How do you get objects to move?

[Guest]

Using Captivate 4 and I am pretty new to it.  How do you get an

object to move across the stage while a slide is playing?  Seems like this

should be easy but i can't figure it out.  Thanks in advance...

Mark

[Captiv8r]

Hi Mark

The only way to do that is to create a separate Flash animation that moves the object.

Alternatively, you may use a Zoom Area object to move an image.

Cheers... Rick

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[Guest]

Rick,

Thanks for the quick response (I think you answered before I hit send!)...does that have to be done in Flash or is there a way to do it in Captivate?

Mark

[johndaigle]

Unfortunately, Rick's solutions are the only ones - at least right now.

Not to be too flippant here, but you could also wait a couple of weeks for the arrival of Adobe Captivate 5! It will have a really cool new Effects feature called "Motion Paths" that will allow you to take most any object and create a path for it to travel while the slide is playing. Hopefully you will be able to download the trial for yourself in early June. We've been asking for this since the first version of the old RoboDemo and we finally got it!

John Daigle

Adobe Certified Captivate and RoboHelp Instructor

www.showmethedemo.com

[jbradley88]

You can also use the old-school "flip book" method to simulate the frames of an motion animation:

1. Create a new slide and insert your object.  Name the object Frame1 (or whatever you like).
2. Position the object where you want the animation to start from.
   
3. Turn off any fade in/fade out transitions on the object and set the object to display for 0.1 seconds.
   
4. Duplicate the object (do NOT copy/paste it) and call the new copy Frame2.
5. Reposition Frame2 so it is part way to the desired destination on the screen.
6. Move Frame2 on the timeline so it displays as soon as Frame1 disappears (0.2 seconds).
   
   Tip:  0.1 seconds is mighty hard to work with on the timeline.  Zoom in on the timeline as far as it you can and use the right arrow key to nudge the object.
   
   
7. Duplicate Frame2 and call the new copy Frame3.
8. Position Frame3 closer to the desired destination on the screen and move it on the timeline so Frame 3 displays right after Frame2 disappears (0.3 seconds).
9. Repeat the steps above, moving each new copy a bit farther on the screen and farther along the timeline until the object is at the desired end position.
10. Adjust the fade in/fade out settings on the first and last copy of the object to match your preferred display behavior.

It's a pain to build (I hide each object on the timeline as soon as I am finished with it), but the published product looks pretty good if you can find the right balance between display time and the distance the object moves.

At .1 seconds of display time per object, you're creating a 10 frames-per-second animation so if you want the animation to last 2 seconds, you should end up with 20 instances of the object that move roughly 1/20 of the distance each time.  Play with the timing & distance of each move to suit your tastes.

For the perfectionists out there, you can create a perfect straight-line animation by calculating the exact number of pixels to move the object each time:

X per move = (End X position - Start X position) / # of frames

Y per move = (End Y position - Start Y position) / # of frames

If you want the learner to be able to "step through" the animation, for example, if you are demonstrating a process, simply duplicate the entire slide each time and set the slide to display for .1 seconds.  The learner can then use the slider in the Navigation bar to play the animation backwards and forwards, which can be fun. 

One final note:  duplicating the object (or slide) each time means only a single copy of the object is used for the whole animation. Copy/pasting the object creates multiple copies of the object in the Library, which increases the file size and makes maintenance a nightmare.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

John

[Guest]

Thank you all very much for your help - mission accomplished!

Mark