How to zoom in on an object that is off center...

[ryan schar]

Hello,

I am trying to create an effect where the user can click on an object that is on the right side of the screen and then zoom into that object.    I am trying this with a combination of two effects: movement from right to left, and scaling.  Up to this point it is all trial and error.  I am playing with lengthening the movement path and different angles so that I can get the object I want to zoom in on in the center of the screen and playing with different amounts of scaling to so that the object takes up the full screen after it is scaled.

An issue that I haven't even tackled yet is getting this to happen on click.  Currently the two effects are on the timeline while I am trying to get the effect perfect, but in the end I will need this to happen on a click.

Is there a better workflow out there to achieve what I am trying to do?

A simple zoom area would be a poor alternative.  If I were to go this route without the motion path, it would look like the object is coming out at the user and not the user is going into the object.

Thanks for any help!

[ryan schar]

I am actually trying to zoom in on an area of the background, not an object.

[ryan schar · Accepted solution]

I think I have it. Rather than trying to zoom in on an area of the background, make this area of the background itself an object and apply the motion path and zoom effect to this object.

[Lilybiri]

You can create a custom effect, that combines more than one effect and apply that custom effect with an advanced or shared action. You can stagger the timeline of the effects to get the result you want. Here is a very old blog post describing use of custom effects:

Editing Motion Paths and Reusing Customized Effects - Captivate blog

Do not forget that effects are relative to the the location from where the object starts. This means that you have to be very careful to avoid that the user applies the effect twice (by disabling the button after the effect has been applied). There is no easy way (yet) to reset an effect, and at this moment it is not possible to use individual effects in states.

Reset Effects in Captivate 6 - Captivate blog

[ryan schar]

Hi Lieve,

I'll tell you what I am trying to do here and maybe you'll have some tips.  I have a really nice .svg created from our graphic artist that I am using as a background. The svg is a graphic of a medical "lab"  When the user clicks on a section of the background -- a computer in the lab in this case - they should experience the effect of zooming into the computer.  (Then begins the software simulation.)

Because the computer is on the right side of the graphic, Scale To by itself will not work. This will just have the user zoom into the center of the graphic. So I am attempting to achieve this effect with a combination of two effects - Scale To and Motion Path.  One issue that I am having is I have to create a very long motion path (more than double the width of the project) and drag it way off screen to get the background to center on the computer.  This is because the scaling is making the background 'bigger' and needs to move a longer distance.  So my motion path arrow starts somewhere in the middle of the graphic and goes way, way off screen. 

I have two questions:

How can I save this combination of two effects so that I can reuse them on later slides?

Is there a better way to drag the end of the motion path off screen so that I can see what I am doing?

Any other tips / blogs you can point me to?

Thanks in advance!  Ryan

[Lilybiri]

Ryan, my first idea would have been to ask the graphic artist to give you detail graphics of those parts that you want to use as 'hotspots'. Since it is a vector graphic this is would be very easy and no quality loss at all. Motion paths, because they are always relative to the original location and it is always a trial and error work flow to find the correct position (except by editing the XML files), you have to be careful about them.

Saving a combination of effects as a custom effect that you can reuse is pretty simple, was already possible when Effects appeared, I think in version 5:

Editing Motion Paths and Reusing Customized Effects - Captivate blog