"Exit Animations" triggered by timeline

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.