Presets and stagger
One-click entrances, exits, emphasis, camera moves and text cascades, and the rhythm between layers.
A preset writes ordinary keys on the layer's own properties, relative to where it rests: an entrance ends at rest and an exit starts there. Nothing is locked away. Everything it makes is on the timeline to edit.
Description
A tips post in Animate. With the first tip row selected, the other rows are added with Shift-click. From + in the timeline, Rise is applied to all of them; the Stagger field sets how much later each row starts. Space plays the rows rising one after another.
How to
Bring a list in one row at a time
- Select the first row. Shift-click the others, on the canvas or in the Layers panel.
- Click + in the transport bar and pick an entrance, such as Rise. Every selected layer gets it.
- Set Stagger in the preset's settings: each layer starts that much later than the one before (80 ms by default). Stagger order sets who goes first: Layer order, Selection order, Reverse, From the centre or Random.
- Press Home, then Space.
Tweak a preset after applying it
The settings under the tiles stay live: change Dur, Delay, the curve, Dist, the direction or the preset's own amount, and the preset updates in place (as long as you haven't edited the document since). Click the tile again to apply it once more with these settings, at the playhead.
Stagger layers that are already animated
Right-click a group's or frame's row on the timeline and choose Stagger children, then 50, 100, 150 or 250 ms apart. The children keep their own keys and simply start one after another. This is a live stagger: the timeline draws it as a staircase, and dragging a step changes the spacing for all of them. No stagger takes it off.
Reveal a list one click at a time when presenting
In the prototype panel's Animate section, apply the preset with Wait for a click when presenting checked. It puts the preset behind a pause marker, so the show stops there until you click. See Presenting.
Reference: every preset
Presets are in five tabs. Hover or focus a tile to preview it on the layer.
| Tab | Presets | Needs |
|---|---|---|
| Entrance | Fade in, Rise, Drop, Pop, Scale in, Slide in, Wipe, Blur in | Any layer |
| Exit | Fade out, Rise out, Drop out, Pop out, Scale out, Slide out, Wipe out, Blur out | Any layer |
| Emphasis | Pulse, Shake, Bounce, Wobble, Flash, Impact frame | Any layer |
| Camera | Push in, Pull out, Dolly, Drift, Zoom through, Camera shake, Whip pan | A group or frame with layers in it (or a 3D scene) |
| Camera (3D) | Truck, Crane, Pan, Orbit | A 3D scene |
| Text | Typewriter, Letters in, Words in, Lines in, Letters out, Words out, Lines out | A text layer |
A tile that can't apply to the selection is dimmed and says what it needs.
The settings
| Setting | What it sets |
|---|---|
| Dur | Duration in ms (a fade is 400 ms, most moves 600 ms, camera moves 3 to 4 s) |
| Delay | How long after the playhead it starts |
| Curve | Its curve. For Back curves, c is the overshoot (1.70 classic, 1.9 punchier) |
| Dist | How far it travels, in px (Rise, Drop, Slide, Shake, Bounce, Dolly, Drift, Truck, Crane, Camera shake, Whip pan) |
| ← → ↑ ↓ | The direction (Slide, Wipe, Dolly, Drift, Truck, Crane) |
| Amount | The preset's own amount: From or To scale (Pop, Scale), Blur (Blur in and out), Swell (Pulse), Angle (Wobble, Pan, Orbit), Turn (Camera shake), Streak (Whip pan), Zoom (Push in, Pull out, Drift, Zoom through), and Stagger per letter, word or line (Text) |
| Stagger, Stagger order | With several layers: how much later each starts, and in what order |
Wipes put the layer in a group with a Wipe mask layer that reveals it, an ordinary mask you can edit. Typewriter reveals the text a character at a time, on a linear curve.
Stagger orders
| Order | Who goes first |
|---|---|
| Layer order | The layers' order in their parent (for a list, first row first) |
| Selection order | The order you selected them in (presets only) |
| Reverse | Layer order, backwards |
| From the centre | The middle layers first, spreading out |
| Random | A shuffled order, seeded, so it's the same every time |
Hits: camera shake, impact frames and whip pans
- Camera shake jolts a group (put everything in the picture in a Camera group and shake that): a seeded jitter on its offset and turn that crosses rest on every step and dies away — the same shake every time you apply it. Dist is the biggest swing in px, Turn the biggest tilt.
- Impact frame is the held flash of a hit: a layer that rests hidden (opacity 0) is shown full on for a few frames, blinks off, on again, and goes back to rest, with no fades between. On a white layer set to the Difference blend mode it inverts everything under it for those frames — the classic impact frame; on a Normal or Screen one it is a flash.
- Whip pan swings a group fast along a direction by its own width (the Dist), streaked with a motion blur that is longest at the swing's middle (the Streak, in px). To whip from one scene to the next, use the Whip pan scene transition instead (Compositions).