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Object effects

Last updated on Oct 27, 2023 | Also applies to Captivate

Object effects help you quickly draw users' attention to the required objects on a slide. To see the effects that you can apply to objects, right-click an object and select Apply Effect.

Alternatively, to launch the effects panel, select the object, and click the Timing tab near the Properties Inspector tab.

You can also create effects in Adobe Animate CC and use them in Adobe Captivate Classic. For more information, see Creating custom effects in Adobe Animate CC.

Accessing the Effects panel

The Effects panel on the Timing Inspector

Video - Object effects

Options on the Effects panel

Animation Trigger

The trigger for a specific object effect. The triggers can be time-based or event-based. Object effects with the time-based trigger are applied after the previous object is played. Object effects with event-based triggers are applied when specific events occur, such as, a click of a button or an entry to a specific slide.

Applying an event-based effect

An event-based effect is when, for example, on a click of a button, an event is triggered for an object or a slide. Follow the steps below to create such an effect.

Create a project and add an object that triggers an effect. For example, insert a button.
Add an object to which you want to apply the effect. For example, insert any shape.
Select the button and in the Properties Inspector, under Action tab, select On Success action to Apply Effect, as shown below:

Apply effect on button click
Select the object shape label as the Object Name and click the Animation Palette button, as shown below:

Animation palette button

Choose any animation from the list of effects.
You can see the new event-based animation trigger for the selected object in the Effects panel. Select the event-based trigger and apply the effect to this object.

Event based trigger

Applied Effects List

The list of different effects that are available categorized into different categories:

Basic
Emphasis
Entrance
Exit
Motion Path

Previews for all the effects are available. Hover on the effect to preview the behavior of the object.

Show/Hide Motion Path

Select this check box if you want to show or hide the motion path.

Effect Start

Time in seconds when the effect is scheduled to start playing

Effect Duration

Duration of the effect in seconds

Transition

The different entry and exit transition options and timing available for a particular effect.

For a specific object, you can apply effects with both time-based and event-based triggers. Object effects with event-based triggers take precedence over effects with time-based triggers.

An event-based animation trigger for the selected object is created and listed in the Effects panel. You can choose the event-based trigger while applying an effect to this object.

Applying effects to individual objects

Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the object and then select Effects.
In the Animation Trigger drop-down list, select a trigger for the effect. By default, the time-based trigger is selected. To apply the object effect when a specific event occurs, create an event-based trigger, and then select it in the Effects panel.
Click adjacent to the Applied Effects List and select the effect to apply to the object. To use an already saved effect, click and locate the XML file that corresponds to the effect. The imported effect is now visible under Custom Effects.

Note:

You can create a sequence of effects by applying multiple effects to a single object.

You can also add effects to groups of objects. Simply group a set of objects and apply an effect. When an effect is applied to a group of objects, the entire group behaves like a single object, and the effect is applied from the center of the group.

Note: Effects applied to individual objects are not retained if an effect is applied to an entire group of objects.
Preview the effect using one of the previewing methods discussed in Previewing effects.
To apply the effect to multiple objects, click and select either
- Apply To All Items To apply the effect to all objects that belong to the object type.
- Apply To All Items Of Same Style To apply to all objects that use the same object style.
To apply effects to groups of objects, simply group a set of objects and apply an effect.

When an effect is applied to a group of objects, the entire group behaves like a single object, and the effect is applied from the center of the group.

Note:

While applying effects to object groups, keep in mind that effects applied to individual objects are not retained.

Applying effects to a group of objects

You can apply effects on a group of objects as well as to individual objects in a group.

To apply effects to a group, simply group the objects on the slide, and then apply an effect on them just like how you apply effects to individual objects (see Applying effects to individual objects).

You can then see the effect applied on the group in your timeline. Individual effects applied to different group members can also be seen if you expand the object as shown here.

Object effects displayed on the timeline

Note:

The effects on a group and on individual member objects are summative. For example, if a group of objects is set to rotate right, and an individual object is also set to rotate right, then that object rotates to an angle which is the sum of both the rotations.

Things to consider when applying effects on groups and individual group members

The ability to apply effects on a group of objects and on individual group members is a very powerful feature and can be used to demonstrate a variety of concepts, such as, for example, the movement of planets around the sun, while at the same time rotating around their individual axis.

However, keep some of the following tips in mind while using this feature to get the best impact:

Effects applied on a group that is set to play for rest of project will not display at runtime if:
- Any object is interactive and has feedback shapes enabled
- Some objects have Place Object on Top checked while others don’t
When a group contains an object that does not support effects (such as Zoom Area) then the group also does not support effects. For more information on zoom areas, see Creating zoom area.
When objects in a group are also used in a drag and drop interaction, then the group effects do not play
When the group includes a video object

Previewing effects

You can check the status of an object before and after applying the effects using the preview feature.

You can preview the effect associated with an object, in one of the following ways:

By clicking the play icon in the Property inspector or
By moving the mouse over (hovering) over the effect in the Effects panel.

Drag over the playhead in timeline to compare the position of any two effects. At any point in time, you can identify on each frame how the object is moving when any motion object moves over a particular effect.

To preview all the effects on all the objects on the stage, click Preview > Play Slide or click the Play icon in the timeline.

Effects reference

Category	Name	Description
Basic	Alpha	Sets a transparency effect on an object. The range is 0-100%. 0% is transparent and 100% is opaque.
	AlphaFromTo	Sets a transparency effect from an initial transparency state to a final transparency state. If the initial alpha is 20% and the final alpha is 80%, the object animates between the alpha states of 20%-80%.
	RotateTo	Rotates an object along its axis to a specified angle. RotateTo smoothly animates until the rotation angle has been achieved.
	Rotation	Rotates an object along its axis to a specified angle. Rotation causes an instant rotation to the specified angle.
	Scale	Transformation that scales objects by a scale factor specified in X and Y directions. Scales causes instant transformation until the scale factors are reached.
	ScaleTo	Transformation that scales objects by a scale factor specified in X and Y directions. ScaleTo smoothly animates until the scale factors are reached.
	Skew	Skewing alters an object's orientation and the angles between the lines that form the image's corners. Apply skewness to an object by specifying its skew values in X and Y directions.
	SkewTo	SkewTo smoothly animates an object until the skew factors are reached.
Emphasis	Anti-Clockwise	Rotates an object anti-clockwise.
	Clockwise Rotate	Rotates an object clockwise.
	DropIn and Bounce	Drops and object and bounces it back to its original position.
	Flicker	Applies a flickering effect on the object.
	FreeFall	The object undergoes a free fall and then goes back to its original position.
	GrowTurn	The object first turns and then grows before going back to its original state.
	HeartBeat	The object mimics the beating of a heart.
	RotateTimes	Rotates an object a specified number of times clockwise or counter-clockwise.
	Spin	Spins an object along its axis. The spin effect depends on the following parameters: Ease In: Specifies the percentage by which the effect starts slow and ends fast. Ease Out: Specifies the percentage by which the effect starts quickly and slows at the end. Spin Ease: Specifies a transition effect with a slow start, then fast, and then end slowly. The ease attribute is a percentage value between -1 (100% ease in or acceleration) and 1 (100% ease out or deceleration). The default value is 0, which means that the effect animates at a constant speed, without acceleration or deceleration.
Entrance	Asymmetric Zoom In	Zooms-in an object. The zoom is defined by the following properties: Initial zoomX and zoomY: The starting zoom-in value in X and Y directions. Final zoomX and zoomY: The terminating zoom-in values in X and Y directions.
	EaseInBottom	Adds a bottom ease-in transition effect to an object. The attributes for this effect are: Ease: Percentage value defining the acceleration or deceleration of an object. Initial Alpha: The amount of transparency of the object at the beginning of the transition.
	EaseInLeft	Adds a left ease-in transition effect to an object. The attributes for this effect are: Ease: Percentage value defining the acceleration or deceleration of an object. Initial Alpha: The amount of transparency of the object at the beginning of the transition.
	EaseInRight	Adds a right ease-in transition effect to an object. The attributes for this effect are: Ease: Percentage value defining the acceleration or deceleration of an object. Initial Alpha: The amount of transparency of the object at the beginning of the transition.
	EaseInTop	Adds a top ease-in transition effect to an object. The attributes for this effect are: Ease: Percentage value defining the acceleration or deceleration of an object. Initial Alpha: The amount of transparency of the object at the beginning of the transition.
	FadedZoomIn	Adds a fading transition effect when an object zooms in. The attributes for this effect are: Initial Alpha: The amount of transparency of the object at the beginning of the transition. Initial ScaleX and ScaleY: The scale factor to use for the object transformation in both X and Y directions. Final Alpha: The amount of transparency of the object when the transition ends.
	Fly In From Bottom	The object moves upwards from the bottom of the slide and rests in the original position.
	Fly In From Bottom Left	The object moves diagonally upwards from the bottom-left corner of the slide and rests in the original position.
	Fly In From Bottom Right	The object moves diagonally upwards from the bottom-right corner of the slide and rests in the original position.
	Fly In From Left	The object moves in a straight line towards the right of the slide of the slide and rests in the original position.
	Fly In From Right	The object moves in a straight line towards the left of the slide and rests in the original position.
	Fly In From Top	The object moves downwards from the top of the slide and rests in the original position.
	Fly In From Top Left	The object moves diagonally downwards from the top-left corner of the slide and rests in the original position.
	Fly In From Top Right	The object moves diagonally downwards from the top-right corner of the slide and rests in the original position.
	Glide	The object moves with a smooth, continuous motion.
	Spiral In	The object moves in a spiral curve.
	StretchAcross	The object stretches along its axis. Set the Ease attribute on the object for the ease transition.
	StretchFromBottom	The object stretches from the bottom to its original position. Set the Ease attribute on the object for the ease transition.
	StretchFromLeft	The object stretches from the left to right and back to its original position. Set the Ease attribute on the object for the ease transition.
	StretchFromRight	The object stretches from the right to left and back to its original position. Set the Ease attribute on the object for the ease transition.
	StretchFromTop	The object stretches from the top to its original position. Set the Ease attribute on the object for the ease transition.
	ZoomIn	The object zooms in depending on the initial and final zoom percentages.
Exit	Asymmetric Zoom Out	The object zooms out depending on the initial and final X and Y zoom percentages.
	CollapseAcross	Collapses the object from left and right. Set the Ease attribute on the object for the ease transition.
	CollapseToBottom	Collapses the object from top to bottom. Set the Ease attribute on the object for the ease transition.
	CollapseToLeft	Collapses the object from right to left. Set the Ease attribute on the object for the ease transition.
	CollapseToRight	Collapses the object from left to right. Set the Ease attribute on the object for the ease transition.
	CollapseToTop	Collapses the object from bottom to top. Set the Ease attribute on the object for the ease transition.
	EaseOutBottom	Adds a bottom-directed ease-out transition effect to an object. The attributes for this effect are: Ease: Percentage value defining the acceleration or deceleration of an object. Final Alpha: The amount of transparency of the object at the end of the transition.
	EaseOutLeft	Adds a left-directed ease-out transition effect to an object. The attributes for this effect are: Ease: Percentage value defining the acceleration or deceleration of an object. Final Alpha: The amount of transparency of the object at the end of the transition.
	EaseOutRight	Adds a right-directed ease-out transition effect to an object. The attributes for this effect are: Ease: Percentage value defining the acceleration or deceleration of an object. Final Alpha: The amount of transparency of the object at the end of the transition.
	EaseOutTop	Adds a top-directed ease-out transition effect to an object. The attributes for this effect are: Ease: Percentage value defining the acceleration or deceleration of an object. Final Alpha: The amount of transparency of the object at the end of the transition.
	FadedZoomOut	Zooms out an object. You can add initial and final transparency percentages to the object as well as initial and final scaling of the object in X and Y directions.
	Fly Out To Bottom	The object moves downwards from its position to below the slide.
	Fly Out To Bottom Left	The object moves diagonally to the bottom-left corner below the slide.
	Fly Out To Bottom Right	The object moves diagonally to the bottom-right corner below the slide.
	Fly Out To Left	The object moves in a straight line towards the left of the slide.
	Fly Out To Right	The object moves in a straight line towards the right of the slide.
	Fly Out To Top	The object moves upwards in a straight line.
	Fly Out To Top Left	The object moves diagonally to the top-left corner of the slide.
	Fly Out To Top Right	The object moves diagonally to the top-right corner of the slide.
	GlideOut	The object moves in a smooth, continuous motion.
	ZoomOut	The object zooms out depending on the initial and final zoom percentages.
Motion Path	Circle	Apply a circular motion path on the object.
	CustomCurves	Draw custom curved motion paths.
	CustomLines	Draw a motion path consisting of straight lines.
	CustomScribble	Draw a motion path following the motion of your hand on stage.
	Loop	Draw a motion path, which is a curve that bends around and crosses itself.
	LeftToRight	Draw a straight line motion path from left to right.
	Pentagon	Draw a pentangular motion path.
	Rectangle	Draw a rectangular motion path.
	RightToLeft	Draw a straight line motion path from right to left.
	Triangle	Draw a triangular motion path.

Defining motion paths for objects

Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the object and select Apply Effect to show the Effects panel in the Property Inspector.
In the Animation Trigger drop-down list, select a trigger for the effect. By default, the time-based trigger is selected. To apply the object effect when a specific event occurs, create an event-based trigger, and then select it in the Effects panel.
Click the Plus icon, select Motion Path from the dropdown menu, and then select the type of motion path you want to apply.
Click the symbol that appears at the right corner of the object. The direction of the motion path indicated by an arrow appears.
To change the direction of motion, click the arrowhead and drag it in the new direction.

New effects added

The following custom motion effects are available in the Motion Path drop-down in the Effects panel:

CustomCurves To draw custom curved curved motion paths. Click along the path you want the object to move along to create the motion path. Anchor points are created along the path, tweak these anchor points to refine the movement of the object.
CustomLine To draw a motion path consisting of straight lines.
CustomScribble To draw motion paths following the motion of your hand on the stage. Hold the mouse down and move across the stage along the path you want the object to take. Anchor points are created along the way, tweak these anchor points to refine the movement of the object.

New custom motion path effects in Adobe Captivate Classic — New custom motion path effects

Using the custom effects

Add an object to a slide. Select the object and click the Timing Inspector tab to view the Effects panel.
Select Motion Path from the drop-down list, and then select the type of motion path you want to apply.
To choose, for example, the Custom Lines tool, click CustomLines in the list of effects.

Custom Lines tool
Place the + marker anywhere in the object and drag the marker to any place in the slide and release the mouse button. You will see a path that starts from within the object and terminates at the location where you ended the motion path.

Custom line motion path

This is the path on which the object will traverse from its source to its destination.

Modifying object effects

Use the Effect Properties panel in the Effects panel to modify the properties of an object effect. To show or hide properties, change the default values, or the range of values, edit the <effect_config> section in the XML file of the object effect. The XML files for the default object effects are at:

<Installation folder>/Gallery/Effects (Windows)
\Applications\ Adobe Captivate Classic\Gallery\Effects (Mac OS)

Effects behavior in multi-state objects

When an effect is applied to an object that has multiple states, the effect is seen on all the states of that object.

You cannot edit effects on any state in an object without affecting all the states in that object.

Timeline effects

You can view all applied effects on the main timeline.

If you want to simplify your timeline, you can remove the effects from the timeline by going to Windows > Effects > Enable/Disable Effects on Timeline.

Creating custom effects in Adobe Animate CC

You can save classic tweens as XML files in Animate CC and then use the effects in Adobe Captivate Classic. To select and apply an effect created in Animate CC, right-click on an object and select Apply Effects.

The Effects Panel opens in the Property Inspector.

Click the Browse icon next to the Applied Effects List and navigate to the folder where you have saved the effect file.

You can create the effects with any default duration you want. For a 30 fps project, an effect with 60 frames has a default duration of 2 seconds.

To make the parameters of the effect available on the user interface for editing, edit the XML file to specify the required parameters. These parameters appear on the left side of the Effects panel.

To enable editing of parameters:

Open the XML file and in the Keyframes element, identify the property that you want to make available for editing on the user interface.

This property typically has a numerical value assigned to it.
Change the numerical value of the property in the Keyframes element to a string.
Add a new element, effect_config to the XML file. In this element, add a config_item element for every property that you want to make available for editing on the user interface. For details on the elements and attributes that you can add in this element, see XML elements for effects configuration parameters.
In the config_item element (child of effect_config), add the attribute property_value.
Specify the string that you assigned to the property in step 2 as the value for this attribute.
Add the other attributes, such as type and default_value. For more information, see XML elements for effects configuration parameters.
Repeat steps 4, 5, and 6 to enable editing for as many properties as you want.

XML elements for effects configuration parameters

The hierarchy of the effect_config element is as follows:

<effect_config> 
    <config_item> 
        <effect_property type="number" property_value="BLUR_X" default_value="50"/> 
    </config_item> 
    <config_item> 
        <effect_property type="list" property_value="QUALITY" default_value="1"> 
            <list_items> 
                <list_item> 
                </list_item> 
            </list_items> 
        </effect_property> 
    </config_item> 
    <config_item> 
        <effect_property type="color" > 
            <effect_sub_property> 
            </effect_sub_property> 
        </effect_property> 
    </config_item> 
</effect_config>

Table 1.
Element	Attribute	Value	Description
effect_config	effect_type	motion_path	Type String. Use this attribute to display the handles for editing the x and y coordinates of the motion path.
config_item	display_name		Type String. Specify the name of the configuration item (property) displayed to users on the Effects panel.
effect_property	property_value This attribute is mandatory.		Type String. Specify the value of the configuration item. This value must be the same as the one that corresponds to the appropriate property in the ‘Keyframes’ element. For example, in the Glow.XML file (Gallery > Effects > Filters), the Keyframe element contains BLUR_X as the value for blurX. To make the value of ‘blur’ editable from the user interface, add BLUR_X as the property_value in the effect_config element.
	default_value		Type number. Specify the default value displayed on the user interface.
	valid_range Syntax: valid_range="{{0,255}}"		Type number. Specify the range of values applicable for the configuration item. For example, valid_range="{{0,255}}" indicates that the lowest value is 0 and the highest is 255. You can specify the attribute ‘modifiers’ to modify the value specified on the user interface.
	type This attribute is mandatory.	number	Use this type to indicate that the configuration item is a number. You can specify the following attributes with this type: valid_range increment modifiers decimal_places
		list	Use this type to indicate that the configuration item is a drop-down list. You can specify the following attributes with this type: name value
		color	Use this type to indicate that the configuration item is to be associated with a color palette. You can specify the following attributes with this type: rgb alpha
		bool	Use this type to indicate that the configuration item is a Boolean. The configuration item is associated with a check box.The default value can be true or false.
		seperator	Use this type to separate the configuration items with a horizontal space on the user interface.This type can be used only for the config_item element.
	increment		Type number. Specify the value by which the parameter must be incremented when you click the parameter value, hold-down the mouse button, and move the mouse.
	modifiers Syntax: modifiers= "{offset:0,multiplier: 0.01}"	offset multiplier	Type number. Use this attribute to modify the value specified on the user interface. Use Offset to increase or decrease the value specified on the user interface. To decrease the user-specified value, use a negative number as the Offset. Use multiplier to multiply the value specified on the user interface by a number. This attribute can be used with the type ‘number’ only.
	decimal_places		Type number. Specify the number of decimal places to be allowed for the configuration item. For example, a value of 3 allows you to specify 0.001 and not 0.00001.
list_item (child of effect_property and list_items)	name		Type string. Specify the name of the list item(s).
	value		Type number. Specify the value that must be posted back to the Keyframes section when users select a list item.
effect_sub_property (child of effect_property)	rgb		Use this attribute to specify the default hexadecimal RGB number. For example, specify rgb=”ff0000” for red.This attribute is valid for the type ‘color’ only.
	alpha		Type number. Use this attribute to specify the default transparency of the color. This attribute is valid for the type ‘color’ only.

Best practices for creating effects in Animate CC

Ensure that the FPS of the Animate application you are creating for effects is 30.
Ensure the value of ‘property_value’ in the effect_config section of the effect file (XML file) is the same as that of the one in the Keyframe section.
Break a single effect into multiple effects if the number of parameters is more than five. You can then create a sequence of these effects to achieve the desired result.
Avoid exporting an effect created using frame by frame animations in Animate. You cannot achieve the desired results when such effects are used in Adobe Captivate Classic.

Instead, create effects using classic tweens and import these tweens into Adobe Captivate Classic.
Group the effect parameters by keyframes. You can use the ‘seperator’ type to group related properties .
Check if the XML file of the effect exported from Animate is valid, before using it in Adobe Captivate Classic. To do so, open the XML file in a browser or an XML editor.

Saving and deleting effects

Click in the Effects panel.
Browse to the location where you want to save the effect or the effect sequence, and click Save. The effect sequence is saved as an XML file.
To delete an effect, select the effect, and then click .

After saving an effect sequence, you can apply it to another object in the project.

When you use the effect sequence again (at least once) in the project, it becomes available in the Advanced Actions dialog box.