grouped Objects and Answer Choices
• Making Animations Accessible

Adding Animations

Here's how to add an animation to an object:

1. Select the object and go to the Animations tab on the ribbon.
2. Click the star icon for the type of animation you want to add (entrance, exit, emphasis, or motion path).
3. Choose an animation from the gallery.

Tips:

• You can add animations to objects on your slides, layers, slide masters, feedback masters, and states.
• Emphasis animations are available as of January 2024. They're supported only for shapes, images, buttons, characters, markers, text boxes, and videos.
• Each object in your course can have one entrance animation, one exit animation, multiple emphasis animations, and multiple motion path animations.

Adjusting the Speed of an Animation

Entrance, exit, and emphasis animations default to a duration of 0.75 seconds. Motion paths default to 2 seconds. You can make them faster or slower by entering a time in the Duration field for the animation.

Renaming Motion Path Animations

Storyline 360 assigns names to motion path animations, but you can rename them. And it's a good idea to rename them so you can identify them when you're working with triggers.

1. Go to the Animations tab on the ribbon. This reveals the motion path animations you've already added to the slide.
2. Select the motion path you want to rename, then enter a new name for it in the Name field on the ribbon.

Choosing Effect and Path Options

You can tweak the behavior of most animations by choosing Effect Options (for entrance, exit, and emphasis animations) or Path Options (for motion path animations).

Effect Options

Path Options

You can choose the direction of some entrance, exit, and emphasis animations. You can also modify the intensity of all emphasis animation effects. You can choose a shape, number of spins, or number of spokes for other animations. You can combine some animations with Fly In or Fly Out animations. Just select a direction from the Enter sub-menu. If an object has text, you can also animate the text all at once or by paragraphs. Here's an example.

You can choose the direction of some animations. Motion paths are unlocked by default, meaning they move with the object to which they're applied. If you lock a motion path, it'll move independently of the object to which it's applied. Motion paths start and end smoothly by default, meaning the starting and ending speed is a bit slower than the rest of the animation. This is called easing. Use the Direction sub-menu to turn easing on or off for the starting and ending points, then use the Speed sub-menu to adjust the subtlety of the effect. If you build a motion path and later decide you want it to travel in the opposite direction, select Reverse Path Direction. Motion paths support relative starting points, meaning you can add more than one motion path to the same object and have each begin at the new location of the object, based on previous movements. Just choose Relative Start Point. New in Storyline 360, you can now change an object's orientation as it travels along a non-linear motion path so it's always facing the direction it's moving. Just click Orient Shape to Path.

 

Fine-Tuning Motion Path Animations

Create perfect motion paths easily in Storyline 360 with selectable start and end points, precision snapping, size and position controls on the ribbon, and other enhancements. See this article for details.

Copying Animations from One Object to Another

Need to use the same animations on several objects? Save time by copying animations from one object to another with the Animation Painter.

1. Select the object that has animations you want to copy.
2. Go to the Animations tab on the ribbon and click Animation Painter.
3. Click another object to apply the animations to it.

Tip: If you need to apply the same animations to multiple objects, click the Animation Painter twice to keep it turned on. When you're finished, click it again to turn it off or press the Esc key on your keyboard.

Animating Grouped Objects and Answer Choices

To individually animate the items in a grouped object or block of answer choices:

1. Open the timeline.
2. Click the triangle beside the grouped object or block of answer choices to expand it.
3. Apply animations to each item separately.

Making Animations Accessible

Ensuring your animations are accessible to all learners—regardless of their ability—is critical. Here are some tips for designing accessible animations:

• Give learners the option to turn animations off. For example, you could use a true/false variable to track whether a learner wants to see animations. Then, depending on the learner's choice, a layer with animations or a different layer without animations would appear.
• Avoid unnecessary animations; don't depend on animations and color alone to convey information.
• Don't use animations that move the foreground and background at different speeds.
• When you choose to use emphasis animations, you can use the Effect Options drop-down arrow to select a low level of motion for improved accessibility.
• Keep the duration of animations to less than five seconds.

You Might Also Want to Explore:

Syncing Entrance and Exit Animations
Syncing Motion Path Animations
Understanding How PowerPoint Animations and Transitions Are Imported