Intro to Auto-Animate

Topics covered in this Adobe XD tutorial:

The Basics of Auto-Animate, Different Kinds of Easing, Adding a Timed Animation

Exercise Preview

Exercise Overview

In this exercise, you’ll learn how to use auto-animate to add movement and excitement to your designs.

The Basics of Auto-Animate

1. In Adobe XD, go to File > Open from Your Computer or hit Cmd–Shift–O (Mac) or Ctrl–Shift–O (Windows).
2. Navigate into Desktop > Class Files > Adobe XD Class and double–click on Auto-Animate.xd to open it.
3. In the Toolbar, choose the Select tool .
4. Select the artboard by clicking on the artboard name Phone (at the top left of the artboard).
5. Duplicate it by hitting Cmd–D (Mac) or Ctrl–D (Windows).
6. On the new artboard (on the right), drag the ball to the very bottom of the artboard.
7. At the top left of the window click Prototype.
8. On the left artboard select the ball.
9. A blue arrow will appear on it. Drag the blue arrow to the artboard on the right.

10. In the Property Inspector, set the following:

    • Trigger: Tap
    • Type: Auto-Animate
    • Destination: Phone-1 (should already be set)
    • Easing: Ease Out
    • Duration: 1 s
11. At the top right of the window, click on Desktop Preview or hit Cmd–Return (Mac) or Ctrl–Enter (Windows).

12. Click on the ball to see it animate down to the bottom of the screen. Cool, but boring.

Different Kinds of Easing

Let’s try some other easings to see how they change the animation. Easing adjusts the way XD animates the speed and amount of the change. Easing means to go slow (like saying “easy boy” to a horse). In means beginning and out means the end. So Ease In-Out means go slow at the beginning and end (it’ll be faster in the middle). Ease Out means go slow at the end (it’ll be faster at the beginning).

1. Keep the preview window open but move it to the left side so it doesn’t cover the work area. It will update as we work.
2. With the ball on the left artboard still selected, in the Property Inspector change Easing to Wind-Up.
3. Hit Cmd–Return (Mac) or Ctrl–Enter (Windows) to reload the preview window.

4. Click on the ball to see it moves up a little before dropping.

   Wind-Up acts like a baseball pitcher winding up to throw a pitch.

5. In the Property Inspector change Easing to Bounce.
6. Hit Cmd–Return (Mac) or Ctrl–Enter (Windows) to reload the preview window.
7. Click on the ball to see it falls down and bounces (like a ball would).

8. Close the preview window.

Adding a Timed Animation

What if we want to add another animation without having to click on the ball again? We can do that with a Time Interaction.

1. At the top left of the window, click on Design.
2. Select the right artboard by clicking on the artboard name Phone-1.
3. Duplicate it by hitting Cmd–D (Mac) or Ctrl–D (Windows).
4. On the right-most artboard select the ball.
5. In the Property Inspector, if the lock connecting W and H is unlocked, click it to lock it.
6. On the right artboard, grab the top middle resize handle and drag down to make the ball smaller (so it ends up roughly half of its original size).
7. In the Property Inspector, reduce Opacity  to 0%.
8. At the top left of the window click Prototype.
9. Select the middle artboard by clicking on its name.
10. A blue arrow will appear on the right (vertically in the middle of the artboard).
11. Drag the blue arrow to the artboard on the right.

12. In the Property Inspector, set the following:

    • Trigger: Time
    • Delay: 0 s
    • Type: Auto-Animate
    • Destination: Phone-2 (should already be set)
    • Easing: Ease In
    • Duration: .5 s
13. Click in an empty part of the artboard to make sure nothing is selected.
14. At the top right of the window, click on Desktop Preview or hit Cmd–Return (Mac) or Ctrl–Enter (Windows).

15. Click the ball and it should drop, and then scale down and fade away.

    Using time interactions you can chain up multiple animations! This has been a quick into to auto-animate. In later exercises you’ll see other uses for it.