You can slow down animation in Adobe Animate primarily by adjusting the tween properties or by adding more frames to your animation sequence.
Adjusting Speed Using Tween Properties (Easing)
One common way to control the rate at which an animation progresses between two keyframes is by adjusting the tween properties, often referred to as "easing." This allows you to make the animation start slow and speed up (ease out), start fast and slow down (ease in), or slow down at both the beginning and end (ease in/out).
Based on the provided reference, the process involves:
- Clicking in between the two frames where the animation is happening. This selects the tween itself, which appears as an arrow on the timeline.
- Reference Note: "Now what we're gonna do is we're gonna click in between the two frames. So we're clicking on this arrow. That's the tween right."
- Once the tween is selected, you can go to your Properties panel.
- Reference Note: "And now that that's selected. I can go over here to my properties."
- In the Properties panel, look for options related to "Easing" or "Classic Easing" (depending on the tween type - Motion Tween, Classic Tween, etc.). Here, you can apply different presets or custom curves to modify the speed throughout the tween duration.
- Example: Applying a "Slow In" ease will make the object start moving slowly and gradually pick up speed towards the end of the tween. Applying a "Slow Out" (or "Ease Out") will make the object start moving quickly and slow down as it approaches the end of the tween.
Using easing doesn't change the total duration of the tween (unless you add more frames, see below), but it changes how the animation progresses within that duration, effectively slowing it down at specific points.
Slowing Down Animation by Adding Frames
To slow down an animation overall or make it take longer to complete a specific movement, you need to increase the number of frames it occupies on the timeline.
Here's how you can do that:
- Select the frames that make up the animation you want to slow down.
- Insert more frames in between the existing keyframes. You can do this by right-clicking on a frame and choosing "Insert Frame" or by dragging the end of the selected frames further down the timeline.
- If you are using a tween, stretching the tween over more frames will automatically slow down the rate of change between the keyframes, as the animation now has more time to complete the same movement.
| Method | Description | Effect on Animation | Primary Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adjusting Easing | Modify speed within a tween via Properties panel | Controls the rate of change (slow in/out) | Creating natural, dynamic movement |
| Adding Frames | Increase duration on the timeline | Slows down the entire movement sequence | Making animation take longer overall |
By combining these techniques – adding frames to control overall duration and adjusting easing to refine the timing within segments – you can effectively control the speed and flow of your animations in Adobe Animate.
