How Do I Loop Motion?

We have a great time working with motion paths during our hands-on Storyline 360 training. Animation and movement can bring an e-Learning slide to life by increasing engagement or by illustrating a concept that may be best taught when an object is in motion. Well, what if we need that animation to continually repeat? …Like our space example here!

Creating motion is fairly simple (and yet, versatile) and in doing so, we can determine where and how the object will move across the slide, not to mention the timeframe of when we want it to move.

Sometimes, we also need an animation to keep repeating, like tires spinning on a vehicle. Let’s easily repeat a motion path endlessly (or “loop” it) for this “as heard in training” question, “How do I loop motion?”

 

Select an Object

Insert your object onto the slide (like the spaceship in our space example) and keep it selected. (You’ll notice we added a background image on the slide master to match our spaceship idea for this build, but feel free to experiment.)

 

Add a Motion Path

With the object you’ll animate still selected, build your motion path animation by selecting the Animations tab and the Add Motion Path button. For this build, we have chosen to construct a Custom | Curve motion path in the shape of a figure eight, but you’ll create whatever path you need to move the object along. If you also build a Custom path, you’ll either click and hold to draw the path or single-click around the slide to create anchor points, double-clicking to complete the path.

Note: We also added a “Fade” Entrance animation to the spaceship for a little added flair, but it is not necessary. Whatever looks best!

 

Name that Path!

Name your motion path in the Name field. I have chosen the name “Spaceship Motion Path,” but call this path anything that helps you remember what this motion path is for.

Tip: For you right-clickers out there, you can also rename your motion path by right-clicking the path and selecting “Rename!”

 

Make Path Adjustments

Adjust your motion path parameters to be sure you have the desired duration and path options. For this build, we have chosen to increase the duration to 10 seconds. (Remember: this is space…everything moves slower in space!)

Under the Path Options setting, with the motion path selected, we have also chosen to set the Easing | Direction to None. This way, the spaceship will not speed up or slow down (AKA “ease”) at the beginning and ending of the motion path. Feel free to experiment with the Path Options settings that are right for you!

 

Verify the Trigger

Now, you may need to adjust the default motion path trigger to occur at the appropriate time. A trigger is created automatically when a motion path is built, so we just want to verify this trigger before moving forward. For purposes of this build, we have elected to use the trigger as is.

 

Looping

Here’s where looping comes in! Right now, the object only proceeds along its motion path one time and stops, but we need to make it happen over and over again. To do this, we’ll add one more trigger to repeat the motion path whenever the motion path completes.

There are now two triggers that control the motion path: one that starts it moving to begin with and one that moves it along the same path again, and then again, and again… It’s endless…like space!

Preview the project to check out how you did!

Looping motion paths can provide yet another way to create engaging content for your learners! Let us know if you have questions, or how you use these concepts in your own designs and development projects.

Plus, download our source file to further explore this build, and if you want to see how we looped the video on the second slide, be sure to try out a similar concept that I shared on our blog exactly a year ago on looping video.

 

 

 

~John B.