Video: Combine a path with other effects

A motion path can be especially powerful when you combine it with another animation effect. In this movie, we'll apply a Spin and other effects to our wheel animation to complete the rolling effect we want to achieve.

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Design motion paths

A motion path can be especially powerful when you combine it with another animation effect.

For example, this wheel image has a motion path that moves it to the right.

But I can get a better result, more natural motion, if I add a Spin effect to the wheel.

To add the Spin effect, I’ll select the wheel, and then click Add Animation.

Note that I’m choosing Add Animation rather than going to the main effects gallery because the wheel already has one effect: the motion path.

I’m adding to that one.

So in the Add Animation gallery, I look in the Emphasis effects, and choose Spin.

Let’s preview all the effects.

The wheel moves to the right and then spins. But I want it to spin while it moves along the path.

To work more with the spin, I’ll open the Animation Pane.

The Spin emphasis effect is yellow and has the star icon, and the motion path is blue and has the line icon.

I’ll select the Spin effect and click its arrow, and instead of having it Start On Click, I’ll have it Start With Previous.

Now let’s click Play All to preview the sequence.

The wheel rolls.

But notice how it starts rolling before it moves and keeps rolling after it’s stopped.

To make the Spin look more natural, I’ll select it, display its menu, and click Effect Options.

I use these settings, Smooth start and Smooth end, to control the spin. They give the spin a more gradual start and end.

I’ll set each one to 1 second, and click OK.

I’ll click Play All. Now the roll looks more natural and the wheel doesn’t spin in place.

Last, I want the wheel to roll back and forth.

So, I’m going to select both effects—I’ll click one, press Ctrl, and click the other.

With both effects selected, there’s just one arrow to click for the drop-down menu, and what I select will apply to both effects.

I’ll click Effect Options, and select this option, Auto-reverse.

This will make both effects play and then play again in reverse.

Now while I’ve got the dialog box open, I’m going to click the Timing tab, and speed up the duration of both effects.

I’ll change this from 2 seconds to 1.5.

Another thing I can do is make the whole effect repeat, by clicking 2 in the Repeat box.

There’s the finished effect.

The wheel rolls back and forth, and it repeats.

Here’s another animation sequence that uses combined effects.

This rocket moves on two diagonal motion paths, one to the moon, and one back to earth.

I’ll play the sequence.

The rocket flies to the moon, then turns around and flies back.

You’ll also notice that the rocket gets smaller as it moves away and larger as it returns.

That’s the work of an effect called Grow/Shrink. It’s combined with the motion paths.

Here are the effects in the Animation Pane.

These are the motion paths, and each one is followed by this emphasis effect, called Grow/Shrink.

Each Grow/Shrink effect is set to play with the previous motion path.

So let’s look at the first use of the Grow/Shrink effect: I’ll open its Effect Options.

In this case, the Grow/Shrink effect applies to the rocket as it moves away, so its size is set to Smaller, which makes the rocket shrink.

Also, its Smooth start setting delays the shrinking so it happens a ways down the path, or farther away.

And the Smooth end setting helps the shrinking effect at the end of the path to occur gradually.

Now here’s the other Grow/Shrink effect. Let’s open its Effect Options.

This effect applies to the rocket on its return motion path, so the rocket’s size is doubled, at 200%.

And its Smooth start and Smooth end settings are adjusted to make the rocket get larger gradually, as it returns on the motion path.

So, with motion paths, remember there’s power in combinations.

Up next: Create an animation sequence with line motion paths.