"Exit Animations" triggered by timeline

Good Afternoon, Kevin.

To what object is your Exit Animation applied? Would you mind sending us a copy of your .story project file for a closer look? Thanks!

I am a little confused layers don't have exit animation only objects. If you ant to hide an object by pressing a button you cannot add an exit animation to it or it will exit at the end of its timeline, this is by design.

Alayer can set to either hide when its timeline ends or when you open another layer or via trigger

Kevin,

Let me see if I understand what you are trying to do.

• You have a layer that appears with some animations. Those animations may be on the objects or through the slide/layer transitions.
• You would also like some animation when the layer hides. But when you apply exit animations to the objects, you are left with a blank layer before the user clicks to close the layer.
• And Storyline does not have a built-in exit layer transition. Layer's simply Hide with the built-in functionality.

Am I understanding you correctly?

If so, take a look at this story file. As usual there are many ways to accomplish something in Storyline.

I have a base layer with a button to show a layer. The objects on the layer have entrance animations. I did not apply a layer transition though I could have.

Now, here is the trick: To get an exit animation on the layer, I accomplished that by duplicating the layer and removing the entrance animations on the objects on the duplicate layer.. The duplicate layer has a timeline of less than a second. Every object on the duplicate layer has an exit animation that occurs before that second elapses. The duplicate layer hides when the timeline ends.

What the user sees:

1. Click on the button to show the layer.
2. Layer animates on.
3. Click the button to hide the layer.
4. Layer animates off.

What actually happens:

1. Click the button to show the layer.
2. Layer 1 animates on.
3. Click the button to hide the layer.
4. Layer 1-Copy shows; Layer 1 hides.
5. Layer 1-Copy immediately has all objects animate off.
6. Layer 1-Copy hides.

I've encountered this problem, too. It's a problem with object animations and the end of a layer timeline-- but it doesn't matter whether it's the base layer or another layer.

Here's how it SHOULD be:

• Setting an object entrance animation indicates that if the object ever goes from a Hidden state to a non-Hidden state, then it appears via the indicated animation.
• Setting an object exit animation indicates that if the object ever goes from a non-Hidden state to a Hidden state, then it disappears via the indicated animation.

How it ACTUALLY works is similar to the above, PLUS:

• having an entrance animation overrides "Show Always"
• having an exit animation overrides "Show Always" and "Show Until End"

("Show Always" and "Show Until End" can be found by right-clicking an object's timeline).

I believe Phil when he says this is by design; I suspected the override was put there deliberately. I'd be curious to know why it was put there. It saves someone a step if they wanted stuff to fade out at the end of the timeline, but it dramatically increases the number of steps required when anyone wants to bypass the override.

Thanks for all your help so far. Meryem seems to understand what I want. I had a coworker tell me about this same solution. Unfortunately, I'm not willing to do that, because between all my slides and the multiple layers I have, I'd have to duplicate at least 50 layers. In the end, it wouldn't be worth the effort.

I've attached a concept for other people to see. You click on one button to show the objects in a layer, and when the user is done, they click a second button to hide the objects on the layer. (Sorry Phil, I misspoke earlier about animating a "layer"). I can get the objects on the layer to animate on, but I can't get them to animate off (triggered from a user interaction).

Hope it makes sense this time.

Thanks!

Greg,

I tried switching all the objects on one of my layers to "Always Show", but with an exit animation set, it still animates the objects off at the end of the timeline, not when the user click them. :( Thanks for the idea though.

Yes. That's my point-- exit animations cause Storyline to ignore "Show Until End" and "Show Always". In my own experience, this feature does more harm than good.

I am having issues where exit animations on objects are triggered by the timeline ending, not when the user clicks the next button.  The objects are set to "show until end," but this usually means the items exit before the button is pressed.  

Work-arounds can be created with layers, but that is a cumbersome solution to something that probably has a simple answer.  Am I just missing something?

This is in Articulate 1 and 2.

Hi James,

This would be expected if they are set to be "shown until end" and include exit animations - as the timeline has ended, and therefore the objects should be exiting. 

How do I make the exit animation trigger when the next button is pressed and not when the timeline ends, then?