Animations (or lack thereof) in Storyline

Hi Andrew,

I agree that it would great if Articulate would add more animations to Storyline. I hope you'll add your voice (I have) requesting that feature.

People in the community have come up with some animations that don't take the place of PowerPoint's motion paths, but can still "work." I'm attaching a file with 3 slides, and 2 examples (the 3rd slide IS an exported PPT).

One example uses masking, and one simply has objects positioned across the timeline. May not be what you're after...or you may have already "been there, done that" ... but just in case!

I thoroughly agree with you, Andrew.

I've been carping on about this for well over year. The PR team who moderate the forums completely avoid giving an answer to this (and similar questions). "Subscribe to Gabe's 'Word of Mouth Blog' for updates" is NOT a response I care for -- as I've made abundantly clear; unfortunately to no avail.

Submitting a Feature Request? How many have to be submitted? 10, 20, 200, 2000? It's all black box with ZERO feedback on when updates are actually coming. There's no Dev Timeline -- and despite my asking "Why?" several times, no answer has been offered. Consequently, here we are again. If we could see where it was on the Dev Timeline, we wouldn't have to keep asking "When is it coming? Is it coming? Hello? Hello? Is anyone there?"

So, Andrew, given that:

a) This feature is REPEATEDLY REQUESTED ON THESE FORUMS -- because it's highly useful to IDs

b) No response that respects customers has, to date, been forthcoming

...I'd say don't hold your breath.

Leslie

P.S. For anyone who's feeling a dose of the the sycophants and just can't wait to release their inner keyboard jockey...

I love Storyline. I really, really do. And I'll talk it up -- like anyone or anything else -- when it's warranted; and there's plenty that warrants it! But... that's not a one-sided view in which I'll submissively fanboi it up on issues that I think are absurd. Respect is earned. So credit where it's due and, conversely, criticism where appropriate.

I don't know any company that states when a specific feature is inbound until it is ready to be released.

Not sure why a company would have a Dev Timeline that is publicly available to show the competitors what they are working on and when they will release it, also what happens if they do not meet the schedule do they get lambasted in the community for not delivering?

This is v1.x software and I wouldn't expect a big upgrade like improved animations until v2.0.

I would love to see more animations, but there is also so much you can do with the current animation set

Hi, Phil

>>

>> Not sure why a company would have a Dev Timeline that is publicly available

>> to show the competitors what they are working on and when they will release it

>>

Actually, some companies do share their development timeline, telling their customers what kinds of things to expect in an upcoming release. Maybe they're in a teeny-tiny minority; I don't know.

>>

>> what happens if they do not meet the schedule do they get lambasted in the community for not delivering

>>

I've always found that if you're open and transparent in your communications with people -- especially your customers -- they'll exhibit an enormous amount of understanding, encouragement and support when things go wrong. When you've built up that trust and dependability and things don't work out, folks tend to believe you when you tell them what -- regrettably -- happened and what you're planning to do in order to make it right.

On the other hand, when you treat people like mushrooms, they tend to get frustrated.

>>

>> This is v1.x software and I wouldn't expect a big upgrade like improved animations until v2.0.

>>

Absolutely fair point and I've seen you make it many times on this forum. So how hard would it be for a member of the Articulate PR Team to talk to someone in Dev and come back with a response like "Gee, whiz.... that's turning out to be trickier than we'd anticipated. We're on target for [XYZ-feature] to be included in the next major upgrade (vXYZ.123). I can't say exactly when that will be because there are too many variables, but because so many people have requested this particular [whatever], I'd just like to let you know we're working on it and fingers crossed it will be tested and ready to go on the next major upgrade. That's what we're gunning for."

How hard is that?

Instead, we've been getting a boilerplate response for 18months re: "Word of Mouth Blog". THAT is what annoys me. 

>>

>> I would love to see more animations, but there is also so much you can do with the current animation set

>>

There is. There certainly is. BUT... motion-paths is a widely-requested (or at least queried) feature on this forum. There's a reason for that. But instead of the issue being handled by the Marketing Dept. in a way that respects my intelligence, all I get is "Subscribe to the 'Word of Mouth Blog' for updates". 

It's good of you to weigh in with the alternative view, Phil, lest this thread turn into a big ole rant-fest. I'm sure Articulate appreciate that. And I'm sure a lot of other forum members do, too. We've both probably been on enough forums, discussion boards, UseNet groups, listservs, etc. to know how a thread can get "infected" and "derailed".

But what if it deserves to be a big ole rant-fest in this case? If a lot of people respond to this thread in a similar way to you, then I guess my irritation is misplaced and I'll just have to suck it up and admit that I'm being a dick. 

But if a lot of people feel the same way as I do, then Articulate should know about it.

Hi Andrew. 

Thanks for taking the time to post your concerns about Storyline's animation support. You can import PowerPoint presentations into Storyline, however the animation that takes place is handled natively in Storyline, versus what you are used to in Presenter. Presenter is not natively handling the PowerPoint animations, it is interpreting the information that PowerPoint is communicating as a native add-in in PowerPoint. 

That is partially why the animation support is not the same in Presenter as it is in Storyline. If you want to mimic what is in PowerPoint, Articulate Presenter would be your best option at this time. 

In regards to animation support and expanding what Storyline can do, that is certainly something we are looking at for future versions of Storyline. 

Hi El. 

Thanks for taking the time to outline your concerns about how we communicate to our customers. We currently do no provide publicly available product roadmaps for future product releases unless we do so on our website, as we did with Articulate Studio '13. This was a Preview page we used prior to going live with Studio '13 so folks knew some of the new features they could expect. 

We did also publicly announce that Studio '13 would be available this year. We did no provide a specific date and I don't honestly see that changing in the near future. Tying yourself to an arbitrary future date is simply not something we have been comfortable doing. I know that the product managers who are working on each product are certainly aware that some folks would like to see this for budgetary and other reasons but this is simply not something we have been able to accommodate. The reason for this is that we would like to launch when we are satisfied that a product is ready for launch. Will this change in the future? Possibly. But right now, that is not something we are able to do. 

In regards to feature requests, we have a team that reviews each and every feature request that comes in. We are certainly aware of features that are highly requested, like motion path support in Storyline, versus less popular feature requests and we do evaluate them on a case by case basis. Some of the folks who are on the team who does review these requests are myself, the product manager for each product, the lead quality assurance member for each product and our CTO.  

In addition, one of my senior customer support engineers reviews each and every feature request that comes in to see if there is something we can do to help someone achieve what they are trying to do using the current versions of our software. 

While we certainly understand that some companies do offer customers a way to view feature requests and vote them up and down, etc... for competitive reasons this is not something we are able to do. Will this change in the future? Maybe. We are very aware that some folks would like to see this.

I would like to think that we are very respectful of our customers. We are not always able to tell you what you want to hear but that certainly doesn't mean that we don't care or that we don't listen. If there is something that we can share in regards to future versions or release dates, we will certainly let folks know. But for right now, I can tell you that we ARE actively looking at adding additional animation support for the next version of Storyline and that we will let folks know, when we can, when and what to expect in a new version similar to what we did with Studio '13. 

I can see both sides here - for me the bigger issue is the length of time between releases to achieve decent step-change.

Assuming there's a beta programme for v2 + animations, we are looking at (possibly) over 2 years between SL Release 1 and getting some more powerful animations.

That's a long time in this industry, by anyone's standards. Too long.

Thanks Justin.  I understand that Storylines strength is not in importing something created in PowerPoint, but in creating a timeline based piece created entirely within Storyline itself.

My concern is that if I want to mimic something like a complicated motion path and have it tied to a narration piece so everything happens when it is supposed to, I can't (at least not easily and quickly).  

Something that was being discussed by your own people 18 months ago as being a possible inclusion in a future release still has not seen the light of day.

Hi Andrew.

Motion paths is something we have great interest in and is something we will continue to look at moving forward. 

I agree that the animations could be better but I still think you can do a lot with a little creativity.

Here is a course intro I am currently working on (you get a sneak peek of a work in progress).

Animation Example