Appearance
Motion effects
This page shows you how to add ready-made movement to an element with one clip: a wiggle, a beat, a spin, a wave through the formation. You get the movement without setting any keyframes.
A motion effect is a clip on an Effects channel. Move or resize the clip to retime the movement. Delete it and the movement is gone. It adds to the element's position and any keyframes, so it never changes your own work.
These are not the same as Colour effects, which change light on a Colors channel.
Add a motion effect
- Select the element in the Hierarchy panel.
- In the timeline, click + (Add channel) and choose Effects. A lane called Effects 1 appears.
- Right-click the lane at the time the effect should start and choose Add Effect.
- Click the clip. In the Properties panel, find Motion Effect and choose a Preset. The clip does nothing until you do.
- Drag the playhead through the clip to see the effect, and adjust its settings.
A new clip is 4 s long. Its title changes to Effect: followed by the preset name.
Every preset eases in and out at the edges of the clip, so the element never snaps. The presets fall into two groups:
- Whole-element presets move the element as one solid piece: Wiggle, Pulse, Spin, Bounce, Sway.
- Shape-changing presets move each slot on its own, so the shape bends: Wave, Flag, Ripple.
Damping appears on several presets. At 0 the movement stays the same size. Higher values make it die away over the clip, and at 1 it fades to nothing by the end.
Whole-element presets
Wiggle
Swings the element left and right, like text waving hello. The scale can beat along with the swing.
| Setting | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cycles | Number of swings. | 1 to 40 | 4 |
| Angle (°) | Size of the swing around the element's Z axis. | 0 to 90 | 12 |
| Scale pulse | Grows the element at both ends of the swing. | On or off | On |
| Scale amount | How much it grows. 0.1 is 10%. Shown while Scale pulse is on. | 0 to 1 | 0.1 |
| Damping | Dies away over the clip. | 0 to 1 | 0 |
Pulse
A rhythmic beat in size, like a heartbeat. This is a size change, not the colour Pulse.
| Setting | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cycles | Number of beats. | 1 to 40 | 4 |
| Amount | How much it grows on each beat. 0.25 is 25%. | 0 to 2 | 0.25 |
| Damping | Dies away over the clip. | 0 to 1 | 0 |
Spin
Full turns around the element's Z axis, starting and stopping smoothly. Spin always ends on a whole turn, so leaving the clip is seamless.
| Setting | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turns | Number of full turns. | 1 to 20 | 1 |
Bounce
Hops upward and back, with each hop lower when damped.
| Setting | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hops | Number of hops. | 1 to 30 | 4 |
| Height (m) | Height of a hop. | 0 to 50 | 4 |
| Damping | Lowers the hops over the clip. | 0 to 1 | 0.5 |
Sway
A gentle sideways drift. Set one distance to 0 for a straight sway, or use both for a lazy oval.
| Setting | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cycles | Number of sways. | 1 to 40 | 2 |
| East (m) | Size of the drift on the X axis. | 0 to 50 | 3 |
| North (m) | Size of the drift on the Y axis. | 0 to 50 | 0 |
Bake to keyframes
Whole-element presets have a Bake to keyframes button. It turns the effect into ordinary keyframes that you can edit by hand, and removes the clip. Confirm with Bake in the dialog. It is not the same as baking the show.
Shape-changing presets
These lift and lower each slot along the element's Z axis. The pattern is measured across the shape, so one clip works the same on a 10 m formation or a 100 m one. They cannot be turned into keyframes.
| Preset | What you see |
|---|---|
| Wave | A wave travels across the shape, the classic moving text. |
| Flag | The same wave, fixed at one edge and strongest at the far edge, like a flag on a pole. |
| Ripple | Rings spread out from the centre, like a stone dropped in a pond. |
| Setting | What it does | Range | Wave | Flag | Ripple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direction (°) | Direction the wave travels across the shape. For Flag, it points from the pole to the free edge. Not on Ripple. | 0 to 360 | 0 | 0 | |
| Waves | Number of waves across the shape. | 0.5 to 20 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Amplitude (m) | Height of the wave. | 0 to 20 | 1 | 1.5 | 1 |
| Speed (waves/s) | How many waves pass per second. | 0 to 5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
Put a shape-changing preset on a Formation Group and the wave crosses all its children as one surface. This is the way to run a wave through text built from several shapes. Formations like this one in the night example are a natural fit:
Waves ask drones to climb fast
A slot's highest vertical speed is about 6.3 × Amplitude (m) × Speed (waves/s). The Wave defaults give 3.1 m/s, which is above the default down speed of 2.5 m/s and the default up speed of 3 m/s. Lower one of them, or check the result in the safety checks and on the bake.
Tips
- Use short effects with the music. Move the clip to line it up with a beat.
- Stack effects on separate Effects channels, or over keyframes. They add together.
- A precise spinning figure can be pushed out of shape by the flight limits during the bake. If that happens, see Algorithm Bypass.
Next
Add fireworks with Pyro and fireworks.