Magnifying Movement
E-Learning Heroes has long guided my work creating art-based learning modules that build visual literacy skills and weave the arts across the curriculum. These modules encourage students to look closer and think deeper about works of art. When I first saw morphing in action, I thought it was engaging—but wondered whether it could truly serve instructional value. This magnifying movement may be more metaphor than method, but it’s a start. Try it here This module was inspired by chaotic museum tours with my young family. The hopes of a shared learning experience were quickly dashed the moment my three competitive children spotted the first interactive button. The rest of the visit was a free for all as they ran pell-mell through the galleries, trying to be the first to mash the next button. The light or sound it triggered crowned the victor. My attempts to explain the displays went entirely unheard as the three terrors dashed off to their next conquest. The best I could do was slow them down with “truth bombs”—the more scandalous, the better. “The newspapers said that artist died painting a sunrise, but he was actually killed in a barroom brawl the night before.” “This artist, who was bald, hid a sneaky self-portrait in that painting—maybe two. Can you find him?” “That painting’s basically a group selfie—and the artist is teasing his friend, a notorious playboy, and a lady who made headlines with her own affairs.” Please share this with anyone who shares that same button-mashing curiosity. Check out more interactive resources for teaching artAnimated Menus Using Morph Transitions
When I first saw the morph transition, I didn’t think much of it. The fade has always worked just fine. But after seeing what Elizabeth and Thierry did with it, I got it. For this challenge, I reworked a menu example I originally built with motion paths and variables. Motion paths are easier in Storyline now, but they still take time to set up when you're duplicating and reversing the paths. Same with variables. They're easy to copy and tweak, but also easy to mess something up and lose your time troubleshooting. But with the morph transition, it’s two slides. Move the objects where you want them on each one, and you're done. View the example5 Ways to Use Morph Transitions
View the example For my example this week, I decided to practice a few simple techniques using the Morph transition. Progress bars Text and title transitions Showing character dialogue or conversations Image carousel effect An office exploration Production Tips For the image carousel, the process was pretty straightforward and much easier than using multiple motion paths with reverse paths like you’d normally need. The main challenge was just keeping the images aligned on each slide. I used Storyline's guides initially to align the objects but a few still felt off so I manually verified (and updated) each object's position using the the Size and Position window. I attached the source file so you can see what I did. About Me Connect on LinkedIn: David AndersonMindfulness
What do you do when your brain hits a wall? This project explores small, mindful actions to help you reset and reconnect. I used a soft pastel palette and flat icons to create a simple interaction where each tip gently morphs into view. The visual transitions are built around consistent layout and position changes to simulate a calm, flowing experience—no motion paths, just smooth shifts from one moment to the next. 🔗 View the Demo About Me Jayashree Ravi Curious about more e-learning innovations? Connect with me on LinkedIn to share ideas, discuss implementation techniques, or simply chat about instructional design challenges.Meet the New Morph Transition in Articulate Storyline
As an e-learning developer, you know how important smooth, engaging transitions can be. That’s why I’m excited about Articulate’s latest update: the brand-new Morph transition for Storyline! Morph brings a whole new level of polish to your slides by intelligently animating objects from one state to another. Instead of abrupt jumps or simple fades, you can now create fluid, professional-looking animations that feel almost cinematic. Whether you're moving shapes, text, or images, the Morph transition automatically calculates the movement, scaling, rotation, and even color changes — saving you tons of manual animation time. It’s perfect for storytelling, demos, onboarding courses, or anytime you want to wow your learners with seamless visual flow. To explore the new feature, I developed a short demo showcasing what Morph can do. The demo is inspired by three Morph transitions originally created in Microsoft PowerPoint that I discovered online and features an animated intro slide, a dynamic animation of a deck of cards, and a smooth circular text animation — all created using the new Morph transition. While it’s exciting to see how much creativity this new feature unlocks, I did notice that the Morph transitions aren't quite as smooth yet as the PowerPoint version. These kinds of hiccups are common for new features, and I’m sure the Articulate development team is working hard to smooth out these tiny issues. All in all, I can’t wait to start using Morph in my projects — and I’m even more excited to see what you create with it! Have you tried it yet? Let me know what you think! You can preview my demo via the link below, or download the source file to explore the build details. Preview my demo Download the source file Note: In the demo, I’ve used some circular text. This text was created in PowerPoint. If needed, you can download the PowerPoint file hereUsing Emphasis Animations to Grab Learners' Attention #449
Using Emphasis Animation in E-Learning #449: Challenge | Recap What moves, gets noticed. And if you've worked in Storyline 360 recently, you likely noticed some movement in the Animations tab on the ribbon. Just like in PowerPoint, Storyline's new emphasis animation effects offer fresh ways to guide attention and highlight on-slide elements. You can apply them to pretty much anything – shapes, images, buttons, characters, markers, text boxes, even videos. So whether you’re trying to grab your learner’s attention or prompt them to touch the screen, emphasis animations can help learners focus on what’s important. And that’s what this week’s challenge is all about. 🏆 Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to show how Storyline 360's new emphasis animations can be used in e-learning. Your example can be a simple button starter kit showcasing the new animation effects, or you can create a more complete or polished. NOTE: Even without an active Articulate 360 subscription, you can participate in this week's challenge. For example, PowerPoint's emphasis animations give you similar functionality. 🧰 Resources Storyline 360: Emphasis Animations Storyline 360: Adding Animations Triggering Motion Paths Based on Learners' Actions Emphasis Animations Beta Feedback: Share your feedback, report a bug, or tell us how you’re using the new animations. ✨ Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to link your published example and blog post. Forums: Start a new thread and share a link to your published example. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We'll link to your posts so your great work gets even more exposure. Social media: If you share your demos on x or LinkedIn, try using #ElearningChallenge so your peeps can follow your e-learning coolness. 🙌 Last Week’s Challenge: To help you build momentum for this week’s challenge, check out the growing list of tabs interactions your fellow challengers shared over the past week: Tabs Interactions in E-Learning RECAP #448: Challenge | Recap 👋 New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article. 📅 Next Week’s Challenge Challenge #450 (02.16): Using Themes, Templates, & Slide Masters. Another basics challenge, only this week we're looking at under-the-hood features to help us work faster in Storyline 360 and PowerPoint. Rise 360 users can show their before-after examples using themes and block templates. 🚨 Contact Information Just a quick heads up – if you want your blog, website, or LinkedIn included in our recap posts, could you do me a favor and add or update those links onto your ELH profile sometime this week? I found some broken links last week when I pulled the recap together. You spend a lot of time building creative examples, and your work deserves all the attention it can get.How to Say NO Professionally
I've always liked using states to change a character's expression and pose but really dislike how abruptly it changes. With morphing transitions, it gives it a smoother look, and I think I can give it an even smoother look with some practice. I would normally have one slide with layers and the states triggered and synced with the audio but, to use morphing, I had to break it out into one slide per expression. I used Articulate AI for the background and narration and had fun with the colors 😁
