7 Pro Tips for Working with Motion Path Animations in Storyline 360
Animations can be a powerful way to explain a concept, tell a story, or make your content memorable. Storyline 360 has a variety of animation options—including entrance, exit, and motion paths. With motion path animations, you can control how your objects move and bring your ideas to life. Here are some time-saving tips to help propel you forward when working with motion path animations. 1. Rename Motion Paths When you add a motion path animation to an object in Storyline 360, a name is automatically assigned. If you plan on adding multiple motion paths, it’s a good idea to rename each one. This will make it easier to identify which motion path you’re working on when editing triggers. 2. Copy Animations If you plan on using the same motion path animation on several objects, save time by copying the animation from one object to another using the Animation Painter. By double-clicking the Animation Painter, you can apply the same animation to multiple objects one after the other without having to click the Animation Painter over and over again. To turn it off, click it one last time or press the ESC key on your keyboard. Did you know? When you copy and paste an object, any animations you’ve added to the object are also copied over. So if you’re using the same object multiple times, add any animations you want to include before you copy it to save time. 3. Sync Using Cue Points As you build content, you might change your mind about when you want your motion path animation to start. Syncing your motion path to a cue point gives you the flexibility to change the motion path timing without having to edit the trigger each time. All you have to do is drag the cue point along the timeline until the timing feels right, and the motion path will start at the new time. 4. Select the Object Path to Edit To edit a motion path, you can select the start or end point individually using your mouse and drag the point to the desired location. If you have multiple start or end points overlapping each other, you can easily select and edit them without having to hide objects from your timeline. Simply select the line of the object path you want to edit. It will turn bright blue while the other objects and their paths will fade. Then, move the start or end point as needed. Did you know? Another way to fine-tune a motion path is to select the start or end point of one or all of the objects and edit the X and Y coordinates. This is great for times when you need to be super-precise. 5. Change the Easing Option By default, Storyline 360 automatically assigns an ease-in and ease-out effect to your motion paths. This controls the acceleration and deceleration of an animation. If your animation needs to move at the same pace across the screen, then you’ll want to edit the easing direction to none. 6. Orient Shape to Path There might be times when you need to include an object that faces a certain direction as it follows a path—for example, a car making a right turn. By selecting Orient Shape to Path, the object will always face the direction it’s moving, even when it travels on a nonlinear path. 7. Use a Relative Start Point Perhaps you want to create an interaction where the object can move multiple times depending on the learner’s choice. For example, let’s say you created a racetrack and want the learner’s car to move forward whenever they answer a question correctly. Instead of duplicating the object and creating motion paths for each possible outcome, you can select Relative Start Point to move the object along the motion path starting from its current position. For more ideas on how to use this feature, check out this tutorial. Did you know? You can add more than one motion path to the same object and have each begin at the new location of the object based on previous movements. For more ideas on how to use this feature, check out this free Storyline 360 download by Samuel Apata. Motion path animations give you the flexibility to quickly create content that’ll move your learners. What tips do you have for working with motion paths? Share your ideas in the comments below. Want to try something you learned here, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.How I Built This Recycling Parallax Interaction in Storyline 360
If you’ve ever been on a road trip and gazed out the side window (hopefully only as a passenger 😉), you’ve probably noticed that objects close to you—like trees—appear to zip by really fast, while objects further in the distance—such as mountains—seem to barely move. This phenomenon is known as motion parallax. In the digital world, the parallax effect gives the illusion of depth and movement. Combine that with a realistic learning scenario—like in this Recycling Guide example—and you’ve got yourself a truly engaging interaction. View | Download Let’s take a look at how to create this interactive parallax example in Storyline 360! Create layered components To create a parallax effect you need several layered components that move at different speeds. So, the first thing I did was create all my slide elements with the different layers in mind. Using a combination of shapes in Storyline 360 and Content Library 360 assets, I ended up with six layered components. Component 1: Recycling bin For this example, I wanted the recycling bin to be the main focus—after all, that’s what the course is all about. Since I planned to tilt the bin and make the wheels spin, having it front and center would give the optical illusion that the bin was rolling as the background moved. Component 2: Park Next, I needed to create the main interactive piece—the park. This is the only component that learners engage with to reveal additional content, so I was very intentional about how I designed the space. Since the graphics were going to move horizontally, I made sure to extend those designs past the slide size. I carefully placed each object—such as buttons and litter—in different parts of the park and in a specific order to help guide the experience. And because I used only Content Library 360 icons/illustrations and simple shapes, it was easy to move things around and reposition them as needed. Pro tip: Before duplicating a button, create all the states beforehand so they copy over. Big time-saver! Component 3: Mountains (light) To add a sense of depth and movement, I included mountains in the background. I combined several different mountain-shaped icons to create the extra-wide graphic. I made the first mountain layer a light tan color since objects up close are generally lighter in color. Component 4: Mountains (dark) Behind the lightly colored mountains, I added a darker version for contrast. To save time, I copied and pasted some of the shapes from the lighter mountain. Since not all mountains look alike, I flipped and resized some of the shapes so that when they moved, they didn’t line up exactly the same. Component 5: Sky The scene wouldn’t be complete without a sky! I added a sun for reference. I mostly kept this component simple to save time and to keep the main focus on content. Component 6: Frame (optional) Okay, so this is where it gets a little tricky. I could’ve made things easier by extending the sky and ground to fill the slide. That way, I wouldn’t need a frame and objects could freely animate on and off the rectangular slide. But I really wanted to create a unique learning experience. To give this course a custom look and feel I designed a frame to show content within a unique shape. The frame is comprised of the title, a white border, arrow buttons, a background, and two side shapes to match so that the other components only show inside the unique shape. Pro tip: To make the slide look seamless with the player background, go to your Player settings and change the background color to match. And here’s how it all looks together. Save static objects Once I created all the components, I realized there were a lot of objects on my slide. So, I decided to make my file easier to manage by saving some of the layered components that had a lot of objects—such as the Park, Mountains (Light), and Mountains (Dark)—as their own image and then replacing them with a scalable vector graphic (SVG) to keep image quality. For example, I selected all the objects in the Mountains (Dark) component, right-clicked, and selected Export Shape as Picture. I saved the shapes as a PNG. For the best image quality, I simply opened that PNG file in Adobe Illustrator and saved it as an SVG. I went back to my Storyline 360 project, inserted and resized my SVG to match the objects on the slide, and then deleted all of the Mountains (Dark) objects. I repeated this process with the Mountains (Light) component. For the Park component, I took a few extra steps before exporting it as a picture since it had a lot of interactive elements and I only wanted to save the static parts of the image. On the timeline, I clicked the eye icon to hide objects with states, animations, and text so I could still edit them or assign triggers at any time. Here are all of the static components I exported as a shape to save as an SVG. And for context, here are all the elements I did not include in the export. After inserting and resizing the Park SVG, I moved it beneath the hidden park objects on the timeline. I selected the eye icons to make all the Park components visible again where they remained in the same location as designed. Then, I grouped them and renamed the group “Park.” Saving some of the components as an SVG really sped up my workflow. With fewer objects on my timeline, it was easier to select the ones I wanted to edit or add triggers to. It also reduced the file size so content could load faster. To learn more about scalable vector graphics (SVG), check out this article: Storyline 360: SVG Support. Get things moving With all the graphics on the base layer in place, I created several additional layers to reveal content and help tell the story. Now it was time to connect everything with movement. To explain how to create the parallax effect, let’s roll through the example.😊 Background When you move right, the background moves left, making it look like the recycling bin is rolling forward. If you move left, those same background components move right, making it look like the recycling bin is rolling backward. To create this parallax effect, I added motion path animations to move some of the background components—Park, Mountains (Light), and Mountains (Dark). And in case you didn’t already know, you can add more than one motion path to the same object. That feature really came in handy here. For each component, I added a Left and Right line motion path. Since I wanted the components to all move at the same pace, I edited the easing direction to None for each motion path. I also selected Relative Start Point to ensure each component always moved from its current position. Next, I changed the duration of the paths to one second. I chose this duration because I planned to have the recycling bin roll left or right for one second as well. That way, all the animations would stop and start at the same time. To make it easier to manage triggers later on, I also renamed the motion paths to include the component name and the direction of the path. For example, I named the motion path that moves the park group right “Park Right.” Next, I changed the length of the paths. This is where it differs for each component. Since I wanted the background objects to move at a slower speed than the foreground objects, I edited the left and right motion path lengths for each component to the following. Park: 180 px Mountains (Light): 90 px Mountains (Dark): 40 px Using these settings, the furthest-away component, Mountains (Dark), would only move left and right 40 px during the one-second duration. Whereas, Mountains (Light) would move about twice the distance, at 90 px, during that same time. And that was it for the motion path settings! Now it was time to add triggers to make these components move in the right direction. By default, when you add a motion path animation to an object, a trigger is automatically created. Since I wanted the components to move based on the user selecting Right or Left, I deleted those triggers from the base layer and instead added them to the Bin Right and Bin Left layers. On the Bin Left layer, I added triggers to move the components right when the timeline starts. And on the Bin Right layer, I added triggers to move the components left when the timeline starts. Now, when the learner selects Left or Right, they’ll see the background move accordingly. Recycling bin Now for the recycling bin. I put it front and center to make it appear like it was rolling when the background moved. When you go right, the bin tilts and rolls forward. When you move left, it tilts and moves backward. After one second, the animations stop and the recycling bin returns to its upright position. To create this optical illusion, on the Bin Right and Bin Left layers I hid the recycling bin that was on the base layer so it was no longer visible. In its place, I added a tilted bin with dirt paths depending on the direction it was going to move. Bin left layer Bin right layer Next, I added a Spin entrance animation to the wheels. Just like a regular wheel, if you go left, the wheel’s direction moves counterclockwise. If you go right, the wheel’s direction moves clockwise. As for the amount it spins in each direction, I landed on a quarter spin since that looked the most accurate. To emphasize the direction the recycling bin was moving, I included dirt paths and added Wipe and Fade animations. And because both the duration of the background components and the timeline on these layers are set to only one second, all the animations come to a stop at the same time. To ensure the recycling bin returned to its original upright position, I added a trigger to hide whichever layer you’re on—Bin Left or Bin Right—when the timeline ends. The learner automatically returns to the base layer, where they can continue the learning journey. Set boundaries With the freedom to move the recycling bin left and right as you please, you may be wondering how I stopped the background components from moving too far. If you go left at the very beginning, you’ll see a little tortoise and a deactivated Left button so you can’t move any further. To keep learners from navigating outside of the main area, I needed to set some boundaries. To achieve this, I added a Deactivated button over the Left button that only shows when you navigate to that side of the screen. To make the button visible, I added a transparent shape and pasted it inside the existing group, “Park.” When you navigate left, the Park group moves right, causing the bin and the transparent shape to intersect, which changes the Deactivated button to Normal (visible). When you navigate away, it stops intersecting and returns to its original hidden state. I used this same technique at the end of the learning experience. When the recycling bin intersects with the transparent shape next to the house, it shows the final layer. This allowed me to end the parallax learning experience at the end of the graphic. Wrap-Up And that’s all there is to it! Using the parallax effect can create an engaging learning experience that truly brings your content to life. If you haven’t already, download this Recycling Guide project to take a closer look at how I built it. For more advice on working with motion paths, head on over to this article: 7 Pro Tips for Working With Motion Path Animations in Storyline 360. If you want to see more ways to create a motion effect, check out this webinar: Create Parallax Effects With Sliders in Storyline 360. Want to try to create your own parallax example, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.Using 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 newthreadand 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#ElearningChallengeso 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-LearningRECAP#448:Challenge|Recap 👋 New to the E-Learning Challenges? Theweekly e-learning challengesare ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of theprevious challengesanytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in thisQ&A postand why and how to participate in thishelpful article. 📅 Next Week’s Challenge Challenge #450(02.16): UsingThemes,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 usingthemesand 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.
