Motion paths can greatly improve the presentation quality of your slides. But, the key is doing them well. Getting your motion paths as precise as possible may be the deciding factor in whether they add to or detract from your design.
This often comes up when you need to align or distribute multiple items that have moved. In this post, we’ll address a recent “as heard in training” question: “How do I align objects at the end of motion paths?”
Articulate has made some wonderful object editing enhancements in Storyline 360 that are extremely helpful in this task. For example:
- Drawing guides can be useful for ensuring consistent alignment.
- Smart guides (that appear when objects are in alignment with one another) help to create more clean designs.
- Using the Shift key on your keyboard while editing motion can help keep paths aligned with their original location.
- When used with motion, the Size and Position features help you place motion path end points exactly where you want them.
For today, let’s focus on how to make sure the end points of multiple motion paths are aligned and distributed properly. So, let’s get to it!
But First, Download the Exercise File!
If you’d like to follow along with a completed version of what we’re building, take a moment to download the exercise file now.
Now, Let’s Begin!
Take a moment to consider this example.
Here we have a slide with an illustration of a file cabinet in the middle, and four file folder objects (representing “topics”) that appear to be coming up and out of the cabinet using motion paths. How did we do this? Well, the simplest way to create these results is to begin at the end. Let’s go through the steps to do just that.
Step 1
The first step is to place your items where you want them to end at the completion of the motion path. In our example, we have four file folders that we aligned and distributed using the formatting options in Storyline 360.
Step 2
Once you have your items positioned where you want them, add motion paths to each one.
For our example, we created motion paths that moved the file folder objects back to the filing cabinet.
Step 3
For each path, you then may need to make a few final adjustments. Here’s what we adjusted in our example:
1. The duration of the motion path, which allows you to specify how long the animation lasts or how fast it moves.
2. The name of the motion path, which is especially useful when there are multiple motion paths on an object (to ensure you know which path you’re adjusting).
3. In the Path Options Menu, we selected the Reverse Path Direction option to reverse the direction of the file folder motion paths. This plays the motion in the opposite direction, so it starts from the endpoint.
And, that’s it! We now have a nice set of motions that all start (or stop) at an exact location. There may be a few additional adjustments you want to make based on your design, but using the Reverse Path Direction option is an elegant way to make sure your motions are a perfect complement to your slide design.
What other tips move you? Let us know, we would love to hear about them!
Want More on This Topic?
If you want to learn more about working with motion paths in Storyline 360, check out the posts below from Articulate and The Articulate Trainer blog.
7 Pro Tips for Working with Motion Path Animations in Storyline 360
How Do I Create a Moving Bullet Point?
Storyline 360: Fine-Tune Motion Paths
Storyline 360: Syncing Motion Path Animations
What Are the Different Motion Path Options?
Happy developing!
~Ron
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