Good afternoon everyone, I'm currently working on a course where I'm trying to make a circular diagram spin on a central axis. It needs to rotate 90° after click on a trigger, four times until it's back into it's original position. Anyone have any idea how I could do this? I guess the answer will be motion path, however I can't seem to figure out how to make the rotate rather than move in a circle.

Ant, You can't add an animation to an object already in a state. However, you can copy and paste an item (that already has an animation added) to a state and the animation will run. So the basic gist in the example above.... 1. Add the object to the slide and then add the quarter turn spin animation. 2. Copy object. 3. Create a new state "Stop 1" and then paste the object to that state (deleting original object). 4. Duplicate Stop 1 to Create Stop 2 and rotate the object 90 degrees. 5. Repeat step 4 as necessary 6. Remove the animation on the original object on the base layer. I hope this helps! Mike PS. I used the basic spin animation (quarter turn) and not a motion path.

The windmill has states, each state has a quarter spin animation.

Hi Ant. Sounds like you're trying to build something pretty cool! I've been noodling this one with Mike Enders and we're not sure you can get the effect you're looking for with motion paths since they aren't 3D. Mike shared with me the attached example he created for a DevLearn session showing how you can get a 2D continuous rotation effect—although I'm not sure that's what you're looking for. I also found a previous discussion highlighting some ideas for achieving a 3D rotation effect. Some of the ideas involved using PPT to animate the effect, while other folks suggested using Javascript.Keep us posted on what solution(s) you ultimately employ to bring your design to life.

Here is a quick variation of Mike's file that allows for continued rotation and starting/stopping. The 'starting/stopping' part is still rough but the mechanism works.

Hello.. After some experiments based on the methods shown by Mike, Trina & Michael, I came up with this method to simply it further. Hope this helps. Basic is same - A shape with 3 sec spin. It has 2 more states - S1 & S2 with 3 sec spin each. Now instead of the box & motion path, I have used JavaScript to change the variables at 3 sec intervals and added trigger to change states when the variables change.

Making an item spin on a central axis | Articulate

ChristiePollick
Community Member
10 years ago
Sounds like a great solution, Jennifer! We appreciate the update. :)
ChristiePollick
Community Member
9 years ago
Many thanks for sharing your example, Subhashis! I did want to note for anyone who may not be aware... should you decide to utilize JavaScript, unfortunately, that is an area for which we would not be able to provide support. Here is also our JS Best Practices sheet for those who many like to review it. :)
LynLucovsky
Community Member
9 years ago
Thanks Michael and Tim for your help and examples.
JACOBSTONE-00fb
Community Member
8 years ago
Greetings! I'm trying to do these rotating effects like the windmill on an object and it won't let me do any rotations when editing the states. How did you get the windmill image to rotate for the other states? The rotate icon goes away when I edit the states. (see screenshot)
- MichaelHinze
  Community Member
  8 years ago
  You need to apply the rotation BEFORE you copy&paste that object into a state.
JACOBSTONE-00fb
Community Member
8 years ago
I'm not sure what you mean...do I copy and paste the object in the normal state...rotate it...then cut and paste it to the new state?
- MichaelHinze
  Community Member
  8 years ago
  You need to have an object on your slide (outside of any states), rotate it and then copy&paste that object into a state.
JACOBSTONE-00fb
Community Member
8 years ago
Thanks Mike! I think I got it.
LeslieMcKerchie
Staff
8 years ago
Hi Amy! This thread is a bit dated and I'm not sure if Subhashis is still subscribed here. You are certainly welcome to reach out to the user directly via the 'Contact Me' option on the user profile if you do not hear back soon.
AtanasKaradzhov
Community Member
8 years ago
Ok, I have read a number of solutions on this problem that work. However, is it really that hard to include a default rotate animation in Storyline that can easily be set up to play on loop?! It takes an eye-watering amount of triggers to achieve that effect at the moment.
AlyssaGomez
Staff
8 years ago
That would make an excellent feature request, Atanas! I can see how that feature would be handy for a lot of folks. Can you tell us more about how you'd like it to function here?
- AtanasKaradzhov
  Community Member
  8 years ago
  Good idea, Alyssa! Request submitted!
OwenHolt
Super Hero
8 years ago
I'll request it as well. I would think it would be a marriage of the circular motion path & the dial interaction....
The Spin motion path (with an arc/degrees variable)!