Fading character states in or out

Hi Julie, 

It sounds like you're referring to entrance and exit animations. Could that be it? 

You should be able to apply both animations to your characters. To do so, make sure you have your character selected in your slide. Click on the "Animations" tab and select the animations you'd like to use.

If this isn't what you're wanting to do, can you share a link or example?

Thanks!

Hi Christine,

So, obviously, I'm pretty new to actually using Storyline.  I guess my response is sort of "DUH!"    I was trying to make it more difficult than it obviously was.  Thanks for reminding me that these tools really are pretty intuitive. 

Thanks again!!

Julie

Hi Christine,

Ok, I spoke too soon.  I tried using the animations command, editing the two states for the character to fade out and in, and when I previewed the slide there was no fade.  Thoughts?  Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks,

Julie

Hi Julie,

Are you wanting only the states to have the animations? That would be the only time you'd want to apply this to the states, themselves. However, it's possible that the examples you've seen used a different method for this. Are you able to link to a demo that demonstrated what you'd like to do?

If you want the entire character to fade in or out, you'll want to make sure you're not editing the states and simply selecting the character while its on your slide. 

Thanks!

Hi Christine,

What I want is for each time I change the state, I want the character to fade in and out.  Here's a link to a sample that has an example of it. 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28783158/Revising%20Bloated%20Prose%20output/story.html

Thanks,

Julie

Hi Julie,

Ahhhhh, I think you're referring to the characters at the beginning of the course, correct? That actually looks like a slide or timeline transition. 

Basically, and this is just a guess because I haven't looked at the source file, the poses for the characters are changing as the timeline progresses. That's why they're fading in and out, they're actually separate instances of characters that have been placed at different points of the timeline, with entrance and exit animations.

Here's a quick example I made (please keep in mind it's nothing fancy):

Character Example for Julie

If that's not it, just let me know!

Thanks,

Christine

Hi Christine,

Ok, so the way you did it was NOT to use states for the same instance, but rather entirely separate instances that you had animate in and out at different places on the timeline.  That makes sense!  I haven't worked with Flash in a very long time, but I do remember doing some of that with Flash.  I'll give it a try tomorrow and see if I can make it work.

Thank you so much for taking the time to create the example and explain it to me!

Julie

Hi Julie!

Sure thing! :) If you have any trouble, any questions, or would like to try a different method, just let me know.

I hope you have a great evening!

Christine

Hi, I thought I'd jump in here and add my 2 cents. You can apply animations to character states. But the way you do it is to apply the animations to the character in the normal state - when you add any other states, they automatically pick up the animation applied to the normal one. 

Hi,

To add on to what Christy has done and Nancy has said, here's the same story with a second slide. The second slide has the character's expressions and perspective changing via state changes instead of repositioning along the timeline. Currently, this needs to be done with the "aid" of offstage triggers. Just so you know it can also be done that way. Any questions, give a holler.

you can cut and paste objects  in a state to add individual animations to each state

Hey, Phil. Yes, I add your cut/paste animations tip all the time!