using timeline to trigger layers in Storyline

Hi Marianne and welcome to Heroes!

You mentioned using the timeline, but what is the trigger that you're setting up? Possibly it shows the layer when a particular object appears on the timeline? Are you able to share your .story file for us to look at here? If you'd prefer to share it privately you can send it to me here. 

Hi Ashley,

I am attempting to trigger objects on a layer to appear at the point I have set the layer on the timeline.

I cannot share the entire project. Is there a way I can share this one slide? Or do I have to set it up as a separate story?

Thank you!

Marianne

Ashley,

I could not seem to attach the file here, so I uploaded it on the support page.

Thanks.

Marianne

Hi Marianne,

Thanks - it did get attached here (it typically appears right next to the "Post reply" button - so not always noticeable) and I also saw the Support case come through, which I'll close out and answer here. 

Looking at your file, there are no triggers to show the layers. Think of layers as semi transparent that lay over the base layer. So to get them to show, you'll have to tell Storyline to show them at a particular point, and setting it on the timeline of the layer is not enough. Typically a layer is shown when a user clicks, or hovers, over/on an object. So for example, if you made the words Jeans, T-Shirts, and Tennis shoes individual hotspots within that word - you could set it to show the layer when the user hovers over each of those words. 

Attached is your example with those changes made. I also wanted to point you to this tutorial on triggers and this one on working with layers. 

Hi Ashley,

Thanks for your reply. I will take a look at your changes. However, I would like to accomplish these layer changes without user interaction (clicking on buttons or hotspots). I thought I could do this by positioning on the timeline. No? Is there another way to "animate" this?

Thank you!

Marianne

Hi Marianne,

You could do it by positioning them on the timeline of the base layer - you'd need to set up a user interaction to access a slide layer. If you're going to be working with just the base layer, you could use the built in animations to fade the in and out and you could sync them to specific cue points to ensure you're timing is as specific as you want. 

Hi Ashley,

I will give that a try! Thanks for all your help.

Marianne

Sounds good Marianne! 

Glad you got some benefit from this Celito. Yes, the timelines can function independently and you can 'pause' the timeline of the base layer. You can read more about Adding and Editing Slide Layers as well.

Thank you very much.

No problem Celito

With Storyline there's always more than one way to do something...

Here's an option you have to trigger events based on the timeline, using objects positioned off of the "stage", or slide area.

In the attached example I've:

1. Added three rectangles off to the right of the slide area,
2. Positioned the beginning of each rectangle in the timeline where I want the corresponding slide layers to be triggered, and
3. Added a trigger to each rectangle to show the corresponding slide layer when the object's timeline starts...

Fantastic! So simple but powerful. Thanks Brian for sharing.

Agreed! Thanks Brian

Thanks Brian and Leslie!

Glad you got some assistance here Marianne