Edit motion paths

Mar 04, 2015

Hello,

I am looking for a tutorial or discussion about editing a motion path once one is created. I couldn't find one.

After creating a motion path, sometimes I need to adjust where I want the object to begin or end, but it seems difficult. If I move the object at the start point up or down, the end point moves up or down. I just want to move the start point only, for example and the end point to stay put. I have tried locking the object, but no luck.

Can someone direct me to how to do this without having to delete the motion path and start over?

Thank you,

 

44 Replies
David Anderson

Hi Marcia - Is there a chance you could share your .story file so we can take a look? Or could you create a quick Peek video to show us what you're trying to do?

Storyline 360 makes working with motion paths a lot easier because you can now give each motion path a custom name. That really helps when you're working with multiple paths.

Marcia Kitshoff

Hi David

Thanks for the reply.

I have included a .story file of the one example.

I have managed to get the motion smooth for the Object tab, but it's still not perfect on the Natural Sequence tab.

Yes, it's true that I can name the motion paths, but there is still no way for me to see the various motion paths in a list or on the timeline etc. So the moment there is more than one motion attached to an item, it is still difficult to find the correct path and make the necessary adjustments.

If you look at the attached .story, you will see that I use a motion path to move an item into a position. I then need to move to the next slide and I need the item to be in the end position of the motion path, and after that, I need to move it from the end position of the first motion path to the start position of the first motion path using a second motion path (the reverse path).

The motions are there, but the elements "jitter" between the slides because the positioning is obviously not perfect. I am unable to fix it without recreating the entire thing.

I hope this illustrates the problem I am having?

Many thanks

Regards

Marcia

David Anderson

Hi Marcia,

Thanks for attaching your source file. I can see where the motion paths are being a challenge.

I've attached an updated .story file along with a short screencast on how I'd approach a similar project.

Storyline lets you find the size and position of a motion which really helps ensure both the entrance and exit paths are correct.

Please check out the source file and screencast to see if this helps.

David

Screencast: https://360.articulate.com/review/content/b3428f24-1f14-4cd9-9e9f-0567c2ce0ca7/review

Rick Maranta

I understand your frustration. I have played around with this a lot. There is a lot that can be improved with motion paths. I would love to see them each shown as different layers, would love to be able to stop motion paths mid motion depending on a variable or intersection with another object. Would love more accurate ability to fine tune paths such as have very short paths so we can move characters in 4 or 8 directions easily with a click or key-press but it is very finicky - especially when the paths are only a few pixels long (keeping them straight when they are short is maddening). I probably should request some of these to product development.  There is a lot of potential for games and more interaction if this gets dealt with but I imagine there are are other features with higher priorities. If they can at least let us put a length number in for linear motion paths, that would be a start.

Marcia Kitshoff

Hi David

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. This does help - at least I will be able to make sure that there is no jitter on my project now.

I do still think that there is a need for some development on the way motion paths work in Storyline for future releases. For example - being able to view motion paths on a timeline of sorts would be really helpful! That way it is super easy to select the motion path you are looking for (since you can give them unique names). 

Thanks again for the help - the screencast was very informative!

Best regards

Marcia

Jim Penson

I'm going to piggyback on this thread. What I'm struggling with is aligning the end points of motion paths. I'm sure this is a simple process, but I can't seem to figure it out. For example, I have 5 text blocks that fly in from the right, one at a time. After eye balling their end point,s I go into the edit path function and grab the red end points, and can produce the dotted snap lines for aligning and yet there's some snapping going on that I'm not in control of, and the boxes wind up in different places. Attaching screen shot that shows difficulty in getting them to snap to the same point, but also that there doesn't seem to be a strong relationship between the red points and the final position. Thanks in advance. 

Jim Penson

Thanks, Ashley. That does help. Can you direct me to a list of function keys in SL?

Related: I was able to achieve this yesterday by starting with one text box, copy-pasting it, replacing the text with new, then assigning motion paths. It has something to do with the size of the text boxes apparently. Note how the green starting points are all lined up.

Thanks, happy Friday:)

ray laurencelle

The help page showing how to fine tune motion paths

https://articulate.com/support/article/storyline-360-fine-tune-motion-paths

indicates that you can select and move start and end points of paths. This is a very useful and needed feature. This works on straight line paths but I can't select end points of a curved path. When you place the mouse over a straight path endpoint a hand icon appears and you an select the point. Not so with curved path endpoints. The Storyline engineers who developed motion path functionality didn't quite finish the job. Why make some paths editable and other not? The only way I found to change the path is to use the "Change the Curve" option, meaning you have to redraw the curve entirely.

Lauren Connelly

Hi Mehdi and Tom!

I hear that editing motion paths will elevate your projects! It's important that our team understands author's design needs so I appreciate you checking in on this discussion. 

We are continuing to share feature ideas with our team, so I'll create a feature request with both of your recent comments. If you have any mock-ups or design images that I can attach to the request, would you mind attaching them to this discussion?

Kirk Hine

There is a way to adjust the endpoint of a line motion...It's not as elegant as Captivate (which allows us to change the start and end points independently pixel by pixel), but it works. You do this by using the Drawing Tools, Size and Position pop-up.

As another user pointed out someplace in this forum, fine-tuning is done by changing the size and position. In other words, adjusting the length and width, horizontal and vertical placement of the start and end points.

This document I created explains what happens when you create line motions. If you have suggestions for improving it, by all means let me know.