Object effects

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.

Video - Object effects

Options on the Effects panel

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.

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

• Basic
• Emphasis
• Entrance
• Exit
• Motion Path

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

Time in seconds when the effect is scheduled to start playing

Duration of the effect in seconds

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

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.

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

Defining motion paths for objects

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. 

Using the custom effects

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:

XML elements for effects configuration parameters

The hierarchy of the effect_config element is as follows:

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

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.