Resizing Objects on a Motion Path

[Zum13]

Hey Everyone!  

I have been looking over tutorials and posts for a few hours only to find nothing about my subject. Does anyone in the community know if there is a way to have an object on a motion path, resize during that path?

[Lilybiri · Accepted solution]

You can combine as many effects as you want on the same object. You didn't offer much details, but what about combinint the motion path with a Scale effect (or multiple scale effects) in a custom effect?

[Zum13]

Thanks Lily, 

I had rtied that and it was wonky, but I went back and was able to get the sizing and timing right this go round.

[Lilybiri]

Great! Lot can be achieved with custom effects.

[Andrea24012043p3j6]

Definitely a little wonky, I agree. I'm trying to do this same thing and while the respondant says you can apply as many effects to an object as you want, I tried to get an asteroid to fly across space (motion path) and resize on that path to present as a proportional-move-into-the-distance scaling . . . it was glitchy with just the two effects, preferring to show the movement, but not the scaling. Still working on it in Classic (2/2024) . . . and yes, I can see this string is a few years old. It still helps people like me with troubleshooting.

[Andrea24012043p3j6]

Actually @Lilybiri  - if you are still on here, I'm wondering how you might create such a motion path of an asteroid, that pauses mid-flight for some other action on the slide, then start it up again to reesume its path off the screen? I'm a new to Captivate Classic developer used to Lectora (<3 - and also some Articulate), and I TOTALLY get the timeline UI from Flash > Animate; that's what I expected here in Captivate's timeline . . .  I would understand how to use keyframes and object instances to apply a different action to, but I'm confused by this interface (it's like no one who ever used Flash or Animate worked on Captivate, so it's totally unrelated timelines. Any help from you or anyone else who started in old-skool apps and knows what I'm talking about would be appreciated!!!

[Lilybiri]

In Classic Captivate there are no keyframes. An alternative could be using bookmarks. In Classic Captivate they are available only on video slides but you could create and export the motion as MP4 from another Adobe application (Animate, After Effects...). The New version 12 (which has limited features) extends the capability of bookmarks because you can use them as event triggers, which can be compared with keyframes in Animate.

Timeline in Captivate Classic is similar to the one in Animate, but also different. In the new version lot of its possibilities have been taken out. Personally I am not very successful in that new version to recreate all the output I do in Classic Captivate since two decades but that is a real enhancement compared with previous releases, however bit quirky.

[Andrea24012043p3j6]

Thank you, @Lilybiri  - I will check out the bookmarks feature to see how they work but may need to do something in Animate to import, as you mention. Keyframe + second instance of object is the way my brain figures it easiest. Though with the captivate timeline and effects, I might have to duplicate the asteroid and lay it behind the previous one in the same spot before it disappears then make its' own path off the screen to resemble the first's resumed path. Kinda kludgey but whatever works . . . It seems like Captivate is like the red-haired step-child of Adobe that didn't get the atttention it needed from the start, and they put people on the project who weren't busy on the bigger jobs at Adobe with no experience with them nor a lot of UI background.  <:E
Thank you for your guidance!

[Lilybiri]

I am smiling because I also refer to 'red-haired step-child' a lot of times. Most of the other Macromedia applications are already killed (Fireworks, Dreamweaver), only Captivate and Animate (formerly Flash Builder) remain. Until 2016_17 Captivate had a fantastic chief engineer, now ?????  Too many great collaborators are gone. In the new version there is nothing left from the great roundtripping with Flash, Photoshop,  Audition, Illustrator,... and more. Here are some links about bookmarking:

https://blog.lilybiri.com/bookmarking-in-captivate-classic-and-new-introduction

https://blog.lilybiri.com/static-bookmarks-in-new-captivate

https://blog.lilybiri.com/interactive-video-navigation-bookmarks

[Andrea24012043p3j6]

That's funny, @Lilybiri  - I picked up that phrase from an instructor at my last job. But yes, I DO miss the original Macromedia Flash and first creating animations . . . those days were so exciting just learning HTML and getting things to actually move on a web page . . . ha! Thx for the links - appreciate it!

[Andrea24012043p3j6]

. . . and Firework. I used to love playing in that app! 😉

[Lilybiri]

Indeed, Fireworks was really very useful both for bitmap and vector images, an app which fitted for anyone needing basic skills to get images on the web or in an eLearning course.

I hope you can get to grips with the bookmarks. I had long chats with Copilot to explain that version 12 has no TTS yet but has extended the functionality of bookmarks to all content slides and as frame event triggers. I hope its database has been updated because it is a dangerous situation when AI just gives wrong answers about this new version. I don't think Adobe minds however... but my focus is on their users.