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Participant
January 20, 2025
Question

Importing drawing animation from pages into indesign

  • January 20, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 228 views

Hi there I was trying to export a shared drawing animation from Pages by clicking on the animation its self then sharing to icloud as a movie (m4v) file then placing in indesign.  (Digital publishing)  I was hoping this would be a smooth migration but not so much.  I tried using google drive and it doesnt even recognize the file.

Is there a way to get the animation to show in indesign to make an epub.

Thank you in advance.

2 replies

Mike Witherell
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 21, 2025

Try using Adobe Media Encoder app to translate your m4v file into mp4 format. InDesign can place that mp4 filetype, and then you can test exporting to epub or Publish Online.

Mike Witherell
James Gifford—NitroPress
Legend
January 20, 2025

What you need at the end of that is a digital document platform that will play the animation. I'm not sure you have any good options for that, as both EPUB and PDF are highly dependent on the reader/viewer used for reliable viewing/playback.

 

It's very difficult to get users to use any specific reader for either format.

 

If you want a cloud/shareable document with animation, your best path is HTML, via any of several paths.

Participant
January 21, 2025

Hello James, thank you for the information.  I was able to convert the file to gif then imported into after effects, used a luma effect to remove background. Export as an animated gif with transparency and it worked.

Hopefully it translates well when I upload.  I am not html savvy so not really an option for me.  

Thanks for your time.
James Gifford—NitroPress
Legend
January 21, 2025

Okay. You still aren't clear on what end platform you're using this with; if EPUB, I suggest you test it on a variety of common readers to make sure it works on (at least) them.

 

There simply is not any one, common, reliable — and easy — road for interactivity and animation in e-docs. There are none that really support development from a purely visual approach.. A success means only that you make choices that work on that end result.